Tiny Glowing Screens

1

"We live our lives day to day based on other people's opinions. The media places a standard in which people believe you should live up to or you're a failure. Society is just a melting pot of generality and conformity. The news and interviewers seem to bring out the worst in their king pins: celebrities. This shows us that it is frowned upon to make mistakes. How, you may ask. Because it sheds light on the mistakes that massive celebrities make and blow the mistake way out of proportion and shows that conformity is the way to go. This makes kids not want to be put on a pedestal for the mistakes that they have made, so they choose to go along with what the media says is correct. This is why I believe that social media has corrupted our youth beyond repair," I finished. 

Many faces stared at me in astonishment. I looked over at Mr. Jenkins, his dull gray eyes bright with an unfamiliar emotion. "Thank you Miss Benton. That was very eye opening. Everyone give Lindsii a round of applause." 

Scattered applause rang through the room. I stared at my classmates blankly and resided to my seat in the back of class. 

"Alright. Next up is Iris," Mr. Jenkins said. 

A blonde girl stood up and smiled a perfected smile at everyone in the class. She walked with a particular bounce that made the guys fall for her. She was pretty, but a stereotypical pretty. Who am I kidding? Iris Wellman was literally the definition of stereotypical. A skinny blonde with a white smile and money; captain of the cheerleading team and unbelievably dumb. 

"Thank you Mr. Jenkins. Hi guys. I did my report on why marijuana is bad for you. Okay, are you guys ready to be blown away by my amazing essay? I hope so. Okay, here I go. 'Marijuana is the number one killer in the world. 400 people overdose a month. It kills your brain cells and makes you dumb.' That's why I'm not dumb, because I don't smoke weed," she laughed a nasally laugh, flipping her hair. "'In conclusion, you should not smoke pot if you want to amount to anything in life. ' Any questions?" Iris looked around with a blank smile. 

I raised my hand and she looked my way. "Yes, Lindsii?" 

"Yeah, hi. Okay, so you're telling me that you believe that marijuana is the number one killer? Yeah, um false. Actually, no one has every overdosed on pot. And honestly, plenty of people that smoke weed have been successful. Machine Gun Kelly, Watsky, Wiz Khalifa, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, even Obama. Now, your point that you made about being successful has been proven wrong. Also, marijuana has so many uses. There are sativas and indicas. Indicas are for your typical laid back nights, sativas are used to enhance your creative side of the brain and be able to inspire you to do things. So, where I am getting is, everything that you just said in that essay was... well... complete bullshit for lack of a better term," I sat back in my chair and folded my arms.

All eyes were on me and they turned back to Iris. She stared at me. "It's not my fault that you think that because your brain has been rotted by the awful drug that is the Devil's lettuce." 

I looked back at her and shook my head. This girl was really dumber than I thought. 

Soon the bell rang. I grabbed my things and was about to walk out the door when Mr. Jenkins called me over. "Come here Lindsii." 

I walked over to his desk. "Yes?" 

"That essay that you read today was beyond anything I've heard from a high school student. Anyway, I want you to meet someone. He should be in here any minute," Mr. Jenkins said looking at the door. 

I nodded. "That's chill. Alright."  I sat down in a chair and relaxed. 

Soon the door opened. "Ah, there he is. Lindsii, I'd like you to meet George. George, this is Lindsii" 

I turned around in my seat to see a dark-haired, pale guy in a button down and jeans with a flat bill sitting on his head. He looked down at me with his dark eyes and gave me a small smile. "Hey, I'm George." 

I stood up. "Hey, I'm Lindsii." I grabbed his hand and shook it gently. 

"I wanted you guys to meet because you both have a similar view on life and you both seem to need someone that can hold a conversation on the same level as you two," Mr. Jenkins explained. 

I looked back at George. He honestly did not look like the type that would think the same as me and I wanted to find out if Mr. Jenkins was actually true. "Wanna get a tea or something?" 

George looked down at me. "As long as we don't go to Starbucks. They're all just a bunch of posers that want to be 'cool'," George said. 

I nodded, "I totally agree." 

We walked out of Mr. Jenkins room and out of the school, continuing our conversation about the evolution of Starbucks from an actual cool place to hang out to a basic place that all of the "popular" kids now take over.