[Scene: A high school hallway during lunch. Two friends — JAYDEN and TY — are leaning against a locker, scrolling on their phones. A quiet boy, LIAM, walks by with his backpack slung over one shoulder.]
Jayden: (snorting)
Yo, that’s him — Liam. Look at this. He’s got, like, 42 followers on Insta. And half of them are bots.
Ty: (laughing)
Bro. That’s painful. In this day and age? That’s basically social suicide.
Jayden:
How do you even walk into school like that? No posts, no stories, no drip. It’s giving invisible.
[They laugh together. Liam hears, but doesn’t say anything. He keeps walking — quiet, but not clueless.]
Ty:
Man probably still uses Facebook.
Jayden:
Nah, bro’s on Pinterest.
[They laugh again. But then, something happens. Another student walks by, nods at Liam, and says “Hey, great job at the robotics comp, man. You crushed it.”
Ty: (watching, confused)
Wait… what comp?
Jayden:
I think he’s, like, crazy smart. Didn’t he build that AI thing the school posted about?
[Suddenly, they scroll through the school’s official Instagram page. Sure enough — there’s a photo of Liam being handed a trophy, surrounded by a cheering crowd.]
Ty: (quietly)
Wait… that’s him?
Jayden: (still staring)
Dude’s got 42 followers… and a whole future ahead of him.
[They fall silent. The weight of their own shallow judgment hits them.]
