Kessie's Short Stories

[Care Bears] Carebook

Originally posted 3/8/2020

True Heart didn't even know where to start for this particular endeavor. The most obvious was staring her right in the face- the sign in screen.

"What'cha doing True Heart?" a voice happily asked from over the bear's shoulder. True Heart nearly jumped out of her fur before turning around to see the origin of the voice. Standing there, quite amused by her reaction, was Funshine and Good Luck Bear.

"You two scared me!" True Heart admonished, still trying to recollect her wits.

"Sorry." Funshine apologized while raising and lowering a shoulder. "We're just trying to figure out why you're just staring at Carebook's log in."

"Did you forget your password, True?" Good Luck then mused, smiling as he said it.

"No!" the older bear immediately denied. "I... I don't have an account with Carebook yet."

"You don't?!" the boys exclaimed at the same time.

"How could you not have an account yet?" Funshine questioned.

"Everyone and their mother has an account on Carebook!" Good Luck chimed in.

True Heart flinched. She didn't need to be reminded that she was a late adopter, thank you very much. It also didn't solve the underlying problem. Funshine and Good Luck seemed to pick up on this because they gave each other the same look, then nodded in affirmation.

"You see that little button next to the log in button?" Good Luck said to True Heart, pointing a finger to the screen. "It'll take you to the 'create new account' section."

"All you need to do is type in your e-mail and your name, and the account's pretty much ready for whatever." Funshine agreed. He paused for a moment before a wide, cheeky smile appeared on his face. "You do have an e-mail, don't you?"

"Of course I have an e-mail!" True Heart indignantly replied. "Who doesn't have an e-mail?"

"Who doesn't have a Carebook? Oh, wait..."

"I don't appreciate you mocking me Funshine, are you sure you're a Care Bear?"

To this, the yellow bear laughed long and hard. "Whatever, Mom." he said with a grin. "Just sign up already."

True Heart gave the boys a very stern mother-like glare before doing what she had been told. She fumbled a bit in trying to create a good password, but thankfully Funshine and Good Luck held their counsel. When True Heart switched over to her e-mail to confirm everything, she then switched back over to her new Carebook account. True Heart proudly smiled to herself before frowning.

"Now what?" she asked the boys.

"Well, I guess you should change your profile picture." Good Luck told her.

"How do I do that?" True Heart questioned.

Turns out, this was the wrong thing to ask. Even though the older Care Bear now had an account to Carebook, she still had no idea how to navigate through it. Even with the patient guiding of the boys, she still managed to click on the wrong link twice- one time she even clicked on a pop up ad that just wouldn't go away. The three of them almost shut the computer off to get rid of it.

"This is impossible!" True Heart eventually decided, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "Not even Grams Bear could figure this out!"

"That's an insult to Grams, True Heart." Good Luck wasted no time in pointing out.

The older bear blinked. "What?"

Funshine pulled out his phone and quickly swiped through some apps before coming to what he needed. He handed the phone over to True Heart. The older Care Bear raised an eyebrow before taking the phone from Funshine. There, she saw on the small screen were several photos that featured Grams Bear and some other Care Bear in it. True Hear could feel herself shrink a little how how good the photos looked.

"Grams is a Instabear celebrity." Funshine then explained, scrolling through the photos so True Heart could see more. Each photo was just as stunning as the rest. "She posts every day at 12 on the dot- no repeats, never the same location, it's awesome!"

"I'm not convinced she doesn't use an auto posting app." Good Luck smirked.

"Even so," the yellow bear mused, putting away his phone, "That doesn't make up for how AWESOME her posts are!"

"How in anyway does this help me with Carebook?" True Heart questioned, feeling a bit annoyed that they were getting off topic.

"It doesn't." Funshine grinned. "Sorry True, but we can't help."

True Heart was a second too late in processing what Funshine was trying to say, feebly letting out a "Hey, wait a minute!" when the boys were already on their way out. True Heart slumped in her seat in defeat; she stared at the computer monitor for a long time with her head in her paw. Some time had passed before she realized that someone was putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"What's the matter True Heart?" the familiar, and incredibly comforting, voice of Noble Heart calmly asked her.

"I signed up for Carebook." True admitted. "Funshine and Good Luck tried to help me, but apparently I'm beyond hope."

Noble Heart gave a gentle laughter. "If you're beyond hope, then so am I." he informed her. "Tenderheart insisted I sign up, but I couldn't figure out that site for the life of me."

"Isn't it so confusing?!" True Heart immediately asked- a certain relief washing over her in knowing she wasn't alone. "Funshine and Good Luck tried to help me change my profile picture..."

"Oh, I just kept my at the default. When Tenderheart and I tried to change mine, the site wouldn't even upload new pictures."

"Goodness! And how hard was it to even get to that screen? I think I nearly clicked everyone on the homepage but the change profile picture link!"

"Tell me about it. According to Tenderheart, if we didn't have an ad blocker on, then I might have downloaded malware by accident because of all the rogue clicking I did."

"I almost did the same thing! We were this close to unplugging the entire computer because one ad just wouldn't go away! It's was awful Noble Heart." There was a small pause before True Heart finally asked, "Are we just too old for this?"

"I've considered it." Noble Heart agreed with a small nod. But then he looked at her- his smile charmingly warm. "But I'm sure we could figure it out together, in time."

The pastel Care Bear looked at her friend and found herself smiling back at him. "I'd like that." she admitted. Noble Heart's smile did not waver as he bent down to press his forehead against hers; it was a promise. One of the many that they had always formed together, and one no less important to their future friendships.