Not Exactly Lying

Why couldn’t I just have everyday ordinary neuroses like everyone else?

Instead I got saddled with Social Anxiety Disorder. When I go across a room, I get so self-conscious thinking that everyone is staring at me and judging me that I forget how to walk. Any time I'm around people I blush and my hands sweat and I start shaking like I've got hypothermia, and on bad days I get full blown panic attacks. I cope in school--barely--by being that girl that nobody notices. Over the last year I've made myself as invisible as the plastic potted plants they stick in the classrooms.

But at home I become Valkyrie, the mystery girl who plays online shooter games with the boys from our school. She's everything I'm not, everything I'd be if I could. I started playing when I overheard Quinn talking about it one day. Quinn is our quarterback, the gorgeous guy who has fangirls fawning all over him like puppy dogs after every football game. He's also the one who's trying the hardest to find out who I really am, because he wants me to go out with him. You'd think that would be a dream come true, right?

Except he doesn't want me. He wants Valkyrie. And she's not really me at all.