Episode 4: V.I.P. (View in Person)

It was finally time.

The time was now, the ghost was near.It was finally time for Tomo to come to terms with the fact that it was currently 2016 and not 1999 anymore.
But not that…
Her parents finally decided that it was time to move on as well.
They told her all of this on a regular Monday afternoon, at the tail end of November.
“So honey,” Tomo’s mother began, voice noticeably shaking. “We thought we’d finally tell you, so here it goes.” She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. “Your dad and I are proud to announce that we’re finally moving forward.” Tomo cocked her head to the side. Does this mean what I think this means…? Her dad spoke as well. “In other words, Tomo-chan, we’re making technological advances in this household. We will both be getting smartphones, a new computer, and a flat-screen TV. We’ve been thinking of doing this for a while now.” Tomo’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. It is time! “Well… wow…” was what she managed to say. “Dang. Congrats, guys!” She clapped her hands together, feeling genuinely happy for her parents. “I know, right?” To-Mom giggled. “Next thing you know, we’ll be all that and a bag of chips on this block!” “And you can even get us a MySpace or Facebook account or whatever you kids use these days,” To-dad replied, grinning. Tomo wanted to correct her dad badly, but she refrained. It was kind of adorable, actually. Tomo nodded, grinning. “Okay! I sure will then!” “Alright, honey. That’s all we needed you for. You can go now.” To-Mom waved her hand at her, signaling that she should go back into her room. I don’t think they were doing anything particularly special out here, but okay then. When it came to Tomo’s parents, they were still a big mystery to her.★After Tomo went back into her room, she fell right onto her bed like a plush doll, grasping the sheets as if her life depended on it. “Why am I feeling so overwhelmed…?” she muttered into her bed. Well, it was easy to explain. All her childhood, all she knew was the culture of the past. She was fed lies by her mom and dad that the world had ended outside, that there was nothing left except a vast wasteland that children shouldn’t go out into. She was literally sheltered against her will. And then one day they told her they lied to her to protect her. And she cried but ultimately accepted them because there was nothing else to do. They let her go to school, but still forbid anything new from coming into the house because they viewed it as being “potentially harmful.” And now they, the people that fed her lies, were ending the lies for themselves. They too were moving on, slowly forgetting the past. Tomo lay still in her bed, thinking of all that had happened in the past few years, only squirming when her feet fell asleep. And that was when the idea hit her. I should make a slideshow for them to update them on the new world. They may have a computer but I swear they only use it for filing taxes. We don’t even have Internet, just mobile data and cable that they barely use. So there it was. Something fun to work on, and a learning project for her, too. She was gonna recruit her friends, and it was going to be awesome.★“What? Really!?” Mari shrieked. “That’s absolutely insane!” She said that last bit in an unfamiliar man’s voice. “SCARCE!” Behami hollered. Tomo, as usual, didn’t understand what she meant by that. “But, yeah. I totally agree. What made your parents wanna go digital anyway?” “Probably because time is marching on and things are getting more and more reliant on technology,” Tomo said. “They need to move on from their cult days. Yes, they were in a cult… or so I’ve heard.” Kasumi gasped, almost choking on her water. “WHAT?! You’re just gonna say that like it’s NOTHING?!” “Yes, as that’s all I know. My knowledge on that subject is particularly limited because they haven’t told me much about it. I assume it’s something that they’re pretty ashamed of now.” “Wow,” said Cone, clearly shocked. Tomo felt kind of bad for him not knowing all of her and her friends’ lore. “Okay. Fair enough.” Yes, Cone was there. Mimori wanted him to become a member of the club because “it sounded fun”, but because he didn’t exactly go to that school they kept his existence a secret in the club room. Tomo hoped that their advisor wouldn’t show up any time soon. After that bombshell, Tomo began to explain her brilliant idea to her clubmates. “I like it,” Erica said, smirking. “We can definitely do this. After all, I am a pro at PowerPoints!” “You are?” Tomo was unaware of this character trait of hers. “I am! Totally! I can whip one up about anything in under ten minutes!” She