Zoe was wearing a hoodie, but without the hood on, making her own disheveled look obvious. No makeup, and her blonde hair looked like she had just gotten out of bed. Combined with her wrinkled sweatpants, it seemed like she had no intentions of going outside anytime soon. She was wearing glasses that seemed one size too big and threatened to slip forward. Pushing Zoe slightly aside, Gwen took a step into her room to get a better look. Surprisingly, Zoe didn't react.
She didn't expect to see Zoe's room as messy as it was. There were soda cans strewn all over the place, clothing thrown into one corner of the room. The blinds on her windows were also closed, making the room eerily dark. Instead of the gothic look Gwen might have expected, she found a decidely plain beige room, seemingly lifeless except for a few posters of some mainstream bands here and there, and a computer near the door that looked like it had been set up to play games- complete with headset and webcam.
"Zoe, uh...why is your room like this?" Her sister began groaning.
"Alright Gwen, if you're coming in here just to tell me to clean up again-"
"No, not that. Well, not just that. Where's all the goth stuff?"
"The what?"
"Am I crazy or were you not going through a goth phase?"
Zoe raised an eyebrow. "I mean...yeah, last summer before high school started I tried going goth for a couple of weeks but then I decided it wasn't for me. I didn't even bother decorating my room and I only had like, two corsets and some other black outfits. Don't you remember that?"
Gwen tried to recall that summer, and suddenly it all clicked into place.
Zoe was trying to find an identity for herself before high school. She tried everything- dressing up like a goth, a cheerleader, even a tomboy. During that time she discovered a surprising passion for video games, and went all into the lifestyle. Soon after, she found herself playing online, posting videos and streaming in front of a dedicated audience. It built up steadily from a few dozen people to several thousand fans watching any time she was online.
She was starting to make a decent living out of her new hobby, and pleaded with their mom to let her make it a full-time job. At first she was vehemently against it, but after months of convincing decided that she could be homeschooled if she was serious about her intentions. Ever since, Zoe made sure to do all her schoolwork on time while spending every spare moment streaming.
Gwen knew that Zoe didn't really need glasses, and that she just used them to go for a nerdy look to connect better with her audience. That left the question of whether her room was unorderly for the same reasons, but she thought that was giving her too much credit and instead just insisted on complaining about it every time she was in her room.
Zoe asked Gwen and the rest of her family not to tell anyone about her, because she tried to keep her private life hidden and didn't want a crazed fan to figure out where she lived. She begrudgingly agreed, although it was awkward trying to keep people like Jay out of the loop.
"Sorry, I uh...got a kickball to the face earlier, so my memories are a little off." Zoe gave Gwen a strange look followed by a yawn.
"Uh....huh...well, if that's all you were wondering about, I'm going back to sleep."
"Sleep? It's like, 3pm!"
"Duh, you know I do my livestreams late at night. When else am I supposed to sleep?"
"...right."
"Cool, feel free to wake me up when it's time for dinner."
Gwen gave her one last look before turning around and closing the door behind her. Man, I must have been really out of it to forget all that!
