Susie continued to sob until she found the strength to release her response.
“I was on a website called Rate Your Life,” she spluttered, “and I only got a 2.”
“What,” her mother exclaimed. “You were on what website?”
“I just told you what website,” Susie replied curtly.
“What kind of website?” she asked gravely.
“I told you; it’s called Rate Your Life.”
“Rate Your Life?”
Susie removed her hands and looked at her mother. “It’s a site where you answer a whole bunch of questions about your life, and at the end it gives you a score out of ten.”
“And you only got a 2.”
“Yes!” she choked, throwing her face back into her hands.
Her mother placed her hands on her hips and sighed, “Well, what score would you have given your life?” she asked hesitantly.
“At least a six or a seven,” she sobbed.
“Six or seven. Is that how you would rate your life?”
“Yes,” sniffed Susie hysterically.
“Well then, that’s what it is,” replied her mother placing her hand on her shoulder. “It’s just a load of old nonsense. How can anyone rate your life but you?”
“Rate my bloody life,” said Susie’s mother shaking her head as she unfolded the laptop. “What has it come to.”
Feeling a motherly duty towards her daughter, she decided to check out the heinous site for herself. She typed Rate Your Life into the search engine and rolled her eyes when she saw it come up as R8 Your Life. She scrolled down all the questions answering as faithfully as she could. Questioning where she lived, had lived, how she lived with, who she used to live with, where had she been, where would she like to go, all fifty-seven of them.
When she had finished, she hovered the cursor over the See Your Score prompt, then pressed cautiously.
“What a load of nonsense,” she told herself after seeing her score, and smiled as she slowly closed the laptop down.