grinned. “It’s one of my talents from back in the U.S.” Mimori cringed. “Please, no. Not a PowerPoint! Do, like, a Prezi or something!” “Oh God, no, not a Prezi!” Kasumi groaned. “My language arts teacher uses those way too much.” Cone looked at the girls, perplexed. “What the hell is a PowerPoint and a Prezi?” Tomo sighed. I better explain it to him then. Looks like Mimori-chan’s been teaching him all the wrong things. “It’s a digital presenting thing. Don’t worry, I used to not know, either!” Erica clapped her hands together, signaling everyone’s attention. “Alright, everyone! Google Slides it is! I’ll start designing it tonight. In the meantime though, let’s make this a group effort.” She looked at Cone. “You can join in it, too, if you want.” “But he doesn’t—” Mimori began. “I know, I know. But he can at least join Mimori in researching things. That’ll give him more knowledge of the current world!” “It’s weird,” he stated. “I don’t like it. There, I already know enough about it. See?” Erica stared at him, long and hard. Tomo was assuming that she was trying to read his mind. After about thirty seconds, she gave up and continued on with what she was saying. Is he that thoughtless that she couldn’t get anything out of it? That was wack. “Anyway,” she said, marching on. “I’m gonna make a signup sheet really quick for you guys. We’re gonna try to cover all we can in… eight or so slides. Okay?” The girl pulled a piece of paper out of one of her notebooks and whipped out a pen, scribbling down numbers for each slide. A few seconds later everyone peered over the sheet to see what was written down. The paper next to the numbers were things like average prices of basic items, recent popular music, TV shows, and celebrities who passed away, amongst others. After reading it, the club members formed a line and wrote down which slide they wanted to cover one by one. “So!” Erica shouted when everyone was done. “Who signed up for what?” She began to read intently. “Hmm… okay, okay, mm-hm, yup, predictable, good. Yay, we’re all set!” Mimori got out of her chair and cheered. “Wafuu~! I’m hype for this!” “Cringe.” Kasumi retorted. Mimori glared at her friend. Erica continued speaking. “Like I said guys, I’m gonna start working on it tonight! If any of you want to have any input on what else I should include, make sure to shoot me an email.” Asuka briefly looked down at her phone. Tomo assumed that she opened her contacts on her phone or something. “What’s your email then?” “SparklyUnicorn65,” she said, face fully flushed. Tomo tittered while everyone else giggled. Everyone now had their own slide to work on for their presentation. The slide that Tomo was going to work on, however, was simple, as it was already labeled on the paper that Erica wrote on. In big, capital letters at the very top of the page it said: 1. INTRODUCTION (FOR TOMO ONLY!!!) It was a silent agreement made by the two girls—literally. Tomo gestured for Erica to read her mind and she did. It only made sense. It was her own project, after all. Erica was only assisting her with it, as Tomo was inept at today’s pop culture. She only knew what she knew.★When Tomo came home from school, she couldn’t believe what she saw. It was her parents, listening to the mainstream radio while going through boxes of some of their stuff that used to be all piled up in the storage room. She was speechless. They’re kind of like a rock band that’s afraid of losing relevancy and are trying to appeal to the mainstream. Heh! That thought that crossed her mind wasn’t that far from the truth, however… even though her parents weren’t rockstars. “Tomo-chan!” To-Mom said in a cheery voice. “Welcome home! Don’t mind us here, we’re just going through some things and seeing if we can get rid of anything to 2nd and Charles!” She gestured to a box to the far right of her. Tomo assumed that was the stuff that was going to the aforementioned store. “You can go through that if you want!” “Ah, okay!” Tomo said and she began to look through the box. Unfortunately, it was filled with a bunch of action figures that she didn’t care about so looking didn’t last very long. I hope they get some money from this… and knowing them, they probably heard of this store from one of their close friends that they often call or something. Her dad then spoke up and immediately gained her attention. He chuckled. “Hey, honey, when did we get this?” She gasped. In his hands was the NSYNC album No Strings Attached. When did they get that indeed? That’s after their time! When she meant that line she obviously meant that the album came out after they started bunkering down. “I have no clue honey,” To-mom admitted. “Perhaps it was