OK Zoomer

[KamiKaze]

Normally JEMA had a decent amount of holiday events, but, well. COVID happened, and nobody could go outside, right? Not without a facemask, and certainly not at school. Which meant no winter stuff.

Well, not in person at least.

A few emails and digital flyers had been floating about. It was something called ‘JEMA Holiday Zoom Meetup!’, and the flyer had all these snowmen sitting at the computer on a winter background. And, of course, it promised a lot in white, bold, excited text.

It was on the last day before winter break, which didn’t mean too much other than they didn’t have to do Zoom calls or homework for the rest of the year. And the flyer said that it was a holiday-themed Kahoot game at 5 pm, a Christmas carol sing-a-long at 5:30, and after that, a showing of the Jim Carrey Grinch. It was, in other words, probably the dorkiest thing the school had ever hosted.

Around 4:45, some early birds had shown up to the event, both teachers stopping by and students from multiple grades. A winter-themed slide was on the screen saying the name of the event. Christmas music played in the background, occasionally interrupted by the ding of people joining. Mr. Jordan was there, adjusting his camera while wearing a red shirt with Santas all over it and a matching red-and-green bowtie. Ms. Prince was there, too, with a skeletal Santa background she personally drew.

Another ding.

Ty Hartley was now there too. Her camera was off at first, only to click on a moment later. She sat on what seemed to be her couch with her legs crossed, leaning forward. From the shot, Ty was dressed in a black sweater with a loud snowflake-and-reindeer pattern, a little on the atypical end for her. The jeans, in contrast, seemed comparatively more ‘her.’ Her Zoom background was an animation of a fireplace with seasonal decorations, marred somewhat by a furry brown-and-black blob laying down to her right. She frowned for a second, then smiled as if in defeat. Then, she could be seen typing something. A second later, there was a message from her in the Zoom chat:

Ty Hartley: thanks for making me lose whamageddon, lol, appreciate it

Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ continued to play in the background as more people trickled in.