It All Started in a Math Class

Sitting in my final math class at the high school I attended, I couldn't stop thinking about how lonely and isolated I felt, a teenager with no friends who felt like she had nowhere to belong. Just then, I felt my phone vibrate inside the pocket of my hoodie, so I took it out to see what all the commotion was about.

Let me explain, I've never been the popular girl, people don't really care much about my few social media posts, and the friends I do have, are all in another state. I am not, in any means, well-known where I now live.

So, when my phone was blowing up with Instagram notifications, I didn't think it had anything to do with me. I turned my phone off and stuck it in my back, trying to turn my attention back to factoring logarithmic equations.

For about twenty minutes, I focus on what my teacher is saying and don't think anything of the Instagram notifications I'd been receiving. As the lesson ended, I pulled my phone back out to put on some music while I attacked my homework; when I noticed the number of notifications had just doubled in such a short amount of time.

Sighing, I opened my phone and pulled up Instagram to see what was going on. Clicking on the little bell to get to the bottom of this strange occurrence, I noticed that I had hundreds of likes on a post from 4 years prior about some random story I wrote that wasn't even cropped appropriately for the post.

Confused, I noticed that someone had messaged me, so I went to my messages next to see that I'd in fact received tons of messages. Clicking on the top conversation, I quickly skimmed the long text and my jaw dropped when I saw that a famous author wanted to talk to me about a book they're working on for her next series. Even more shocking was they wanted MY help!

Quickly typing back, I said I'd love to know more about the project before I commit to anything, and she'd responded immediately with all the information. As I read the description of the mystery novel, my interest peaked and before I knew it, I was helping write the book that would go on to be the single most popular book in America, beating out every single other book in the world for the coveted title.

And to think that it all started in a math class.