Annora

Bree, do not delete this!

I know you hate me, but we were best friends once. I need you to read this. I think I am in serious trouble, and there is nothing you can do, but I need you to read this so you understand.

I know we have not talked since sectionals. It has been forever, but what happened to you was not my fault. At least it was not entirely my fault. I know everyone thinks it was, but I would never do anything to hurt you.

This is going to sound crazy, but I need to tell you this so that someone knows.

It started when we were in the eighth grade. It was the night before the Crystal Classic competition. I was at home, and I could not sleep because I was so nervous about competing. Well, I got on the computer, just surfing the web, but I could not concentrate on anything. So, I googled myself.

I never should have done that, Bree. At first it was all the usual stuff you find when you Google yourself, then I found a link to a Wikipedia page about me.

I thought our club, or my dad, or something, made it, there was not much there. It was just some basic facts about skating, and what city I lived in. The thing that got me was that it said I won that year's Crystal Classic.

I laughed, I thought for sure someone just did it to encourage me. I confronted my dad about it, but he denied it.

When I won the competition the next day, I was so happy. That was the first competition I had ever won, and it felt so good. Remember how hard I worked after that. That was when my parents hired Sergei to coach me. You know how much that must have cost.

After that, I would check my page before every competition and it would always tell the result of how I placed. It said I would win the regionals at fifteen, and it all came true. After that, Sergei convinced my parents that I had a real shot at the Olympics. That was when they pulled me from school.

I skated every day, but I just was not progressing the way Sergei said I needed to, if I wanted a shot at the Championship. I was working so hard, and I was skating well, but still Sergei said it was not good enough.

When the sectionals came, all I could think about was winning. So, I did something I should not have. Everyone was saying that you were the favorite, and I felt like I had already lost the competition. I made a Wikipedia account and tried to update my page to say that I was the winner.

The thing is, that after I tried to update the page, I checked it, but it said something different than what I typed.

"Annora Petrova is a selfish little bitch who is going to get what she deserves.”

I broke down. That was why I looked so awful the next day. I was in a daze. I remember watching your routine, and seeing your blade snap. The next thing I know, I was on the ground. My face was covered in blood from where the tip flew off and sliced my forehead.

They told me it was my fault, because I had your skates in my possession earlier. Bree, I honestly did not do anything to your skates. I wanted to win, but I would not do anything to hurt you.

When they told me I was banned from any further competitions, everyone said I got what I deserved. Nobody even asked for my side of the story.

I guess you heard that Sergei dropped me after that. He said I ruined him. No one would talk to me.

Do you know what it is like to be ostracized by everyone? I could not even get ice time.

That was when the page got worse. Anytime I would check it, it would say horrible things about me. I cannot even tell you half of them, the language was so vile. I would cry every time I read it, but I could not stop checking it.

I knew I had to do something, so I made a complaint to Wikipedia. I even tried calling them. However, nobody there claimed to know anything about the page.

I was home alone that Friday night, and I decided to check it to see if it had been taken down. The page was still there, only this time it said there was a new message.

“Annora Petrova is a pathetic little orphan.”

I freaked. I kept calling my parents to warn them, but every time I would call, all I heard was this horrible laughter on the other end. I must have called them a hundred times, until I could not take the sound of the laughing anymore.

After the accident, the police gave me their phones. There was not any record of my calls that night.

I was so devastated. Before that, I was so busy training all day and doing home school, I never realized just how alone I had been the whole time. I know you tried to reach out, but I was so depressed and angry I just shut everything out.

Once I turned eighteen and got the settlement money from the court, I came to Switzerland.

I got to reinvent myself. My skating really took off. It has not even been a year, and I feel like everything that happened was so long ago.

That is why I should not have done it, Bree.

I am writing you now from an old hotel outside of Prague. I am auditioning for the Ice Circus tomorrow. I know it is the kind of thing we used to make fun of, but I really want this. I was feeling really nervous, and out of an old habit, I checked my page.

It is so hard to say this, but when I checked the page to see if I would get the job tomorrow, there was only one thing said.

“Annora Petrova died friendless and alone.”

It has today's date listed as the date of my death.

I am sobbing so hard, I can barely type this. But I wanted you to know the truth. Please believe me, Bree. I attached a screen shot of the page so you will believe me. It is all there, just as I told you.

I do not know what to do. I do no know anyone here and nobody speaks English. I keep refreshing the page.

God, it has been forever. I keep refreshing it. but it still has not changed. I am waiting for midnight; I do not know what to do. I locked myself in my room.

There is only a few minutes to midnight now. All I can do is refresh the page. I am exhausted, but I cannot stop. I am afraid to leave the computer until I know what happens next.