Episode 8: Stupid Phones

Now, her mom and dad conversing would never actually interest her. They always talked with each other obviously. However, this conversation kickstarted Tomo’s ears directly to where the sound was coming from.

“Tomo should get a cell phone,” her dad said in a serious tone. “I mean, an actual cell phone.”

Tomo knew what her dad was getting at. She did have a phone, but it was an old Nokia brick one. Not very practical in today’s day and age—not to mention super outdated.

She could hear her mother sigh. “Ryuu, I just—” She paused for a moment. “Yes, you’re right, unfortunately. She’s been around old stuff way too long, and it’s our fault. She needs to start adjusting to the current world, whether we like it or not.”

Tomo could picture her dad smiling his warm smile, even through the door. “Thank you for understanding, honey. I knew you would. How about we go to a phone store tomorrow since it’s Friday?”

“That sounds great.” Then, in a lower voice, her mom added, “Should get her an iPhone, or…?”

“An iPhone. That’s what most people have, right? Lord, I’m not even sure. We’ll just have to ask a worker there more.” He chuckled bitterly. “And sign up for a phone plan.’

Tomo didn’t know why, but she was getting super excited… even though she didn’t like what she heard about iPhones and would much rather get a flip phon, since they were cheaper.

★

Tomo decided not to tell any of her friends about what was going to happen after the club meeting that night. After all, she felt like the girls liked surprises, and this sure did count as a surprise.

So, she kept her mouth shut—although it was very hard to do.

“What are you guys doing over the weekend?” Erica asked curiously, even though she could just easily read their minds. “I’m doing nothing!”

Mimori squealed. “I’m gonna rewatch some old Charmed episodes! Again!”

“Augh,” Kasumi groaned. “How many times have you seen those episodes? And what about that new show that you’re supposedly into? Don’t you wanna watch that instead?”

Mimori pouted. “Just Add Magic? Yeah, I could watch that…”

“There you go. It’s basically the same thing.”

“I’m planning to go out to eat with my family tonight at a five-star restaurant,” Asuka said, adjusting her glasses.

“Ah, so you’re so rich,” Mimori said in a wistful tone, apparently having already recovered from her little bout of sadness. “Ojou-sama!~”

Asuka clicked her tongue and shook her head. “It’s not just for no reason. I’m going out because it’s my mom’s birthday today.”

“Ah. Gomen.”

As the girls continued talking, the truth almost came out of Tomo’s mouth about her upcoming activity, but alas she did not.

“I’m going to be doing nothing in particular. Maybe reading a book, I guess?” She smiled serenely. “We’ll see when the time comes.”

Behami faked a dramatic yawn. “Wow, even more boring!”

Drumming her fingers on the table impatiently, Mari then blurted something out of seemingly nowhere.

“I’M HOLDING A SLEEPOVER TONIGHT! I didn’t want to text you guys or anything about it, because not only did I just come up with it but I also didn’t want to leave a certain someone in the dark.” She winked at Tomo.

Tomo smiled weakly.

“So? Whaddaya say? You game?” Mari grinned.

Mimori gave a cheesy thumbs-up. “Game on!”

Kasumi facepalmed.

“I’m game,” Behami replied in a way that only two buddies who understood jokes could.

Asuka raised her hand. “I should be free after dinner,”

Tomo didn’t say anything. Instead, she sat awkwardly and contemplated what she should say. I don’t want to sound rude or anything, but I don’t like lying, either. What should I do? It shouldn’t take that long to get the cell phone, right?

Tomo cleared her throat and tried to think of the best possible thing to say.

“Um, I’ll try to be there at whatever time you tell me to, Mari. Just remember to call, alright? I would like some time to myself before I come over, though.” She paused. “And make sure to call my home phone, I’ll write it down for you. I gotta charge my cell phone tonight, it’s almost dead.”

A little white lie. Awww…

Mari looked at her and nodded. “Alright! Sounds good! I get it. These girls here are quite the handful, I must say!” She said that part in an ultra-posh voice. “So I can understand why you’d want to be alone for a while.”

After saying that, Mari texted Naoko (not in the group chat) and not even a minute later she announced that her friend wanted to go.

Tomo smiled but gulped on the inside. This is all after I get my new phone… Oh boy.

