a smile is worth a thousand compliments

an idea sparked

a skype texting conversation between derek and gordon that night:

waiting for gordonollenday to accept contact request

doubledogder:hey yo it's derek monoson

You and gordonollenday are now contacts

doubledogder:hey dude i have a skype! anyway, i have something to ask you.

gordonollenday: hi.

gordonollenday: shoot

doubledogder:well burger just got back from the hospital and is acting unusual. he's usually really happy to be back but today he was really upset.

gordonollenday:well, maybe he had something upsetting happen at the hospital. it seems like he's still uneasy about it so i wouldn't mention it yet. when he seems better, that'd be a good time to very carefully ask. you feel me?

doubledogder:yeah i get you. night

gordonollenday:yeah derek good night bro.

derek's Pov

i woke up and got my camera out. eager to find something new and interesting in my morning routine that's worthy vlogging material. i skipped filming the getting dressed part(obviously) and brushed my teeth. "notish audiensh dat i CAN bwush muh teesh an film at da shame time." i said and spit the toothpaste out. rinsed my mouth out and headed downstairs." well audience here's my mom, on facebook,. again." "derek stop fooling around with that camera and get to school!" i started to walk away and my little brother slammed into me from running down the stairs. "oof!" i said and we both toppled. "gaaah! you're such a pe-person with a cute smile. love you bye." i turned up to see the door was open! burger had seen the whole nfl scene that went down. we walk to school and he has a bad habit of opening our door without knocking first. "yo burger let's get to school! does that sound like a good idea audience?" i made a crowd saying yes noise and fake cheering. "you're a goon." was burger's response and we both laughed. "hey i have an idea." burger said." what's that?"i inquired. "well, you seem like you are forming a genuinely nice personality""ummm...thanks?""anyway, i saw that you gave both tony and your little bro compliments when you were pissed off with them. they seemed secretly pleased.""true... keep going...""well imagine if we could do that on a large scale, to people we don't even know! imagine how happy they'd be if we did somethin like that! it'd be great! and we'd feel good about it too. i don't know, just a thought.""burger, that just might be your best idea yet! oh man! that'd be so cool! i love it! ok, so i have a skype account, so what if we started a new one dedicated to complimetning random people through the skype directory? we could just search up 'amy' for example and at least 40 amys would come up! we could do this man! let's talk about this at lunch!"" we had entered the school at this point. "will do man!" burger shouted and headed to art.

mallory's pov.

finally lunch. burger and derek are busy chatting about some 'secret' they're planning and will tell me later. derek said he's trying to be nicer and give everyone compliments, i hope that's true. jeez, they both seem super excited about this thing. anyway, mom forgot who i was again last night which made me cry. i had jenny over and we were studying for the ap chemistry exam when she screamed and yelled at my dad that two girls broke into our house and they were planning to kill her. dad explained to mom who i was and went back to sleep. then jenny comforted me afterward but she seemed startled and left in a hurry after that. sometimes i feel so alone. derek just told me that he's going up for lunch so i guess he wants me to come with him. whatever. i'm not even hungry.

derek's pov:

"hello audience we're back with another installment of crappy leftover cheeseburger with macaroni and cheese. known to you at home as cheesburger macaroni, we call it ugggh blech," mallory uttered a small chuckle. i panned to her."so what's this big secret of yours der?"'well mal, burg and i have worked out the details so we'll tell you at the table."i put in my lunch code, and sat at the table trying not to puke from the stench of the old cheese and burger meat. i gagged."ladies and gentleman,  you will now witness the power of the stomach when you're hungry" and i reluntantly choked down a bite and took a sip of dr. pepper i bring to school everyday. it's a lot better than the vegetable juice that comes with a normal lunch meal. mallory sat down and asked what the secret was. i was about to answer when all the sudden we all heard someone yell,"FOOD FIGHT!!!!" and pandemonium followed. i hid with mallory in the library while burger continued eating at the table. man, that dude loves to eat! i went on the computer and signaled for mallory to come over and watch. i went on to skype and went to 'create account.'"for those of you watching at home, i am on skype, making a new account""why would you do that? you already have one.""terrific question mallory. well, burger and i decided that we're going to make a skype account based on complimenting random people.""that's really nice! but you could've told me right away. why were you talking and giggling like a bunch of 2nd grade girls with burger about 'planning' for something so simple?""we had to decide on a password and the name of our skype account. also, who would get emails, and a schedule of who does what we're calling 'phants' and when. so we made up 3 kinds of 'phants' and times for each person to do what. we involved you since we figured you'd like the idea." "that's great and i DO want to be involved, but what is our username and password, and what the heck is a 'fant'?" "just watch" i responded. i typed into username 'phantomcomplimenter' and the password 'marshmallow' i giggled and mallory gave me a friendly punch in the arm."what? it's something we'd all remember and it's funny.""ok. i agree with the easy to remember part. oh! 'phant' stands for a phantom compliment doesn't it? clever."