The Anti Social Network Read Online Free PDF Page A

shoulders, and the other half was tied with a ribbon, sectioned off and waiting to be curled.
    Adam loved watching her get ready. There was something very sexy about seeing her natural perfection become even more glamorous with lip gloss and hairpins.
    Focus, he told himself. He had her attention now. He had to do it.
    He grabbed the desk chair and pulled it next to her vanity stool, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.
    “Okay, here goes. Amelia and I grew up in these institutions, sometimes called group homes, that are like modern-day orphanages. To be fair, they weren’t terrible places. It’s not like in Dickens, with giant creepy buildings full of hundreds of kids eating cold gruel and all that. There were usually no more than a dozen of us, and we spent most of our time at school. But being bounced around from place to place every year or so took its toll. It was hard to feel like we ever belonged anywhere.” Lisa swallowed and nodded her head in sympathy. “I’m sorry,” she said.
    “I was adopted so young that I don’t really remember what it was like not to have a family. I can only imagine.”
    “Well, getting a family is actually where the trouble started,” Adam said.“What do you mean?”
    “One day, when we were nine, Amelia and I found out that a foster family wanted to take us in. I guess based on our school records—neither of us ever got in trouble—we were an appealing pair. So, three weeks later, we packed up to go live with the Dawsons. They seemed nice enough.
    They had three kids of their own, two boys and a girl, aged eleven, thirteen, and fifteen. Instead of calling themselves “the Dawsons,” they referred to themselves as “The Family,” and talked constantly about what was expected to be part of “The Family.” I guess we should have realized that was weird, but at the time we were so happy to have someone want us, you know, that we didn’t think anything of it.”
    Adam took a deep breath. He was conscious of how much he was talking and worried that Lisa would lose interest. But she was still looking at him intently.
    “Anyway, within a few days the niceness stopped and The Family started to ignore Amelia and me. They weren’t mean; they just ignored us. They didn’t buy us new clothes, didn’t offer to help with anything. We found out later that Mr. Dawson, who was an insurance salesman, had a serious online gambling problem and had lost a lot of money. They had taken us in because it was a huge tax break that essentially offset his gambling debts.
    They didn’t actually want us.”
    Lisa leaned forward and held his hands. “I’m sorry.”
    “That first Christmas, the Dawsons bought a used computer. The kids were thrilled but quickly started fighting over it, and so the parents made a schedule that dictated who got to use the computer and when. Naturally, Amelia and I weren’t included.” Adam felt the bitterness behind his voice and wondered if Lisa could sense it. “Anyway, that enthusiasm lasted for about a month before they got bored and bought an Xbox instead. So, Amelia started using the computer. She loved it. She got totally addicted.
    She’d come home from school and stay up all night in front of it. No one knew what she was doing and no one really cared as long as she stayed out of the way.”
    Adam exhaled, steeling himself for the next part of the story.
    “Two years later, the oldest Dawson son got in a big fight with his parents for bombing the SAT . They were screaming at each other in the kitchen, Mrs. Dawson crying that he’d never get into college. They didn’t have much money and had pinned all their hopes on their kids. Finally, Mr. Dawson dragged his son to the computer and told him to pull up his score. He thought his son was lying so he wouldn’t have to go to college.
    Amelia was at the computer and they told her to log off. Jacob pulls up the score report and, sure enough, he’s gotten a 1280. They were still screaming at