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February 27, 2023
Boys & Girls Chapter 9: “Homecoming”
Isaac Broderick(This is one of 10 preview chapters for Boys & Girls: Part I. You can see the rest of the chapters on the official page)
September 20th, 2016
Kinsky, California, USA
Homecoming
Cole woke up from another nightmare.
Sweat drenched his bed. He took off the sheets and huddled them into a pile, then quickly got dressed out of the first things he saw in his closet. He put on the stained hoodie, flipped the hood up, and rushed down the stairs.
“You heading out?”
Cole turned around. The older woman from before was there, sitting at the table. This time she wore a pair of thin glasses, and had a newspaper in her hands.
“Uh… yeah. I’m, going to school early.”
The woman brought her glasses down to her nose, and gave the boy a look of suspicion.
“You’re… going to school, early?”
“Y-yeah, I just…” Cole looked away, leaning on the door to the outside. “I just need to get my mind off something, is all.”
“Uh huh.”
The woman went back to reading her newspaper. Cole walked out to the car and drove off.
…
He did in fact go to the school that morning, more specifically to the small weight-lifting room in the gym. Getting up on the pull-up bar, he pulled himself up and down, over and over again, until he began to sweat. It helped dull the pain a little bit, but he could still feel it in the back of his mind.
“It’s funny. Usually I’m the first one here.”
Cole jumped down from the bar, his body out of breath. He turned to the entrance, and saw Isaac.
“Oh, yeah, I just needed to… distract myself from something. Sorry.”
Isaac smiled, putting his backpack on the ground. “No need to be sorry. It’s not my gym.” The football captain walked over to the dumbbell rack, when he had an idea. “Actually, since there’s two of us, we can do the benchpress and spot for each other. If you want to.”
“Oh, not today, but… thanks.”
The two went back to their own workouts. Isaac grabbed two heavy dumbbells and began curling for a bit, before bringing the conversation back.
“So, you coming to the game?”
“Yeah. Going with the rest of the crew.”
Isaac looked at himself in the mirror, continuing to pump the iron. “I’ll try not to embarrass myself in front of everyone, then.”
Cole continued going up the bar. “Pretty sure most people go to the games just to get drunk with friends. So you should be okay.”
Isaac laughed. “You aren’t wrong. Maybe I got a chance then.”
The two continued to work out in silence, until a few of the other football players came in. At that point, Cole quickly picked up his backpack and left.
…
It was lunch time in the art room. Ash looked up at her canvas, a brush between her teeth and an old surplus military jacket around her shoulders.
The door opened, revealing Emily with two lunch plates. “Here, I got you something.”
Emily put down one of the plates on the table beside Ash. Ash thanked her. The president sat down nearby, picking up some of her own food while looking at the painting. “So, what’s it gonna be?” she asked.
Ash took the brush out of her mouth, looking up at the canvas herself. “I’m not super sure yet. The theme is ‘storm’, and I was gonna have… a boat, here, in the middle… and maybe the storm kicks up in the background…” she pointed to different parts of the canvas as she spoke.
Emily looked at it, in attention. “Yeah, I can kind of see it.”
“Well, I mean, I haven’t added it yet. But that’s what I’m feeling. I don’t know, maybe I’ll change it…”
Emily, potato chips in her mouth, tried to intervene. “No, I think it’s a good idea! You should make it whatever you want. I trust your creative process.”
The door opened again. This time Kat, Rose, and Sadja all packed into the room. Kat saw the two girls in front of the painting, and approached them.
“Hey, you guys know where the spirit gear is?”
Ash pointed to the other side of the room, in a corner surrounded by boxes. “Up on the table, by the stack of notebooks.”
Kat smiled. “Thanks, Ash.” Rose and Kat both walked over to the corner, while Sadja stayed behind, looking at the painting.
“Damn Ash, this looks great!”
Ash blushed. “I mean, it’s not close to being done. I still have to, add some stuff… and paint it all…”
Sadja shook her head. “Sure looks a hell of a lot better than my stick figures.”
Kat and Rose walked back from the corner, a box in each of their hands. Kat thanked the two girls again, and the three walked back out.
“So, any plans on how we divvy this up?” Sadja asked, walking beside the two.
“Matthews wants us to just disperse it out to everyone. I figure we hit the courtyard and gym, since that’s where the most people are at,” Rose replied.
“Can I help either of you?”
“Yeah, sure.” Kat answered Sadja. “We can split up, pass stuff out at the courtyard.”
“Alright, I’ll hit the gym then.” Rose repositioned the box on top of her arms. “Seeya!”
At the pathway intersection, the girls split, with Sadja going with Kat. Rose walked down the path towards the gym, when she heard a voice speak to her.
“Hey, Rose?”
Rose turned and saw Maria. She put down the box on a bench and walked up to the girl. “Hey, chica. How are you?”
Maria was depressed, and her face didn’t betray it. She tried to give a smile, but she ended up just looking over to the side, avoiding Rose’s face. “Listen, I… I don’t think I’m gonna come to the game tonight.”
Rose’s ears pricked up. “Are you coming to the dance?”
“Oh, yeah! Yeah, of course. Just, today, I’m not feeling well, and… I just, feel like I need to…”
Rose put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. The girl looked up at her.
“You do whatever you need to feel better. It’s okay. No excuse needed.”
Maria gave a smile, a real one this time. “Thanks, Rose.”
Rose smiled back. She picked the box back up, and the two went their separate ways.
…
It was now thirty minutes until game night. Cole drove himself and Lukas to the front of the parking lot, where they saw Rodrigo at the gate.
“How the hell’d you get here so quickly?” Cole asked as he got out.
Rodrigo shrugged. “Got here on the bus. We were one of the first people here. Aaron and Rose are here too, in line.”
Lukas closed the car door behind him. “Think they saved us some spots?”
Rodrigo smiled. “Let’s go see.”
The three boys came over to the ticketing gate. Rose and Aaron both waved them over, much to the chagrin of those in the back of the line. Aaron had on a Kinsky High hoodie, while Rose wore blue and silver painted stripes on her cheeks, with a fake silver streak clipped to her hair.
“So, I’m guessing that’s not water?” Aaron pointed to the plastic bottle in Rodrigo’s hand.
“Ah… you know me too well, don’t you?” Rodrigo smiled.
“Isn’t that gonna get caught by security?” Rose asked skeptically.
“Nah. I’ve done this like, a dozen times now. You see, the secret is this: they always check the bags, and they always check the metal bottles, but they usually don’t check the plastic disposable ones, and they especially never check them if they still got the label on.” Rodrigo pointed to the AQUASPIRIT logo on the bottle. “I guess they don’t expect anyone to be stupid enough to actually do it.”
Cole chuckled. “Seems like a major oversight.”
“Oh, lord knows they’re going to fix it. I just hope I get to graduate before then.”
The group got to the check, and as it turns out Rodrigo was right. The security guard spotted the bottle, but didn’t seem to care, and instead simply nodded as Rodrigo came through. Rodrigo nodded back.
When they got to the top of the bleachers, Rose pointed. “Look, Em and Ash are already here!”
The two girls leaned against the front railing, in the first row. Both wore Kinsky High baseball caps, observing the field. Rodrigo, on the other hand, started walking to the other end.
“Gonna sit over here, by the back. Keep the heat off, you know? If you want a quick sip, just come on over.”
Aaron called back to him. “You know I will!”
As the group walked down the steps towards Emily and Ash, Rose spoke up. “I feel bad for Rod sometimes. He always sits alone, Svedka or not. I feel like… we gotta be more proactive in inviting him over, you know?”
Aaron shrugged. “Man just wants to be alone sometimes. Can’t fault him for that.”
Rose sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess.”
As the group came down, Emily spotted them and smiled. They all sat down in the front row, next to each other.
“Didn’t take you guys as football fans.” Lukas leaned over and said to Emily and Ash.
Emily laughed. “Oh, no. It’s a commitment thing. Stugo stuff, you know.”
Rose, who sat nearest to Emily, turned to her. “Has Kat gotten here yet?”
“I think I saw her on the field, but I don’t know where she went.”
The group sat, conversing among each other for a few minutes. At some point after Sadja came down, dressed in a Kinsky High Football shirt and denim shorts. Her face was intricately painted in the school colors, and the same streak which Rose had was multiplied across her bob.
“Damn girl, you went all out!” Aaron chuckled as he saw her.
Sadja sat down next to Lukas, on the end. “I always go all out, that’s my secret!” she called back to him.
The game got closer to the start, and the players began to enter onto the field. Rose checked her phone, and asked the same question she had before. “Where’s Kat?”
Sadja smiled. “Oh, you’ll see.” The words came uneasily to Lukas’ ears. The girl then got up, pointing to the others. “You guys want anything?”
Aaron pulled out his wallet from his pants, and gave her a few dollars. “Can you get me a popcorn and a Coke?” Sadja nodded and took the cash.
“Oh, we already got some stuff.” Emily pointed to the small popcorn bags at her and Ash’s legs. Sadja nodded.
“Oh, I don’t want anything. But thanks.” Cole responded. Sadja nodded.
Silence.
“Lukas,” Cole spoke. Lukas snapped out of it.
“Oh, uh… nothing. Thanks.”
Sadja nodded. “Alright, sounds good.” She walked up the bleachers, and the band fanfare began to play.
It took a little bit of gazing, but Lukas finally saw her. She was along the sidelines, wearing the same shirt Sadja had. Her back was facing him, looking out at the field. There were a couple of blue and silver ribbons in her ponytail, and she wore a short light gray skirt. Her hands were together, behind her back.
On the field, the coin was called. Russell and Isaac represented the Eagles, and two other players represented the away team. Russell called heads. It landed that way, and they elected to receive.
The whole crowd watched as the boys went back to the sidelines. But something peculiar happened. Isaac took off his helmet, and instead of approaching the rest of the team he went over to where Kat stood. The two approached each other. Then, with the crowd in front of them, they came together and kissed.
The crowd cheered. Lukas felt his heart stop.
Aaron grinned, watching the scene below. “Damn,” he muttered audibly. “What I wouldn’t give to be that guy right now.”
Lukas snapped. He got out of his chair and stormed off up the steps. Emily and Ash didn’t seem to notice, but the three closest to him did.
“What, did I hit a nerve?” Aaron spoke.
The Asian girl next to him slapped him hard on the shoulder. “Aaron, chill!”
Cole, visibly concerned, got up from his seat and followed after the boy. The trip led him all the way up the bleachers and down the stairs. Cole yelled out when Lukas was about to leave the stadium.
“Hey, wait!”
Lukas turned back, still furious. “You followed me?”
“Listen, I just… I know that sucked, and I swear I didn’t know it was gonna happen. They didn’t tell me about it, I don’t think anyone else knew-”
Lukas brought his hands up in the air. “Alright, alright, let’s just cut the shit. You were right. You were right! I’m fucking jealous! Congratulations! Now, what the hell do you want?”
There was a silence. Cole stayed calm. His voice was low and soothing.
“I just want to see how you’re feeling.”
Cole’s demeanor struck Lukas. He began to calm down, turning away and taking a few deep breaths. Then he turned back to face the boy.
“I feel like God just personally came and kicked me in the balls. That’s how I feel.”
Cole smiled consolingly. “I know, that sucked. But they didn’t do it to piss you off.”
