Lola Offline by Nicola Doherty

Author:Nicola Doherty [Doherty, Nicola]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510100527
Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
Published: 2017-08-09T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Two

After I had said goodbye to Kiyoshi, I realised what I had to do.

I had to find Vee, and tell her the truth. I had no idea what she would say, but anything was better than living in suspense. As I paced around the school looking for her, I actually began to feel relieved at the idea of having things out in the open. Whatever she said to me, it couldn’t be worse than what people had said already.

I found her in her usual spot in the courtyard, having a loud discussion with Priya, under the sign that said THIS IS A QUIET STUDY AREA.

‘I’m not rich! It’s my parents who are rich!’ she was saying.

I went up to them.

‘Sorry to interrupt. Can I talk to you, Vee?’ I said. ‘Like – outside? Alone? Can we go for a walk? Just up to the Panthéon, maybe?’

‘OK.’ She put her shoes on reluctantly. Now that the weather was getting better she took her shoes off every chance she got. She referred to them as ‘foot prisons’ and said her feet needed to be free.

Soon we were walking up the rue Soufflot, which led from the Jardin du Luxembourg up towards the Panthéon. I loved the rue Soufflot. It was just a normal Parisian street, not especially beautiful, but the atmosphere always made me imagine old Paris, of the years of Sartre and de Beauvoir. The cafés there were always full of school kids and university students from the nearby Grandes Écoles – the most prestigious universities in France, where Vee was doomed to go. There was also a tempting-looking creperie, which I had noticed on my lonely weekend walks, though I’d never had the nerve to go in alone. After my last debacle, I had gone off solo dining.

But the main thing that struck the eye was the Panthéon, which loomed at the end of it: a huge, imposing grey dome that looked like something out of the Da Vinci Code. I had assumed it was some kind of church, but in fact it was full of the tombs of famous dead French people, including Victor Hugo. I almost wished I was in there with him.

We walked mostly in silence, until we got to the Panthéon and sat down on the steps. Tourists brushed by us on their way inside, while I tried to think of what to say. The sun had gone in, and the wind blew to remind us that it was still March.

‘So … you know how you were saying, you couldn’t find me online,’ I said.

‘Yeah.’

I swallowed. There would be no going back after this. ‘You were right. Lola isn’t my real name. I had to change my name. Because of something that happened.’ This was even harder than I’d thought. ‘I was – being harassed online …’

‘Wait!’ said Vee. ‘Was it something like GamerGate?

I was about to say no, but then I looked at her face. She looked horrified but sympathetic. If I told her the truth, the sympathy would disappear.

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