And, then it Happened

A Short Story
By Trina Roundy

SLCC

July 9, 2018
 CHAPTER ONE

2015

She opened her eyes in the dark. The faint, creepy chiming making her stomach drop slightly,
bringing a slight metallic taste to her mouth. Awake. Her right hand groping, grabbed blindly
until it hit the cool, smooth glass. Comforted by the soft glow, she thinks one of her mantras, So
glad I don’t live in the 80’s. This never failed to crack Lara’s mom up. The quintessential 80s
Queen herself. She would always reply, when Lara would offer this sage bit of wisdom out loud,
“In a lot of ways it was way better, Larry. A lot.”

Larry sat up in bed, pulling her knees toward her chest and went through the morning menagerie
of social networking. Snaps and Grams galore. And the #twittersphere was always ablaze with
the daily outrage, but her favorite was The Facebook Chronicles. She, like a lot of her peers didn’t
really use Facebook that much. It seemed risky, since mom, dad, gramma, Aunt Susie and your
4th Grade gym teacher were all there. Lurking. Watching. Trolls, she thought randomly and
laughed out loud.

What Lara Stoddard loved so much about Facebook, was the arguments and the judgement and
the uneducated spewing their solutions to problems that they clearly didn’t understand. It
wasn’t that she was a lover of chaos. Nor even a drama queen. Larry Stoddard simply loved
people, and their behavior. She admired them for their courage. She pitied them for their
neediness. It was like looking at an accident, her mom would have said. Terrible, horrible things
right before everyone’s eyes. And no one can look away. Facebook was a people watchers dream
come true.
After perusing the morning, he said/she said ,they are so WRONG and we are so RIGHT; and aren’t
you OUTRAGED??? String of entertaining, yet sad, information pouring from her friends and
family, she dimmed the screen of her phone, sighed and got out of bed. Time for school.

Larry liked school, more or less. She was perplexed at best by a lot of it, but entertained by most
of it. She was a good student without having to try very hard, which made her something of a
hero to her friends, and a pain in the ass to her teachers. She was well aware on both counts; but
it often troubled her that it wasn’t the other way around. It would be many years before she
realized that very few things change after high school.

It was her natural curiosity, and a latent belief that all humans are created equal, thus were
capable of doing the same things that helped her excel, seemingly without effort. Lara Stoddard
simply, "threw a lot of shit," and some stuck. She tried every new thing that came her way, and
unlike many of her friends, she was surprised when she couldn’t do something adequately. Again,
it wasn’t lost on her that many of her friends did not share the same confidences. But, she
honestly didn’t understand why. Lara was everyone’s basic nightmare… and so nice, they
couldn’t hate her.

One school day blended into the next. She’d be graduating this year. She saw her friends freaking
out and having emotional breakdowns over the end of what she knew in her smart heart had to
be the worst possible time of her life. It occurred to her long before most people, that if high
school was the best time of your life – you had a pretty long time ahead of you being mediocre.

Larry started thinking about her life the day she always referred to as, THE DAY THE PRESIDENT
RETWEETED. It always came to her mind just like that... in all caps. More ominous than exciting.

CHAPTER TWO

The Net…

Larry read on and on, tweet after tweet, post after sub-post, (pausing only briefly to take a
quick quiz to see which Harry Potter Patronus belonged to her.) She was an empath
(something she didn't exactly understand yet) and today's sentiments from everyone in her
world and everyone else's were making her increasingly uneasy.

She rarely had emotional responses to social networking, which is part of why she loved it so
much. She didn't want to be observed and it was usually easy to keep her thoughts vague and
fairly optimistic - "Pretty sure I nailed the trig test! Yes!" Or, "Wow, I love her and so hope she
gets elected! I can't wait until we're old enough to run, Julie! #Stoddard/Brine 2040 !! LOL"

Julie Brine was her closest friend in her small world. Larry knew her world was indeed small,
but with her natural, easy line of thinking, she understood two things about this. First, she and
Julie would be” friends til the end”. Second, not everyone gets a Julie, so she was grateful. She
knew the very idea “Bffs” was childish - but she also had seen with her own eyes that
sometimes you were indeed friends forever. An unspoken and unthought idea that brought
comfort, nonetheless.

She was thinking of Julie, as she read this particular morning's antics. Facebook Chronicles was
HOT this morning. #twittersphere following in a close second. She read over and over;
heartache and outrage; pain and humiliation; OH YEAH? YEAHHHH!!!!! Threats, invites to
leave, flat out demeaning each other.

