No Freaking Thanks

Chapter 8

Friday, October 7, 2022; New London, Connecticut, U.S.A.

"...for Tangled Tuesday, we could wear wigs," Hayden suggested during a school meeting, "It can be a modest ponytail or a clown afro. My children have been wearing theirs, so maybe I can wear one. Spoilers: it's an aristocrat's wig."

"Ah. Thank you for helping me remember my idea: Way-Back Wednesday," Ms. Dallas said, "We can dress up a—No, that would not work. Wild Berry Wednesday? Red, purple, and blue clothes?"

The staff members were discussing how the homecoming week would be organized. One suggested doing a galactic theme involving aliens, planets, anything a kid could imagine what space fiction has. Interestingly, no one mentioned the Tired Alien NFTs. There are three possible reasons why: 1: the lack of any knowledge of the NFTs, 2: some members knew about it and decided to shut up about them, or 3: the school district got tired of them (no pun intended) and began treating them like narcotics.

Reason 3 is the correct answer to no one's surprise. They added these NFT marketplaces to the list of restricted websites within the school's Internet before the year started. The interesting part of the situation is that less than seven percent of the students in the district have any information on NFTs in general and were not interested in the fad. However, more individuals grew aware of the consequences of NFTs courtesy of Hayden's children and their friends. While streaming himself playing Grabbed by the Ghoulies on his Series X, Terry announced that he got together with his friends to hold their own Halloween party at the Slovakia household. He ended the news by saying no one should be forced to invest in crypto anything without calling out RileyTehDaring's decisions. This gained positive reception on social media, including comments from various Internet celebrities.

"God is still with us," one user said.

"Finally! I will be able to breathe fresh air...which is much better than greenhouse emissions, of course," another user chimed in.

"In a world full of Rileys, be a Terry," the California star commented. That line went viral because everyone was surprised to witness the former Omegle joker remembering the same Terry from several years ago. People even asked if the two e-celebs might meet up in person at the party.

Saturday, October 8, 2022; New London, Connecticut, U.S.A.

"I must warn you, Vince: no alcohol will be served at the party," Jared said.

Jared and Vince were discussing what foods and drinks would be served at the party. It became clear that the Slovakias would not serve alcohol because (assuming that not everyone is religious) that is considered unethical. It was a smart move on the family's part after one of Jared's siblings (his brother George) almost lost his life on St. Paddy's Day to a car accident caused by a 16-year-old who was driving alone with a learner's permit and while under the influence of alcohol. The Slovakias then held charity streams involving Jared's sisters playing guitars and Jared playing Minecraft with his friends to help George get prosthetic legs, which became a success. Later in April, George started advocating for outlawing alcohol within New London. Just out of some coincidence, the mayor's daughter died after she was allegedly served a jelly shot infused with vodka while having inkcap mushroom pizza. While the mushroom species is not harmful by itself, it is the coprine that interferes with the alcohol, resulting in serious health issues (Jarvie, 2018). Shortly after the daughter's unprecedented death, the mayor implemented a ban on alcohol from New London grounds. The correlation between George's and the mayor's motives on the law is entirely coincidental. This resulted in some residents having to get their alcohol fix out of town, like how Vince had to travel to the amusement establishment in the next city over for a small glass of beer back in August. While some residents started to either treat alcohol as a rare treat instead of an everyday drink or quit it altogether, others demanded a recall election. Some individuals of the latter group resorted to the crypto ecosystem for money, like RileyTheDaring (real name: Riley Kordan).

If Vince White is the Game Boy of Republicans, then Riley Kordan would be considered the Game.com of that party. Riley is one of those self-proclaimed crypto millionaires that grew up in a heavily conservative home. Up until May when leaks revealed that Riley poured his money on the politicians who contested the 2020 election results, he stayed silent about his views on current issues. Riley used to invest his time on Warzone through his streams until announcing he would be running his own game company called Eagle Games. Upon seeing that the focus would be directed to blockchain technology, everyone started trashing the idea due to the obvious consequences NFTs make. The first project put out by Eagle Games was a Call of Duty clone that, in theory, could help the players make money from their playing time. As more red flags sprouted, people began to question the plans Riley had in mind (minus the blockchain technology).

The next instance was directed at the game's political imagery. When getting a playable character to choose from, the roster comprises mostly Caucasian masculine soldiers. The details about each soldier had buzzwords that claim an agenda the progressives made is teaching the "wrong values." Users thought that it could satirize the quarrels between both sides of the political spectrum, but it became clear that Riley wanted to make Eagle Games the "definitive conservative gaming business" due to the leaks displayed on Reddit and Twitter.

More signs of the insanity from behind the scenes were collected by anonymous sources: Riley's investment in a crypto coin named after a far-right extremist code, his derogatory comments towards the fairer sex and LGBT+ members, the discovery of his alt-tech accounts, and the rabbit hole kept going down.

This made the likes of Mean Girls' Regina George and the Tannens from the Back to the Future franchise look innocent. People have seen through his aviator sunglasses, stylish tuxedos, clean maroon hair, the pearl smile, slim build, and all the luxury at his mansion. There is an old saying that warns anyone to never judge a book by its cover, and that makes Riley a great example of it. That was when the three gentlemen decided to make their Halloween party feel like a party because they betted Riley would invite his crypto-colleagues to discuss crypto anything.

In addition to beverages, they wanted to take the food seriously. Vince wrote down the shopping list that included 2-liter bottles of root beer, brisket, russet potatoes, the necessary seasonings, and ingredients for dirt cake: butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla pudding mix, milk, whipped topping, carrot cake Oreos, and a bag of seasonal gummy worms that taste of orange, lemon, and black cherry. Terry added chicken drumsticks and ghost pepper sauce. Joy already made her own list calling for candy.