Followers
Mia and Marley are arguing again about who they should follow. Marley says they should follow Riley because stop-motion animation and piano are easier interests to follow than Trina’s English riding lessons and trips to South Africa. Plus Riley is kind of famous for single-handedly getting the school to make one of the bathrooms gender neutral. They were interviewed on the news and everything.
It isn’t that Mia doesn’t want to follow Riley, it’s just that Riley has like a million interests. Marley says it’s a good thing that Riley has so many interests. “More things for us to like. We should definitely follow them.”
She wins the argument, of course. Marley always wins.
After school they get in line behind Riley. The line is so long that Mia can’t even see them up there, but Daniel, who is in line in front of Mia and Marley, says they are in the right place. He is also following Riley.
Marley asks Daniel if he knows where they’re going. Daniel shrugs and asks these twin girls in front of him. The twins shrug too.
Everyone keeps walking down the sidewalk and after a while, maybe ten minutes, one of the twins—the one with longer hair, the one with purple bangs—tells Daniel something, and Daniel turns around and tells it to Mia and Marley. Apparently they are going to see puppies! Riley’s grandma has a French bulldog and it just had puppies! Marley says to Mia, super loudly—like she isn’t even talking to Mia, she’s just saying it to get followers—“I love French bulldog puppies!” Also, Mia is the one who really loves French bulldog puppies. Marley loves them, but not as much as she loves kittens.
Marley puts both her hands around Mia’s ear and whispers, “Don’t look, but we have followers.”
Mia immediately turns around to look.
“Mia!” Marley says.
It’s true—they have five followers. They have six followers.
Seven followers.
“See?” Marley says. “I told you we should follow Riley.”
Daniel turns around and tells Mia and Marley that the puppies are super cute.
“What do they look like?” Marley asks.
“Beats me,” Daniel says.
Marley turns around and tells their followers that the puppies are super cute.
“What do they look like?” this tiny girl asks. She’s carrying a giant stuffed unicorn and her backpack is practically as big as she is.
Mia has no idea how that tiny girl got to be a follower. She wants to say to the tiny girl, Shouldn’t you be in kindergarten or something? but then Marley says, “They look like really small French bulldogs.”
They keep walking. Daniel says Riley’s grandma is taking them to their piano lesson. Marley is super excited about this. “This is going to be so fun!” She turns around and repeats this to the tiny girl, who jumps up and down, dropping her unicorn and accidentally stomping on its head. The tiny girl starts to cry, but then Mia picks up her unicorn and brushes off the dirt. She gives it a kiss on its head and hands it back to the tiny girl.
Marley says, “This is the best day EVER!” and Mia says, “Yeah.” She isn’t sure why it’s the best day ever, but everyone is still following Riley, and Mia and Marley have at least twenty followers behind them, so maybe Marley is right.
It doesn’t take long to get to Riley’s piano lesson. Riley is learning to play Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” Marley says shhhh! when Mia whispers to her that she learned to play that song like three years ago.
“Riley is learning to play ‘Ode to Joy,’” Marley tells their followers. “It’s such a great song,” she says.
“How does ‘Ode to Joy’ go again?” she whispers to Mia.
“I don’t remember,” Mia says, even though she could play that song with her eyes closed.
Now Marley is looking up the song on her phone. “Oh,” she says. “Cool,” she says, even though Mia can tell she doesn’t really like it.
They pass a snow cone stand. “Look, Marley, snow cones!” They have all the best flavors, and there isn’t even a line.
Marley looks at the snow cone stand. She loves snow cones, but there’s no way she can leave the line. They must have fifty followers behind them now!
They pass Mia’s favorite park, the one with the bouncing bridge. “Marley,” Mia says, “remember that game we used to play? That game with the pinecones?” You got points for getting the pinecones across the bridge without hitting the rails.
“Hold on,” Marley says. “I’m waiting to hear where we’re going.”
Across the empty park is another line of kids passing the other way. That line is much shorter. It’s so short that the kids in back can see the kid who’s in front. He’s playing a guitar and all his followers are singing along. Mia quietly wishes that Riley played the guitar. She especially wishes this when Daniel turns around and says that they’re now going to get Riley’s hair cut. “At Hairapist,” he says. “Get it? Hairapist. Like Therapist.”
Marley laughs and explains Hairapist to their followers. The tiny girl doesn’t get it, but the others laugh, which makes Marley laugh even harder, which makes Daniel laugh harder too, and pretty soon everyone is cracking up. Everyone except for the tiny girl. And except for Mia, who is busy watching the guitar-playing boy and his singing followers.
On the way back from Riley’s hair appointment, the line curls around and everyone gets to see Riley’s new haircut. Everyone tells Riley how amazing they look. Everyone tells Riley that their hair is SO cool. Riley loves Marley’s comment that they look a lot older now, which was really Mia’s comment that Marley just repeated in a louder voice. Mia didn’t even really mean for it to be a compliment, she just thought Riley looked older, that’s all.
The other twin—the one with shorter hair and more freckles—tells Daniel something, and Daniel turns around and tells Mia and Marley that they are all going to sweep now.
Marley says, “Cool!”
“Marley,” Mia says, “why is sweeping cool?”
Marley ignores this comment and tells the tiny girl behind them that we are going to sweep now.
“Wait,” Daniel says. “First we are going to weed a little.”
“I don’t want to weed,” Mia says. “I’m tired.”
“Tho am I,” the tiny girl says. She is sucking on her thumb. Or no, she is sucking on her unicorn’s hoof.
Daniel says, “Actually we are going to bruise our teeth first, then weed, then go to sweep.”
“Wait,” Mia says, “that’s not right. I think they mean read and—”
But she is interrupted by the tiny girl. The tiny girl is tugging on Mia’s shirt. There’s a little popping cork sound when she takes the unicorn hoof out of her mouth. “Why are we going?” she asks.
“You mean where are we going?” Mia corrects.
“Why are we going?” the tiny girl insists.
This is a question that Mia does not know how to answer. “I’m not sure,” she tells the tiny girl.
Mia looks at Marley, who is smiling at the back of Daniel’s head. She looks at the other followers, all eagerly waiting for Riley to bruise their teeth. Next to Mia, two squirrels chase each other around a tree trunk, and beyond the tree, a woman is strapping a kayak onto the roof of her car. Across the street, blackberry bushes line the side of a pond, and for a while, Mia watches the crows pecking at the fallen berries. Then she takes the tiny girl’s hand.
“Unicorn wants a berry,” the tiny girl says.
“Yes,” Mia says, “that’s just what I was thinking.”
And the three of them—Mia, tiny girl, and unicorn—unfollow Riley and cross over to the other side of the street.