Lara Stoddard's heart began to beat harder in her chest (Twitter: OMG could @Miley be ANY
bigger of a slut?? #attentionwhore...) (Facebook: OMFG, Sandy, are you stupid? Why is it okay
to teach sex ed to FIFTH GRADERS!??) Larry's breath began to become heavy and her face got
hot. She was getting angry. She couldn't even pin point what specifically set her off. She just
knew if she read, "if you don't like it, leave..." one more time, well, she didn't know what she'd
do, but she had tears welling in her eyes and that shocked and pissed her off in the most
mature way her 17 years had afforded her, thus far.

She closed her Facebook app, paused a moment, then opened Twitter. When it came to
expressing her true self, sometimes goofy, sometimes strangely succinct, Twitter was her
favorite. The 140-character limit challenged the writer in her to be hilarious, or drive home a
serious opinion without all the confusing information that was her opinion. Short, sweet, to the
point. Thinking for another short moment, she began typing. Maybe we should all just band
together, according to beliefs & morals- instead of non-stop sniping & shaming?
#strengthinnumbers She reread it, took out a space; read it again - and hit send. She turned
off the screen and went downstairs for breakfast; her 17-year old sage words of wisdom
already fading and falling behind the bigger, more important things in her life. First and
foremost, she really hoped there was Cocoa Pebbles left in the cupboard. There was. And
milk. Larry thought life was incredibly fair that morning and smiled as she poured her milk.

CHAPTER THREE

And Then it Happened

Julie honked in the driveway. Sometimes she came in to say hi to the family, sometimes not.
Today, Larry knew that Julie was pissy because it was "her time" and her on again off again
boyfriend was off again; and she was in red mode. Larry hustled, grabbing her backpack and
shouting up the stairs good bye to her mom. Mom shouted down something about after school,
that Larry didn't really hear - but she knew Moms and if it was important, she'd be getting
notifications and texts all day, reminding her to do whatever was vastly important for her to
accomplish in order to keep being a live member of society. She loved her mom. It made her
smile as she entered Julie's little Mazda.

Julie looked at her smile, as Lara eased into the seat and buckled herself in. She said, "Oh. Well
you look pretty happy, you must have already seen it."

Lara stared at her friend. She was a little concerned with why Julie wasn't wrapped in herself.
Being on "her time" was bad enough, but add some boy bullshit and Julie should have had enough
drama to keep her going for at least a week, but she looked excited. Giddy. What the fresh hell
was Julie up to? Larry asked, "What are you talking about? Did Justin make a formal, public,
acceptable apology to you?" Now it was Julie's turn to stare. "You haven't seen it."

"Seen what?" Now Larry was getting curious. What was her drama queen up to, now?
"Lar, the President retweeted you this morning." Julie explained, with excitement in her eyes.
Larry’s brain was making a high-pitched ringing sound that she could audibly hear.

"Did he say anything with it? Was it a straight retweet, or a manual?" Lara was already digging
in her pack to pull out her Android. It seemed like she was moving through honey.

Julie was ecstatic at telling her pal first - before Larry herself knew, and smiled widely. "Manual.
He said, ‘FINALLY. A SMART ONE. DO WHAT SHE SAYS. #bandtogether‘ Your followers are going
up like a fucking NASDAQ reader board. Your’e famous!!! You are ballin’ like LeBron. And, you
sent this less than an hour ago!” Julie laughs as she backs her car out of Larry's driveway, and
points the little silver car in the direction of school.

By the time Lara & Julie pulled up to Susan B. Anthony High, Larry began to have the smallest
understanding of the significance of the morning’s events. It would be a full decade before she
truly understood the Rube Goldberg machine set in motion, by those 140 characters. And, the
#twittersphere tweeted on… and on.

CHAPTER FOUR

FOR THE PEOPLE BUY THE PEOPLE

The constant, never-ending flow of information, both real and imaginary, was at a fever pitch.
Video screens were popping up more and more, and in bizarre places, like the supermarket,
advertising a product that everyone needs and needs no advertising. Billboards on the
freeways were turning to full-color digital brilliance, exclaiming that the way to salvation was
through GOD Almighty....while the board across the street said salvation was found in laser
body hair removal. Screens in every hand from ages 6 – 106. Constant push notifications
shrieking each BREAKING NEWS story. So strange, the 21st century was shaping up to be. It was
a cross between Orwellian and Seussian – and no one seemed to notice. Or care. As long as
their internet was working, and they had the comforting glow of their monitors to hide behind;
John & Jane Q Public were quite frankly, happier than pigs in shit.
But first, of course, was the troubling migration. The silver ball in the machine was still rolling,
even after all this time, knocking over buckets and taking little cars down and down the never-
ending track. When would this stop? Would it stop?

The President lit a cigarette, and considered the circumstances. The government was losing
control.