CHAPTER 15 REESE FALLS DOWN THE COMMENT HOLE

CLAUDIA

While I was gaining followers that week, Reese was losing them. Along with his mind.

REESE

It was all Mom’s fault. ’Cause she’s the one who kept telling me she was going to shut down my account if she found any bad language on my Blurt page.

But every time I deleted all the comments that had bad language, the trolls who wrote them just commented again with WORSE language!

BLURT COMMENT SECTION

CLAUDIA

Why didn’t you just block all their accounts?

REESE

I did! They kept coming back with different usernames!

BLURT COMMENT SECTION

REESE

It was seriously stressing me out. Like, I’d delete fifty comments, and an hour later, there’d be fifty more! It was totally cray.

So I asked Xander what we should do to get rid of the trolls. And he was like, “I’ma lay some smack down!”

And that just made it ten times worse. Especially when the trolls all started calling themselves “Skronkmonster.”

BLURT COMMENT SECTION

REESE

I freaked out and blocked all the usernames from “Skronkmonster_A” to “Skronkmonster_Z.” ^{Ed. Note: except X (which was Xander)} But then they started using numbers. And there was no way to block all the numbers. ’Cause numbers are infinite!

After that, all I could think about was how to stop the trolls. Wednesday afternoon, I had such a bad soccer practice that afterwards, Coach Unger wanted to know if everything was okay at home.

I seriously needed help. So I texted Dad for advice.

REESE AND DAD (text messages)

(REESE) Dad trolls keep flaming me in comments and I cant get rid of them what do I do???

(DAD) What are trolls?

And what’s flaming?

NM Ill ask mom

What’s NM?

REESE AND MOM (text messages)

(REESE) Mom thes trolls keep flaming me on Blurt how do I make them stop??

(MOM) Block their accounts

I did they just got new usernames

Try ignoring them. Maybe they will get bored and go away

I m ignoring them!!!!

I NEVER reply

It doesnt help

Also will u let me stop deleting swear words? I think its making them mad

NO. KEEP DELETING

REESE

That night, I deleted, like, a hundred comments and blocked everybody who wrote them. But they just kept commenting more under different names!

Then at 9:30, Mom came in and made me put away my electronics for the night.

CLAUDIA

Mom and Dad have a policy that we can’t go to sleep with any electronics ^{Ed. Note: -laptops -phones -ipads -etc.} in our bedrooms. This is because they don’t want us staying up all night online and/or going on the Internet before we even get out of bed in the morning.

REESE

So I put my laptop in the kitchen and went to bed. But while I was lying there, I thought, “If ignoring them and deleting them isn’t working… and Xander yelling at them didn’t work… maybe I should just try to talk to the trolls and ask them to be cool.”

So I snuck out to the kitchen and got my laptop from where Mom left it. I was just going to write one little message. But then it turned into a whole thing.

BLURT COMMENT SECTION

134 comments [load more]

@Skronkmonster hey other skronkmonsters can u be chill i m just trying to make some fun Blurts if u dont like it thats cool then y not just ignore it? Im not hurting anyone n I dont want to fight anybody

@Skronkmonster_05 awwwwww is sad skronkmonster sad?

@Skronkmonster_32 poor widdle baby

@Skronkmonster_414 u r the worst @skronkmonster

@Skronkmonster y would u say that????? U don’t no me at all

@Skronkmonster_909 ur Blurts r lame

@Skronkmonster ok fine so dont watch them

@Skronkmonster_909 n u copied off BewBewBoy

@Skronkmonster not on purpos we deleted that one

@jenna_in_FL @skronkmonster I THINK U R AWESUM JUST IGNORE THESE H8RS

@Skronkmonster thx @jenna_in_FL!!!

@Skronkmonster_909 sock puppet

@izzymarbles U R THE BEST @skronkmonster KEEP POSTING

@Skronkmonster thx @izzymarbles!

@Skronkmonster_32 wut happened did preskool just let out

REESE

When other people started sticking up for me, I was like, “This is awesome! They’re like troll fighters! I have a troll-fighting army!”

So they started ripping the trolls with me, and the trolls ripped us back, and a bunch of people got into it, and then somebody started talking about politics, and it got mad confusing, and it just kept going on and on, and then before I knew it Mom was at my bedroom door in her pajamas, yelling “WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP AT THIS HOUR?”

And that’s when I realized it was 3:00am.

BLURT COMMENT SECTION

CLAUDIA

After that, Mom and Dad decided Reese needed a break from Blurt. So they took away all his electronics for at least a week.

REESE

I was actually kind of glad they did it. Being on Blurt was really starting to grumpf ^{Ed. Note: not sure what this means (“stress”? “burn”?)} me out. After I got off it, I just wanted to, like, go outside and sit on a rock and stare at trees for a while.

But when Xander found out, he got totally skronked.

XANDER

I’s all, “You can’t punk out on me, bruh! I’m fixin’ to drop a MAD Blurt! We gonna blow the roof off this mutha!”

REESE

Xander had this idea for a new Blurt he was really hyped about. When I told him I couldn’t go online and post it, he said he’d do it himself if I just gave him my Blurt password.

CLAUDIA

But you didn’t give it to him, right? Because Mom and Dad have been telling us for YEARS to NEVER give our passwords to ANYBODY.

REESE

Yeah… Mom and Dad were right. That was really good advice.

I seriously wish I’d taken it.