Lukas waved his hand, calmer now, trying to get off the topic. “Yeah, yeah, I know. It had nothing to do with me.”
Cole nodded his head back towards the stadium, where the cheering from the kickoff could now be heard. “Come on, let’s head back. No point in moping by yourself.”
“Okay, but… I’d rather not think about this. Not right now.”
“Don’t worry, I gotta plan. Follow me.”
The two came back up the stairs, where Cole peeked his head out behind the announcer booth. Before Lukas could do the same, Cole stopped him with his arm.
“Hold on. Stay right here.” Cole whispered to him. Lukas obliged.
Cole walked down the steps towards the others, where Kat, now standing by the others, spotted him and gave him a warm smile. “Hey Cole, is Lukas here?”
“Oh yeah, he is. He’s… uh, coming back from the bathroom right now. Listen, we were…” He moved his head towards the rest of the group sitting down, in order to include them in the conversation. This included Sadja, who came back while they were gone. “…going to go sit by Rodrigo, give him some company. Since he’s sitting alone and all.”
Aaron chuckled. “Oh, really?”
Rose slapped her boyfriend on the shoulder again, then turned to Cole. “Sounds good! You guys have fun!”
“Yeah, have fun!” Kat answered. Cole brought his fist up, and Kat bumped it. Then he went back up to the booth.
He walked back up to the booth, finding Lukas and tapping him on the shoulder. “Alright, follow me.” Lukas obliged.
Rodrigo stood out from the crowd with his curly mohawk and shining earrings. As the two friends came close, Rodrigo looked at them and smiled.
“Glad you guys could join me. Here, take some.” He handed the bottle to Cole, who took opened the cap and took a whiff. His eyes widened, and he handed it to Lukas, who took a whiff himself.
“Oh yeah, I’m gonna need some of this.” Lukas said.
Rodrigo leaned against the side railing, still smiling. “Take it, amigo. It’s meant to be shared.”
Cole faced the two, then looked back at the field. “Guess I’m driving us back, too.”
…
“Man, I never thought about it much, but… Coach Haa is a scary motherfucker.”
It was now the second half. The score was 14-7, Kinsky. Lukas and Rodrigo were properly buzzed, and there were half-finished popcorn bags between the three kids.
Rodrigo turned to the other two, continuing his statement. “How do you guys think he got the scar? Up on his head?”
“I dunno. What do you think, Rod?” Lukas answered back.
“Well, you know, I heard, through the grapevine…” Rodrigo pointed to Coach Haa down on the sideline, whose eagle eyes observed his players on the field. “… that when he was in Vietnam, he was clearin’ out houses ‘n shit, when all of a sudden — bam! — a Vietkong came out of nowhere, and slammed his head with a machete. But Haa shot the motherfucker dead, and came away with the scar.”
Lukas shook his head, wobbling slightly in his seat. “Nah man, that’s fuckin’ stupid. If Haa was in Vietnam, he’d be like… eighty or some shit.”
Rodrigo turned toward him. “Alright then, smart ass. How do you think he got the scar?”
“Well, you know how he’s a big mountain climber, right? So, one day, he’s climbing this mountain, out in like the middle of… Tibet, or some shit. And he’s climbing, and climbing, and climbing, when all of a sudden — pop! — a icicle falls from higher up, and just grazes the top of his scalp. If the icicle had been any closer, he would have been dead!”
Cole, who had been paying attention to the field, suddenly snapped to attention, shaking the two guys between him. “Look, look! They’re about to score!”
He meant the away team, who was on Kinsky’s goal line. The air was thick. The quarterback hiked the ball, scanned the field, and threw.
But he didn’t hit his target.
Instead, he hit Russell. Russell caught the ball in his hands, and began sprinting the other way. One lineman tried to tackle him, but Russell juked out of his grasp. Another missed. And another. Finally, it was just him and the quarterback. The guy didn’t stand a chance.
As Russell ran to the endzone, the audience began to cheer, increasing in volume every step closer he took. Finally, he reached the destination, and the referee called the touchdown.
Russell dropped the ball, and turned towards the crowd. The floodlights of the stadium reflected off his shaded visor. He took two fingers, kissed them, and pointed towards the home bleachers.
The audience went wild.
The teams set up their field goal play. From the booth, an announced called out.
That’s a Kinsky touchdown! Number fourty-three, Russell Israel!
“That’s him! That’s my motherfucker!” Cole screamed out, pointing back towards the boy he knew.
…
The game was now nearing its end. 21-17. Kinsky had the ball, and it was clear things were going to go in their favor. Still, things felt uncomfortably close to most in the audience who were paying attention.
The three boys sitting in the back were among this group, who now watched the game closely and in silence. Occasionally Lukas’ vision would gaze away from the game, and towards Kat, who sat watching herself in the front row with the others. Lukas would then remember the kiss, feel a sharp pain in his head, and turn back towards the game. He repeated this process a couple of dozen times throughout the match.
Isaac snapped the ball, handing it off towards Maurice. They were in their own endzone, and at this point the goal was more to run out the clock. As it would turn out, Maurice had other plans.
The running back first broke through the initial line, narrowing dodging a defensive back by shaking him off his shoulder. After that came the coverage, who converged to get him. But, for whatever reason, they couldn’t. Maurice broke out through the defenders, and ran all the way for the touchdown.
It’s another score, folks! Number twenty-two, Maurice Bryant!
Out of all the cheers, Emily’s scream was perhaps the most easily heard. Rodrigo’s came a close second, who jumped up on top the bleacher bench and shouted “That’s my man! I love him! I love that man!”
A field goal and a kickoff was all the game had left. The buzzer sounded, and almost immediately students from the home team bleachers began climbing off the railing and flooding the field. Rodrigo jumped down himself, and Cole got up on the railing when he turned back towards the seats.
Lukas was the only one still sitting, looking at Cole uncertainly. Cole, legs between the railings, beckoned him.
“Come on. For Rus and Maurice, at least.”
Lukas thought about this for a moment, and a smile crossed his face. He got up from the bench, and jumped across the benches to the railing. The two boys dropped down and reached the amassing blob of students below.
—
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Boys & Girls: “Homecoming”
(This is one of 10 preview chapters for Boys & Girls: Part I. You can see the rest of the chapters on the official page)
September 20th, 2016
Kinsky, California, USA
Homecoming
Cole woke up from another nightmare.
Sweat drenched his bed. He took off the sheets and huddled them into a pile, then quickly got dressed out of the first things he saw in his closet. He put on the stained hoodie, flipped the hood up, and rushed down the stairs.
“You heading out?”
Cole turned around. The older woman from before was there, sitting at the table. This time she wore a pair of thin glasses, and had a newspaper in her hands.
“Uh… yeah. I’m, going to school early.”
The woman brought her glasses down to her nose, and gave the boy a look of suspicion.
“You’re… going to school, early?”
“Y-yeah, I just…” Cole looked away, leaning on the door to the outside. “I just need to get my mind off something, is all.”
“Uh huh.”
The woman went back to reading her newspaper. Cole walked out to the car and drove off.
…
He did in fact go to the school that morning, more specifically to the small weight-lifting room in the gym. Getting up on the pull-up bar, he pulled himself up and down, over and over again, until he began to sweat. It helped dull the pain a little bit, but he could still feel it in the back of his mind.
“It’s funny. Usually I’m the first one here.”
Cole jumped down from the bar, his body out of breath. He turned to the entrance, and saw Isaac.
“Oh, yeah, I just needed to… distract myself from something. Sorry.”
Isaac smiled, putting his backpack on the ground. “No need to be sorry. It’s not my gym.” The football captain walked over to the dumbbell rack, when he had an idea. “Actually, since there’s two of us, we can do the benchpress and spot for each other. If you want to.”
“Oh, not today, but… thanks.”
The two went back to their own workouts. Isaac grabbed two heavy dumbbells and began curling for a bit, before bringing the conversation back.
“So, you coming to the game?”
“Yeah. Going with the rest of the crew.”
Isaac looked at himself in the mirror, continuing to pump the iron. “I’ll try not to embarrass myself in front of everyone, then.”
Cole continued going up the bar. “Pretty sure most people go to the games just to get drunk with friends. So you should be okay.”
Isaac laughed. “You aren’t wrong. Maybe I got a chance then.”
The two continued to work out in silence, until a few of the other football players came in. At that point, Cole quickly picked up his backpack and left.
…
It was lunch time in the art room. Ash looked up at her canvas, a brush between her teeth and an old surplus military jacket around her shoulders.
The door opened, revealing Emily with two lunch plates. “Here, I got you something.”
Emily put down one of the plates on the table beside Ash. Ash thanked her. The president sat down nearby, picking up some of her own food while looking at the painting. “So, what’s it gonna be?” she asked.
Ash took the brush out of her mouth, looking up at the canvas herself. “I’m not super sure yet. The theme is ‘storm’, and I was gonna have… a boat, here, in the middle… and maybe the storm kicks up in the background…” she pointed to different parts of the canvas as she spoke.
Emily looked at it, in attention. “Yeah, I can kind of see it.”
“Well, I mean, I haven’t added it yet. But that’s what I’m feeling. I don’t know, maybe I’ll change it…”
Emily, potato chips in her mouth, tried to intervene. “No, I think it’s a good idea! You should make it whatever you want. I trust your creative process.”
The door opened again. This time Kat, Rose, and Sadja all packed into the room. Kat saw the two girls in front of the painting, and approached them.
“Hey, you guys know where the spirit gear is?”
Ash pointed to the other side of the room, in a corner surrounded by boxes. “Up on the table, by the stack of notebooks.”
Kat smiled. “Thanks, Ash.” Rose and Kat both walked over to the corner, while Sadja stayed behind, looking at the painting.
“Damn Ash, this looks great!”
Ash blushed. “I mean, it’s not close to being done. I still have to, add some stuff… and paint it all…”
Sadja shook her head. “Sure looks a hell of a lot better than my stick figures.”
Kat and Rose walked back from the corner, a box in each of their hands. Kat thanked the two girls again, and the three walked back out.
“So, any plans on how we divvy this up?” Sadja asked, walking beside the two.
“Matthews wants us to just disperse it out to everyone. I figure we hit the courtyard and gym, since that’s where the most people are at,” Rose replied.
“Can I help either of you?”
“Yeah, sure.” Kat answered Sadja. “We can split up, pass stuff out at the courtyard.”
“Alright, I’ll hit the gym then.” Rose repositioned the box on top of her arms. “Seeya!”
At the pathway intersection, the girls split, with Sadja going with Kat. Rose walked down the path towards the gym, when she heard a voice speak to her.
“Hey, Rose?”
Rose turned and saw Maria. She put down the box on a bench and walked up to the girl. “Hey, chica. How are you?”
Maria was depressed, and her face didn’t betray it. She tried to give a smile, but she ended up just looking over to the side, avoiding Rose’s face. “Listen, I… I don’t think I’m gonna come to the game tonight.”
Rose’s ears pricked up. “Are you coming to the dance?”
“Oh, yeah! Yeah, of course. Just, today, I’m not feeling well, and… I just, feel like I need to…”
Rose put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. The girl looked up at her.
“You do whatever you need to feel better. It’s okay. No excuse needed.”