★

It was finally time to get her smartphone, and Tomo was as prepared as her mind could possibly be.

Upon entering the store, she and her parents were greeted with a soft rock song playing in the background, one that she didn’t recognize but actually calmed her nerves a bit.

Her parents immediately went up to the customer service desk to ask about signing up for a cell phone contract and Tomo followed along.

The stuff they talked about was rather boring at first. What type of contract would you want, oh you have a contract but it’s with these old-ass phones what the fuck are you doing with them why don’t you update them (not worded like that obviously but you get what I mean). Only until about twenty minutes or so later did the part about actually obtaining a type come about.

“So, are you looking to purchase an iPhone or an Android?”

Her mom and dad looked at each other in bewilderment.

“Um, which one’s better?”

The man, named Mr. Matsushiba, chuckled. “Well, it depends. iPhones have better cameras but are more expensive and Androids are more affordable and have better battery life.”

Mrs. Mizuno looked at Tomo, eyes full of questions. “Which one would you like, Tomo-chan?”

Tomo blinked. Hmm. Which one should I go with?

All of a sudden, a scary shadow popped up in her head—one of a demonic Asuka saying in a demonic voice, “BUY THE iPHONE!”

“U-um…” Tomo took a deep breath. “I think I want an iPhone.”

Yes. After all that consideration (that she didn’t actually do much of, it really was an easy pick), she chose the iPhone.

“Why do you want that?” Mr. Mizuno asked curiously.

“Well,” she said after coughing a little. “I would like to be able to take high-quality photos. After all, I’m not able to do that on my old phone and to be perfectly honest, I haven’t used a camera in years and would like to pick up that hobby again.”

Tomo did in fact like to take pictures when she was younger. She wasn’t lying.

“Hm. Alright then, it looks like we’ve made our decision.”

Mr. Matsushiba nodded and bent down to pick up an iPhone from a box that was likely behind the counter. “Cool. I’m assuming you’d like the newest model, Tomo? The iPhone 6S? Or would you like the 6S Plus?”

“Um, what’s the difference?”

“Nothing much.” The man snorted.

Well, thanks for that?

“The 6S then,” Tomo said in a bit of a shaky voice.

“Alright then.” Mr. Matsushiba nodded. “While I go load it up with everything you need, why don’t you go and take a look at the cases we have in stock? You’ll find them to the far right over there by the door.”

Tomo bowed. “Thank you.”

Mrs. Mizuno smiled gently. “We’ll wait right here, sweetie.”

The black-haired girl turned and went straight to the cases, her mind racing.

I can’t believe it! It’s really happening!

It was early July of her sophomore year of high school and she was finally, finally getting a new cell phone.

However, the excitement was mixed.

While she liked the idea of owning a cell phone, it also scared her.

Because it was new. It was modern… and she wasn’t used to modern. And actually… She didn’t entirely like modernity.

Newer TVs unsettled her, how fluid the movement on them was, and those alarm clock thingy with the robot inside were legit freaky.

The modern-day was something she liked to look at from afar, not actually partake in.

But here’s the kicker that she already knew about:

She had to get used to it if she wanted to live in the real world.

Just then, a voice made her jump out of her deep thoughts.

“Hey. Hey, girl.”

Tomo jumped up and looked to her side. A boy was standing there, with dyed red hair. He looked to be about the same age as her.

“Um, yes?”

“You’re kind of blocking the way, ya know? Are ya done lookin’ over here or what?”

Tomo’s face and she looked down at her shoes. “Oh, no I’m not. I’m sorry.”

The boy smiled, flashing his braces. “Ah, okay. It’s fine. Sorry about me. I kinda act like a dick for absolutely no reason.”

As Tomo actually started to browse the phone cases, one caught her eye: A light purple case with flowers on it.

Perfectly simple, but perfectly symbolic of her, considering the color of the goo that gave her superpowers was purple (you know the lore). And, if you wanted to go deeper, the flowers could represent her growing as a person.

“You’re gonna go with that one?” the boy spoke again.

Tomo once again looked to her side and saw him surveying a phone case himself—one that was just a solid color, red.

“Ah, yes I am! I think it looks pretty!”

“Cool,” he said, nodding along. He then looked directly at her. “Uh, a weird question but… Are you the YouTuber Treena Berry, by any chance?”

