5

You're still so caught up in thinking about it that you don't realize for a few minutes that Arctus isn't in your room. You're a little sad not to have her there for comfort—but when you eventually come downstairs, you find her in the kitchen as usual, and you assume she just got hungry waiting for you to wake up. You hear her whine softly when you come in, and you make sure she has enough to eat before getting anything for yourself.

Sitting down at last, you pull your grandma's laptop towards you. You've gotten into the habit of checking the news while you eat breakfast, and you're prepared for that slightly hollow feeling in your stomach that you usually get as you check the headlines—which is why it comes as a pleasant surprise that the first thing you see is actually a message from Marlowe.

Hi Huknock,

Last night was amazing. Is it just me, or do you still have that song stuck in your head too? I've already written, like, 2,000 words about the show (which is way too long, but I just had so much to say).

But the fact that I got to go with you was the best part by far. I think I fell asleep smiling. Thanks for the incredible night, and I hope we can do it again soon. I've got so much work to do today (mostly cutting out unnecessary adjectives until I get to 500 words), but if you're free tomorrow, do you want to meet up sometime? Maybe Skippy's again—it's pretty cool during the day too! Let me know. Marlowe :)

P.S. I have a present for you: pictures of my ferrets, Queen Terror and Mr. Wiggles. Both of them are extra wiggly, so I don't blame you if you can't tell which is which.

Opening the attachments, you find a treasure trove of ferret pictures, both animals little more than blurs in most of them. In a couple, they seem to be being walked on little harnesses. It might be the most adorable thing you've ever seen.

Finally, once you've finished reading Marlowe's message, you click over to the news site and browse through the headlines. The first one is just what you would expect—"Town Hall Windows Smashed in Wake of Environmental Protest"—followed by a few more ordinary pieces of local news.

When you spot the headline just a little further down the page, however, you freeze in place.

Protesters or Pillagers? Why Troublemaking Kids Are Tearing Our Town Apart

Stunned, you read on.

The first thing you see below the headline itself is a disclaimer letting you know that this article was not written by an employee of the news site, but is instead an opinion piece by a member of the public. Moving on to the article itself, it doesn't take you long to realize that the writer is suggesting that yesterday's protest was not only responsible for the broken windows, but that the chaos that followed was actually part of the protesters' plans from the beginning. According to the author, the protesters' goal wasn't to promote environmental awareness—"otherwise they would be out planting trees instead of shouting on street corners"—but instead to "rile people up for no good reason. They think that if enough people are scared, they'll get their way."

Even though he doesn't outright claim that any of the protesters were definitely responsible for smashing the Town Hall windows, the author nevertheless draws a link between the two, describing the protesters as wild and frenzied and adding that the window smashing occurred almost immediately after it became clear that Mr. Clarence wasn't going to engage with them. The article even uses a quote from Rana's interview in the previous day's news:

"They need to understand that…if the environment suffers, the town suffers as well."

Utterly dumbfounded, all you can do is stare at the screen. You just can't believe someone would tell those kinds of lies. After spending almost your whole day yesterday both setting up for and helping with the protest, you know that nothing could be further from the truth. Besides, you saw with your own eyes that the person who threw the bricks didn't come from the protest—and not only that, the article neglects to mention that most of the people cleaning up afterwards were the protesters themselves. You didn't see Rana for very long last night, but you can only imagine her anger upon reading this article.

You're pretty familiar by now with the way this news site works, and so you know you only have to look beneath the article to see the reactions of other readers. It only takes a glance at the comments for you to see that while most of the commenters seem to disagree with the article's take on things, there is still a relatively sizable group that seems convinced. And within those that believe the article, there are people calling for action to be taken against the protesters, for protests of that sort to be banned in future, and offering support for the Alberobello Developments.

You're still a little too caught up in disbelief to fully process what you're seeing—but after a few more minutes of rereading the article and checking the comments, you start to realize that everything you're seeing might have serious implications. And you're not sure whether you can just sit by and watch it happen.