Maria gave a smile, a real one this time. “Thanks, Rose.”
Rose smiled back. She picked the box back up, and the two went their separate ways.
…
It was now thirty minutes until game night. Cole drove himself and Lukas to the front of the parking lot, where they saw Rodrigo at the gate.
“How the hell’d you get here so quickly?” Cole asked as he got out.
Rodrigo shrugged. “Got here on the bus. We were one of the first people here. Aaron and Rose are here too, in line.”
Lukas closed the car door behind him. “Think they saved us some spots?”
Rodrigo smiled. “Let’s go see.”
The three boys came over to the ticketing gate. Rose and Aaron both waved them over, much to the chagrin of those in the back of the line. Aaron had on a Kinsky High hoodie, while Rose wore blue and silver painted stripes on her cheeks, with a fake silver streak clipped to her hair.
“So, I’m guessing that’s not water?” Aaron pointed to the plastic bottle in Rodrigo’s hand.
“Ah… you know me too well, don’t you?” Rodrigo smiled.
“Isn’t that gonna get caught by security?” Rose asked skeptically.
“Nah. I’ve done this like, a dozen times now. You see, the secret is this: they always check the bags, and they always check the metal bottles, but they usually don’t check the plastic disposable ones, and they especially never check them if they still got the label on.” Rodrigo pointed to the AQUASPIRIT logo on the bottle. “I guess they don’t expect anyone to be stupid enough to actually do it.”
Cole chuckled. “Seems like a major oversight.”
“Oh, lord knows they’re going to fix it. I just hope I get to graduate before then.”
The group got to the check, and as it turns out Rodrigo was right. The security guard spotted the bottle, but didn’t seem to care, and instead simply nodded as Rodrigo came through. Rodrigo nodded back.
When they got to the top of the bleachers, Rose pointed. “Look, Em and Ash are already here!”
The two girls leaned against the front railing, in the first row. Both wore Kinsky High baseball caps, observing the field. Rodrigo, on the other hand, started walking to the other end.
“Gonna sit over here, by the back. Keep the heat off, you know? If you want a quick sip, just come on over.”
Aaron called back to him. “You know I will!”
As the group walked down the steps towards Emily and Ash, Rose spoke up. “I feel bad for Rod sometimes. He always sits alone, Svedka or not. I feel like… we gotta be more proactive in inviting him over, you know?”
Aaron shrugged. “Man just wants to be alone sometimes. Can’t fault him for that.”
Rose sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess.”
As the group came down, Emily spotted them and smiled. They all sat down in the front row, next to each other.
“Didn’t take you guys as football fans.” Lukas leaned over and said to Emily and Ash.
Emily laughed. “Oh, no. It’s a commitment thing. Stugo stuff, you know.”
Rose, who sat nearest to Emily, turned to her. “Has Kat gotten here yet?”
“I think I saw her on the field, but I don’t know where she went.”
The group sat, conversing among each other for a few minutes. At some point after Sadja came down, dressed in a Kinsky High Football shirt and denim shorts. Her face was intricately painted in the school colors, and the same streak which Rose had was multiplied across her bob.
“Damn girl, you went all out!” Aaron chuckled as he saw her.
Sadja sat down next to Lukas, on the end. “I always go all out, that’s my secret!” she called back to him.
The game got closer to the start, and the players began to enter onto the field. Rose checked her phone, and asked the same question she had before. “Where’s Kat?”
Sadja smiled. “Oh, you’ll see.” The words came uneasily to Lukas’ ears. The girl then got up, pointing to the others. “You guys want anything?”
Aaron pulled out his wallet from his pants, and gave her a few dollars. “Can you get me a popcorn and a Coke?” Sadja nodded and took the cash.
“Oh, we already got some stuff.” Emily pointed to the small popcorn bags at her and Ash’s legs. Sadja nodded.
“Oh, I don’t want anything. But thanks.” Cole responded. Sadja nodded.
Silence.
“Lukas,” Cole spoke. Lukas snapped out of it.
“Oh, uh… nothing. Thanks.”
Sadja nodded. “Alright, sounds good.” She walked up the bleachers, and the band fanfare began to play.
It took a little bit of gazing, but Lukas finally saw her. She was along the sidelines, wearing the same shirt Sadja had. Her back was facing him, looking out at the field. There were a couple of blue and silver ribbons in her ponytail, and she wore a short light gray skirt. Her hands were together, behind her back.
On the field, the coin was called. Russell and Isaac represented the Eagles, and two other players represented the away team. Russell called heads. It landed that way, and they elected to receive.
The whole crowd watched as the boys went back to the sidelines. But something peculiar happened. Isaac took off his helmet, and instead of approaching the rest of the team he went over to where Kat stood. The two approached each other. Then, with the crowd in front of them, they came together and kissed.
The crowd cheered. Lukas felt his heart stop.
Aaron grinned, watching the scene below. “Damn,” he muttered audibly. “What I wouldn’t give to be that guy right now.”
Lukas snapped. He got out of his chair and stormed off up the steps. Emily and Ash didn’t seem to notice, but the three closest to him did.
“What, did I hit a nerve?” Aaron spoke.
The Asian girl next to him slapped him hard on the shoulder. “Aaron, chill!”
Cole, visibly concerned, got up from his seat and followed after the boy. The trip led him all the way up the bleachers and down the stairs. Cole yelled out when Lukas was about to leave the stadium.
“Hey, wait!”
Lukas turned back, still furious. “You followed me?”
“Listen, I just… I know that sucked, and I swear I didn’t know it was gonna happen. They didn’t tell me about it, I don’t think anyone else knew-”
Lukas brought his hands up in the air. “Alright, alright, let’s just cut the shit. You were right. You were right! I’m fucking jealous! Congratulations! Now, what the hell do you want?”
There was a silence. Cole stayed calm. His voice was low and soothing.
“I just want to see how you’re feeling.”
Cole’s demeanor struck Lukas. He began to calm down, turning away and taking a few deep breaths. Then he turned back to face the boy.
“I feel like God just personally came and kicked me in the balls. That’s how I feel.”
Cole smiled consolingly. “I know, that sucked. But they didn’t do it to piss you off.”
Lukas waved his hand, calmer now, trying to get off the topic. “Yeah, yeah, I know. It had nothing to do with me.”
Cole nodded his head back towards the stadium, where the cheering from the kickoff could now be heard. “Come on, let’s head back. No point in moping by yourself.”
“Okay, but… I’d rather not think about this. Not right now.”
“Don’t worry, I gotta plan. Follow me.”
The two came back up the stairs, where Cole peeked his head out behind the announcer booth. Before Lukas could do the same, Cole stopped him with his arm.
“Hold on. Stay right here.” Cole whispered to him. Lukas obliged.
Cole walked down the steps towards the others, where Kat, now standing by the others, spotted him and gave him a warm smile. “Hey Cole, is Lukas here?”
“Oh yeah, he is. He’s… uh, coming back from the bathroom right now. Listen, we were…” He moved his head towards the rest of the group sitting down, in order to include them in the conversation. This included Sadja, who came back while they were gone. “…going to go sit by Rodrigo, give him some company. Since he’s sitting alone and all.”
Aaron chuckled. “Oh, really?”
Rose slapped her boyfriend on the shoulder again, then turned to Cole. “Sounds good! You guys have fun!”
“Yeah, have fun!” Kat answered. Cole brought his fist up, and Kat bumped it. Then he went back up to the booth.
He walked back up to the booth, finding Lukas and tapping him on the shoulder. “Alright, follow me.” Lukas obliged.
Rodrigo stood out from the crowd with his curly mohawk and shining earrings. As the two friends came close, Rodrigo looked at them and smiled.
“Glad you guys could join me. Here, take some.” He handed the bottle to Cole, who took opened the cap and took a whiff. His eyes widened, and he handed it to Lukas, who took a whiff himself.
“Oh yeah, I’m gonna need some of this.” Lukas said.
Rodrigo leaned against the side railing, still smiling. “Take it, amigo. It’s meant to be shared.”
Cole faced the two, then looked back at the field. “Guess I’m driving us back, too.”
…
“Man, I never thought about it much, but… Coach Haa is a scary motherfucker.”
It was now the second half. The score was 14-7, Kinsky. Lukas and Rodrigo were properly buzzed, and there were half-finished popcorn bags between the three kids.
Rodrigo turned to the other two, continuing his statement. “How do you guys think he got the scar? Up on his head?”
“I dunno. What do you think, Rod?” Lukas answered back.
“Well, you know, I heard, through the grapevine…” Rodrigo pointed to Coach Haa down on the sideline, whose eagle eyes observed his players on the field. “… that when he was in Vietnam, he was clearin’ out houses ‘n shit, when all of a sudden — bam! — a Vietkong came out of nowhere, and slammed his head with a machete. But Haa shot the motherfucker dead, and came away with the scar.”
Lukas shook his head, wobbling slightly in his seat. “Nah man, that’s fuckin’ stupid. If Haa was in Vietnam, he’d be like… eighty or some shit.”
Rodrigo turned toward him. “Alright then, smart ass. How do you think he got the scar?”
“Well, you know how he’s a big mountain climber, right? So, one day, he’s climbing this mountain, out in like the middle of… Tibet, or some shit. And he’s climbing, and climbing, and climbing, when all of a sudden — pop! — a icicle falls from higher up, and just grazes the top of his scalp. If the icicle had been any closer, he would have been dead!”
Cole, who had been paying attention to the field, suddenly snapped to attention, shaking the two guys between him. “Look, look! They’re about to score!”
He meant the away team, who was on Kinsky’s goal line. The air was thick. The quarterback hiked the ball, scanned the field, and threw.
But he didn’t hit his target.
Instead, he hit Russell. Russell caught the ball in his hands, and began sprinting the other way. One lineman tried to tackle him, but Russell juked out of his grasp. Another missed. And another. Finally, it was just him and the quarterback. The guy didn’t stand a chance.
As Russell ran to the endzone, the audience began to cheer, increasing in volume every step closer he took. Finally, he reached the destination, and the referee called the touchdown.
Russell dropped the ball, and turned towards the crowd. The floodlights of the stadium reflected off his shaded visor. He took two fingers, kissed them, and pointed towards the home bleachers.
The audience went wild.
The teams set up their field goal play. From the booth, an announced called out.
That’s a Kinsky touchdown! Number fourty-three, Russell Israel!
“That’s him! That’s my motherfucker!” Cole screamed out, pointing back towards the boy he knew.
…
The game was now nearing its end. 21-17. Kinsky had the ball, and it was clear things were going to go in their favor. Still, things felt uncomfortably close to most in the audience who were paying attention.
The three boys sitting in the back were among this group, who now watched the game closely and in silence. Occasionally Lukas’ vision would gaze away from the game, and towards Kat, who sat watching herself in the front row with the others. Lukas would then remember the kiss, feel a sharp pain in his head, and turn back towards the game. He repeated this process a couple of dozen times throughout the match.
Isaac snapped the ball, handing it off towards Maurice. They were in their own endzone, and at this point the goal was more to run out the clock. As it would turn out, Maurice had other plans.
The running back first broke through the initial line, narrowing dodging a defensive back by shaking him off his shoulder. After that came the coverage, who converged to get him. But, for whatever reason, they couldn’t. Maurice broke out through the defenders, and ran all the way for the touchdown.
