Choking Game (17 page)

"I'd like to start a forum about all the ways kids were bullied."

~I have an even better idea.~

"I think that would be a great discussion," Angelica said.

"I also want to dedicate the blog to Stanley Mannick."

~Are you listening? I have a great idea!~

"Absolutely!" Luke called out. "I'm working on it. Look, what do you think?"

"Luke! That's beautiful! Where did you get that background?"

~Are you dense or something? That's Angelica's painting.~

"Can we use it, Angelica?" Luke said.

"Of course!" Angelica said. "We should also put a link to our video."

"Did you finish that video yet? I forgot all about it."

~Me too. But hey! What about my idea? Are you going to let me speak?~

"Yes, I did," Luke said. "I was going to show it to you today and see if you wanted me to upload it to YouTube. Maybe we can launch our video with our blog!"

"Absolutely!" Angelica clapped her hands.

"Cool!"

~What about ME?~

"Okay, I give you exactly one minute and then you better shut up because you're giving me a headache. I look like I have a problem excusing myself to go to the bathroom every time I get together with my friends just so that we can talk in private."

~You can talk to me in public. People talk to themselves all the time.~

"People are also called
lunatics
all the time. Just say what's on your mind or whatever it is you think with."

~That wasn't very nice!~

"Oh, my gosh, stop it!"

~Well, let's see. Where was I? Okay. How about this: you build your blog for people not just to vent, but also to come together. You'll have your Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram under the same name and the people who follow you on one will follow you on the other ones. TeenageRevenge will become powerful in numbers so that when someone is in trouble, like Angelica was, for example, all of your followers will be able to help.~

"I'm not sure I follow."

~It would work like this: you'll have your own membership on your blog. People can sign up to become members of Teenage Revenge. They can share stories and find new friends, just like any other social site. Except when a member is bullied like you, Luke or Angelica, the member can post an alert. Granted, you'd have to set some guidelines of how the story would be verified so that your blog wouldn't be misused, but because you'd be so huge in numbers, you should be able to defend that member.~

"It sounds interesting. How would you go about defending a member, though?"

~That's the whole idea behind this membership. Most kids are on social sites. What bullies fear most is ridicule or being bullied themselves. All you'd have to do is make it clear to a bully that you intend to launch a virtual attack from every single member of your blog on any social site the bully uses. I'm sure if a kid is bullied at school or on his Instagram, he or she knows how to contact the bully. The kid can share the contact information with everyone on your blog if necessary.~

"I think I'm going to run this by my friends first."

~Did you even notice this is the second time during this short conversation that you used the
F
word?~

"What
F
word?"

~
Friends.
~

"What else am I supposed to call them?"

~Just saying. It's good to hear that the word is still in your vocabulary.~

TWENTY-SIX

Teenage Revenge
@TeenageRevenge
we're launching the TeenageRevenge blog #BestBlogEver #blog #StandUpForYourself #FightBackBullies #PowerInNumbers #retweet #follow

Teenage Revenge
@TeenageRevenge
this blog is for anyone who's ever been bullied, is being bullied, or worries about bullying #bullying #SchoolBullying #StandUpForYourself #retweet #follow

Teenage Revenge
@TeenageRevenge
we are huge and growing! become a member! we will defend our members against bullies! #bullying #FightBackBullies #retweet #follow

Teenage Revenge
@TeenageRevenge
help us stop bullies, let's all come together #bullying #StandUpForYourself #FightBackBullies #retweet #follow

Teenage Revenge
@TeenageRevenge
TeenageRevenge is a blog for anyone feeling lonely #loner #StandUpForYourself #LonelyNoMore #retweet #follow

Teenage Revenge
@TeenageRevenge
feel like you're alone? join us! #bullying #StandUpForYourself #loner #retweet #follow

Teenage Revenge
@TeenageRevenge
ever thought of suicide? join our blog #suicide #TeenageSuicide #StandUpForYourself #retweet #follow

Teenage Revenge
@TeenageRevenge
thinking of suicide? you may not be alone! Come visit us on our blog #suicide #TeenageSuicide #StandUpForYourself #retweet #follow

~How many tweets are you going to write?~

"As many as it takes to get the word out. I'm attaching the link to our blog Luke gave me. He said it's finished. We have to see this."

~I think you're getting the word out all right. Look at your feed. It's going to crash the site.~

"I wish."

~Me too. Can you imagine the news story?~

"Now that'd be a story worth posting. TeenageRevenge Twitter Feed Crashes the Official Twitter Site."

~Look, MJ! It's growing again! You've got 60,000 followers now! We need to see the blog.~

"Sure, in a minute. Look, Luke and Angelica are tweeting on TeenageRevenge too."

~Can I do my own tweet? Please?~

"Go ahead."

Teenage Revenge
@TeenageRevenge
I refuse to be choked by endless rules, I refuse to be bullied, I refuse to be told who I am! Changing the rules of the Choking Game!

"Where are your famous hashtags?"

~Honestly, I don't give a damn. We have more followers than we could have ever dreamed of. Now it's time for me to be heard! Finally, I have a real voice! I'm not just some creepy, crazy little voice that sounds off in your stubborn head. My Twitter platform is huge, and I can type tweets to hundreds of thousands of followers who will read and retweet. As far as I'm concerned, I'm happy.~

"Am I officially insane?"

