Yo

• Monica Lee, Grade 12
• Short Story
• 2014

Luke awoke to a shrill beeping coming from his left armpit. The boy flailed his leaden limbs through the night in a lethargic attempt to silence the noise. Unsuccessful, he rose into a sitting position, his hair resembling that of a Seussical primate. Then, slowly, Luke’s brain comprehended the significance of the beeping armpit. He reeled a length of lanyard that had twisted under his arm in bed, knowing, but dreading what he would find on the end. His Tamagotchi. And the beeping could only mean one thing – that Jojo, his ill-fated virtual pet was no more.

A trembling finger moved towards Jojo’s tiny ‘restart’ button but before it got there, Luke’s despair was swiftly intercepted by an acute feeling of rage. Suddenly, he realised how pathetic Tamagotchis were and a newfound determination to find a better hobby than the deplorable electronic game blazed in the youngster’s eyes.

Luke decided the first thing he ought to do was seek advice from an expert on hobbies and popular culture.
"Hey Ben, what's cool at the moment?" Luke asked his adolescent brother, Ben.
The mesomorphic male paused for a moment, then murmured enigmatically, "Right now, it's cool to be uncool.”
Luke paused for a moment, then replied, "Ummmm.... Wha?"
"Like...(Ben often said that. At that time, Luke’s teacher had just taught similes, so the boy was of the impression that Ben was a poetic genius as well as a walking encyclopaedia)...like... uncool, old-fashioned things are in fashion at the moment. And if you’re, like, down with that, it’s called being ‘hipster’."

To Luke, ‘hipster’ sounded like a type of underwear, but the inherent wisdom that dripped from Ben’s every word persuaded the youngster to pursue this lifestyle. Luke ran resolutely to the toy box, rifling through its glorious chaos. After he had finished untangling himself from two slinkies and half a gummi python, he came across the perfect plaything. The boy cradled the small, circular toy reverently. It was so ancient, it was made of wood. Then, with a sudden flick of the wrist, he let it fly towards the ground to be caught by its string, spinning enchantingly. As the spinning eventually subsided, the red blur on the side of the object transformed into a majestic painting of a dragon's head. Luke decided that a unique and charismatic yoyo such as this deserved a name – Dragon Warrior.

With all the confidence of an Almost-Nine-Year-Old, Luke set off to school with Dragon Warrior in his bag, waiting to pounce on Tamagotchi conformists.
As soon as the bell rang for lunch, Dragon Warrior became alive. The voices of Luke’s close friends crescendoed to an exhilarated clamour, eight grubby hands groping in desperate pursuit of the toy.
This drew attention.
In a moment, all of Luke’s peers had formed a haphazard circle around the boy and his Dragon. Next, a raucous wave of admiring infants joined the crowd.

And as Luke rode his Dragon outside the sanctuary of trivial trends, his captivated audience began to realise just how cool uncool could be. Soon, every year-three wanna-be was trying on this style. Yoyos became a fad so that everyone was ‘hipster’.

Just like Luke.