Hhh. Tomo let a little bit of air out of her lungs.

Oh my God. He recognizes me?!

“Um, yes, I am!” The girl got all flustered and blushy again. “So, y-you watch my channel?!”

“Yeah, I do.” The boy giggled. “Not all of your videos yet, I found them rather recently. But I’ll make sure to watch ‘em all now!” He grinned at her, and Tomo felt like her heart was going to melt.

Not because he was cute or anything, he actually looked pretty average and was no Nick Carter from back in the day.

It’s because he knows who I am.

Right after that, Tomo’s mom called her. “Sweetie! You gotta make an Apple account! Come over here!”

And with a wave to the nice boy and new fan, the girl went to deal with a new facet in her life: Her new iPhone.

★

After all was said and done, Tomo officially had her new iPhone in her hot little hands. On the way home, she messed around with it a bit, and it wasn’t that hard to control at all. (After all, she saw her friends mess around with theirs all the time, she just copied what she saw them do.)

And like that, it was nighttime already. After getting the call on their home phone from Mari (to which Tomo responded with vague things as her parents were watching a movie in the same room).

Since she already had all the necessities packed (including her new phone and its charger!!), Tomo teleported out.

★

When Tomo teleported into Mari’s living room, her friends all greeted her, obviously.

“Oh my God!” Mari shrieked in an overdramatic voice. “Where have you been?!”

“Ah, you see,” Tomo was a bit scared to say it, but she said it in the most casual voice she could muster. “I wasn’t actually at home chillaxing or anything. I was out buying a smartphone.”

Predictably, everyone’s mouths dropped open. Yes, even Naoko’s.

It is pretty shocking, after all, for me.

The girls all started throwing questions at her.

“How’d your parents let you get one?”

“What kind? I hope it was an iPhone!”

“Do you know how to work it?!”

“Why?” (Just simply “Why”.)

Even though she prepared herself as best she could for all of the questions, she still felt overwhelmed by them.

“Um, guys,” she said slowly. “One at a time, please. We’ll get through them all, I promise.” As she was saying that, she unzipped the front compartment of her backpack and showed it off.

“Alright?”

Everyone’s mouths dropped open again.

“Oh, Tomo-chan!” Mari shouted, being the first to recover from her stupor. “I can set up a sleeping bag for you. Is that fine?”

Ah, right. I forgot to bring mine. (The sleeping bag, mind you, was Mom’s from back in the 90s.)

Tomo nodded. “Yeah, for sure! Anyway, I ended up getting a new phone because my parents said I needed one… Pretty wacky, right? And as you can see, it’s an iPhone, Asuka. Yes, I am learning how to work it.” Tomo winked.

The rest of the girls were letting everything sink in as Mari came back into the room with two blankets and a pillow in a pillowcase.

Slightly paranoid, Tomo turned the screen on to check the current time.

“June 6th, 2016, 10:01 pm.”

For Tomo, it was pretty weird to be looking at a stock image of a raindrop on a leaf, proclaiming the current time and date. She was much more used to a black-and-white screen telling her that instead.

The future is now.

Putting her phone back into her backpack, Tomo noticed that her friends, after all their fussing about this miraculous character development, were already talking about what they should do next.

“So… what are we going to do now?” Mimori said, looking worried. “In the past, we’ve watched a movie, played truth or dare…”

“Hey Mimo-chan, remember when we summoned a young Hank to play Cards Against Humanity Jr?” Kasumi said teasingly, elbowing her friend. “We should do that again!”

Mimori shook her head, flustered. “No, no, no! We are not summoning Hank! That would be sooo awkward! We’re summoning Drew instead!”

“But isn’t that also sooo awkward?”

“Ean has done it before,” lamented Naoko. “She said it was awkward but fun. Ding!”

Despite her supposed protests, Mimori declared that she was going to go back in time and coerce (read: force) a sixteen-year-old Drew into coming to the present for a few hours.

A few hours doing what? Weeeell…

★

“Why are we doing karaoke again?” Behami moaned. “Like, I know it’s fun and all but why not do something new?!”

“I know,” droned Kasumi. “But I don’t wanna hear your whining. I like karaoke.”

While the girls were waiting for Mimori to come back with her young crush, Mari was busy getting YouTube up on the TV, which they were going to use for the karaoke tracks.

