It started with the milk. Ben was pouring a glass to go with breakfast when the label changed right there in his hand. The big letters now read M-I-L-C. He stared at it, not quite believing.

"Mom, there's something wrong with the milk."

His mom set down her news screen and frowned.

"It's gone bad already?"

"No. Look!" Ben turned the carton so she could read it. "It's wrong."

She tapped the carton, then went back to her morning news and coffee.

"Screen tech doesn’t glitch. I'm sure it's just a typo. Someone will patch it. Not worth sending a report over."

Ben had seen typos before. His dad had pointed one out in a book he was reading. They'd missed a letter when they released the novel. And he's seen one a few years later on the packaging for his younger sister Melanie's 'CEO Cecilia' doll. Those mistakes were made when the words were first sent to the screen. He knew screens didn’t glitch. He also knew what he saw.

"It was spelled right a minute ago."

Melanie smiled, her cheeks stuffed with cereal.

"Maybe you just thought it was, but it wasn't."

Dad kept his eyes on his email, but that didn't stop him from piling on too.

"She's right. Brains like to think right over those little gaps and never notice them. It's a typo."

Ben glared at his sister.

"Maybe your brain is broken, but mine's just fine. I saw it change!"

She swallowed with a loud gulp and stuck out her tongue at him.

That did it.

He reached out to grab her tongue. She snapped back, shrieking.

His parents both yelled at the same time.

"Ben!"

Sure. Now he had their attention.

"I wasn't really going to!"

They sprang into a lecture. About Ben being a high schooler now, and the responsibilities of being the older sibling, and blah, blah, blah. They only really noticed him when they were angry. And even then, they didn't listen. How could he trust anything they said if they could ignore something so obvious and simple as the milk label?

He poked at his cereal, still thinking about the not-typo. It had to mean something. But what?

Deep in thought, he didn't notice his family had stopped the stern parent talk and were busy getting ready for the day. He jumped when his backpack was thrown in his lap.

"Hey!"

Melanie was already halfway out the front door.

"Let's go, space-case. Bus."

Ben crammed a few quick spoonfuls in his mouth and ran after his sister. The typo was drowned out by thoughts of unfinished homework, upcoming tests, and a friend who would make the day better.

The high school's bus was already outside. He raced up the stairs and sat next to a chubby girl wearing black. He'd seen her around, but didn't know her name. She was a year ahead of him. Out the window, he could see Melanie making kissy faces at him. He scowled back as the bus started moving. Fourth graders had no clue about anything.

He pulled his personal screen out of his backpack and unrolled it. The thin material turned opaque at his touch. He pulled up an old Ninja Obstacle Course clip. The best athletes on the course were rock climbers, but Ben liked to think that his parkour skills would have made him a strong competitor.

The girl next to him was looking at, well, something weird. It looked like someone had glued together a bunch of thick toilet paper sheets and wrote on it. It wasn't a screen. Those always looked a little glossy. It was equal parts fascinating and disgusting.

He nodded toward the object in the girl's lap.

"Did you break your screen?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, then turned the sheet and went back to reading.

Ben tried to ignore her. His video was way more interesting anyway. He might even learn a few tricks from these old masters. But something about that glued up toilet paper tugged at him. Why write all that down if you could only ever have one thing on the pages? What was the point?

"What is that thing, anyway?"

"It's a book."

Ben closed the video and pulled up his history book.

"No, this is a book."

The girl gave him her best 'shut up, you stupid Freshman' glare.

"This is a real one."

Ben slouched away from the girl. Best to leave crazy people alone. He went back to his Ninja Obstacle Course clips and silently begged the bus to hurry up already. This morning was way too weird.

School was not his best subject. Even gym class was a chore. They never did anything cool. It was all just running, and encouraging kids to join different sports. History was maybe the most interesting, but then there would be an essay or a test that would completely ruin it. Ben lived for two times of the day: lunch and last bell.

When they finally let everyone out, Ben waited on the steps for his best friend. His classmates and the older kids all left, but there was no sign of Jaydon. It wasn't like him to be late for anything. At lunch all either of them could talk about was skateboarding after school.

Ben tapped a quick message.

"Those abandoned buildings are getting demo'd next week. We doing this or not?"

Jaydon's response was a pic of him in the school's software lab.

"Forgot about code club. You try any new tricks, you better record 'em."

"Neeeerd."

"Yeah? Buzz me when you have a plan for any day beyond this one."

Ben laughed as he unfolded his skateboard.

"Harsh, dude."

It looked like he was on his own. He followed the directions on his screen that would take him past all the shiny and sleek businesses of new downtown, through the labyrinth of shops and homes, and into old downtown.

Exploring this place was going to be creepy now. Old downtown was a dump compared to the current downtown. They abandoned all the businesses before Ben was born and never looked back. There was a plan to turn the area into apartments, but nobody had the money to do it, so the buildings just sat there.

Maybe creepy was good, though. It would be like a horror flick. With a little editing, he could make a video of him jumping off walls and skateboarding away from ghosts or something. Besides, his parents wouldn't expect him home for a few hours, and he wasn't going to waste the freedom.

On the way, Ben set up the recording program on his screen, or tried to. The thing was getting all weird. The colors were changing on his home panel and some of the letters were popping in and out. After a few minutes of trying to wrestle with it, he rolled up his personal screen and tossed it in the backpack. A tiny voice in the back of his head told him to turn back and get his screen looked at. Glitches were supposed to be impossible. But old downtown would be gone soon. No way was he leaving yet.

