𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 — 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏

❝ 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣 𝙖 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙚 ❞

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

The internet. A place where you can share anything with the people you care about most. Where you are, what you're wearing, what food you're eating, everything. But, the internet can also be a place for self-destruction.

──

"Oof," a thirteen year old Amanda Matthews huffed as she knocked shoulders with her former best friend. The timid girl kept her gaze at her shoes as she muttered an apology.

Lynette Sanders scoffed as she looked down at her former best friend in embarrassment of being by the girl, "I'll let you off with a warning. Now get out of my sight, your pathetic energy is getting on my nerves."

Amanda scurried into her next class, neglecting to remember that she shared that class with Lynette. As the class went by, Amanda couldn't help but be exceedingly irritated by Lynette more than usual. The girl wouldn't stop talking. Amanda sneakingly took out her phone, and snapped a picture of her tormentor and made it her own. Little did she know, that one picture, changed her life forever.

──

"I'm just gonna put down whatever. Ow!"

Amanda Matthews turned her head to see Maya's computer screen closed as her cousin slammed it down, "no, our profile on the Abigail Adams High School social media network is who we are in high school and it'll follow us into college and into our careers and into mine and Mandy's marriages and into your five."

"Is one Andrew?"

Riley shook her head, "no, sorry. But you were married to Farkle for six weeks," she took the blondes hand, "may he rest in peace."

"I'll tell ya right now, that boy died happy."

Amanda chuckled, "I wouldn't doubt that," she turned to her cousin, "who am I married to?"

The two best friends gave her a knowing look, "who else," they spoke in unison.

"Oh, come on," Amanda scoffed, "you can't actually believe that Lucas and I will get married."

"I've already been making wedding invitations," Riley smiled, "shall we begin?"

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

Jexica. That's what Riley Matthews typed when the social media sight asked for her name. Why you may ask? Because the girl thinks no one will like her the way she is. Oh, how wrong she was.

Amanda was walking with her boyfriend, his arm wrapped around her shoulder, their hands intertwined at her shoulder blade, with Farkle, Zay, and Andrew, who spoke to Riley and Maya once they caught them in the hallway, "hey, guys, how do you feel about making some new friends outside our group?"

Maya furrowed her brow, "of course. Why?"

"Uh, there's this girl—"

"What?"

"Named Jexica."

"Whaaat?"

"Delete her," Maya hissed to her bestfriend.

"Too late."

Andrew glanced behind him before continuing, "I don't know. I just feel like I really get Jexica."

Farkle nodded, "yeah, she's a mystery woman. A mystery makes a woman very intriguing."

"I went to summer camp with her," Zay commented.

Andrew laughed, "it looks as though we all like her!"

"Better than Maya?"

"Hey!"

"I'm sorry," Riley pouted to the blonde, "better than Maya?"

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

"I hear the freshmen just joined the high school social media network," Matthews said to his freshmen history students.

"Not me," Riley smiled.

"I hear someone has already caused quite a stir."

"Not me," the girl leaned on her folded hands.

Matthews clapped his hands in excitement, "so, who is ready to learn something today?"

"Not me," Maya chimed in.

"A social network is something that has its roots firmly planted in our history. Cave paintings, stone tables, scrolls, and papyrus leaves, they all help decode what went on in a society. Now, what are historians in the future gonna use to determine who we were?"

"The internet and Farkles frozen brain," Amanda answered before she accepted a high five from Farkle.

"See! She gets it!"

Lucas chuckled at his girlfriend and best friend before commenting, "if they look at the internet, they're gonna think we're pretty ridiculous."

"You think? Why is that?"

Zay shrugged, "because the internet makes us look like a society of people that only care about dancing cats."

"But we're more than that."

"We are," Matthews nodded to Farkle, "but no one knows that if the dancing cat videos have a billion views and the discovery of a new planet only gets 27,000 likes!"

"All me!"

"What's the difference? Dancing cats and a new planet are just gonna get replaced by something new tomorrow," Amanda said as she smiled at Farkle's comment.

"Exactly right, my wise niece of mine. So, what does that say about us?"