It’s another score, folks! Number twenty-two, Maurice Bryant!
Out of all the cheers, Emily’s scream was perhaps the most easily heard. Rodrigo’s came a close second, who jumped up on top the bleacher bench and shouted “That’s my man! I love him! I love that man!”
A field goal and a kickoff was all the game had left. The buzzer sounded, and almost immediately students from the home team bleachers began climbing off the railing and flooding the field. Rodrigo jumped down himself, and Cole got up on the railing when he turned back towards the seats.
Lukas was the only one still sitting, looking at Cole uncertainly. Cole, legs between the railings, beckoned him.
“Come on. For Rus and Maurice, at least.”
Lukas thought about this for a moment, and a smile crossed his face. He got up from the bench, and jumped across the benches to the railing. The two boys dropped down and reached the amassing blob of students below.
The post Boys & Girls: “Homecoming” appeared first on Jacob Robinson.
February 20, 2023
Boys & Girls Chapter 8: “Autopsy”
Maria Cortez(This is one of 10 preview chapters for Boys & Girls: Part I. You can see the rest of the chapters on the official page)
September 14th, 2016
Kinsky, California, USA
Autopsy
In a shabby home in the middle of South Kinsky, a young and slightly overweight black man cooked on an old gas stove. The smell of chorizo and eggs filled the air, and when the man felt satisfied with his work, he took the pan off the heat and wiped his hands on a nearby hand towel.
The man took a trip down the hallway, where in between two doors he loudly banged his hand against the wall, followed by an impassioned “Good mooooorning!”. He opened both of the doors before walking back to the kitchen to set up the plates.
Russell groggily got out of bed, groaning and massaging his temples. He put on a quick pair of gym shorts and an old North California University shirt which had its sleeves cut off. Walking out of his room, he saw his younger brother Mahalo run out in front of him, taking his seat in the kitchen.
Russell and Mahalo immediately started eating their food. The other man looked at the two in delight. “As you can see, I cooked my special to congratulate Rus on his big win last night.”
Russell scooped up a big helping, putting it in his mouth. “I appreciate your post-game blessing, Billy.”
“And let’s not forget his contributions to the team: one deflected pass!”
Mahalo laughed at the comment. Russell looked up at his older brother, smiling. “You like to keep my ego in check, don’t you?”
“Can’t hurt to.” Billy replied, smiling back.
Sometime passed, and Russell finished his meal. He got some more suitable clothes on, – including his pair of shades – then walked to the door, passing by Mahalo and rubbing the top of his head. “Alright, I’m headed off.” He said, grabbing a light jacket and his keys off from the rack by the front entrance.
“Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, aight?” Billy said, pointing his fork at him.
Russell looked back. “I did what you do, I’d be in prison.”
Billy laughed. “Have fun!”
Russell walked out to the street, where his Hellcat waited for him. He unlocked the car, got in, and drove off.
…
Russell had gone through most of the day catching up on various errands for that weekend. That night, however, he made one last stop to a house. The house was much larger than his own, and on the other side of the neighborhood. As he got out, he saw two guys near the entrance, around his age and of athletic build.
“Yo, Rus.” One of them spoke as he approached. Russell fistbumped the two.
“Isaac’s inside. Says he was waiting for you.” The other boy said.
Russell waved behind him, as he walked up to the door. “Word.”
The inside of the house was lively, filled with fellow members of the Kinsky High team. Loud music played from some speakers around the first floor, whittled into merely bass over the loud discussions of those inside. Russell walked over into the kitchen, where he saw Isaac pouring himself a drink from a keg in the corner of the room. He turned, and saw Russell standing in front of him.
“Rus, my man!” Isaac leaned over, and the two patted each other on the back.
“Nick was outside, told me you were waitin’ for me.”
Isaac looked up at the taller boy, and smiled. “Oh, I was. Come on upstairs — I got something I wanna show you.”
Isaac’s room, in comparison to Russell’s, was massive. Near a king-sized bed was a dresser, with a single locked drawer near its bottom right. “You know, couple of days ago I got somethin’ nice, just for the two of us.” He took a keyring out of his pocket, and used it to unlock the drawer. His hand traced over an unopened whiskey bottle, a pack of condoms, and a cigar, before he finally found it.
“I call it… the Captain’s Special.”
He turned back towards Russell, dangling the plastic bag in front of him. Russell looked at the bag in surprise — it was marijuana, and a high quality breed no doubt.
“Where the hell’d you get that?” Russell inquired.
“Okay, so you know Carmichael’s guy? The one who sold that black tar heroin to those sorority girls?”
“You… you didn’t get it from him, did you?”
“Nah, nah. But he recommended me a guy. Dude gave me this whole bag for eighty bucks, said it was the friend’s discount.”
Russell looked at him skeptically, pointing towards the bag. “I’ma let you try it first.”
Isaac got to work, taking out a paper and filling the weed inside. He was just about done rolling the first joint when he stopped, and turned back to Russell.
“Actually, I wanna invite Maurice to smoke, too.”
“Thought you said it was the ‘Captain’s Special’.”
“I mean, you see him last night? He’s gonna steal my fuckin’ job at this rate.”
Russell shrugged. “I don’t got a problem with it.”
“Alright, gimme a sec. Be right back!” Isaac walked quickly by him, going out the door and down the stairs. In the living room Maurice sat at a couch with a red cup in his hand, surrounded by a couple of informally-invited girls. Isaac announced his presence.
“Ladies, ladies! Mind if I take the man real quick?”
Maurice looked up. A girl leaning on his shoulder got off of it, and smiled. “No problem, Isaac baby.”
Isaac smiled, then went to put his arm around Maurice’s shoulder, bringing him upstairs. Isaac closed the door behind him, and turned to the other two. “Alright, now we can really get the fun started.”
…
Some time passed. Isaac, Maurice, and Russell had been smoking for awhile, sitting down and looking out the large window in Isaac’s room.
“You know,” Isaac started, taking another puff. “I’m surprised we’ve done so good so far. Maybe we really got a team together.”
Russell blew the smoke out of his mouth. “Listen, as long as Coach Haa ain’t bustin’ my balls, I’m happy.”
“Oh really? Aren’t you the Haa whisperer? You’re my senior, after all.”
Russell shook his head. “Nah, man. Two years defense cap and I still don’t know what his fuckin’ problem is.” The other two boys laughed at this.
There was a moment of silence that passed afterwards. The smell lingered in the room, but at this point the boys felt relaxed. Russell broke the quiet.
“Hey Isaac, you invite Kat to this party?”
Isaac was thrown offguard. “Oh, n-no, I… just, you know, I didn’t… I didn’t think it’d be her thing.”
Russell appeared indifferent to the answer, looking back out the window. Isaac tried switching the topic.
“Speaking of which, when you guys gonna get yourself a girl?”
Russell shook his head. “I ain’t lookin’ right now, boss.”
“Ah, yeah. You’re one of those good Christian men.” Isaac then turned towards Maurice on the other end of the chairs. “What about you, Maurice? I saw you downstairs. Any of those bitches catch your eye?”
Maurice, who had stayed in relative silence up to this point, became embarrassed. “Oh, uh, no, man… I don’t really wanna just, date some random girl I don’t know like that.”
Isaac smiled. “Smart! Good thinking. Okay, okay, but what about girls you do know? Like… that one friend of your sister’s, Ash or whoever?”
Maurice shook his head, clearly flushed. “No, not her.”
Isaac leaned back in his chair. “Got it, not into blue-haired chicks. Reasonable. How about Natalie? I hear she recently broke up with her old guy, the theater dude. I’m sure we can get Kat or Sadja to talk to her for you.”
“Isaac, listen man… I don’t really want to talk about this.”
Isaac shut his mouth. He moved back into his chair. “Yeah, yeah. Of course man, it’s a touchy subject.” He took another puff from the joint. “Don’t worry about it too much. You’ll find somebody. We all find somebody, you just gotta look is all.”
The three boys watched as the sky began to pinken, its sun setting into the other side of the world.
…
It was still night. Cole was in his room, doing some of his homework. His earbuds blared music into his ears, when suddenly it was cut off by the sound of an incoming caller. Cole gave an annoyed sigh and looked over at his phone. When he checked the ID, however, he sprang to attention.
“Hey, Maria?”
There was a crackling of silence on the other end. Cole began to feel himself getting nervous. Finally, a voice answered him.
“Cole.”
“W-what’s wrong? Did you learn something?” Cole got up from his desk, and began to pace back and forth in the room.
He heard a deep breathing on the other end. “I got back the autopsy report.”
Cole stopped. “The autopsy report?”
“Mendocino County does an autopsy on every perceived suicide that comes in.” There was another break in speaking. Cole began to feel himself tense up. His legs began to wobble. “Cole, we were way off. It wasn’t bullying, or the fact she felt unloved, o-or a-a-anything like that…” Maria’s voice began to break at the end, and Cole could hear her tearing up on the other end. Cole himself began to sweat down his temples and his vision became blurry. He grabbed the side of his dresser and held it tightly.
“Maria… what was it?”
“I… I’m not going to use the exact words they told me, but…” Maria cried as she sputtered out the words. “T-they… there was… evidence of repeated sexual abuse, over the past six months.”
Cole’s body turned numb. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. For a few moments, he became blind and deaf. At some point, which he did not realize, he began to push off his dresser, and look back towards his desk.
“C-Cole… do you… do you think…”
With weak legs he took steps, small steps, to the desk. A place that felt an eternity away. On that desk, he picked up a framed photograph. It shook in his hands. He eyed it closely. It was a picture they had taken that July, at Maria’s birthday party. The entire group had gathered outside, with Maria in the center. Everyone was smiling, looking into the camera.
“Do you think… it was one of us?”
The post Boys & Girls Chapter 8: “Autopsy” appeared first on Jacob Robinson.
Boys & Girls: “Autopsy”
(This is one of 10 preview chapters for Boys & Girls: Part I. You can see the rest of the chapters on the official page)
September 14th, 2016
Kinsky, California, USA
Autopsy
In a shabby home in the middle of South Kinsky, a young and slightly overweight black man cooked on an old gas stove. The smell of chorizo and eggs filled the air, and when the man felt satisfied with his work, he took the pan off the heat and wiped his hands on a nearby hand towel.
The man took a trip down the hallway, where in between two doors he loudly banged his hand against the wall, followed by an impassioned “Good mooooorning!”. He opened both of the doors before walking back to the kitchen to set up the plates.
Russell groggily got out of bed, groaning and massaging his temples. He put on a quick pair of gym shorts and an old North California University shirt which had its sleeves cut off. Walking out of his room, he saw his younger brother Mahalo run out in front of him, taking his seat in the kitchen.
Russell and Mahalo immediately started eating their food. The other man looked at the two in delight. “As you can see, I cooked my special to congratulate Rus on his big win last night.”
Russell scooped up a big helping, putting it in his mouth. “I appreciate your post-game blessing, Billy.”
“And let’s not forget his contributions to the team: one deflected pass!”
Mahalo laughed at the comment. Russell looked up at his older brother, smiling. “You like to keep my ego in check, don’t you?”
“Can’t hurt to.” Billy replied, smiling back.