It didn’t take long, however. Once Mari had the homepage up Mimori reappeared, singing a song that Tomo vaguely recognized (probably because she heard Mimori or someone else sing it before).

“I’m back!” sang Mimori. “‘This looks like a job for me, so everybody, just follow me—’”

“I trusted you with my life,” Erica said in a snarky manner. “And now you’re back, with that boy and singing that Eminem song.”

Mimori sighed. “Basically my life. Oh, I see you got the home screen up, Mari-chan! Cool!”

She began to read the title of the videos on the home screen aloud.

“‘Pranks in the Hood- Social Experiment (Gone Wrong).’”

Asuka raised an eyebrow. “What does that even mean? Is it a prank or not? God, I hate Youtube.”

“Youtube is a great place!” Mimori said, clenching her fists together determinedly. Then, after a beat. “ … Actually, you’re right. It’s a pretty awful place.”

The teenage Drew raised his hand, obviously looking confused as hell. “Uh… so I’m here to do karaoke, Hamasaki-san? Is that it?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Kasumi noted, not even waiting for her friend to respond. “Sorry you have to suffer with us.”

As that conversation was going on, Tomo was looking the nineties kid up and down.

Finally, an actual nineties person’s in the room. I mean, I’ve encountered them before whenever we go to that era, but having a person like this in Mari’s house is just making me excited!

Finally, someone who could actually understand her outdated interests and life.

Also, he looks like he could be in 5ive. Hmmm, but he’s not British…

“ … Tomo-chan? Tomo-chaaaan?!” The next thing she knew, Mari was screaming in her ear. “Stop eyeballing Drew! He’s not yours to look at!”

“Oh?” That made Tomo snap out of it. “That’s not fair! I was just, um, looking at how nineties he is!”

Drew fidgeted in his seat on the couch. “If you never figured it out,” he said, “I’m pretty nineties-looking… I guess.” (Somewhere in the background, you could probably hear Mimori shrieking about his hair length.)

Tomo sighed. “It’s just nice to have someone here I can relate to.”

“How” Drew flung that question at her like she was psycho or something. (In this case, she, surprisingly enough, isn’t.)

Tomo’s face flushed. “W-well, you see! I’ve had a bit of a weird upbringing, so I know all about the past and stuff!”

“But you have an iPhone tonight,” Behami said, chortling.

Drew smirked. “I don’t know what that is but I can believe you. You just seem like you’re from my time.”

Tomo blushed even harder. “A-ah, thank you! I guess…”

Drew gave her a thumbs up and then bolted upward. “Hey! I’ve got an idea with this karaoke thing!”

“What?” Kasumi’s eyes narrowed, looking skeptical for some reason.

Drew continued. “Okay, so, Tomo can sing a bunch of songs from the twentieth century and stuff in order to prove that she should actually live in that time period—And the songs all have to be from before 1996, otherwise I won’t know ‘em.”

“That’s a great idea!” Erica clapped her hand once, signaling that it was on. “Tomo’s an amazing singer!” Then, she locked her eyeballs on Drew. “But you should sing as well because you came up with this idea.”

Drew winced. “Ugh. I’m not exactly looking forward to this, ya know? I’m just not really a good singer.”

Mimori squeaked. “You aren’t? Dang it, I knew it! But you have such a melodic-sounding voice! … Well, when you get older, you do. I guess.”

“Pfft. I highly doubt it. After all, my voice is pretty monotonous. Buuut thanks for the compliment, I guess?”

Oh god!!!

Tomo was feeling incredibly nervous now, yet excited at the same time.

Knowing how a TV remote works, Tomo was able to get to the search bar on the YouTube webpage (although it was on the TV, soooo???) and start typing something in via the keyboard that had popped up at the bottom of the screen.

I know what I’m going to sing.

After finally typing in the song name and following it up with “karaoke version,” she scrolled down the page, a little overwhelmed at all the different versions that showed up.

She was going to sing a song from Flashdance. (No, it was not the “Maniac” one. That one was too overrated!)

“Alright, everyone!” she finally announced a minute or so later once she got a video up. “It’s time for me to sing my song!”

“Yaaay!” Asuka said, which was pretty uncharacteristic of her. She must really like my voice then!

