Andrew Miller's The Ordeal

Act I:

Denny was the smartest kid in Ms. Nagi's 11 AP english class. He got A's on all his tests and homework, meaning he had the highest grade. However, unknown to all the students in Ms. Nagi's class, Denny was actually getting his answers from Nidhi! She would text him the answers during class, and he would write them down on his test or homework. But suddenly one day, Nidhi hadn't texted Denny the answers, so here we find him at his desk praying to his phone he would get the homework answers soon.

(Denny's best friend Abdullah walks in)

Abdullah: Is everything alright Denny?

Denny: Step off Abdullah!

Abdullah: Did Nidhi not send you the answers today?

Denny: (wildly trying to get out of his seat to chase Abdullah) I said step off! (He is overcome with sadness and begins to cry, he goes to his desk and gently caresses his phone)

(He is sobbing over his desk holding his phone, when Evan walks in and sees him)

Evan: Denny?

Denny: Wh-what (furiously wipes away his tears) I-I wasn't crying.

Evan: Denny you don't need to hide the fact you were crying.

Denny: I swear I wasn't cryin- hey wait a minute. Why did I see you with Abdullah, Pedro and Blake in the media center yesterday?

Evan: Uh we were just chilling.

Denny: But it looked like you were all writing something down after Abdullah would say something.

Evan: Well Abdullah was rapping to us and we wanted to remember some of the lines he said, so we wrote them down. 

(Denny was awfully suspicious of Evan at this moment, but figured he'd stop asking about it)

Denny: Listen Evan, there's a group of students in class who want to be the smartest kid in class, so they'll do whatever it takes to overthrow me. I think they may have cheated on our last vocab and grammar quiz. 

Evan: Cheating!?!? That seems a bit over the top Denny (Evan is slightly sweating and his body language has shifted) couldn't they have just studied?

Denny: Impossible!

(From across the room, Kaylie walked over after eavesdropping on their conversation)

Kaylie: You could always call in Darius, Denny, he's very good at detecting whether or not someone has cheated.

Evan: How can he possibly do tha-

(Before Evan could finish Darius was already there next to him)

Darius: Did someone say...CHEATING!??!?!?

Denny: Yes, I believe a few students in here cheated on our last vocab and grammar quiz.

Darius: I suppose I could have a looksy. 

(Darius pulls out a Sherlock Holmes hat and over-sized magnifying glass and equips them. He then checks underneath each desk in the classroom)

Darius: Nothing written under the desks.

(Darius then goes and checks the whole floor for any suspicious pieces of paper)

Darius: (gasps) Well, well, well, what do we have here.

(Darius is holding a piece of paper that says "Prepositional phrases" on it with the rest of the text cut off)

Denny: Whose desk was that by?

Darius: It was by Abdullah's desk!

Denny: I knew it!

(Darius and Denny run out of the room with ludicrous speed, holding the piece of "evidence" they found. Shouting things like "The marshal, I'll call the marshal!" and "Glory to God! It is broken, they are free!" and other random quotes from the Crucible)

Evan: Uh-oh (texts a group chat on his phone called "Da Sqwad")

(On the text message) Guys...we have a problem.

To Be Continued

The Origin of a Meme

In English class recently, we've discussed origin stories. Stories like, "World on the Turtle's Back" and "Genesis" that helped the people who read these stories understand the origin of our world. So with all this talk about origin, it got me to think "How does a meme start?". At that point I turned to the Google to find out. After a bit of looking around, I found that there are several different ways a meme can start. So here are a few ways a meme originates.

What is a Meme?

In case you are unfamiliar with memes, a meme is kind of like a running joke on the internet. Memes are usually something relatable and humorous, and can even describe a certain "feeling". Some memes last longer than others and some are more popular. Hopefully this makes sense if you were unfamiliar with memes in the first place.

Real Life Events

The first potential cause for a meme, is a real life event. Take for example the most recent meme, Ken Bone. During the second presidential debate, many people on Twitter began making memes related to one of the audience members who asked a question. Why him? You may ask, and that's the thing, is memes from real life events usually happen when people notice something funny or out of the ordinary, and then meme-ify it. So in this case, Ken Bone's mustache and red sweater seemed to draw a lot of attention to it.

Another example of a real life event was during the Super Bowl 49 halftime show featuring Katy Perry. It was during this performance when the millions people watching witnessed "Left Shark". At one point during the show, Katy Perry was singing with two dancers at each side of her wearing shark costumes. The one on the left, however, seemed to be a bit confused since the way it was dancing was completely out of sync with the other performers on stage, and it was hilarious. This is another example of people noticing something out of the blue and creating a meme out of it.

A Viral Video

Viral videos aren't usually a reason for a meme, but it does happen occasionally. One that got a lot of views and attention is the  "Leeroy Jenkins" video from 2005. In this video, a group of people playing a game known as "World of Warcraft" were planning out an attack on a boss. However, one of the players in the group was AFK (away from keyboard) and didn't hear his group's plan to take down the boss. When he got back to his computer, he ran straight into the room while yelling his name "LEEEEROOY JENNNKKIINSS!". This ended up killing his entire group and ruining their plan to kill the boss. Now, "Leeroy Jenkins" is a meme to describe someone running in without planning. And this is how it is with many viral videos, they have something comedic and relatable which spawns a new meme. (The part where he runs in starts at 1:23).

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Websites

Now this origin is pretty broad, but there's multiple websites that are known for creating new memes. You may have heard of sites like ""Reddit" and "4chan", which are forum sites, allowing people to discuss various topics. Both of these websites have been the origin for memes like Pepe the Frog, Dat Boi and various other memes. Why these memes get so popular on these websites is unknown to me. But it could be that since the people discussing it share similar interests, they all find it funny and create memes from it.