"Oh, oh! I know," Maya started, "it's not that we're a society of dancing cats. It's that we're a society of—Yes, Matthews?"

"It says that we're a society that lets things rise and fall that have no real value because the internet makes them so readily available to us, so they get a lot of clicks and like and comments, and then they fade out of our mind when the next thing comes along."

"Well, what's wrong with a little distraction?"

"Nothing, if that's all it is," Matthews answered Andrew, "how many people have seen the dancing cats video?"

Everyone raised their hands.

"What about the sneezing panda?"

Everyone raised their hands.

"It seems to me this isn't a distraction at all. It's a lifestyle."

"Yeah, but we use the internet to study as well, Mr. Matthews," Lucas said.

"And that's great. Okay, so who here knows the capital of Minnesota? What about penguins? Are they in the North Pole? Polar bears at the South or is it the other way around?"

"We only have so much room in our brai—"

"Saint Paul, penguins—South, and Polar bears—North."

Everyone turned to Amanda with shocked features, even her Uncle was looking at her in awe, "what?"

Mandy sighed for dramatic effect, "the capital of Minnesota is Saint Paul, penguins are in the South, and Polar bears are in the North Pole."

Her Uncle smiled, "class, Amanda is a great example of a student using her technology efficiently. Mandy, do you mind?"

"Not at all," after her Uncle signaled to the front of the class, she got up from her seat and leaned against her Uncles desk, facing the class, "after my own incident with the internet, I made a promise to myself to only use the internet for good and for my benefit. The internet is not something to be taken lightly. With one click, your whole world can turn upside down, like me. I made a stupid and childish decision and once I clicked send, I couldn't take it back. So, my word of advise is to be yourself, and don't do anything on the internet for attention, and use this technology to your advantage."

"Thanks, wise niece of mine, have a seat," Matthews smiled at Mandy.

As the girl traveled back to seat, she patted her cousin's shoulder in comfort, who looked deep in thought at Mandy's words.

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

"We're alone in the bay window," Maya observed as she stared at her best friend, who was lying on her bed, her eyes locked on her laptop screen, "we've been forsaken, abandoned, and a third word for alone," she said to Amanda, who was chuckling at the blonde she was sitting next to.

"I'm almost done liking the likes that people liked of me," Riley gleamed.

"You mean Jexica."

"I am Jexica," Riley said to her cousin, "I have achieved stunning and unheard of popularity. I have everything I want."

"Just be careful, Riley."

The two girls turned to Amanda, "why?"

"Because popularity can turn people into someone they weren't meant to be—that's all."

Maya scoffed, "its only because nobody knows its you, Riley."

"And that would bother some people, but not me. Because I am too busy answering everybody's private requests for advise," Riley perked up as her computer dinged, "here's a new message—oh."

"What?"

"Nothing..."

"Read that one right now."

"Or what?"

Amanda turned her head to Maya as they nodded and tackled Riley on her bed, all of them screaming for the computer. Eventually, Maya grabbed hold of the computer and proceeded to read, "'Hi, Jexica, my name is Andrew McHolland'—wait, why would Andrew write to Jexica?"

"'I have to choose between two girls. And I thought that I liked them both, but what I really love is that you want to ride unicorns while eating cotton candy and collecting falling stars. I think you would fit in with our group of friends, but please don't tell them I invited you.'"

Amanda sighed as her cousin finished reading, "he knows."

"No, he doesn't know, Mandy. I wish everybody knew because then I'd be the most popular girl in school, but I'm not because nobody knows. Isn't that just the way," Riley quirked an eyebrow.

"He knows it's you," Maya deadpanned.

"He doesn't know, but if he knew, it would fix all of our problems."

"How?"

"Because if Andrew likes Jexica then he doesn't have to choose between you and me, and we don't get hurt and he can have Jexica, and we don't get hurt!"

"What'd I do? I land on your head? Is that what I did? I land on your head," Maya said with wide eyes.

Riley jumped up from her bed, "I know what I must do."

"Oh, boy," Amanda muttered as she buried her face in Maya's shoulder.

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

"A— I go to school like this.

B— I claim my new popularity.

C— I solved our whole love triangle when Andrew falls for Jexica.

