Threads by Sophia Bennett Read Free Book Online Page B

You know I've got all that stuff about recycling and fresh water for villages?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Well, I'm going to add some pages about Invisible Children. Those are all the ones who've been displaced by this war. Boys and girls with no proper homes, no proper education. Lots of them have been split up from their families. There's this campaign to help them. I'd never heard about it before. And I'm actually interested in this stuff. So it obviously needs lots more publicity.’
    ‘Edie, I hate to say this, but how many people look at your website?’
    ‘About two thousand a week.’
    ‘Oh? Really?’
    Edie rarely mentions her website. She's been running it for a year now, between homework, chess, orchestra and the other stuff. As it's about water and recycling, it's not exactly YouTube for entertainment value. I was expecting her to say she gets about four visitors and I was going to explain, kindly, that putting links on her website wasn't really going to make a huge amount of difference. But two thousand sounds quite impressive.
    ‘Yes, really. They like my blog, mostly. I talk about what I'm up to. What you're wearing, obviously. School stuff. And what I really care about and what I think we should do about it. I get loads of comments and questions. Lots of other bloggers point to me now. Look.’

    We spend the next half hour skipping backwards and forwards across links in the internet, revealing a network of Edies across Europe and America and Africa, all trying to change the world and talking to each other about it. I had no idea. I'm quite glad to realise she's not alone, because obviously she doesn't get a huge amount of sense out of me on most of these subjects. Just as I find her a bit limited on the history of punk or the advisability of the gladiator sandal.
    ‘Hang on a minute!’ It's just sunk in. ‘Do you tell two thousand people a week what I'm wearing?’
    ‘Yes,’ Edie says, as if it's the most natural thing in the world. ‘You don't mind, do you? Some of them are quite interested.’

I  wake up next morning and my brain is aching. First, there's the thought that the little girl who likes to wear fairy wings was nearly captured by rebels and made into a soldier or a slave. And the worst thing that's ever happened to me was forgetting to wear knickers to games when I was nine. (Actually, that was pretty bad, but I still don't think it's up there against the whole rebel army scenario.)
    Second, there's the memory of all those incredible outfits that Crow's been busy designing for the last couple of years. All tucked away in that tiny, overcrowded box room.
    Third, there's the picture that Jenny's just texted me of herself at the LA premiere of Kid Code . They put her in a YELLOW TROUSER SUIT. No words come. Things can't possibly get any worse. What have they got in mind for her in Tokyo? A gold bikini?
    Fourth, and worst, I have to think of something cleverto wear this afternoon, because I'm about to be surrounded by some of the coolest dressers on the planet and I now know that Edie is going to describe me to TWO THOUSAND STRANGERS ON THE INTERNET. Which is pretty freaky.
    It's Moaning Zoe's degree show at St Martins. Harry's invited me for company and sweetly, Skye – who's also graduating – has invited Crow. I'm in no fit mental state to go, but I have to, to support Harry. Something bad is going on with Moaning Zoe and he may need my help. First, though: what to wear.
    It takes two hours and my bed starts to look like something out of ‘The Princess and the Pea’ under all the discarded ideas. Eventually, I opt for my Converses, black sequinned leggings, a white school shirt (which is fine as long as you NEVER wear a white shirt to school, obviously), Mum's Galliano waistcoat that I'm not allowed to borrow on PAIN OF DEATH and a necklace I've made out of Haribos. Edible art. Perfect if things get really stressful.
    Harry goes for jeans, a loose linen shirt with several rips in it and