TweetyGram

5 - #IHeartMalibu.com

"I can't believe you're friends with the real Natalie Winters." Fiona Sandoval, my fellow intern, sighed dreamily. "That is so awesome."

The break room had been empty when I came here earlier. But Fiona walked in while I was checking my TweetyGram inbox for the victim list—which I still hadn't received yet. The curly-haired brunette asked me what my username was, followed my account, and noticed a certain actress's name in my follower list.

Ten minutes had passed since she found out the real Natalie Winters followed me on TweetyGram, and she hadn't stopped marveling about it.

Frankly, it was starting to get annoying. So I decided to tease her a little.

"We're not just friends. We're best friends. Since we were six. We went to school together, we went to summer camp together, and we were in a band together."

Fiona gasped. "You're so lucky!"

I buried my mouth in my coffee, struggling to maintain the polite smile on my face. What is so amazing about being friends with a TV star? It's not like I'm friends with a talking dog, or a ghost, or an alien.

"So are you friends with Cher and Riri too?" Fiona asked, her eyes glittering behind her cat-eye glasses.

"I'm sorry, who?"

"Cher Quinn and Riri Richards."

I scrunched my forehead. "Who?"

"Cher Quinn and Riri Richards from A Hollywood Life? You know, the famous show on TweetyTube?"

I clicked my teeth into a tight smile and shook my head. "Sorry, I don't watch TweetyTube shows much."

"Oh. Well, they're TweetyFluencers. Riri's in charge of the pets' wardrobe in Malibu, 90265, while Cher—well, Cher's so famous the producers cast her in a special guest star role this season to boost the ratings. Rumor has it she's so good she's being promoted to series regular for the second half of this season," Fiona explained. "Anyway, Cher mentioned in an interview that she and Riri went to school with Natalie, so I figured you might know them too."

"I transferred from Rietveld-Beaumont in my sophomore year. They must've transferred to the school after that."

"Oh." There was a soft note of disappointment in her voice. "Still, I think it's awesome you're friends with Natalie Winters."

Seriously, stop. I hid my irritation behind a grin and stuffed my mouth with the granola bar I'd gotten from the vending machine earlier.

"I gotta be honest," Fiona added. "When I first saw your friend list, I thought you were wolved by the Malibu Wolf."

I sat up straight and stopped chewing instantly. "You know about the Malibu Wolf?"

"Of course. I've never been a victim myself, but I've read all about it. One of the victims was brave enough to post a warning about the wolf on IHeartMalibu.com."

"IHeartMalibu.com?"

"It's a place where Malibu fans gather to discuss the show and its cast. Well, mostly we just gossip about the drama behind the scenes." She giggled. "So, are you going to write about the Malibu Wolf?"

Fiona seemed like a sweet person, but I'd only met her yesterday. And in a world where anyone could easily snatch another's ideas and claim them as theirs, I couldn't be too careful.

"I haven't decided yet," I lied. "What about you?"

"I'm making a special TweetyGram edition crossword," she replied, her voice brimming with excitement.