CW: Sexual harassment

Even Frank thought that "bring your stuffed animal to school" day was an unusual event to prioritize the second week of school, but he privately thought the thematic dissonance hilarious, and so allowed it when Jason insisted this would be an excellent way to bolster student morale.

"It's whatever the expression is, 'bread and circuses.' It costs us nothing to have students carry around their animals with them and give them to me and my team to catalog for our social media during lunch, down there in the robotics room," Jason explained matter-of-factly.

"What social media? We don't have social media."

"Who knows what we'll try next."

"Fair enough, I'll allow it as long as your team handles all the work," Frank said, and that was the end of that. It was lucky that Jason was in charge of procurement for his department, and that he was able to make sure he was the only one looking at the invoices. Why hundreds of computer chips, microphones, motors, and security cameras were ordered, or why Jason had stayed at school until ten one night soldering, or why he insisted on being the only one cataloging the stuffed animals would thus be a fact for him alone to know.

Beth, naturally, brought Cheddar, and along with Regina and Juliet, they posed with their stuffed animals for a photo before putting them in a plastic bin to be cataloged.

"Why are we doing this anyway?" Beth asked Juliet.

"Because it's a fun way to build school spirit," Juliet replied, knowing nothing about why this event was approved but choosing to maintain faith in a higher power. This higher power, that being Jason, inserted all the cameras in record time (it was a miracle what one could do when motivated under time pressure) and returned everyone's possessions by the end of lunch with a token of his appreciation.

Beth was one of the unfortunate ones who placed her teddy bear with eyes staring at her bed from her dresser, a view of her room that couldn't have been more perfect if Jason had tried; for the others, sometimes he'd have to use the motor to nudge the stuffed animals overnight or hope that when knocked down, their targets would reposition them more appropriately. Perhaps if she had looked more carefully at night, when she was tucking herself in, she would have noticed Cheddar's head tilt quizzically, but since Cheddar was always there she had no reason to think of him as anything but furniture. At some point that evening she returned to her bedroom and gave Behrooz a call; Jason received a notification saying camera 85 had audio, and tuned in.

"Hey... yeah, yeah... no, I don't remember Juliet saying that, we don't really talk about work. No, nothing at all... I don't see why she would. She never told me about anything like that... this summer? No, we were busy... swimming at the lake and cooking, what else? Look, if Juliet has a problem with you, she hasn't told me about it. You're the best, nobody's out to get you. It's all right... dinner? I have cheer practice... some other time. Juliet wanted us to join her and Frank? Oh really... uh-huh... yeah, we aren't doing that... OK, good. I need to finish my homework. Love you."

But Beth didn't start her homework immediately. She put her laptop to the side and lay down, head forward, like she thought if she pressed herself into her covers it would act as camouflage from Cheddar's watchful eye. What had Behrooz said? Sure, Jason could have checked his phone records, but that seemed like a lot of effort—it was hard work enough going through the AI-curated highlights, work that would at least be rewarded in college with some killer data science projects. It would be more interesting to piece together the pieces himself, as if he had a front-row seat to a one-woman show. She clearly was annoyed about something, and Juliet was involved—say, what was she up to? A quick switch over to camera 52 indicated she was doing her evening stretching, with the camera maybe ten degrees off from the same panoramic view he had in Beth's room. Nothing his motor couldn't fix... just a few small pushes, and there went her own teddy bear, falling onto the floor. Jason could hear Juliet put her leg down and walk over.

"I didn't realize I was shaking the dresser that much," Juliet said to herself, before placing her teddy bear back on the dresser, thankfully now in the perfect position. There were no clues to find here, and so Jason switched back to camera 85. Beth was still lying down, uselessly. Whatever Behrooz said must have been really bothersome.

The next night, Jason tuned in again to his new favorite show since the Joe Rogan podcast. Beth's phone was first to ring this time.

"Hey... not bad, not bad, anything new? No... well, anything else interesting? No... did you turn in that outline yet? No... I see... talk to you tomorrow then. Bye..."

Beth seemed to see no need to lie on the bed in a stupor tonight, and instead went straight to work. This show was getting boring. Jason turned it off and put on camera 46, an usual favorite: while the view was poor, the junior was remarkably talented at the piano, and listening made Jason nostalgic for the time when he still practiced intensely. He walked away from his computer and went to his piano, and played himself Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique, just as melancholic as he had remembered it. That was enough fun. Back to work. She was still playing; Debussy, he believed. Perfect background music.

Jason had invested far too much headspace in determining how he'd implement his secret branch of the surveillance plan, and not nearly as much time in deciding the why. These people were boring! Obvious exceptions aside, most of his targets—mainly girls, although Jason was pleased to see that there was some diversity—spent most of their time in their bedrooms studying or sleeping. In the mornings when they changed their clothes, he was busy getting ready for his own day, and watching the curated highlight reel afterward didn't hit the same—all the interesting intel was on their phones anyway. The fact that his ingenious wireless charging technology had worked was the most interesting part. It wasn't like anyone would notice their phones felt a bit warm overnight.