There was a big fence around the areas that were going to be destroyed next week. That fence was what attracted him and Jaydon in the first place. Nothing said 'here's something awesome' like a DO NOT ENTER sign on chainlink. He hopped off his board and slipped through a gap in the fence gate.

He found few good railings and benches around the local history museum. Whether that meant a museum for local history, or a history museum that was local, Ben wasn't sure. It was too dark inside to find out just by looking in the windows. He guessed it didn't matter much, since this whole place would be leveled soon.

There was also a building called a library. It had some cool cement ramps and architectural stuff he could climb on. Ben knew libraries from his screen and from Jaydon. They were collections of documents or code resources for whatever people thought they needed. Personally, Ben was hoping for a library of video games. Maybe he would come back with Jaydon and explore inside this building.

His screen finally started working again, so he set up the camera. He propped it up on a cement ledge facing the library's coolest entry, the one with a winding ramp and multiple layers of ledges. He strapped the skateboard to his back as he ran, jumped, and flipped his way from one level to the next until he was standing on the low awning over the doors.

Ben raised both arms over his head and shouted out his victory. Old downtown didn't look so bad from up there. He grabbed his board and jumped down. He had just enough time to flick it open and get it under him before he landed on the railing. He smiled as the wind whipped against his face. He rode the railing all the way down and reveled in the feeling like he was flying. His best friend wanted a video, sure, but no way was he ready for what Ben just dished out.

He messed around on a few more buildings before his screen lit up with a warning that he needed to get home. Dinner was on the table in twenty minutes and wouldn't last. He could do it if he hurried and took a few shortcuts the map had pointed out.

The new path home took him past block after block of dilapidated shops. They weren't strictly part of the old downtown, but they might as well have been. Ben only saw a few other people on the street. He checked the map on his screen. Only two miles… wait, no, 12 miles? Two thousand? The screen was glitching again in the worst way.

Ben looked up from his screen. None of these roads were familiar. How could he get home if he couldn't trust the map?

One of the buildings ahead had a little light-up sign that read SCR-EN REPA-R. A few of the lights flickered in and out, which was weird. It didn't look like a glitching screen. It looked like each letter was lit alone; it looked sketchy. There were metal bars over the window and door. On the other hand, the lights were on and he needed help.

The front of the shop had refurbished screens and accessories lining the walls. Nobody was behind the counter. Ben thought he heard movement from the back room.

"Hello?"

There was an annoyed huff and the creaking of a metal stool. Then a woman appeared in the doorway leading from the back room. She looked about his mom's age, maybe a little older. She had wispy hair, some of it silver, and a harsh, angular face.

"You lost, kid?"

"Actually, yeah. I've gotta get home, but my screen's gone glitchy, so I can't use the map. I don't have a lot of money, but could you take a look? Or tell me how to get back to Washington?"

The woman's face lit up.

"It glitched, huh? How so?"

Ben held out the screen for her to see. It had gotten so much worse since stepping into the store. He could barely read any of it.

"I know it sounds impossible, but the characters keep changing, and the colors are off, and sometimes whole sections blink out."

"It worked!" She laughed as she grabbed the screen. "I mean, I know it worked, but for someone to notice it? On the first day?"

"What worked? You can't be saying that you did this."

The woman paused from her celebration.

"Do you, by any chance, drink Ballerina Bovine brand?"

"The milk…" Ben's eyes went wide. "That was you, too? Why? You made my family think I was an idiot."

"The companies that control what words show on screens are the ones making everyone look like idiots. And nobody realizes it!"

Ben just stared at her. This lady was crazy. She was crazy, right?

She took Ben's screen to the back room. There was a sound of some machine powering down. Only then did Ben realize there had been a low hum in the background the entire time. When the woman came back, she handed the screen over to him.

"It should work now. No harm done."

"Why should I trust you? You were the one that broke it. How did you even do that?"

The woman placed her hands on the counter and sighed.

"This is… Well, it's not exactly… I wasn't quite ready for… How much will it cost for you to forget the whole thing ever happened?"

Ben furrowed his brow. A minute ago, he didn't know hacking into the screens was even possible. And something was off about the companies who decide what goes on a screen? Who was this lady anyway?

"I can't just-"

"A hundred? Two hundred?"

Two hundred dollars? Ben could feel the crumpled five in his pocket. He could get a new screen, customize his skateboard, eat all the junk food he wanted at lunch. Two hundred was a small fortune when you were still too young for any real business to hire you.

"Yeah, Two hundred. I'll forget everything."

The woman opened the cash register. Two hundred dollars looked like it was almost the entire drawer worth. She stacked the fives, tens, and twenties up and handed them over.

"Here. You never saw me. You never saw any glitches. The milk label didn't change."

"Got it."

Ben raced out before the woman changed her mind.

He skated hard all the way home, nearly getting hit by a few cars in the process. In the end, he was only a few minutes late for dinner. Melanie greeted him to the table with walrus tusks made out of carrots. He served himself some chicken and veggies while his parents laid into him for disrespecting their rules. There would be no screentime except for schoolwork for a week, as if they could enforce anything like that. Ben muttered an apology and they moved on to other subjects.

Dad grilled him about school and Mom asked about Jaydon. Ben almost let it slip that his best friend bailed on their skate, before remembering they were supposed to be at Jaydon's house the whole time. He gave noncommittal answers for all of their questions. He couldn't concentrate even if he wanted to. He had been right that morning. The milk label had been changed on purpose. But now he'd promised not to tell anyone. Ben bet that lady was listening on his screen right now and would find him if he ever talked.

The knowledge of the glitching screens and the lady's repair shop burned in his brain. And it wasn't just what happened. It was what she said.

The companies were making idiots out of us.