a gift from a friend? Check the date on the back.” She was asking him to do this as if the CD was expired food. To-dad flipped it to the back and checked. “It says ‘2000,’” he declared. “Hmm.” “Well then, it was a gift from one of our friends who were unaware of the situation.” She smiled a small smile. “That must’ve been in the early days.” As her mom was talking, Tomo raised her hand, signaling her parents’ attention. “I’ll have it!” she said excitedly. “I already have the album myself but my friend Mimori loves early 2000s boy bands so she’ll want it!” To-Mom cocked her head to the side. “Oh, really? Nice! I’m assuming that they’re still not popular today then?” Tomo sadly shook her head and her mom frowned. Tomo’s dad turned to his wife. “That’s the messy-haired brunette with the flower hairclip, right?” “Yes, sweetie.” The two of them had seen pictures of her friends before. “Alright,” he harrumphed, giving Tomo the prized treasure. “Hope she enjoys it. I’ve never listened to it, so I don’t know what’s on there.” He sighed. “I can’t believe we haven’t touched any of this stuff in years.” To-Mom nodded. “I know. We really are hoarders, huh?” She paused her speech, listening to the radio announcer instead. “Did he just say that that song he just played was called ‘Broccoli?’” Before Tomo’s mouth formed a cringe, she left the room. “Thank you!” she yelled, while still trying to be polite. As she was walking down the narrow but long hallway, she found herself inspecting the object. To her astonishment, the thing was never opened, meaning that it still had the plastic wrapping and price tag sticker on it and everything. Wow. This really is like an artifact! Tomo thought back to her sheltered, elementary school self and how ecstatic she would’ve been to find out that NSYNC recorded more stuff than just their debut, their Christmas album, and that one single with Gloria Estefan. Once Tomo approached her room, she called out to no one in particular as she usually did. “I’m home!” Instead of flopping onto her bed like always, she took a careful look around her room, taking everything in. The cream-colored walls, the seriously outdated posters of long-forgotten celebrities… … The outdated, well, everything. It amazed Tomo that her room even stayed this way for so long. It had been like that since she was at least the end of fourth grade (well, home-school-wise) when started to get into the boy bands she saw on the MTV tapes that she had. She still loved that room, don’t get her wrong. She wouldn’t change anything in it for the world. Tomo walked into her room finally and looked at the bulletin that was above her desk. A bulletin that was covered in photos that she took of her friends with her digital camera whenever they went on any club adventures. Things are changing here, though. Little by little. After reminiscing a bit, Tomo’s eyes fluttered back to the CD, still in her hands. Still wrapped, still looking brand-spankin’-new. “I should keep it like this,” she said to herself, grinning. Mimori is gonna totally dig this! However, seeing that CD again made her want to listen to her own copy. The girl went over to her CD/cassette/record shelf and took out the version of Not Strings Attached she had—one that was definitely well-loved by a girl from the past whom she never met. One that she, coincidentally, got from the same 2nd and Charles that her parents were going to visit, but she was on a trip with the club earlier that year. Tomo popped the disc into her Discman and put on her headphones, ready to indulge in some of her newer favorite tunes. “Bye Bye Bye” started to blare in her ears, and she fell back onto the carpet, a big ol’ smile covering her face. I truly am the happiest I can possibly be right now. That, of course, wasn’t a lie (heh). Anxiety about the future was still in her mind, but her friends helping her out with this PowerPoint helped reassure her that she and her family were going to be educated about the present and that in and of itself made her anxious and happy at the same time.