Tomo saw Drew look at the TV screen. When he saw the title of the video, well…

“Is that from Flashdance? Damn, that was a great movie. Great cheese.”

Tomo smiled weakly, her legs shaking, her grip on the microphone in her hand (that Mari just randomly had in her house) loosening. She quickly tightened it again.

“Okay, Tomo. Whenever you’re ready.” Mari said in an epic voice, the remote back in her hand.

Tomo took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to mellow down.

“Ready,” she said determinedly.

And just like that, the song began—well, almost.

Mimori shrieked. “Oh my God, this was that one song that—”

“Shut up,” Kasumi told her through gritted teeth.

Tomo giggled a little, but then focused her attention back on the song, and began to sing.

“‘First, when there’s nothing

But a slow, glowing dream

That your fear seems to hide, deep inside your mind…’”

Tomo was a bit shaky at first, but her voice grew more confident as time went on.

Then, the chorus hit.

“‘What a feeling!

Beings believing!

I can have it all, now I’m dancing for my life!”

I can’t believe the chorus is already here. Has time passed that quickly?

“‘Take your passion!

And make it happen!’”

Tomo’s friends, as she was singing, were absolutely enraptured by it, which made her extremely happy. (And, of course Mimori was giggly the whole entire time, because cheese.)

But then, just as her performance started, it ended… and then it was Drew’s turn.

The boy got up to get in front of the TV, shaking like Tomo was. He started to type in the name of the song that want, which ended up taking quite a bit because the boy was obviously not that familiar with twenty-first century technology.

The song ended up being “Machinehead” by Bush.

“I’m telling you, I’m not very good at this,” Drew warned. “I have laser-disc karaoke back at my house, and I’m terrible at it.”

★

In the end, Tomo ultimately proved to Drew in the Karaoke Battle really was just a girl misplaced in time. Her reward? Nothing, really. Just a pat on the back from the guy in question, which was more than what Tomo wanted.

It was now nighttime and everybody was conked out except Tomo and Drew. The bespectacled girl was replaying the events of the past almost two hours in her mind.

She had to admit, it was one of the most fun moments in her life, and she had plenty of those the past year.

However, that wasn’t the only thing that was swimming through her mind.

She couldn’t stop thinking about Drew, the nineties, and her desire to stay in the past.

I wanna stay in the past. I’m scared to move forward to the future.

Fear of the unknown, and all that.

Tomo poked Drew and whispered his name.

He groaned from his spot on the couch, where he was sleeping. (Mimori was too tired to go back to his time and put him back there, so she promised she’d do that in the morning.)

The boy rolled around to face her, eyes locked into hers.

Why do I feel a little intimidated?

“D-Drew,” she began.

“Yeah?” he responded softly.

It occurred to her for a split second how ridiculous their situation would be to someone who didn’t know anything about her or the club. A boy and a girl talking to each other about one in the morning… and yet they were anything but a couple.

“I-I’m scared,” she stuttered out. “I-I’m scared of moving forward into the future.”

Tomo could see Drew smile in the darkness. “I getcha. I get scared of my future all the time. I may not be exactly the same as you, but I think you can do it. I think you’re stronger than you think.”

The tone of his voice was soft and gentle like he was coaxing a kindergartener. It was helping her calm down, but…

Tears still trickled down Tomo’s face.

“I’m sorry that I’m crying,” she bleated.

Drew got up from the couch and sat on the floor, embracing Tomo and patting her head.

“It’s just that—all my life, I was surrounded by old everything, just about. The only new things were my glasses and groceries. I knew nothing of the real world, only the past… And now—”

“Shhh…” Drew said in a whisper. “I understand. Now, listen. Calm down, okay? You’ll be okay.”

Tomo steadied her breathing as she did earlier, and she quickly felt calmer.

“I, I…” she gulped. “I don’t think I’m gonna survive out there. I’m scared.”

“You’ll be fine. You’ll be able to work it out. You have your friends, remember? They’ll be able to help you out.”

Ah.

He’s right.

And with that simple statement, Tomo laid down on the blankets Mari gave her and closed her eyes. Drew laid back on the couch as well.

“Thank you, Drew,” she whispered. “I appreciate you.”

Wait. Before I doze off…

She was fighting her sleepiness now.

“ … By the way, phones are stupid anyway.”