~What? You're not happy for me?~

"Should I be happy for you? I mean, you're my inner voice! And now you're going completely rogue on me and tweeting like a maniac!"

~Are you suggesting you don't like it?~

"What? The tweets?"

~Both. My tweets and my newly found freedom to vent my opinions.~

"I like it. I think it's cool."

~Gosh, I dig your blog!~

"You
dig it
? That's a first for you. I think you're reading too many tweets."

~Luke did a great job. And you guys already have like twelve thousand members. What's up with that? How many kids are dealing with bullies these days?~

"You'd be surprised. I think we'll have a huge following here too. Kids like to share stories."

~Life is full of them. All you have to do is open your eyes and your heart. Like I said before, even bad things can make good stories.~

"MJ! Did you see our YouTube account?" Luke turned from his locker.

"I checked it yesterday. We had a lot of likes."

~We sure did!~

"It's going freaking viral!" Luke slammed his locker shut and pulled out his cell phone to search YouTube.

"Let me see."

~No way!~

"I'm shocked!" Angelica dropped her brand new phone when she saw the number of likes on their video.

"Am I so shockingly good-looking that you're dropping your phone?" Ethan's startled everyone.

Angelica quickly picked up her phone. "Ethan! Can I take your picture?"

"Sure, sweetheart!" Ethan smirked.

"Here we go," Angelica snapped the picture and motioned Ethan to look at her phone. "Take a good look at this site. It's a place for kids to share their stories of bullies and assholes and people like you. Now look at how many members this site already has. Twelve thousand and growing. If you ever bother me or anyone else in this school again, I will make sure your picture is on this site and on every Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr or Snapchat these twelve thousand kids share. Trust me, you'll never recover from this one. Do we understand each other?"

Ethan's panicked face turned ghost white as he turned around and walked away as quickly as he could.

"Guys, I really think we're onto something," Luke said. "I mean, our blog can barely handle all the new registrations, Angelica just scared the living daylights out of a big ass bully, and our video's going viral. Guys, we have so much work to do, it's freaking me out!"

"I hope you're not going to check out on us anytime soon, MJ," Angelica said. "You have like a hundred songs to write and who knows how many posts for the blog. Luke and I can't do it all. We have a purpose. Maybe it's not the real, big purpose of life itself, but it's big and important enough for now. This is a chance of a lifetime. We can really nail this."

"I hear you. Happy?"

~I'd be happier if you'd make a commitment, but it'll have to do for now.~

"Where's your phone, MJ?" Angelica said. "I see Brenna sauntering down the hallway. Snap a good one and have fun chatting with her." Angelica winked, picked up her backpack and hurried to catch up with Luke.

Teenage Revenge
@TeenageRevenge
stay true to yourself; never worry about what other people think − why would you give anyone that kind of power over you?

~I thought it was neat how you handled Brenna.~

"I wish I’d done it when she first put me down."

~At least you're done, just like Angelica. You can move on now.~

"By the way, I really like your tweet. I think it's going to get a lot of retweets even though it has no hashtags. And, for what it's worth, I don't mind listening to you anymore."

~Since we're kind of making up here, I was wondering why you never called me by a name.~

"Because you don't have a name."

~Why don't you give me a name?~

"Uhm..."

~Is that so hard? Don't think about it. What's the first thing that comes to your mind?~

"Uhm, Junior?"

~Like MJ, Junior?~

"Why not?"

~Are you suggesting we're finally
one
? Wait, don't answer that. I'll settle for
we're getting there...
~

"You just can't help your psychobabble, can you?"

~You love it! Admit it!~

"No, I don't, but don't worry, I won't end your bliss so quickly."

~You're hurting my feelings.~

"You have no feelings for crying out loud! You're nothing! You're an annoying inner voice that only exists because I let you."

~This is where you're wrong, my friend. I do exist, like it or not. There are some things you can't prove or touch but there's no doubt they exist. Take a thought, for example. Where does a thought come from? Where is it? You can't touch it but you know it exists. Well, the same goes for me. Where does a soul come from? Where is it? You can't touch me, but you know I exist because I speak, scream and nag at you every single day. Deep down, you know I exist.

~We've come a long way, my dear. We started so far apart, I worried we'd never find the way back. And then a couple of angels crossed our path and together we made new stories. I know life isn't always bright and perfect, but it's the balance you should be looking for. I wonder, what color do you think
balance
is?~

"White."

~White?~

"It's clean. Even. There's no heavy black or light pink. You can make up your own good and bad piles because white will let you start on an even playing field."

~That's good. Now close your eyes and imagine yourself standing in the middle of white. It's everywhere, it’s covered everything that has happened before up until now.~

"Okay. I did."

~Good. This is your new life, MJ. You don't need to carry the burden of the past because the past is gone; you can't bring it back. What you have is
now
. You said so yourself in your song—
white is timeless now
. It's even, as both of your piles are empty. The best way to make sure the bad pile never grows higher than the good one is to love yourself because that's the kind of love nothing can ever top.~

"And how do you suggest I do that?"

~That's simple. I already love you. All you have to do is love me back.~