A Book Nerd's Guide to Falling in Love

Chapter 6: The Internet was a Seductress

Why didn't petitions turn up in my search results last night? I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it myself. The idea had to come from Mr. I'm-more-of-an-internet-type guy.

Finn only tried to help, but sometimes, he irritated me, and the situation already vexed me enough. But I wasn't that salty to disregard his suggestion.

I sat at my desk inside my dark bedroom. The only light came from my laptop. "How to start a petition," I said as I typed in the words in the Google search bar and hit enter. Several results came up. Some were step-by-step guides, and most were links to online petition forms.

I had never tried creating or signing one before, but the process seemed easy enough—create a form and have people sign it.

The first link I entered showed a quick and easy way to do it. After clicking the start button and following all the instructions, I finished in only ten minutes. But before I hit publish, I read through the form three times and changed its title five times until I settled with Save Littleton Public Library.

"Okay, now all I need is—" I read the requirements, "—one hundred fifty signatures in thirty days to become searchable and—what!" I exclaimed. "One hundred thousand in thirty days to get a response from the government? Are you kidding me?"

This petition idea didn't look that easy anymore.

"Oof! Okay, okay. Calm down, Elsy," I told myself. "Baby steps. One fifty is achievable, right?"

I opened a new tab and searched, "What is the success rate of petitions?" The top result showed that ninety-nine percent failed to reach one hundred thousand signatures, but it was vague. Did that mean that making it to that number was the only chance?

I took a deep breath. Ten minutes of my time preparing the petition went down the drain.

"Not the best suggestion after all, Finn," I said, and the boy's dimpled smile flashed in my thoughts. I shook my head, shooing away the image. "Nope, you are not distracting me."

I closed the current tab on the browser and returned to the petition I published. There were no stats yet. I needed to get it out so people could start signing, even though its chances of success were close to none.

With the intention of spamming everyone in my contacts, I composed an email. I made it concise and sweet, explaining the importance of libraries in towns and why we needed to save ours. I copied and pasted the petition form's link and signed my name, Alice Watson, at the bottom. And sent!

It was for a cause. People would understand, right?

After that, I also spammed every friend and follower I had on social media. I didn't have that many, but it was worth a shot.

Within five minutes, I received several direct messages saying they'd take a look at the form soon. And three had already signed. One of them was my aunt who lived in New York.

I spent almost two hours trying to convince people to join my revolution, but it felt insufficient. I tapped a finger on the space bar.

Think, Elsy. Think.

For a petition to be noticed by anyone from the government, it needed a hundred thousand signatures in thirty days.

But why did I need a petition to be noticed? Why not go straight to a government office?

A grin formed on my face. I had a great idea that surpassed Finn's. Bypass the middle man.

I opened another tab and searched for the contact information for the town manager's office. It came up as the top result. I couldn't believe the answer to my problem was right there.