Platformed

Chapter 4

4

Nine years before the Community

“Got you some boba,” Beatrice said, plopping down on the bench across from her.

Sara looked up from her laptop, acknowledged her friend and the drink with a smile, then turned her attention back to the screen. “You changed your hair again.”

Bea tossed her head and flashed a grin, then took a sip from the giant boba straw. “Like it?”

It was straightened to within an inch of its life and dyed a shade of rather sickening green, but Sara wasn’t about to tell Bea just how much she hated it. “It looks like it took a lot of effort.”

Bea snorted. “You think it’s ugly.”

“I liked the blue better.”

“Yeah, but the blue was a bitch.” Bea leaned forward, craning her neck to see Sara’s screen. “How can you work in the sun like this?”

Sara tipped the screen back to give Bea a look. “We don’t all have ancient computers, Bea. There’s a filter so I can see.”

“You gonna try the tea?”

Sara sighed and picked up the blue-gray drink. It had sweated all over the picnic table. “Earl Gray?”

“I knew you’d want caffeine.”

“Thank.”

“Welc,” Bea giggled, never able to keep a straight face.

Sara smiled, though her bad mood from earlier lingered even with her friend trying to cheer her up.

“Why’re you working on this beautiful Friday afternoon, you nerd?” Bea asked.

“I have something due at midnight,” Sara explained.

“On a Friday? Gross!”

Sara shrugged. “If it was easy, everyone would do it.”

“Everyone is doing it,” Bea pointed out, since computer science was by far the most popular major. She chewed a tapioca ball dramatically.

“Close your mouth when you chew. Were you raised in a cave?”

Bea waggled her eyebrows. “You know I was.”

Sara laughed. “Anyway, tonight. I’ll come out with you guys after I get this turned in.”

“You better!”

“I will, I promise,” Sara assured her, repositioning the laptop screen as if she were going to return to work.

The sound of raised voices echoed across the quad and they both looked toward it but didn’t see anything. Probably some a cappella group performing or something.

“Anyway, this is like all I have to do this weekend. Well, and internship apps.”

“You’ll have a hard time getting an internship looking like that.”

Sara looked across at her sharply. “What do you mean?”

Bea was the one with hideous green hair and a nose ring.

But then, in Silicon Valley that was fairly acceptable.

Bea gestured at Sara with her bubble tea, now almost empty. “You look like a f*****g cheerleader or something. Way too blonde for the startup boys.”

Sara relaxed. “I thought you were calling me ugly or something.”

“That’ll never be your problem, my love.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Now f**k off, my build is failing.”

“I’m proud to say that I don’t know what that means,” Bea said. “But aren’t you going to ask me how I’m doing?”

The voices were getting louder, more obtrusive, and Sara fought to keep them from distracting her. Much as she loved Bea, she really did have a lot to do before midnight.

Sara took a long sip of her tea, making Bea wait, then said, “Will you go away after I ask?”

Bea shrugged. “Only one way to find out, isn’t there?”

“Fine, then. How are you doing, friend?”

Bea leapt up and pointed dramatically at a building to their left, startling Sara so much she almost dropped her tea. “You know what happened there in the ’70s?”

Sara shook her head. “Is that the history building? Anthro?”

“Psychology,” Bea said, with dramatic flair. She waited to see if that would trigger recognition in Sara’s eyes, but she had no idea what was special about the psych building.

Bea sat down again and slurped up the last of her tea before continuing. “They did this super unethical experiment, recruited a bunch of students here and told half of them they were prison guards and the other half convicted criminals.”

“Was ethics just not a thing in the ’70s?”

Bea shrugged. “I think they invented morals sometime around when people realized the Vietnam War was a disaster.”

Sara shook her head. “Pretty sure that’s wrong.”

Bea grinned. “Anyway, you know what happened?”

Sara could guess, but she knew Bea wanted to tell her. “What happened?”

“The dudes embraced it! Like the prisoners were groveling or rebellious, the guards got abusive—they had to call it off early.”

“Wild.”

“Right?”

Sara shrugged. “I mean, I don’t really see the big deal.”

“What?” Bea looked shocked.

Before she could elaborate, though, the shouting voices they’d heard went drastically up in volume. “Divest the rest!”

Sara put her hands over her ears, though it wasn’t really that loud. “Guess they got the microphone to work.”

A crowd of about a dozen students marched past, holding handmade cardboard signs and shouting. Sara couldn’t even make out for certain what they were advocating.

They rounded the end of the quad and continued on toward the university president’s office, their ruckus fading. The girls watched them go.

When they’d thoroughly passed, Sara sighed. “What do they think is gonna happen?”

Bea had a quizzical expression on her face. “I should protest more.”

Sara snorted before realizing her friend was serious. “That’s what that made you think?”

“Yeah, I mean, they’re doing something! What’re we doing?”

“I figure once I get my tech job, I can donate to the Sierra Club or the ACLU,” Sara replied. “I can’t do anything now.”

“But they are!”

Sara scrunched up her nose. The crowd had congregated around the president’s office and stood there, clapping their hands and wearing out their voices. They had no audience. “Are they?”

Bea stared at her for a moment, looking disappointed, if anything. Then her usual chipper expression returned.

“You were going to add something about the prison experiment?” she said.

Sara shrugged. “I don’t remember, was I?”

Then an alarm went off on Sara’s phone and she swore.

“What’s that?”

“My timer—I need to go put my laundry in if it’s gonna be done before dinner, and then I’ll have time to get this all done by midnight and—”

“You need to lighten up, is what you need,” Bea said, shaking a finger in mock warning. “I’ll see you at midnight, my little reverse Cinderella lovely!”

Sara folded up her computer and held it in one hand, the last of her warming tea in the other. She waved awkwardly with the hand holding the tea. “See you tonight!”

She went off to do her laundry and didn’t see Bea wander toward the protesters and join their chant.