Sometime passed, and Russell finished his meal. He got some more suitable clothes on, – including his pair of shades – then walked to the door, passing by Mahalo and rubbing the top of his head. “Alright, I’m headed off.” He said, grabbing a light jacket and his keys off from the rack by the front entrance.
“Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, aight?” Billy said, pointing his fork at him.
Russell looked back. “I did what you do, I’d be in prison.”
Billy laughed. “Have fun!”
Russell walked out to the street, where his Hellcat waited for him. He unlocked the car, got in, and drove off.
…
Russell had gone through most of the day catching up on various errands for that weekend. That night, however, he made one last stop to a house. The house was much larger than his own, and on the other side of the neighborhood. As he got out, he saw two guys near the entrance, around his age and of athletic build.
“Yo, Rus.” One of them spoke as he approached. Russell fistbumped the two.
“Isaac’s inside. Says he was waiting for you.” The other boy said.
Russell waved behind him, as he walked up to the door. “Word.”
The inside of the house was lively, filled with fellow members of the Kinsky High team. Loud music played from some speakers around the first floor, whittled into merely bass over the loud discussions of those inside. Russell walked over into the kitchen, where he saw Isaac pouring himself a drink from a keg in the corner of the room. He turned, and saw Russell standing in front of him.
“Rus, my man!” Isaac leaned over, and the two patted each other on the back.
“Nick was outside, told me you were waitin’ for me.”
Isaac looked up at the taller boy, and smiled. “Oh, I was. Come on upstairs — I got something I wanna show you.”
Isaac’s room, in comparison to Russell’s, was massive. Near a king-sized bed was a dresser, with a single locked drawer near its bottom right. “You know, couple of days ago I got somethin’ nice, just for the two of us.” He took a keyring out of his pocket, and used it to unlock the drawer. His hand traced over an unopened whiskey bottle, a pack of condoms, and a cigar, before he finally found it.
“I call it… the Captain’s Special.”
He turned back towards Russell, dangling the plastic bag in front of him. Russell looked at the bag in surprise — it was marijuana, and a high quality breed no doubt.
“Where the hell’d you get that?” Russell inquired.
“Okay, so you know Carmichael’s guy? The one who sold that black tar heroin to those sorority girls?”
“You… you didn’t get it from him, did you?”
“Nah, nah. But he recommended me a guy. Dude gave me this whole bag for eighty bucks, said it was the friend’s discount.”
Russell looked at him skeptically, pointing towards the bag. “I’ma let you try it first.”
Isaac got to work, taking out a paper and filling the weed inside. He was just about done rolling the first joint when he stopped, and turned back to Russell.
“Actually, I wanna invite Maurice to smoke, too.”
“Thought you said it was the ‘Captain’s Special’.”
“I mean, you see him last night? He’s gonna steal my fuckin’ job at this rate.”
Russell shrugged. “I don’t got a problem with it.”
“Alright, gimme a sec. Be right back!” Isaac walked quickly by him, going out the door and down the stairs. In the living room Maurice sat at a couch with a red cup in his hand, surrounded by a couple of informally-invited girls. Isaac announced his presence.
“Ladies, ladies! Mind if I take the man real quick?”
Maurice looked up. A girl leaning on his shoulder got off of it, and smiled. “No problem, Isaac baby.”
Isaac smiled, then went to put his arm around Maurice’s shoulder, bringing him upstairs. Isaac closed the door behind him, and turned to the other two. “Alright, now we can really get the fun started.”
…
Some time passed. Isaac, Maurice, and Russell had been smoking for awhile, sitting down and looking out the large window in Isaac’s room.
“You know,” Isaac started, taking another puff. “I’m surprised we’ve done so good so far. Maybe we really got a team together.”
Russell blew the smoke out of his mouth. “Listen, as long as Coach Haa ain’t bustin’ my balls, I’m happy.”
“Oh really? Aren’t you the Haa whisperer? You’re my senior, after all.”
Russell shook his head. “Nah, man. Two years defense cap and I still don’t know what his fuckin’ problem is.” The other two boys laughed at this.
There was a moment of silence that passed afterwards. The smell lingered in the room, but at this point the boys felt relaxed. Russell broke the quiet.
“Hey Isaac, you invite Kat to this party?”
Isaac was thrown offguard. “Oh, n-no, I… just, you know, I didn’t… I didn’t think it’d be her thing.”
Russell appeared indifferent to the answer, looking back out the window. Isaac tried switching the topic.
“Speaking of which, when you guys gonna get yourself a girl?”
Russell shook his head. “I ain’t lookin’ right now, boss.”
“Ah, yeah. You’re one of those good Christian men.” Isaac then turned towards Maurice on the other end of the chairs. “What about you, Maurice? I saw you downstairs. Any of those bitches catch your eye?”
Maurice, who had stayed in relative silence up to this point, became embarrassed. “Oh, uh, no, man… I don’t really wanna just, date some random girl I don’t know like that.”
Isaac smiled. “Smart! Good thinking. Okay, okay, but what about girls you do know? Like… that one friend of your sister’s, Ash or whoever?”
Maurice shook his head, clearly flushed. “No, not her.”
Isaac leaned back in his chair. “Got it, not into blue-haired chicks. Reasonable. How about Natalie? I hear she recently broke up with her old guy, the theater dude. I’m sure we can get Kat or Sadja to talk to her for you.”
“Isaac, listen man… I don’t really want to talk about this.”
Isaac shut his mouth. He moved back into his chair. “Yeah, yeah. Of course man, it’s a touchy subject.” He took another puff from the joint. “Don’t worry about it too much. You’ll find somebody. We all find somebody, you just gotta look is all.”
The three boys watched as the sky began to pinken, its sun setting into the other side of the world.
…
It was still night. Cole was in his room, doing some of his homework. His earbuds blared music into his ears, when suddenly it was cut off by the sound of an incoming caller. Cole gave an annoyed sigh and looked over at his phone. When he checked the ID, however, he sprang to attention.
“Hey, Maria?”
There was a crackling of silence on the other end. Cole began to feel himself getting nervous. Finally, a voice answered him.
“Cole.”
“W-what’s wrong? Did you learn something?” Cole got up from his desk, and began to pace back and forth in the room.
He heard a deep breathing on the other end. “I got back the autopsy report.”
Cole stopped. “The autopsy report?”
“Mendocino County does an autopsy on every perceived suicide that comes in.” There was another break in speaking. Cole began to feel himself tense up. His legs began to wobble. “Cole, we were way off. It wasn’t bullying, or the fact she felt unloved, o-or a-a-anything like that…” Maria’s voice began to break at the end, and Cole could hear her tearing up on the other end. Cole himself began to sweat down his temples and his vision became blurry. He grabbed the side of his dresser and held it tightly.
“Maria… what was it?”
“I… I’m not going to use the exact words they told me, but…” Maria cried as she sputtered out the words. “T-they… there was… evidence of repeated sexual abuse, over the past six months.”
Cole’s body turned numb. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. For a few moments, he became blind and deaf. At some point, which he did not realize, he began to push off his dresser, and look back towards his desk.
“C-Cole… do you… do you think…”
With weak legs he took steps, small steps, to the desk. A place that felt an eternity away. On that desk, he picked up a framed photograph. It shook in his hands. He eyed it closely. It was a picture they had taken that July, at Maria’s birthday party. The entire group had gathered outside, with Maria in the center. Everyone was smiling, looking into the camera.
“Do you think… it was one of us?”
The post Boys & Girls: “Autopsy” appeared first on Jacob Robinson.
February 13, 2023
Boys & Girls: “Treehouse”
(This is one of 10 preview chapters for Boys & Girls: Part I. You can see the rest of the chapters on the official page)
August 1st, 2010
Kinsky, California, USA
The Treehouse
A young black-haired boy ran up a forested hill, surveying the land before him. With his eyes peering the horizon, he suddenly stopped and pointed westward.
“Over yonder, ye scallywags! Our glory comes ever closer!”
Two other children followed him from behind: a boy and a girl, both blond. Both dragged large red wagons filled with supplies behind him. The boy brought his wagon to the top of the hill, then sat down panting.
“Why… do you not have to carry these things?”
The surveyor turned around, putting his hands on his hips. “Because, as leader, I take on the very important role of keeping the operation together, and bringing us to our ultimate objective.”
The girl came not far behind, grunting as she pulled her wagon through the rocks. “I don’t… remember… any of us making you leader.”
“Come on, I can see it from here. Just a little ways left to go!” Before the two wagon-holders could respond, the self-proclaimed leader was already running down the other side of the hill. They both looked at each other, clearly unamused, then followed.
…
The tree was a lot larger than any of the ones they had seen before that day. Its trunk was old but solid, and its branches were few. Cole climbed up the tree to its largest branch. After shaking it vigorously, it scarcely moved.
“Guys, I think this one works!” He said as he jumped down. “Lukas, go tell your dad!”
As Lukas ran off, the girl sat down in front of the wagon, mostly relieved she didn’t have to pull it anymore. Cole walked around the tree, examining its foundations.
“Doesn’t that branch look a little uneven?” The girl commented, pointing up to the part of the tree Cole had dropped down from.
“Don’t be a doubter, Kat! If this ain’t it, we aren’t gonna find one today.”
Kat sighed, and grabbed a bag of Fritos from her wagon. She ate a couple, then looked up to Cole. “Want some?”
Cole reached over and took some right out of the bag, taking it into his mouth and chomping down. The two sat together eating, when Lukas finally came back with an adult man.
“So?” Lukas pointed up to the tree for assessment. The older man, who had the same blonde hair and blue eyes as Lukas, wore a nice yellow dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He leaned against a nearby tree on the periphery, and thought to himself for a moment, looking at the tree in all its form.
“You know… I think I could do something with this one.” The man finally responded.
“Really?” Cole proclaimed ecstatically.
“Yeah, I think so. You’ll just have to give me some time to build it.”
Lukas looked up at him, eyes bright. “Thanks, dad!”
“Thanks, Mr. Schrodden!” The two kids behind him similarly cheered out, in unison. Mr. Schrodden smiled at the kids, taking his weight off the tree.
“No problem, guys. Just head back and eat lunch with Mrs. Schrodden for now, and I’ll tell you when I’m finished.”
The kids ran off, and Mr. Schrodden got to work.
…
A few hours later, and there was something new. The treehouse was relatively small — perhaps testament to the lack of knowledge transfer between Mr. Schrodden’s background in electrical engineering versus making a treehouse — but it was a treehouse by all definitions. The kids came to the tree with Mrs. Schrodden in tow. They all looked up, in awe at the structure.
Mr. Schrodden, crossing his arms and leaning against a nearby tree with sweat on his brow, looked at Mrs. Schrodden and smiled. “Well?”
Mrs. Schrodden let out a little giggle. “Impressive work, Christopher.”
The three kids ran up the imprinted ladder, very impatient with wanting to get inside and see. Mr. Schrodden tried to ease them up to be careful, but quickly realized it was fruitless and just let them all huddle in.
The treehouse was plain, with wood planks and a small plastic window. But the kids were inspired, seeing in their mind’s eye what could be, enthralled by the possibilities of a little space all to themselves.
“Kids, come out for a sec!” Mrs. Schrodden called out. “I want to take a photo to remember the moment!”
