A Selfie to Die For

1)The kick in the gut

"We live in a new day of age. A place where technology and social media are all around, just begging us to log in and share our most intimate thoughts with the world.  What you put online doesn't necessarily disappear within the click of a button - it can stay out there, floating forever in a cyber abyss capable of coming back to haunt you." Jacob Moseley nods, his gaze shifting to look at different individuals around the room.
"So with that being said, can someone please explain why the hell someone didn't think to check the  swim captain's Facebook page to notice that he and the captain for South Dallas are an item?" He barked, sending a harsh glare throughout the class room.






Emily Daz sat in a nearby chair, idly drawing up new ideas for the school paper to investigate. It took a little bit of effort not to grin at Jake's change of demeanor. Her best friend always looked so funny when he was flustered. His ears would redden, his cheeks would suck in as a soft crease would build on his forehead. He would look like an upset five year old who didn't get his way.






Emily kept quiet, fully understanding Jake's anger. She held it too, she was just far less vocal about it. The John Addams high newspaper just lost major credit on Highly-Highs website for school news reporting.  The website is maintained by major news networks fascinated by teenage journalism. Highly-Highs monitors high schools around the U.S that turn in their weekly summaries for all things news related. 
John Addams was number one, but they currently hold a strong competition with South Dallas high in journalism.  The school paper in the Texas area that has the highest, most hard hitting stories by the end of the year, gets to travel to Orlando Florida for a meeting with ABC executives during summer break.
John Addams  has been number one ever since Emily and Jake moved out to Dallas the last year. Since the outing of both opposing swim captains being in a gay relationship was revealed, this has put the South Dallas gazette higher ranked on the Highly-Highs website than John Addams.  South Dallas was just the one that discovered this juicy piece of info before John Addams.




"It's not that big of a deal." Owen Peters offered, wincing as Jake turns his narrowed eyes onto him. Even Owen knew this was dumb of him to say.
Emily chuckled quietly. She knew Jake loved being number one on the website - he didn't do failure. Jake would now be pushing harder than ever to grab ahold of a better story than South Dallas to reclaim his number one seeding. The winners of this competition also got fifty-thousand dollars.  Trying to tell Jake that this competition wasn't-a-big-deal was similar to telling an Olympic athlete that it was okay to win silver instead of gold.






"OH. Well, that's cute." Jake counters softly, "-You enjoy being a loser. Now, does anyone have anything to say that actually holds some value as opposed to Captain garlic-breath over here?"





Owen's mouth falls open in surprise, before he quickly snapped it shut. His curly dark head sunk so very low on his desk top, Emily couldn't tell whether he just lowered his head, or he hid his head in his arms out of sudden shame.
"Manners, Jacob" she sighed, scribbling down some more notes in her book. She shouldn't have to scold an eighteen year old on manners. Yet, Emily was nearly always doing so when it came to Jake.







"You know I only reserve manners for people who matter, Ems." Jacob replied dryly. It's only upon Emily cocking an eyebrow at her best friend does he scowl. 
"Fine..." Jake says in exasperation. " Captain Garlic-Breath, aka Owen." He shrugged.
Emily shook her head in dismay as Jake pointed at someone with a raised hand. 







"What if, we document the two sophomores who got food poisoning on meat-loaf Monday?" Lauren Hodges asked, causing Emily to sigh.
 There were two things that annoyed Emily about the bubbly blonde. It was the pathetically soft voice she used when she spoke to Jake, and the lack of brain power the girl had when it came to high school journalism. It was obvious knowledge that a food poisoning story in a high school newspaper can only get you so far. There had to be proof -something more than just two kids staying home because of vomiting. If you reported a food poisoning story with no hard facts, you're just setting yourself up for a trip to the principal's office for falsifying a story and panicking students and parents.








"I like the enthusiasm, Lauren." Jake smiled warmly, causing Emily to once again sigh under her breath.
  "But, unless it was more than five kids, you don't roll with food poison because it's debunk-able" he nodded seriously.