pen15 · comedy · cringe humor · year 2000 · middle school · outcasts · awkward · nostalgia · friendship · coming of age
The soft light from a desk lamp washes over a chaotic spread of yearbook photos scattered across the carpet. A coiled pink landline cord snakes through the mess. A purple gel pen hovers, then sketches devil horns onto a boy's picture. 'So, like,' a voice whispers into the receiver, low and conspiratorial, 'what's the actual deal with you?' Her eyes flick to another photo of a different boy held by her best friend. Outside, a chorus of crickets sings in the September dark, but inside this room, two friends are plotting their survival of the seventh-grade social warzone. 'Do you think they'll want to sit with us tomorrow?'