Maya Hart threw her half finished English essay down on the floor, sighing in defeat. If procrastinating was a sport, she would win the gold medal in a landslide. She picked up her laptop from the floor and found herself browsing through YouTube. YouTube was like the Lotus Casino from Percy Jackson: you think you've only been on for 15 minutes but in reality it has been 3 hours. After watching pretty much every single Shane Dawson and Lisa Schwartz video ever filmed she logged on to . No one knew about her account, not even her closest friends. It was sort of like Superman and Clark Kent, minus the capes and kryptonite. She found herself reading a fanfiction of her favourite TV show by one of her favourite authors, a girl named Riley. They had never properly spoken, but were keen readers and reviewers on each other's fanfictions. That, however, changed on 1st December 2014. Maya pulled up her Private Messaging and typed up her message:
I just wanna say thank you for all your sweet reviews on my stories. You always manage to make me feel cheerful and inspired when I'm not.
Did that even make sense? Sorry, I can't tell. It's really late where I live and I'm up watching YouTubers.
She was surprised to see when she got a reply almost instantly. They had a short conversation which was dominated by YouTubers. Maya wasn't sure whether her and Riley would talk again, but she hoped they would. She glanced over at her clock:
00:34
With that, she switched off her light and went to bed.
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It was New Years Eve. Maya and her mother were at some New Years party. If there's one thing she's learned about New Years it's that it isn't like it is in High School Musical. You don't get to sing karaoke like a professional singer with Zac Efron. Instead it's full of socialising with a bunch of people you pretend to like but don't. The Times Square ball was about to drop when Maya felt her phone buzz in her hand. She opened up the email and saw a private message from Riley. It was another fairly short conversation but this time they talked a bit about themselves instead of Shane Dawson. And don't get her wrong, she loves talking about him, it's one of her favourite topics. But it's nice getting to know someone too.
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From then on Riley and Maya began private messaging quite regularly. They messaged each other about each other's fanfictions. They messaged each other when Riley met Shane Dawson on 14th March 2015, and Maya was 50% happy for her and 50% jealous. (A/N Riley, you get this?) They messaged when Shane revealed that he was bisexual and him and Lisa Schwartz had broken up. And on 7th July 2015, Maya and Riley exchanged numbers and from then on they were talking almost everyday. Maya remembers staying up until 3 in the morning chatting to Riley because of the time difference. She remembers spending her time with friends texting Riley. She remembers telling each other about their crushes. She remembers sharing secrets with Riley that she doesn't share with most people in her life.
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So here Maya sits, Christmas Day 2015. Instead of sending actual presents, Riley and her decided to write each other one-shots. So here she is, writing one about their internet friendship.
Merry Christmas, Riley.
Love, Maya.
