The Enemy Hypothesis: A Brazos High Novella

three,” I say, rolling my eyes. “And I can’t help myself. It’s pumpkin spice!” Usually I put regular vanilla creamer in my coffee, but to keep up with the fall season, the coffee cart had new flavors today—Pumpkin spice and peppermint. I wish I could say I’m the kind of girl who doesn’t fall for the trendy pumpkin spice thing, but I’m not. I like it and we can’t afford the fancy Starbucks stuff, so I’ll take the flavor any way I can get it.
Jules rolls her eyes. We head down the hallway on our way to first period. Her boyfriend has soccer practice in the mornings so he usually doesn’t appear from the locker room until right before the bell rings. This time here, Coffee Time, as I call it, is my only sacred best friend time each day. We have two classes together and also lunch, but that doesn’t count because we’re surrounded by other people and, well, we have to do school work in class.
I tell her about my parents and how it’s officially been an entire year with them gone. She loops her arm through mine and listens while I vent. “Part of me wishes I could just take over and send Abuela home, ya know?” I snort out a laugh. “I love her so much but she lets my sisters walk all over her.”
“Maybe you should just start being the boss. Tell Abuela to let you handle the finances.”
“Yeah, right. It’ll never happen.” My heart hurts as I think of the conversation I had with my mom last night. After we got off the phone, she called my sister and griped at her, but I doubt it’ll do much. I just need to keep looking after my family until my parents get back.
Jules and I part at the end of the hallway where she has math class and I go down to the CTE hallway for my first period cosmetology class. We’re doing a skincare unit so lately we’ve been applying makeup on each other as part of the lesson. Only today when I walk into class, all the supplies are still packed away.
“No class today,” Mrs. Ashlee says with a sarcastic groan. “Instead, everyone will be watching a School-wide Initiative.” She makes finger quotes as she says it, and the expression on her face tells us she’s not too thrilled about it. Our school does this every now and then, stopping class to show everyone some video about how to be safe over spring break or the dangers of texting and driving.
She turns on the smart board and rolls it to the front of the class. Cosmetology is a pretty small class with only twelve students in here including me. We all settle into our desks and prepare to be bored. The first ten minutes of the video is not only boring, but also depressing. It’s about bullying and it goes into detail about the horrible things that have happened to teenagers because of it. Then… the video gets interesting.
They’re introducing the exciting new app called Un-bully. It’s an app that everyone at school has to download. We sign in with our student ID and then we’ll have access to this weird kudos system. That’s what they call it… kudos.
Every time someone does something kind to their fellow classmate, we can go into the app and give them a kudos by tapping the thumbs up icon. On the other hand, if they do something mean to another person, we can give them a thumbs down which is called a demerit. Each kudos has different categories, like Friendship, Good Samaritan, and Above and Beyond—all levels of kudos that give different numbers of points. There are also levels of the thumbs down demerits relating to bullying, being mean, or scamming people.
The guy on the video talks quickly and excitedly, waving his arms around on screen. I get the feeling he’s an aspiring Hollywood actor who is just waiting for his big break. He tells us about the app’s special algorithms that calculate the points value for each kudos or demerit, taking into account extra information if you type in an explanation when you submit a kudos into the app. The special algorithm ranks everyone on a scoreboard. The contest will take one month and then on September 30th, whoever is at the top of the scoreboard wins.
“This is so lame,” Brittany mutters under her breath from the desk behind me.
“Totally,” I mutter back.
Even Mrs. Ashlee stands next to the smart board looking annoyed that we’re forced to watch this presentation. Usually the teachers at least pretend to care about the videos they show us in class.
“So what’s in it for you?” the guy on the screen says. It’s almost as if he’s been reading our thoughts. “For starters, you should get a sense of satisfaction from using the Un-bully app. It will make you feel rewarded for being a good citizen, and there is no better feeling than making a difference in your community.”
According to the sarcastic muttering in this classroom, I’d say not everyone agrees with Mister Enthusiastic TV Guy. Too bad he’s just a recorded video and he can’t see our reactions in person. I’d love to see how he reacts to knowing that a bunch of high schoolers don’t care about the dumb apps our school wants us to use.
“Now for the good part,” the guy says. He moves close to the screen and pretends to look around the classroom as if he’s actually in the room with us and not on TV. I guess I have to give him credit for trying really hard to be entertaining. “We’ve partnered with a Car World Dealership in your area, and at the end of this month, whichever student is at the top of the scoreboard will win a brand new car.”
Um, what?
I sit up straighter. Even Mrs. Ashley flinches at the surprising news. He then goes on to say that the winner will choose