Seedlings (Spanking One Shots)

YouTube Famous (Owen's POV - Owen, age 12)

They say that middle school is supposed to be the most awkward years of your life, namely thanks to the introduction of puberty. The voice change, the growth spurts, the excessive body hair ... I'd been built up to believe that those were just some of the symptoms that came with the awkwardness of saying goodbye to your preteen years and hello to your teen years. But even while keeping all of that in mind, I never understood why everyone looked down on entering into the world of teenagers. In fact, I saw my preteen years almost as pre-audition for the days when I'd finally have the freedom to do whatever I wanted (within reason of course—I was still living at home with my brothers after all). So, I figured I'd get out there and see what this big beautiful world has to offer me. Sooner or later I'd be on my own, and have to start making decisions on my own and interact with other people without an adult always looking over my shoulder, so why not practice it now so that I'd be ready when the time came? Of course, that was a lot easier said than done when you have three older brothers constantly watching your every move and critiquing every little mistake you make. So, I had to get creative—I needed to find a way to spread my wings without leaving so much of a trail of feathers for my brothers to track.

So, I turned to the internet.

Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Snapchat—this was where I was going to find my people, my calling, my voice. That's not to say that I wouldn't still have real interacts with real people in real time—as a future professional soccer player, I needed to know how to communicate in real life too. But social media was going to give me a chance to not only talk to my friends when we weren't in school, but to also branch out and meet some people that I maybe wouldn't meet otherwise.

If it'd been up to me, I'd already have at least one or two social media accounts by now. But thanks to Ben, Dana, and Cooper being so worried about the "dangers" of the internet, that wasn't the case:

"There are a lot of bad people on those sites, Owen. It's not safe for a child to be on there."

"You're not mature enough to handle the responsibility that comes with having a social media account."

"I don't care if your friends all have an account; you'll get addicted and your brain will turn to mush. You're better off without it."

Which of those excuses I received when I asked if I could make an account depended on the day and on the brother. But their excuses didn't faze me one bit, and I refused to be one of the only middle schoolers in my school that was "unplugged" for much longer!

As far as I was concerned, 13 was the legal age for deciding whether or not I could have a social media account, and 12 was practically the new 13, anyways. I didn't need permission from my brothers when I had permission from the websites. I just had to be sure to steer clear of any Willow Academy- related accounts, and delete any history from our shared computer. I'd get to Snapchat my friends, slide into DMs of hot girls, and show off soccer skills. How could life possibly get any better?

It felt unfair, being left out from the inside jokes, group chats and drama that came along with social media. It was all my friends ever talked about, and I always had to sit there, pretending to know what they were talking about and trying not to seem like a total dork.

"Did you see Leslie's post about Michael? She mopped the floor with him, dude!" No, I'd been too busy playing Polar Bowler on one of the lame gaming sites I was actually allowed to be on, for my allotted hour, of course.

"Did you see that video of LeBron James last night? It was sick, bro!" No, I'd been doing my homework like a good little boy under the careful supervision of my brother, since "work comes before play".

"What color is this dress? Tony says blue and black, but I say he's blind. It's freaking white and gold!" I didn't know what color it was because I was treated like a toddler who may as well have been wearing footie pajamas and sucking his thumb while he waited to be tucked in!