Girl Online, Description of the First Book

WARNING! THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS ARTICLE

Penny Porter (aka Girl Online), is a teenage girl with anxiety. Elliot Wentworth (aka Wiki) is Penny's closest friend and neighbour who helps her through her panic attacks and life in general. On her blog Penny writes about her hidden feelings, boys, her crazy family and her major panic attacks. When she is at the worst point in her life her family takes her away to New York with Elliot were she meets Noah pretending to be the wedding singer. But Noah's been keeping something from Penny, something that could ruin her blog and her closest friendship...forever

Penny's first blog post was a year before the book was set. it was about the struggles of being a teenage girl. at the start of the book Penny is at the dress rehearsal for the school play, Romeo and Juliet, she is the photographer and she is nervous for going out onto the stage at the end to take the photo. at the dress rehearsal Elliot is sending her texts about shakespeare. she gets called up on stage to take photos of Ollie and Megan, who are playing Romeo and Juliet. Afterwards Penny Megan Ollie and The Twins head to JB's diner as their walking Penny is chatting with Ollie. When Ollie sits next to Penny, Megan raises her eyebrows and Penny feels she has done something wrong; however Megan is always doing things like this that make Penny feel as though she did something wrong. There at the diner is where Penny has her first panic attack when Megan snatches her camera and says she took a terrible photo, Penny runs from the diner and out to the sea to calm down. Ollie asks Penny to meet him at the beach at the weekend and Penny thinks it was a date. The night before Penny has arranged to meet with Ollie, Megan stays overnight at Penny's house which ended with Megan being thrown out the door and Penny not knowing what she will wear. At the beach Ollie didn't want to go on a date with Penny, he just wanted her to take some photos of him for his profile. Penny ends this 'date sort of thing' early because Megan and the Twins show up. On the day of the play Penny is asked to do some graffiti on the trailer they were using for the play, but seeing as Penny isn't good at art she decides to project one of her photos of graffiti onto the trailer. At the end of the school play Penny goes up on stage to take a photo but trips on her shoelace and lands so her skirt flies up over her bum and shows her knickers to the crowd. Penny crawled off (with knickers still on display) and runs home. Megan (Mega-Nasty to Elliot) gets hold of the video of it she posts it online and it goes viral. After this Penny doesn't return to school for the rest of the term and helps out in the shop instead, all the while avoiding the internet and her blog. When Penny's Mum gets a offer to plan a wedding in New York she takes the opportunity immediately, but when she tells the family, Penny is reluctant and Tom, Penny's bother straight out says no. Penny's parents eventually agree to take Elliot instead of Tom so Penny goes to New York. In NYC they set up and stay at the Waldorf Astoria, where Penny accidentally walked in on Noah playing the guitar in the entertainment room. Penny's immediate thought was that he was the wedding singer, and told him not to play the song he was singing because it was too sad for a wedding. Penny finds out that he was not the wedding singer but the chef Sadie-Lee's grandson. When Penny's Mum bounds into the kitchen and announced that the vintage Edwardian tiara the bride was to wear had been snapped Noah offers to go pick up the new one from Brooklyn and asks if Penny would accompany him. This was their 'first date' where they have a 'Magical Mystery Day' and go to a secret gallery that Noah's dad created before he died, and ate at the restaurant behind it where they ended up dabbing sauce off each other's foreheads. When they leave the restaurant Noah gets a call from Sadie-Lee saying that he needs to go pick up his little sister Bella from preschool Penny realises that she'll never have a chance to see Noah again, as she is spending all day and night the next day helping prepare for the wedding and then leaves first thing the morning after that. So they swap numbers and say their goodbyes at the hotel. Noah goes back and buys the vintage china doll that they saw earlier in the shop and sends it to Penny's room along with a couple of slices of Sadie-Lee's cake as a surprise gift for Penny. Penny tells Elliot all about Noah and what they did that day and Elliot's reply was 'if that's what Brooklyn boys are like I'm emigrating as soon as possible!' After Elliot leaves Penny calls Noah to thank him for the doll and he asks her to look out the window and there is an amber moon hanging in the sky the same colour as her hair. The next day Penny wakes with a feeling like it was Christmas morning