White Suburbia

High school graduation is approaching.

Many things will be changing for the suburban community in this story, many of which will be put in motion in a very simple and predictable manner, i.e. this graduation. It starts next week.

The lives that are being affected is a cast which is not in any way extraordinary. For that matter, you probably already know this cast of characters, but we’ll go over their roles here anyway, in case you’re like Harold Lloyd, who doesn’t understand millennial/Gen Z meme culture.

Chad is the son of Karen and Derrick, older brother of Becky and Dylan, cousin of Kyle and Kevin, nephew of Susan and Rob, boyfriend of Jessica and Stacy, and tormentor of Dennis (and also tormenter of Chad’s elderly history teacher Mr. Lloyd). Chad is the football quarterback, an alpha male douchebag, age 18, 6’3. He’s popular at school, his family is rich, and he’s super good-looking and fit. His first girlfriend is Stacy, who is extroverted and a bit slutty, and his second girlfriend is Jessica, who is kind of a passive-aggressive bitch, but who is slightly smarter and more attractive than Stacy. Chad torments Dennis because Dennis is a nerd.

Dennis has no relation to anyone else in this story, but he is important. He is at the top of his class, and while there are plenty of students who outcast or pick on Dennis, nobody actually dislikes him. Dennis is quiet and never makes people angry and everyone feels just a bit guilty about how Dennis is treated. Chad feels guilty too. Chad sort of likes Dennis, actually; they did a project together in biology once, and Dennis is really nice and smart and did most of the work in a cheerful “I just like doing most of the work,” sort of way. Dennis is cool. But surely Chad can’t say that, because he’ll be called a fag, or… something. Chad, of course, isn't willing to risk that.

Karen is the mother of Chad and Becky and Dylan, wife of Derrick, best friends with Sandra and Carol and Tiffany, younger sister of Susan, and younger sister-in-law of Rob. She is a soccer mom, white, blonde, age 44, and a hard-working mother of three. She really likes that Dennis kid and wishes he would hang out with Chad more, because her son’s grades improved during the month that they were partners, and Karen wants the best for her children. Karen wouldn’t use the word “entitled,” to describe herself (and would get offended if that were insinuated). Her family is affluent and they are deserving of what they have. Karen sees herself as generous. She sacrifices her time for her family, her energy for her social life, her money and property for neighborhood parties, and really it’s the least other people can do to be cheerful and lend a helping hand in return. Understand, Karen’s not a bad person, really she’s not, she just thinks the world is and should be a fair place where everyone shares things and is nice to each other and does favors for each other so that everyone is happy, and if you’re rude, well something should be done about it. She is also very sensitive, and her life isn’t perfect, you know? She has problems too, so stop attacking her. Also, Becky is her favorite child. (Dylan is the forgotten middle child, and isn’t addressed here.)

Becky is the sister of Chad and Dylan, daughter of Karen and Derrick, niece of Susan and Rob, cousin of Kyle and Kevin, and is best friends with Maddy and Stacy (though less so for the latter after Stacy started dating her brother). She plays soccer and is very popular, and from behind you could mistake her for several other girls on the team. She wears Ugg boots in the winter and short shorts in the summer and has accounts on TikTok and Instagram and Snapchat and Tumblr and Twitter and Facebook, all of which she checks regularly, except for Facebook. Becky is less easily offended than Karen is, but is equally privileged and acts equally entitled. She cares a lot about what other people think of her, and she tries hard to be original and interesting, but not hard enough to break the status quo. Becky doesn’t know Dennis by name but once he found her lost binder and returned it to her, and she remembers laughing awkwardly, eyes averted—“Oh thanks, that’s really nice,”—and walking away.

Derrick is Chad and Becky and Dylan’s father, husband of Karen, brother in law of Susan and Rob, uncle of Kyle and Kevin, and he has a high-paying job in marketing. Derrick is also a bit of a dick but no one calls him out on it because there’s no point if you can’t drill through his thick skull what he did wrong. Derrick can do no wrong, because Derrick is Derrick, and because Derrick is always right, according to Derrick. He’s a football dad just like Karen is a soccer mom, and Chad is his favorite child. Derrick remembers privately making fun of Dennis with one of the other dads. A father’s job, in Derrick’s opinion, is to raise his son up, and if that means putting other kids down, he hardly notices. He is competitive, and lives vicariously through Chad. Maybe he feels bad for Dennis, but not that bad. The kid’s gotta man up; learn to stand up for himself. Derrick doesn’t understand boys like Dennis and never will.