While the kids would rather stay, they decided to head back down to fulfill this onerequest. The mother took out her camera, pointing it some distance away to catch both the house and the children. Mr. Schrodden looked on from his vantage point, impressed by his own handiwork.
“Alright, get together!” The mother kneeled down, closing one eye to focus on the camera lens. The kids put their arms around each other, and gave their biggest smiles. Mrs. Schrodden hit the button, and the light flashed.
The post Boys & Girls: “Treehouse” appeared first on Jacob Robinson.
February 10, 2023
Mastodon is Social Media PvP with Permadeath Enabled
For a long time, I couldn’t understand the hype around Mastodon, a decentralized alternative to Twitter. After some struggling, I finally made an acdount — and then realized its immense charm. However, it’s far from what its developers intended.
(Note: The following article contains messages which contain a plethora of naughty no-no words. I do not condone the messaging in these posts and use them primarily as examples of batshit insanity. You have been warned.)
To start off, I don’t think Mastodon could ever become a replacement for Twitter. It’s just not even close. The sign up process is much too obtuse, and requires a lot of thinking and strategy (strategy!) that the average social media peruser isn’t going to care about. That fact is combined with the idea that the platform is (likely on purpose) designed to be as unappealing to advertisers as possible, and that alternative forms of revenue have no way of coming in. No revenue means little funding, which means little growth, which means a small userbase. Looks like those “Musk Rebellion” dreams are dashed.
But there’s a good side to all of this. Mastodon really ought to stay small, because the majority of its charm comes not from being a Twitter alternative but from becoming one of the last “wild west” bastions left on the internet. In order to elaborate on that idea, I want to detail you my journey into signing up on Mastodon.
Turbulent BeginningsI’ll be honest, when I first went to check out Mastodon it was a total pain in the ass. Multiple times I got to the point where I was just about to quit, chalk the app up as some stupid obtuse piece of technology, and go on with my day. Fortunately, that did not happen.
The way Mastodon works is that when you register, you do not sign up for Mastodon itself. Rather you sign with a server, or a team. Your team is always part of your Mastodon account, and serves as the second part of your username (for example, someone’s username might be “bill@mastodon.social”, similar to an email address). But a team is not simply a handle, which is why I use the term “team” to refer to it. This is where Mastodon gets complicated.
Each host decides how much “access” to give to the rest of the Fediverse, or total list of Mastodon hosts. This access decides whether or not you can view, like, and follow others on different hosts. For example, a server dedicated to cybersecurity might allow you easy access to follow other servers related to technology, while blocking you from interacting with more unsavory servers.
A breakdown of the subgroups in Mastodon’s overall “Fediverse”Because of this, I needed two things. First of all, I needed a domain that was not something hokey like “gamedev.biz” or “technology.social”. Second of all, I needed something that could preferably give me maximum visibility to all of the Fediverse — I could always block people myself if necessary.
The problem I quickly ran into is that, if you’re just looking at “official” Mastodon servers, your choices are pretty limited. All of them have outrageously goofy URLs with sanitized, boring conversations. At first, I thought this was just the reality of Mastodon — that the decentralized social media was not really that decentralized at all, but just a handful of closely knit websites that resembled moreso spammy BBS forums of years past.
Then, I discovered The Mastodon Wars.
Introduction to The Mastodon WarsIn order to find good, niche servers, I decided to take an alternative route: looking at what servers were blocked. Part of it was just out of curiosity — how does one become so bad that you get isolated from a decentralized platform? Well, I noticed a few things about these blocked lists: chief among them was that, excluding the obvious spam servers, was that they all seemed to have the same set of offenders…
These offenders happened to be allied with each other, meaning that they could easily view, follow, and engage with one another. However, they did not reciprocate blocking these more popular servers, making them ideal targets if I wanted to see the full scope of the Fediverse.
What can/can’t be done when a public Mastodon instance blocks another public Mastodon instanceI realized in my search that these were mostly offshoots of Kiwi Farms and 4chan. The former had just recently gotten their website smited off the Internet, while the former did exist but had no suitable social media variant. It was at this point I found out that the original Mastodon developers — hardcore leftists — had, seemingly by some Act of God, not thought about their decentralized social media being hugely popular to the recently deplatformed hardcore rightists. Sure, Mastodon expected bad actors — most of this blocking of servers and filtering had already existed at the start — but they did not expect this many people. There are no official numbers (lord knows Mastodon would like to keep it that way) but it appears that the majority of Mastodon users might just be these good old /g/-using right-wing nuts.
Remember back at the beginning of my Mastodon journey, when I was so confused as to why there were so few servers? This was an attempt to purge the 4chan users — Mastodon essentially made it so that, if you were going through official channels, you could only find servers that were “vetted” and approved by Mastodon themselves. This allowed them both to control their image as well as direct people to servers more “fitting” of their own tastes. So much for decentralization, huh?
That being said, all the strange and interesting characters appeared to be in these 4chan servers, so naturally I was more interested in signing myself up on that side of the fence. The naming scheme of the domains here were also a lot more… “colorful”, presumably to keep out normally functioning people. They consist of names like “freecumextremist.com”, “gangstalking.services”, and “genitalia.observer”. And, while I do admit these are all quite funny, I did realize I had to pick one that would cause the least damage to my public image. I ended up going with “cawfee.club”, a relatively innocent server whose name is in reference to a show about anime girls running a coffee shop. This server had a good mix of not having too many “extremists” locally (aka on the same domain) but still had a wide gate open to view most of the goings-on of the other servers.
Battlefield and CasualtiesAfter I got used to using the app, I noticed something interesting — there are certain “battlefield” servers in the Mastodon Wars. In other words, there were servers on the left-leaning, traditional side of Mastodon who had not yet configured their “firewall” (or perhaps just really like arguing with people) who the right-wing 4channers could still interact with. These battlefield states are where the most “unique” conversations happen, as they are essentially no-holds-barred Twitter arguments (imagine the sort of shit people say when they aren’t moderated by a central neutral party…). Another interesting thing — perhaps the most interesting of all — was permadeath.
Think about the way Mastodon is architected for a moment. These are independent servers, all downloading the Mastodon software and connecting to the other Mastodon servers via a network. But if the server were to go down, all the users would have their accounts essentially wiped. This is because, while accounts can interact between servers, the storage of data such as follows and posts are all local.
A user on /r/Mastodon explaining the dynamics of a server shutdownThis means that you have some personal stake in the success of each server — or, like I said before, team. This also makes the battlefield dynamic much more interesting. If you have hardcore beef with another server, wouldn’t you have some incentive to take it down by nefarious means?
To be fair, I don’t know if such battleground arguments have gone that far — I haven’t been tied into the Mastodon drama for long enough. But it does prove, like our redditor friend says, that server choice matters. Just like how picking Alliance or Horde decides your faction loyalty for life (flipfloppers DNI) you have a lot of stake in making sure your server stays alive and active, and preferably that your enemies get shut down instead.
ConclusionMastodon is not fun because it is social media. Mastodon is fun because it is social media PvP with permadeath enabled. It is a sort of weird, “hardcore” version of social media, where there is a high barrier to entry (understanding how the servers work, picking the right server, etc.) and a sort of server loyalty and “us versus them” mentality, mostly playful and competitive (just like real PvP) but can sometimes spiral out of control. Mastodon obviously cannot replace Twitter, and I don’t think it was designed to do that. They probably didn’t even consider Mastodon a “true” Twitter clone until it became profitable to do so (even then, to the credit of the original developers, it appeared they did not try incredibly hard to jump on the bandwagon — most of that was done by users themselves).
I also don’t think I would ever be more active on Mastodon than I would on Twitter. Mastodon is easier for casual conversations (meeting new people, engaging in small talk, having internet fights, etc.) but not as conducive for finding interesting things (finding art bots, people who post insightful content, people who post shitpost garbage, etc.). For my social media, I only care about the latter — that being said, I know there’s plenty who enjoy the former. And even then I don’t plan on uninstalling the app or anything — even now, about two months after the start of writing this article, I still check in on occasion. It’s just a matter of knowing what you’re getting into.
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February 6, 2023
Boys & Girls: “Lake”
(This is one of 10 preview chapters for Boys & Girls: Part I. You can see the rest of the chapters on the official page)
September 7th, 2016
Kinsky, California, USA
Lake
The Schrodden household was usually empty on the weekends. Mr. Schrodden’s job involved going from business trip to business trip, with only rare breaks in between. Mrs. Schrodden had gotten used to her husband’s schedule, but she often left the house on these days to check up on some friends of hers. This Saturday, the only two inside were their son Lukas, and his friend Cole.
Cole closed the front door behind him. “Anyway, that was that. Now I’m opening up the year with a big, ripe, fuckin’ 57 percent in my calculus class.”
Lukas threw the keys on the kitchen counter, heading towards the couch. “You’ll recover. You’re one of the smartest people I know.”
“Oh, really?” Cole reached into the fridge. “If I recall correctly the hierarchy goes something like, Emily at the top, then Rose, a power gap, Ash, Maurice, Kat, another power gap…”
“I meant, on like, a spiritual level.” Lukas sat on the couch now. “Like, you do things without effort.”
Cole looked up from the fridge with a look of confusion on his face. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Listen, could you just hand me the beer?”
Cole walked towards the couch, two brown bottles in his hands. As Lukas got up to meet him, Cole made a movement to throw him the bottle, making an exaggerated “Nyeagh!” sound before faking out the throw. Lukas visibly jumped.
“God, don’t throw it, dumbass!”
Cole laughed. “I’m not gonna throw it!” He placed one of the bottles on the table in front of Lukas, and sat down on the couch besides him. They both opened their bottles, and took the first sip.
“So… how you holdin’ up?” Lukas asked.
“I’m… holding. I’m holding.”
Lukas leaned back in his seat. “I know how much Anita meant to you. I’m… beyond words about what happened.”
“Yeah, well…” Cole rubbed the glass of the bottle. “Maria thinks she was bullied. That that’s why she did it.”
“Christ.” Lukas grabbed his bottle and took a sip. A pause followed. “Hey, if you need anything from me – anything at all – you let me know. You know me, man. I’m here for you.”
“Yeah, I know.” Cole took a deep sigh, trying to get the thoughts out of his system. He took the bottle, smacked it on the table, and raised it up high. “Cheers. To the beauty of mathematics.”
Lukas’ expression turned lighter. He grabbed his own bottle, and the two clinked in unison. Then, they drank.
…
It was now much later, and there were quite a few empty bottles sat on the table now. The two caucasian boys stood up around it, clearly buzzed, making wild and floppy gestures with their hands.
“Aaand I’m tellin’ you, mister, that… erm, Blanco Goku, his power, you can kiss goodbye to yer Super Saiyan Four, dick and ballss.” Lukas pointed down at the table, emphasizing his point.
“That’s not real, you sunnuva bitch! You just made that up! There’s no fucking Blanco Goku!”
“Oh, ya got proof, huh? Or ya just gonna be a lil baby boy, and whine about it? Huh? Huh?”
Cole brought his hands up in defeat, walking away from the table. “Fuck this!” He shouted, approaching the back window. While he had his back turned, Lukas gave a jerk off motion towards him, clearly happy about his victory in the debate.
Leaning out, looking at the outside. Cole had an idea. He turned back towards his friend, pointing at the window. “Hey, looks pretty nice outside. Wanna hang by the dock?”