One night when flipping between cameras like television channels, the thought occurred to Jason that someday, this scheme might fail. Someone would cradle their stuffed animal and feel a lump behind the eye, and with a surgeon's precision would incise into their dear friend and find the evidence. Or, Frank would walk in on him at the wrong time and see footage that was clearly not taken from a phone; Jason did not trust Frank's integrity enough that he wouldn't abolish his "don't ask, don't tell" policy if he discovered how seriously Jason took his surveillance. The more foolproof Jason convinced himself his scheme was, the more paranoid he became that a freak accident would expose him. But until that day came, back to business. Time to see what camera 85 offered tonight.

"...Look, I don't like him either. He's creepy. With all his surveillance everywhere. He's going to murder someone someday. I heard that last year he was called into the office because of sexual harassment... no, of course he's not listening to this... look, even if he is, he can stick his cameras up his ass..."

Well, that wasn't very nice! Back to 46 he went. Still Debussy. His bugs did have bidirectional audio, although Jason could only imagine how muffled it would be. There was theoretically nothing stopping him from playing a tune—the musical equivalent of passing a note to someone in class. He checked her rank. Alpha, right on the edge of dropping. Too risky. A Delta or Epsilon (as surprising as it would be that they played) would be a more acceptable target: nobody would believe them if they said their stuffed animals talked back to them.

A few weeks later, after the drama extraordinaire of Beth and Behrooz breaking up, cameras 85 and 52 registered activity at the same time. For a change, Jason tuned into Juliet's camera to get her side of the story:

"You two clearly feel something for each other. I don't get why you're so afraid of acknowledging that. It's a bit soon, I know, but the show is coming up—you two love the theater. Why don't you go? Yes... no, of course not... I really don't think it's too soon. What's that quote, 'the course of true love never did run smooth?' Go for it... I told you, I don't know. Sheesh, dance one tango with someone and everyone hears wedding bells... yeah, of course... tomorrow, actually... what the Bosnia-Herzegovina are you talking about? OK, it would be romantic... last time he liked it, you're right... bergamot... fancy... you have good taste. Anyway... yeah, I am... right now, yeah. Thirty minutes a night at least... why of course it was inspired by the importance of fitness to the club, but... what, it's good for you! Should I tell him that? He'd find it creepy? Well, how do you know that... it's just an innocent question... I could show him if I ever went to his house again or he came to mine, or we could FaceTime and he could watch me do it, maybe we could do it together... maybe you should have tried it with Behrooz then—OK, I apologize, too soon. Uh-huh... I am not a hypocrite! Look, if I'm telling you to act on your feelings, and I'm proposing something entirely reasonable, that makes me the opposite of a hypocrite... I'm going to do my idea and you can do my idea too then, and we'll see how that works out... tomorrow's a Monday, what else would I be doing? You really are hung up on this... OK, bye!"

It truly was fascinating to Jason how the same story could be told from so many different perspectives. He knew it was poor form as everyone's Big Brother to concern himself with the problems of the masses, but Juliet was right with this one. And that wasn't just him secretly cheering for the home team and hoping Frank would emerge victorious. In all the calls that Jason had overheard Beth and Behrooz have, not once did Beth show passion. Love could be had without passion, but the point of a high school romance was that it burned bright and burned out quickly, and they were clearly on the second phase. She should have ditched him sooner. With John, there was hope—and sure, given Beth's poor track record, there was little point in hoping for much, but Jason was always an idealist. He'd make a great therapist, too, he thought. He was great at listening to people.

Jason tuned in the next night to channel 52, the Fitness Network, in the hopes of overhearing another spicy conversation, but saw only Juliet doing her solitary stretches, watching and following along to some routine that she played from her laptop on her desk while she watched from afar. She only did that when she was sad—clearly the peppy instructor's reminders (she sounded like their age—he could definitely find the channel if he cared enough) that pain was "weakness leaving the body" weren't the voice she wanted to hear that night. He put his nose to the screen to check if he could smell bergamot before realizing that this was a physical impossibility and transgressive even by his standards. All this was too depressing, even for him, and he switched back to piano girl. He had some homework of his own to get done, and could not waste any more time speculating idly on his classmates' inner lives.

Discussion Questions:

Why has Jason consistently been portrayed as a pervert? Just like when this came up in You Must Remember This, what point is being made about the club?

Does anything Jason do or say in this chapter paint him as sympathetic or relatable?

From what fragmented conversations we get between Beth and Juliet, what conflicts do they have? What have we learned about all these characters' "inner lives"?