D— something goes horribly wrong.

E— I learn a big lesson."

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

"Attention. Attention to everyone in the school. I have an announcement to make. I am Jexica," Riley shouted, she leaned into Maya's side, "that oughta do it."

"You would think, but no," Maya said.

"Why not, pray tell?"

"What we've done is skipped right to 'D'," Mandy said from the other side of Riley.

Riley counted on her fingers, "A, B, C—D! This is the letter where everything goes horribly wrong."

"Yup, that's the one."

"I am Jexica!"

"I am Jexica!"

"No, I am Jexica!"

"Yogi?"

"Jexica!"

"I AM JEXICA!"

"What do we do now," Riley asked her two best friends with wide eyes.

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

The trending profile of Jexica was dialing down on social media as new cute animal videos were surfaced, and Riley wasn't happy. The next day, the group of friends filed into their History class, Riley slumped, "Maya, I don't get it. Jexica has lost, like, half of her followers. How could this happen? What did I do? What kind of world is this?"

Maya shook her head, "you didn't do anything wrong, Riles. It's just a matter of time before people get over something that doesn't actually exist."

"Poor Jexica."

"She's not a thing."

"All she ever wanted was love."

"She doesn't exist."

"I bet she wishes she never even put up her own profile."

"She's you."

"Well, then how do I feel about this?"

"Leave me alone!"

"Okay," Matthews started to his class, "historians will decide whatever they decide about us. How do you guys feel about who you are?"

"I got 109 followers. So, I feel pretty good no matter what happens," Zay commented.

"Really? What's valuable? Mandy?"

"Polar bears—North Pole. Penguins—South Pole. The capital of Minnesota is Saint Paul."

Matthews smiled, "see! Isn't that great," he was met with silence, "if something that's important to us today is so easily replaced by something else tomorrow, we have to wonder if it ever really had any value at all. What can we learn from that?"

Riley shrugged, "I-I don't know."

"How do you not know?"

"I don't know because I live in a world that judges me based on whatever movie or song I like, and I'm expected to answer questions about myself, but I'm still figuring out who I am and everything could change tomorrow."

"Because who you are isn't measured by today or tomorrow, but by a whole bunch of days of what you do," Matthews said, "not necessarily what you like or what you say at a particular time. The great thing about evolving is that we continue to grow and feel. Don't be influenced by somebody else's likes or clicks or favorites. Who should determine what you think?"

"Wikipedia," Maya softly spoke.

"You disgust me. Go figure this out in the bay window. Class is over!"

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

"Hey, Canada."

"Yes?"

"What do you know," Mandy asked as she and her friends sat in the bay window after school.

"I know a lot of things," Andrew smiled, "I know that we need to stick together. I know that the only way we can do that is if we're honest with each other."

"Get to it," Maya demanded.

Andrew turned to Riley, "I know that you are Jexica!"

"I know that you are Jexica," Farkle claimed next.

"Lucas told me that you are Jexica," Zay said.

Everyone turned to Lucas, who spoke, "I think we all know who told me."

"Amanda!"

"Sorry, cous. But, he is the person I talk to when you go to crazy town!"

Riley sighed, "how did you guys figure it out?"

Andrew chuckled, "we know who you are, Riley. You don't have to write down some fake profile for us to know who you are. I'd recognize you anywhere."

"Guys."

"Yes?"

"I want us to last forever," Farkle said.

"Well, how do we do that," Riley asked.

Amanda smiled, "by finding out that friends who know who you are is the most real thing there is," she turned to her cousin, "so, Riley, what are you gonna put on your profile?"

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

Amanda Matthews walked into her cousin's room later that night to find her typing away on her laptop, "step away from the internet," she spoke jokingly.

Riley chuckled as her cousin sat next to her, "I finally made my own profile. I put down all of my favorites. I put down everything that makes me who I am."

Amanda smiled down at Riley's profile, seeing pictures of all of their friends and many pictures of the two cousins together—pictures from when they were younger and present photos, "hey, I know you."

"Good," Riley beamed, "Mandy, I want you to know how proud I am of you."

"Thanks, Riles. I'm really proud of you, too."

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

edited: 2 march 2021