“I’m wrapping up.” She turned the lens on herself, flashed a smile as bright as her portable studio lighting. “Thanks for tuning in, FemFam. Keep an eye out for more spontaneous content here, and definitely subscribe to FemFam Presents Channel on YouTube for new content every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Until next time . . . Love. You. Too.”

She ended the broadcast, then stared at me flatly. “Bro, we gotta work on your media training.”

Chapter 17

“WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING RIGHT now, Cressie?” Her room . . . cleaner than it had ever been. Her bookshelves had actual books on them instead of bras and old jeans. Her bed was made, like, neatly, not the comforter snatched to the top of the mattress as if covering a cadaver. I could see the floor!

She snapped the elaborate lighting rig off her phone. “Expanding the brand, little brother. What’s up with you?”

“A lot of busing. A lot of biking.”

She smirked. “Seniority has its privileges. It’s my car, too.”

“You could’ve given me some advance notice. I thought you weren’t coming home again until Thanksgiving.”

“Some things came up.” She moved to the floor, pulling her stowed suitcase from beneath the bed, and I noticed her hair. Shaved into a buzz cut on one side, it was a little startling. When she was home, she treated her hair like her one true love. Stressed daily over how it was laying, if the ends looked broken, begging Mom for newer expensive products. Now, half of that obsession had been sheared away. Her left ear featured a new series of painful-looking sterling studs running along the edge. She looked tough. A little scary. I would not be deterred.

“Like what? What came up to make you mess up my whole weekend?”

“You know Taylor Burkin?” In her suitcase was more equipment. Another camera, a tripod, more lights. She placed the phone light among the gear, and removed some other stuff. “Originated that BabyGettersToo hashtag?”

“Of course. What’s she got to do with this?”

Cressie placed more disassembled gear on her mattress. More stuff than I’d think anyone would need for recording YouTube videos in their dorm room. More stuff than my sister should be able to afford. “Why do you care about Taylor Burkin, Cress?”

“Because I’m doing my sociology semester project on Modern Feminism versus Societal Mores. My YouTube channel is part of it, but when I told my professor about the ‘scandal’ in my town she encouraged me to incorporate more points of view, and loaned me some sweet gear to make it happen. I reached out to Taylor and she wanted to talk, had a ton to say.”

I didn’t know how to respond. I also didn’t know what a Societal More was, so I asked about that.

Cressie said, “Customs. Things that we may not talk about much, but are generally accepted as the way things are done. An obvious example that most societies agree with is you shouldn’t murder people. An example that’s less universal would be holding a door open for a person walking into a building behind you.”