Think I Want to Twist the Plot This Time

Part 1

"Think I Wanna Twist the Plot This Time"

"I had an epiphany

I'm not gonna throw it all away this time."

— "Maradona" The Chainsmokers

"I think I might check in on Barbie Land tonight, see what the other Barbies and Kens are getting up to." The thought's impulsive; she says it as she's washing the dishes from Taco Tuesday. Something about a choreographed dance party with friends to escape the chaos of modern American living seems to be calling out to her, with sequined outfits and music simply being part of her existence. Barbie turns from the sudsy steel sink and glances over at Gloria, Sasha, and Ryan, shooting them a warm smile. "Anyone want to join in?"

The family, instead of having eyes on her, are all engrossed in their own bubbles: Sasha on her laptop as she scribbles notes furiously into her notebook, Gloria poured over sketches at the table, Ryan on his phone, the faint sound of the Duolingo bird chirping out his correct answers. Barbie blinks, then goes back to the dishes without another word. Usually they're a little more enthused about trips back to Barbie Land, the escapism from the escapism that is Los Angeles. She instead pretends like she never asked anything at all, just sighs and scrubs away at caked guacamole stains on the bowl she's washing. Maybe it's a terrible idea, she starts thinking. Better to just continue bingeing Bridgerton and The Crown while absently downing all the pink Starbursts in the bag she just picked up from CVS.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, Barbie." Gloria, per usual, speaks first. "Work wants me to finish these sketches ASAP for the new line. Turns out there's a huge market with Gen X and Millennials for Barbies going through a quarter life crisis and I'm thinking 'Theme Park Adult' might be right up their alley. And Sasha's still grounded from her little stunt in the cafeteria last week."

"Getting up on the table and announcing that lunch should be free to all students is simply me expressing my freedom of speech, Mom!" Even with her back turned, Barbie can feel Sasha's eyes rolling, and she gives a slight smirk as she finishes up the dishes. "Besides, I have to work on this this lame report on World War II. The teacher wants us to talk about those overrated white guys like MacArthur or Oppenheimer, but I'm writing about the Indigenous Code Talkers instead. Way more interesting."

With Sasha and Gloria declining, there's of course no way Ryan would join in the festivities without his family. Like clockwork, he looks up from his phone just as Barbie turns from the sink. "Those Duolingo lessons won't finish themselves!" he chuckles, but the smile fades. Barbie's pretty sure he's just read her downtrodden expression—she hasn't really gotten good at being more subtle with showing her feelings, which is apparently another one of those female paradoxes Gloria's gone on about.

Ryan looks to his wife and daughter, still immersed in their respective works, then gets up from his seat. "Thanks for doing the dishes, Barbie. I'll drive you to Venice."

Well, when he's offering to drive instead of asking her to Uber, how can she say no? Besides, a night out with the Barbies and Kens could bring her morale up to face the real world, something she's finding she might need more than just once a month now. Humans got fatigued from being out too long, hungry from going too long in between meals, anxious when things didn't always go as planned. And yet, thinking to that picture-perfect, pink life she'd left behind... this new life, with her new friends, always brought something unexpected, like the independent coffee shop and bookstore she and Sasha found one weekend in Culver City that had the perfect gingerbread latte, or when Gloria and Ryan took her to see Hadestown, where she bawled her eyes out—yet still wanted to experience it again to see if the ending would change. She craves that creative side of humanity, something the Barbies and Kens unfortunately will never understand. They don't really get to learn; they're programmed with occupations and expectations. Sure, some norms are breaking, but at the end of the day, President Barbie is still President, Writer Barbie always has her novels, and Ken was... well, he's wonderfully Ken. And that's perfectly fine, just not enough for her anymore.