Lukas didn’t have much of a chance for a response, as Cole already began walking towards the door and unlocking it. Lukas, slowly moving past the obstacles to the door, looked somewhat concerned. “Uhh… what if, we like, fall in the lake or somethin’?”
Cole, who sweeped the door open all the way, stumbled and leaned towards his friend, looking him directly in the eyes.
“Then just don’t fall off, niggaaaa.”
Before Lukas could answer, Cole was already out the door.
The backyard of the Schrodden House led to a large community lake. Each house on it had a small dock in its backyard, and in the distance one could see the docks scattered out among the entire distance of the water, with an occasional boat out at sea. The homes themselves, on the other hand, were not visible — a layer of thick pines blocked the view.
Cole sat on the edge of the dock. Lukas sat down next to him, trying to keep his footing steady.
“So, now that we’re completely fucked up, we can start talking about the important questions,” Cole declared, turning to his companion. “Kat. What’s up with that stuff?”
Lukas felt a physical pain go through his system. He put his hands to his face, covering it. “Ugh, I really don’t want to talk about it.”
“Come on, you gotta. You relapsing or something, bro?”
“No, no! It’s not that.” Lukas waved his hand dismissively, using his other to keep him steady. “I am over it. I really am. It’s just… God, you wouldn’t get it.” He looked out on the waves, watching the pulsing of the water up and down. “I just, when I see her… when I watch her, do what she does… watch her smile, or laugh, or sing… when I think about her, I just think…” He tried to find the right words for what he wanted to say. “She’s… perfect.”
He then gave out another pained sigh, leaning back and laying down against the wood of the pier. “Then she went and started dating that stupid jock. And I lost my chance.”
Cole turned towards the blonde, raising a finger though having trouble keeping it steady. “You know, this doesn’t really sound like the Lukas I knew back in March. You know, the one who was all like, ‘Oh, I’m over it!’ and ‘Just support them, Cole! I just wanna see Kat be happy!’”
“No, I am! It’s just… it’s hard sometimes. That’s all it is. But I am over it.”
Cole scoffed. “Whatever you say.”
While Lukas stayed laying down on the dock, Cole watched the lake’s waves. It was all still tonight.
“But really, I know what you’re talking about.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, it’s funny. I kinda think about Anita the same way sometimes. Imagining her face, her voice… over and over again. Just… trying to remember what she was like, you know? And you miss it. You… you miss all of it. So you try and keep the memories alive. You think of the smile… the smile’s the best part.”
Lukas looked up from his spot. “Cole… you alright?”
Cole could barely see. The tears had gotten too strong. They streamed down his face, making their way down his cheeks and dripping down on his clothes. His hands grabbed the wood of the dock tightly, and his arms trembled.
“A-and now… I can never see her again. S-she’s gone. I just… I just have memories now. She’s gone. I can’t see her anymore.” His voice creaked as the tears came down, and he began sobbing. “I-I l-loved her. I loved seeing her, every day that I went to the house. She had a f-future, a beautiful future, and now… I should have taken care of her better… was it because of me? D-did she do it because of me?”
Now Lukas jumped back up to his sitting position, putting his hand on Cole’s shoulder and trying to comfort him. “Hey man, it wasn’t you, alright? It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. Sometimes… sometimes terrible shit happens to us, in life. But it isn’t your fault, Cole. You did everything you could for her.”
Cole cried for a little bit longer. Lukas kept his hand on the boy’s shoulder, trying to make sure he knew someone was there for him. Eventually the tears subsided, and Cole looked up to the sky, sniffing. A slight wind crept up on the lakeside, and pushed small waves up to the coast.
“Hey…” Cole’s voice picked up softly. “You remember that treehouse we made? In fifth grade?”
“Yeah, I do. What about it?”
“Isn’t that… around here, somewhere?”
Lukas thought for a moment, looking around the coastline. “Oh shit, you’re right. It was, uh…” He pointed generally in the direction on the right side of the coast. “Somewhere around there.”
“You think it’s still there?”
“Nah, probably not. We haven’t been there in, what, six years?”
Cole took another deep sigh, and laid himself down on the dock. “One of these days, we should try and find it. See if it’s still there.”
“Yeah, one of these days.” Lukas laid back down as well, and the two looked up at the gray sky.
The post Boys & Girls: “Lake” appeared first on Jacob Robinson.
January 30, 2023
Boys & Girls: “Wilkins”
(This is one of 10 preview chapters for Boys & Girls: Part I. You can see the rest of the chapters on the official page)
September 14th, 2006
Kinsky, California, USA
Wilkins
Two small boys played with blocks on a rainbow-laden rug, when something caught their attention.
At the check-in desk was a tall adult man, clad in a business suit and tie. Standing close to his leg was a blond girl their age which neither of them recognized.
She had short hair, cut down to her shoulders. She wore a well-ironed dress, and little brown loafers on her feet. After the man signed the form he kneeled down, kissed the girl on the forehead, and waved her goodbye. The teacher then took her gently by the shoulder, bringing her to the front of the room.
“Alright, everyone!” The teacher grabbed the class’ attention. The boys continued looking quizzically at the girl. “Starting today, we have a new student in our class. Would you like to introduce yourself, dear?”
The girl, with a sense of regal confidence to her, took a few steps forward, and addressed the class. “Hello everyone, my name’s Kathy. Kathy Wilkins.”
One of the boys — the one with the dark brown hair — turned his head sideways. “Isn’t Kathy an old lady’s name?”
The girl looked at him, an instant displeasure appearing on her face. “No it’s not!”
“Cole, be nice!” The teacher snapped back. Cole sighed, going back to his blocks. The rest of the class – in a symphony of “Hello, Kathy” — welcomed her. She walked over to a group of girls sitting by a dollhouse, and joined them. The other boy, the blonde one, kept staring at her. Drawn in by some form of curiosity which, at that point, he didn’t know about.
…
It was recess now. The little girl named Kathy had no luck thus far. The girls at the dollhouse weren’t even in her grade, and every other girl her age didn’t seem to have any interest in talking to her. On the playground she walked, to and fro, trying to find a place to fit in. There were a couple of girls by the playset, who looked like they were playing House.
She walked up to the one who looked like the leader. “Hey, um… can I join you guys?”
The leader, who didn’t immediately notice her, turned back around to face the new girl. “Sorry, our family’s full. We can’t fit anymore people.”
Another rejection. At this point the regal confidence she had that morning had drained to near zero. Dejected, she walked over and sat down in the middle of the sandbox, alone. As she felt the tears begin to well in her eyes, she heard some loud laughing from behind her.
It was those boys again. They were on the monkey bars, swinging from side to side, trying to kick each other off. Kathy, with one last ounce of resolve, walked up to them.
“Hey, can I play with you guys?”
The blonde boy, the first to notice her, jumped down from the bars. “Um, I’m pretty sure girls don’t go on the monkey bars.”
The comment instigated a fire in Kathy. “Oh yeah? Well, I bet you I can go all the way across twice, with out falling.”
The blonde boy considered the claim. He looked up at his friend, who jumped down the bars and clapped the dust off his hands. “Go ahead then, try it.”
The black-haired boy was cocky when he spoke, and that just set off Kathy even more. She walked right up on the steps, grabbed the first bar, and swung around the entire set with near perfection. By the time she got to the first end, she took one big swing, never setting her feet on the ground. Instead of rotating her body to face the set again, she swung backwards on the remaining bars, with just as much effortlessness. After she made it to the end, she made a big swing once more, this time jumping off and landing in the middle of the boys.
“So? How about that?”
A few moments of hesitation passed, the boys failing to let out words. Finally the blonde one tapped his friend on the shoulder, motioning him aside. The blonde boy whispered in the other’s ear.
“What? Are you crazy?” Cole asked in exasperation.
The blonde boy whispered again.
“Okay, okay. Fine.”
The one named Cole walked back up to Kathy, looking at her skeptically. “Alright, listen. Me and him, we’ve got a club. Now, we usually don’t let girls in…” He looked back at the blonde boy, then back at Kathy. “…but you seem cool. So, we’re gonna give you a mission. If you do it, we’ll let you into the club. Got it?”
The girl nodded. “Got it.”
The black-haired boy looked around, then reached into his pocket and pulled something out. It was a tube, with some green substance inside. There was a label, but it was scratched off and now impossible to read.
“Take this. You see that duty aide over there?” He pointed and Kathy looked. There was an older, fatter woman sitting on a bench watching the kids. “Sneak up behind her. Then, when you get close, pop the top of it open. Leave it there, and come back to us. Most importantly… don’t get caught.”
While the girl was somewhat concerned about what the green tube could possibly be, she accepted her assignment. Walking over to the bench, she hid the tube in her pocket, looking around unassumingly. The duty aid did spot her, but assessing her as harmless the woman looked back towards the playset. Kathy, being careful not to make any sound, snuck up from behind and popped the tube open, dropping it onto the ground.
As she quickly ran out of the way, her nose was assaulted by a putrid, sulphuric smell. It was only then that the girl realized what she had done.
“Hey!” The old woman shrieked, still looking at the other kids on the playset. “Who set off that stink bomb? Come out here, now!”
The girl successfully ran back to where boys hid, at a safe vantage point away. They peeked out at the trouble going down at the playground, the fat lady howling down at a group of poor, innocent kids.
The black-haired boy began blowing air through his mouth, which ended up leading to boisterous laughter. The blonde boy shortly followed, rolling on the dirt. Kathy, looking at the two, then looking at the duty aid, began to smile. Her smile got larger and larger, until at some point she couldn’t hold it in and started laughing, too. The kids all fell onto the ground, laughing hysterically, while the duty aid yelled at the kids far away, none the wiser.
Eventually the laughter subsided, and the black-haired boy got up. “Okay, a deal’s a deal.” He reached out a hand towards Kathy. “My name’s Cole Mulaney. My friend over there is Lukas Schrodden. Welcome to our club.”
Kathy took his hand, and they shook.
…
The end of the school day came. As the kids departed, Cole and Lukas turned back and waved goodbye, smiling. Kathy smiled back, waving herself, and opened the backdoor of the black Porsche sedan sitting at the curb.
A woman was sitting in the driver seat, she turned her head to the side, watching the girl buckle her seatbelt.
“You have a good first day, sweetie?”
The girl thought for a moment. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.”
“Make any friends?”
“Yeah. But… well, they were boys.”
The mother looked her daughter in the eyes, and smiled. “Any friend is a friend.”
The girl smiled back. She leaned her head against the window, and the car lurched forward.
The post Boys & Girls: “Wilkins” appeared first on Jacob Robinson.
January 23, 2023
Boys & Girls: “What’s The Story, Morning Glory?”
(This is one of 10 preview chapters for Boys & Girls: Part I. You can see the rest of the chapters on the official page)
September 2nd, 2016
Kinsky, California, USA
What’s the Story, Morning Glory?
Sadja looked into the mirror. Her eye bags were back, and she fiddled with them for a bit before finally deciding to cover them with makeup. She took a few steps back, showing her full body in the bra and underwear she was wearing. She turned to the left, then turned to the right. A tuft of the black bangs from her bobbed hair fell in front of her eyes, and she blew it back to the side where it belonged. She did a full 360 rotation, sliding on her feet, and in one slick movement pulled out her hand from behind her back and pointed a finger gun at the mirror. With one eye open she cocked her thumb, giving a little Pow! sound through her lips.
