Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 99918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Chloe had always been his little go-getter. She was class president, head cheerleader, and in the top ten of her graduating class.
“Honey, your dad’s right about his biggest concern. You took too many risks on this one. Leaving school during mid-terms, driving so far on your own without telling us, and organizing something that got so many kids in trouble may not be the most effective way to accomplish your goals.” Teri ticked off the points on her fingers as she spoke.
“I know. I do, I just didn’t find out about this until yesterday. I thought the school had to publically announce these things? And I didn’t want anyone in trouble. I wanted to exercise my civil liberty to protest the stadium coming down. I thought maybe ten kids would show up. All those kids being there wasn’t my fault. I made it clear that we had to keep all communication on Dad’s network. None of the authorities would have known if they would have followed the rules. Stupid Jake put the announcement on Facebook for the world to see.” Chloe sounded disgusted.
Dylan carefully hid his pride in her words.
Teri had lost two cases over the last ten years when the opposing side presented old social media posts from My Space and Facebook casting doubt on the character of the person she represented. She had long since forgotten that was the entire reason Dylan had created the no-paper-trails social media network called Secret. People shouldn’t be held responsible in their thirties for some silly post made when they were fifteen. That was just dumb.
Unfortunately, Teri’s thoughts on the computer hadn’t evolved. She didn’t see the value in anything that allowed people to hide behind a screen. “Dylan, this is exactly what I’ve been saying for years. You take blame in this too. Companies like yours that give these children so much access but don’t teach them to be responsible with it are fundamentally at fault,” Teri stated, looking straight at Dylan.
“I’m not doing this again with you,” Dylan said firmly, though he realized when his creation had turned into a worldwide revolution, and even his children started using the application, it had probably been the beginning of the end of their unified parental front.
Dylan turned toward his daughter. “Chloe, you need to keep us better informed as to what you’re doing. We aren’t asking you to lose your convictions, just be smarter about them. We’ve taught you better than what your actions reflected yesterday. We need to be able to trust you will use your very smart brain in the future.”
“Yes, sir.” Chloe looked apologetically toward him.
“And if there’s any chance that what you’re doing will result in calls from the police, please reconsider or let us know before you do it,” Dylan reasoned. “If you had let me know how serious this was to you, I would have picked you up and stood out there with you.”
“So would I. I’m sure there was a motion or injunction we could have filed to help halt this while you gathered the troops. There were much better ways to handle this whole situation,” Teri said in alliance with Dylan.
“Did they already tear it down?” Chloe asked, her uncertainty touched his heart.
“The wrecking crews were there at seven this morning.” Dylan leaned over and patted her arm. He knew those words were going to cut deep inside his passionate girl.
“Dang it! This is wrong! They shouldn’t be allowed to tear down our history like that. Our elected officials don’t represent us anymore. They just bully us and shove their agenda down our throats.” Dylan would never say a word about how those ideals wouldn’t have helped in this situation. Chloe was upset and the tears were back in her eyes. Her pain now becoming his own.
“And that’s why you’re getting into law, to make those changes to our world.” At those words, Chloe launched herself at her mother. Teri held a crying Chloe in her arms, stroking her hair, trying to give her comfort.
Several helpless minutes passed before she came up for air.
“Promise me, Chloe. No more of this. You’ll plan better next time, all right?” Dylan patted her head this time, pushing a few napkins on the table toward her. He was never really good with the tears that came from his daughters, but he wanted that point clearly made one more time before she left.
“Yes, sir.” Chloe sounded defeated, swiping at her eyes, cleaning her face.
“And we’ll all be smarter next time. Use all the resources we have to make the changes, not just break the law,” Teri added, nodding at her daughter.
“Yes, ma’am.” Chloe blew her nose loudly.
“All right, sweet girl, I went back into town and I got this for you from the stadium.” Dylan stood and went to one of the cabinets where he pulled out a small metal sign that said ‘Panther Power’ with the school’s logo-designed paw print in the middle. That got the tears going again. All he could do was look confused at Teri and push more napkins his daughter’s way. He hoped some happy tears were mixed in there.
“Thank you, Daddy.” Chloe was up, hugging him like he had given her the most special gift a person could receive. “I’m gonna hang this in my dorm room to always remember to fight for what I love.”
Dylan shot a look toward Teri, trying to gauge the drama factor of that sentence. Females were so different than males. When he got a little eye-roll from Teri, he nodded. That had to have rated above an eight on the excessive-drama meter. “Okay, go wash your face and dry your eyes before you head back to school.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, Daddy. Bye, Mom, be safe out of town.” Chloe closed the door to the bathroom off the kitchen as Dylan sat back down at the kitchen table.
“Did we even get our point across?” Dylan asked.
“She’s good. She’ll be a great litigator. She diverts the topic so well.” Teri took a long drink of coffee while they waited for Chloe to finish.