★To the surprise of no one, Mimori adored the present. In fact, she praised it. “Praise NSYNC!” she shouted passionately. “Amen!” “Amen!” Tomo responded, eyes closed while smiling. Cone chortled at the two’s overreaction to the CD. Erica cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention, and it worked as usual. “Guys, I spent over two hours working on that Powerpoint last night, and I did it! Thank you all for pitching in with your research!” Ah, okay. It all made sense to Tomo now. When Erica meant “working on it” she really meant “working on it with you guys.” Asuka smiled broadly, something she didn’t see much from the girl at all. “I’m glad that it came out well. As a team effort, I’m sure that we’ll reach your parents quite well, Tomo. The girl nodded. “Oh, it did! Erica shared it with me earlier this morning while I was eating my breakfast and I looked it over!” She clapped her hands together, looking clearly happy. “And it looks amazing! It’s insane in the membrane at how fast technology has advanced so far that I could look at all that!” As hinted at, Tomo had taken a picture of what she had written for her slide and sent it over to Erica over the group chat. Yes. Only Tomo got an exclusive look at the PowerPoint thus far, her being the one who came up with the idea and all (and also the second one in charge of all of this). It truly was a club effort. “Anyway, anyway! I want you guys to check it out, see what you think of it!” Erica grinned herself, taking her laptop out of her backpack and turning it while setting it on the table. Behami frowned. “Hey, how could we didn’t get to look at it?” “Because Tomo’s my co-person in charge,” Erica responded immediately. “Anyway, here it is right now. You shouldn’t complain. No sooner did she say that her computer showed its desktop and she went onto Google Chrome and loaded the Google Slides app. With two clicks, the PowerPoint was up on the screen for all to see. “Daaaamn! It does look good!” Mari shouted, cartoonishly shocked. “All of mine always turn out looking like shit… probably because I don’t put too much effort into them anyway.” It did look fantastic, however. The slides, all of them, looked incredibly professional. If Tomo didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought they were made by an adult who worked for a marketing company or something. All the colors complement each other, there were no tacky fonts like Comic Sans or that Mexican font and the slides were all in the same as they were on the sheet that she laid out for them the day before. Everyone murmured in agreement, and Tomo could see her friend’s ego inflating each time someone complimented her. She deserves it though! I’m so proud of her! “So, everyone. Should we present today after school, tomorrow, or what? I’d like it to be this week, if possible.” Mimori jolted, eyes ratcheting wide open like she’d seen a ghost. “WAIT! WHY AFTER SCHOOL?! Ah, it’s lunch break right now, right. That’s why we’re all together right now.” She paused for dramatic purposes. “BUT WHY THOOUGH?!” Erica shrugged. “If we’re passionate enough about the topic, then we shouldn’t have trouble talking about it on the spot, right? Plus, we’ll have the slides behind us, so it won’t be a big deal. We can just read off of those if we want.” Mari laughed heartily. “I can do that no problem! I’m always great at improvisation, remember?” Mimori sighed heavily, leaning up against the bookshelf. “Okay. Fine then, I’ll do it. As long as I can read from the PowerPoint the whole time.” “Do whatever you want, as long as you’re comfortable. And Tomo-chan? Make sure to call your parents right now!” Tomo saluted her friend in a playful way as she finished swallowing a bite of applesauce. “Got it!”★Her parents, of course, said yes to Tomo’s question, as their jobs both ended around 3 so they had plenty of time to get something to eat and head over to their school by 3:30. the destined time of the presentation. After school, the girls (and boy, although Cone was going to be a part of the audience for this one) gathered in the club room and decided to do a dry run-through before Tomo’s parents were supposed to arrive. Tomo was already feeling the nerves, which was natural for her. After all, she was going to be telling her about stuff that has happened in the past decade and a half that they may not know about (potentially, but lay more on the side of them not knowing, considering they still watched old tape recordings and somehow haven’t gotten sick of them already). Once the run-through was over, the girls talked amongst themselves until Tomo got a call from her parents saying that they were at the front door, and to once again tell them where the club room was, to which she told them. A little more than five minutes later, they arrived and were quite impressed at their club room altogether. “Wow!” To-Mom said, obviously looking excited for her daughter. “I’ve been to school for your parent-teacher conferences but I’ve never visited your club room before! It looks terrific!” A sweat drop formed on the girl’s cheek. “Ah, thanks, Mom. Yeah, it’s pretty much a normal literature club room, but thanks!” That’s the first time I’ve ever played a straight man like that, huh? It feels weird to be doing that! After exchanging a few words with her friends, the club started up the presentation and got going. Tomo walked up there first and began with her the first two slides. “This presentation is going to familiarize you guys with what has been going on in the past one and a half decades.” The girl cleared her throat as Erica clicked to the next slide. “As you already know, the Y2K scare did in fact happen, but Y2K itself did not. Everything continued on as normal. For the next however many minutes you’re going to learn about what has changed in terms of pop culture, politics, as well as who has passed on.” She bowed and walked back to her seat in the crowd. Okay, guys. Do your thing.