Eventually, she got dressed. She wore a brown corduroy jacket over an off-shoulder top, with black jeans. As she got to the head of the stairs, she leaned over the railing and called out in Farsi:
I’m heading off to school!
A older, female voice downstairs answered her plainly: Okay.
Sadja ran down the steps, heading towards the door. On the counter next to her keys was a box of Frosted Flakes. She grabbed her keys first, sticking them into her pockets. From the box she poured a handful of cereal in her palm, throwing it into her mouth all in one go, and left the house.
…
Kat was in the dance practice room. She was performing the same move, a spin, over and over again, watching herself in the mirror and continuing to try to get it just how she wanted it. During one of these spins, a voice spoke behind her.
“Careful girl, you’re gonna give yourself vertigo at this rate.”
She turned around. Sadja was there, leaning against the doorframe.
“Hey babe,” Kat sat down, stretching out her legs. She wore black yoga pants and a beige top which cut off at the midriff. “You’re here early.”
“Just felt like it today.” Sadja dropped her bag by Kat’s, against the wall. As she walked forward she took off her jacket, tossing it behind her. “You practicing something in particular?”
“Oh, just part of a bit I want to try doing.”
Sadja looked at the two of them in the mirror, then sat down close by. “I’m looking forward to seeing it, in all its glory.”
“What about you? Anything you want to include in the concert?”
Sadja shook her head. “It’s your call, boss.”
Kat turned and glared at her friend. “I’m not your boss.”
Sadja stretched her arms out above her head, closing her eyes and smiling. “Whatever you say. Still glad you got it over Natalie.”
Kat, throwing aside the comment, got up and walked over to her backpack. Sadja spoke again.
“Hey, if you could give me one thing — just, don’t put me in a solo, alright? Last thing I need is to get up there and have everyone realize I’ve just been faking being able to sing.”
The blonde-haired captain put her finger to her chin, feigning deep thought. “I can’t make any promises.”
“Kat!”
“I’m kidding!” The girl called out, then kneeled down in front of her backpack, muttering to herself. “Mostly.”
…
Time skipped ahead to lunch. The group was dispersed now, with Ash and Emily in a meeting with student government and Rodrigo, Lukas, and Cole hanging out separately. Maria leaned against a column, watching the bustle of the courtyard, a yogurt in hand that was mostly stirred and rarely touched. She didn’t immediately notice Sadja sitting down next to her.
“Hey there.” Sadja’s tone was a lot more forlorn than what it had been with Kat. Maria turned to her, giving her a weak smile.
“Hey.”
“You doing good, love?”
Maria turned back to the courtyard, her face back to a plain frown. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
The two looked out at the courtyard, surveying the people together. Sadja’s eyes stopped, and she smiled.
“They’re cute together, aren’t they?”
Maria knew who she was talking about. She turned her eyes a bit to the left, spotting Aaron and Rose together. Rose hung a strawberry over Aaron’s head, and he playfully chomped it out of her hand, causing her to laugh out in delight.
Sadja turned back to Maria. “Did you know Rodrigo set them up?”
Maria faced her. “Really?”
“Yeah. Who knew he could be such a matchmaker.”
Maria looked back down at yogurt, and gave it yet another swirl. Sadja interlocked her hands, leaning forward. “You excited for Lizzi’s?”
“Oh, yeah.” Maria gave a partial laugh, though it sounded more like a breath of air. “I mean, I’m tight on money… we’re tight on money, so… might just look.”
“Maria, we’ll find you something. I promise.”
The Cortez shook her head. “No, really. It’s fine, I can just wear the one I wore last year.”
“You mean the one that got punch spilled all over?” Sadja put her hands on the table, palms down, towards Maria. “We will find you something. Promise.”
Maria looked at back at her companion, a cloud of doubt in her mind. Then she turned back to the courtyard.
…
It was after school. Maria walked alone down the hall to her car, until she passed by someone she thought looked familiar.
“Um… Russell?”
The tall, dark-skinned teenager stopped. He turned his head towards Maria, her face reflecting off his rounded sunglasses.
“Oh, yeah. You’re Maria, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I am. I just wanted to say… thanks. For fixing my car the other day.”
Russell grinned. “It was nothin’. Took me a few minutes.”
“I know it was nothing for you, but it still meant something. Thank you.”
He didn’t immediately reply back. Instead, he turned his whole body around to face Maria, looking at her in the eyes through his glasses.
“I got a lil bro. He’s three. Name’s Mahalo. Gets on my nerves sometimes, but… I don’t know what I’d do without him.”
He turned back around, heading back his separate way. He took a few more steps before Maria spoke out again.
“Hey, is it okay if I ask you something?”
“Yeah?”
“Why do you always wear those sunglasses everywhere?”
Russell chuckled. One more time, he turned his head towards Maria. “Oh, it’s just a little secret I have.”
With one hand he took off the glasses, then looked up to the girl. His eyes were blue, a bright blue, that held such a luxurious intensity that they resembled more the glimmering of sapphires than irises.
Maria smiled. “They look beautiful.”
“Mmm.” Russell made the noise indifferently. He put the sunglasses back on, and continued walking. “Keep up the good fight, Sister.”
Maria continued her walk down the hall.
…
Sometime later, the same latina girl parked her cheap car outside a clothing boutique, and walked inside. The three girls who she recognized — Kat, Sadja, Rose — looked up at her as she walked in.
Kat, who sat on top of one of the displays, dropped her feet down to the floor to meet Maria, spinning her finger around as a gesture to gather everyone up. “Alright girls, let’s get to it.”
The girls scouted the racks for dresses. The occasion was Homecoming, but more subtly to take a break from reality. To ignore it, just this once.
Sadja walked down the row, brushing her hand across the clothes as she went. “God, I still can’t believe I don’t fit in mine from last year. I don’t even know what happened.”
Rose laughed from behind her. “Girl, you think that’s bad — try having a boyfriend that eats, like, ten thousand calories a day and never gains weight.”
While the others continued to converse, Maria stood out. An uneasy feeling began to settle inside her, as she realized her fear had come to fruition. She was an observer, coming to observe. She wasn’t a part of it, nor did she feel part of it in any way.
“Oh my God,” she heard Kat gasp behind her, as the singer girl singled out a dress among the whole. “Maria, try this one!”
Maria walked over to her. It was red — a brilliant red, that shined the light of the store off its surface with an appropriate sense of ardour. The dress made an impact on her. But the price did, too.
“K-Kat, I… I can’t afford this.”
“That’s fine! Just try it. I wanna see it on you.” Kat took the dress off the rack and pushed it into Maria’s hands. Maria grabbed it, feeling its soft, delicate nature in her hands. With hesitation she walked over to the dressing room.
As she put on the dress, the lingering dread from before began to manifest itself. Am I just a toy to them? She looked at herself in the mirror, the beauty of her figure being clouded in all obscurity by the thoughts in her mind. Am I just doing this for them? Are they using me?
No, no. That’s not it. Maria opened the door out of the dressing room. I’ve known them for years. They wouldn’t do this. Not now.
She walked out into the open air. Kat was the first one to see her, her eyes widened. The others turned to see her as well, gasping with smiles on their faces.
“Maria, you look… incredible!” Kat was clearly pleased.
Maria was not. “Okay, well, like I said, I can’t buy this.” She was clearly frustrated, exasperating out the lines.
“That’s okay, I’ll buy it for you.”
Maria stopped. Her face immediately changed, she stuttered as she tried to get out her words. “N-n-no, no, that’s fine. Really, you don’t-”
“It’s okay! I’m the one who’s the trust fund baby.” Kat walked up to her, putting her hand on her shoulder. “Just treat it like a gift, alright?”
See? You were being stupid. A smile came over Maria’s face. She grabbed Kat and hugged her tightly. “Thank you, so much.”
Kat hugged her back. “Don’t mention it.”
A little later, the girls got into the checkout line. Kat went up first, bringing the red dress down on the counter.
The cashier punched some buttons on the computer. “What’s the name on the account?”
“Katherine Wilkins.”
“Hey Kat, you not getting anything?” Rose called out from the back of the line.
“Nah, I’ll be fine. I can just wear the dress I wore last year. You know, the dark blue one? With the stars?”
Rose gave her thumbs up in approval. The cashier handed back the dress, in a bag with the receipt. The two girls walked out of the store, sitting down by the sidewalk and waiting for the other two to finish up. While Kat scrolled on her phone, Maria spoke up.
“Hey, Kat?”
Kat looked away from her phone and back up toward her friend. “What’s up?”
“Weird question, but… how did you meet Cole and Lukas?”
Kat gave a little laugh, looking down at her feet. “Oh, it’s a funny story. Kind of long, though.”
“Tell me. I don’t think I’ve heard it before.”
The girl with the ponytail looked up to the cloudy sky, trying to remember the bits and details. “Well… when I was seven, my dad moved us to Kinsky, his hometown. I was going to a brand new school, and didn’t know anyone…”
The post Boys & Girls: “What’s The Story, Morning Glory?” appeared first on Jacob Robinson.
January 19, 2023
Is Notion “Too Good”?
As I begin to realize more and more of my workflow can head to Notion, part of me is happy that I can see all my life in one little box. But another part is worried, worried that perhaps by putting all my eggs in one basket — regardless of how good of a basket it is — I may be setting myself up for failure.
You can do a lot on Notion. Even in its early days of an Excel alternative, the database features were so powerful that people were able to construct entire websites and products using Notion as the backend. Then came updates like linking, functions, the Notion API, and most recently AI assistance… it’s gotten to the point where you can do anything on the platform.
The fact that Notion is a 10/10 product is pretty undebatable. Barring a few inefficiencies here and there, it does what it sets out to do remarkably well. But when you have one tool that can do everything, other concerns begin to arise.
Right now, I am writing this blog post on Notion. When I’m done, I mark this off in my todo list, also in Notion. From there that todo list notifies my dashboard, also in Notion. My dashboard contains many of the products I’m currently building out, which in turn leads to more Notion pages.
So what happens if Notion goes away?
Sure, outages happen occasionally. Quite ominously one occurred while I was writing this very post, which is where the header image comes from. I was forced to take a temporary break from working on pretty much all my projects, and used a Notepad todo list that I struggled to remember what exactly I needed to get done (or could even do in the first place, given Notion’s outage).
Now, that outage ended up lasting only 45 minutes. But one day, very suddenly, Notion might not exist at all. Remember all those people awhile back who got their Google or Stripe accounts mysteriously deleted, causing them to upend their entire lives? Could the same thing happen for Notion?
Back in 2021 I wrote an article entitled Aggregation and Decoupling. It argued that tech goes through phases of one tool being used for everything, only for that tool to be “taken out” by many different tools that do each task much better. I think where we stand right now, Notion is the aggregate tool. And one day, Notion will be decoupled. I go back and forth often as to whether I should settle for the inefficiencies but hedged-risk of using multiple products anyway, or go for the cozier yet more risky strategy of staying on Notion. What are your thoughts, and what do you personally use Notion for? If you don’t use Notion, is there any product you do use that seems to give you the same benefit/problem?
The post Is Notion “Too Good”? appeared first on Jacob Robinson.