Susan is the mother of Kyle and Kevin, wife of Rob, sister of Karen and sister-in-law of Derrick and aunt of Chad and Becky and Dylan and friend of Harold, who is her neighbor. She is older than Karen by a few years and they get along. Susan gets along with everyone. She is slightly more liberal than Karen yet is near-equally clueless about how she comes across, but she tries, she really does. She wishes everyone could just get along. Susan is the sort of lady who will stop you in the middle of the street to talk for an hour, and somehow always seems happy to see you. (though she might just be very good at faking it.) Susan is married to Rob, who is very nice and down to earth. Susan and Rob remember Dennis from boy scouts, a long time ago when he was in a troop with their sons. He was especially good at the knot-tying, Rob recalls, and the whittling, Susan adds. They don’t remember much else about him.

Kyle is the cousin of Chad and Dylan and Becky, twin brother of Kevin, nephew of Karen and Derrick, and son of Rob and Susan. Kyle is a fuckboi, but a lovable one. He is funny and sweet but also sometimes a dick, and you either love him or hate him, or love to hate him or hate that you love him. He currently really likes the girl Maddy who is friends with his cousin Becky and who plays soccer and is not-like-other-girls while also being exactly like every other girl that plays sports and likes boys. Kyle eats chocolate cake at midnight and nothing for breakfast because he wakes up late for school and no one wonders where the missing slice of cake is or why he’s missing a sock when he comes home. He’s just Kyle. Kyle is just like that. He’s never been mean to Dennis, but he’s never been nice to him either.

Kevin is the twin brother of Kyle, son of Rob and Susan, cousin of Chad and Becky and Dylan, and Nephew of Karen and Derrick and best friends with Alex. Kevin is smarter than his twin brother, but doesn’t rub it in. Kevin used to be sweet and dorky and is still attractive because Kyle’s fuckboi energy rubbed off a bit, (they are identical, after all), but now he’s a sarcastic introvert whose room is a mess with scattered clothes and chocolate cake crumbs (because he also steals from the fridge but everyone assumes it’s always Kyle). He is however honest and sometimes funny and makes good company for an anime binge or an all nighter playing video games. Kevin knows Dennis from the robotics club, but not that well. He doesn’t know Dennis’s last name, which is Logan.

Now that you’ve met the cast, at least half of this story is over, because they’re all about to change and disappear. A week before graduation, Dennis Logan is hit by a car and dies. Specifically it was Kyle who hit him, and it was an accident, because he was severely sleep deprived and shouldn’t have been driving, and it was a couple blocks away from the school, about ten minutes before first period, and he was speeding so that he wouldn’t be late.

Nobody is sure how to feel about Dennis’s death, because Dennis didn’t have any close friends in high school; just a lot of not-even-acquaintances who felt guilty about not having been friendlier. Dennis had a future outside of high school. He didn’t want to be in this town and he didn’t want to die. For that matter, no one knew what Dennis had wanted.

High school graduation rolls around as if Dennis never existed, apart from a short eulogy made by Mr. Lloyd during the awards ceremonies. Chad and Stacy and Jennifer all graduate and Dennis doesn’t. Kyle’s family hires a good lawyer and he does community service for a year. He and Kevin and Dylan and Alex graduate the following year, and in another two years Becky and Maddy will graduate.

After Chad graduates he will go to an out-of-state Ivy League university. His homework will swamp him, his roommate will teach him how to cook and he’ll realize that he’s gay, and this will remind him of Dennis.

After Kyle and Kevin graduate, they will go to opposite sides of the country. Kevin will go to college on the west coast and study video-game design, and Kyle, after studying for a year at a large university on the east coast, will realize that he doesn’t know what to do with his life, and this will remind him of Dennis.

After Becky graduates, she will attend a small liberal arts school a couple states over and major in art and sociology. She learns about her own privilege and she learns how to be aware of how she treats others and this will remind her of Dennis.

Karen is finally an empty-nester, and with this she realizes that for the last twenty one years of her life she has been a stressed housewife. A couple of her friends have moved away. Susan has retired. Karen remembers liking sports when she was younger—she did cheerleading in her school years and yoga in her twenties, so she decides to take up martial arts to occupy her time. Turns out, she really likes hitting things. But she also misses having children, and so she takes up tutoring at the local high school, where there are many bright yet awkward teenagers who remind her of Dennis, and there are many mean yet insecure douchebags who remind her of Chad, and even some entitled and unaware yet sensitive girls that remind her of herself. She wonders how they see her.