★The girls did in fact do their thing. In fact, they did it pretty well… Although of course some of the girls couldn’t help but show their character as they were presenting, which also happened in the dry run, but that was to be expected. Mimori was the first one up and she talked about how new albums by bands that they might like were released and how they were alright. She also ranted about pop music from the past five years, to which her parents just chuckled and nodded. Behami talked about video games and how much they have improved since the last nineties. She talked about the Xbox as well as the infamous game Sonic 06 as an example of awful games. Tomo’s dad couldn’t get over a Sonic game possibly being bad, and Tomo thought that way as well. It can’t be that bad… right? Kasumi talked about modern phones and the apps they could have on them. Her parents were very puzzled about this, as they hadn’t really investigated their daughter’s phone because they weren’t interested in it. Her slide, however, did actually make them interested in smartphones, which Tomo didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She also had to bring up Snapchat, which her parents couldn’t have possibly fathomed as well. Asuka discussed the politics of the current millennia and who was now their prime minister, to which they were somewhat educated. Somewhat educated because they already knew who was their current prime minister. This made Tomo glad that they didn’t live under that giant of a rock. Mari talked about popular movies of the past decade and a half to which her parents were extremely interested, even though the girl admitted that a lot of movies these days were actually shit (her words, not mine!). They seemed to be the most interested in the Marvel movies, particularly her dad which didn’t surprise her in the slightest. Erica was the last one to present as she talked about the hardest slide of all, which was the In Memoriam section. It predictably showed all of the celebrity and musician deaths that had happened so far in the twenty-first century. And that was how the presentation concluded.★The slideshow worked on them terrifically. Not only did her parents learn a lot about the new millennium, but they were also ridiculously kind and endearing during it. They reacted at the right times, and even teared up at the end, which is what she was hoping would happen. Hell, even Tomo cried. Tomo was super proud of herself and her friends. As a celebration of how well it went, Erica decided to show a video at the end—more specifically, the most recent History of Rap with Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake—which her parents enjoyed immensely. After all of that Tomo was driven home, which she didn’t mind at all because that meant that she got to hear more of her parents talking about the presentation. Her dad even had the Wrif playing in the background, which Mimori recommended he listen to. “That presentation was amazing,” To-Dad said, grinning. “I loved every minute of it. You guys made me feel every emotion under the sun!” To-Mom nodded. “Yes, great job sweetie. But—” a whiny tone was added to the woman’s voice. “Why did all the great artists have to die!? What did Prince do to deserve it!? And Bowie, and MJ…” Honestly, Tomo didn’t know what to say to her mom about that, as that was something that couldn’t be said through words. Instead, she decided to tune them out and listen to the Metallica song that was on the radio, the song in question being “One.” I guess I’m becoming like Mari for a few minutes here! As Tomo did, she thought to herself about how it was actually a good thing, to know about stuff in the real world. For the first time in her life, she actually felt like she was ready to move on. Of course, she could love and use her old stuff—but she could be living in the now as well. As the Mizuno family pulled into the driveway, a new, exciting feeling filled her body… a feeling that was “Yeah, I’m ready for the future.” She finally felt it this time. Bring it on.