When Ariella and Mae arrived at school the next day, every student had their eyes glued to a mobile device.

"The story must be up." Mae took out her tablet and tapped it until the school blog appeared on the screen. After a few seconds of watching it, her jaw dropped. "Oh no."

"Oh no, what?" Ariella took the tablet and rewound. The clip she taped in front of Mae's locker played as an intro followed by all of the clips she had hoped were somewhere in a cyberspace junkyard by now. The goofy faces. The fumbling words. The bunny PJs?! "I thought you deleted those videos!"

"This isn't what I uploaded."

"That's because I uploaded it." Torin casually strolled down the hall, relishing Ariella's living nightmare. Ariella should have known this was her doing. It had Wicked Witch of Crestview written all over it. "At first I was going to replace your video with one of my spectacular highlight reels, but when I saw those unflattering takes of you, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to show the school who the real Ariella was."

Mae braced herself as Justine marched over. "I am so getting fired."

Justine shook her forest brown hair vehemently. "Mae, that story was...amazing."

Ariella, Mae, and Torin stood in shock. "What?"

"It's so real," Justine gushed. "Just what the Daily Pawprint is all about. You are going to make an excellent reporter. But don't ever go against my orders, or you will never work in these halls again." She grinned and snapped two thumbs up before taking off.

"Wait!" Torin yelled. "I'm real. I even talk in my sleep. I'll bring footage." She chased after Justine.

Mae skimmed her tablet. "Looks like Justine's not the only one who loved it. Read the comments."

The story had just gone up that morning and there were already dozens of comments piling beneath it.

"I'm glad Ariella is just a normal girl like me," Ariella read. "It gives me hope."

Mae read the next one. "I have the exact same PJs. I guess I'm not such a dork after all. CoolCaleb77?"

Wow, Ariella thought. She expected this opportunity to benefit her and her fashion line, but she never imagined it would impact her fans in such a positive way. "I didn't realize being myself could inspire so many people."

"You never needed all that glitz and glamor," Mae said. "You're awesome just the way you are."

Ariella agreed, believing it this time. She watched the rest of the video. "Although, I should really start wearing a hat to bed." Yeesh!

Hot mess or not, Ariella was glad to be back to her old self. Pretending to live the glamorous life was fun for a while, but nothing beat hanging out with her real down to earth friends. Bunny pj's and all.

***

Header photo by Tatiana Niño

Thanks for reading!

-Love, Charly