Miles To Go Before I Sleep

Jack Vs Technology

Jack vs. Technology

...

Unfortunately, Cupcake had kept her word about the whole 'modernising thing'. Well, unfortunate for Jack; Cupcake, Jamie, and all their friends looked like they were having the time of their life. And they hadn't even started yet. Why he was putting up with their sympathetic looks and explanations that he wasn't stupid, just 'technologically challenged' was a mystery even to him.

"Here, we'll start with something easy," Jamie was saying and he forced himself out of his thoughts of thrashing them in their next snowball fight to pay attention. Jamie was holding something rectangular out to him and he took it with a raised brow. "This is a calculator," Jamie continued.

The other brow rose to join its brother.

"You use it to do hard sums and things," Monty explained.

"Yes, thank you for that, I do actually know what a calculator is," Jack said dryly.

"Do you know how to use one?" Cupcake asked with an air that suggested she was expecting the answer to be 'no'.

He had known about calculators for a long while. They had been quite popular ever since they came out, now found pretty much everywhere. Had he ever used one? No. Did he know how to use one? Well… he was leaning more towards yes. He had always needed to do mathematics in his head or on paper, not that he really knew all that much about maths. Nor had he ever really needed to. He probably would have if he hadn't fallen through the ice but that was a bit redundant now.

"Let's see…" he said, pressing the 'on' button (and being thankful that it was clearly labelled). "Um, fifty two multiplied by seventy…" he pressed each button in turn successfully. So far so good. "Equals… three thousand, six hundred and forty." He grinned triumphantly, holding the device up for the teenagers to see.

"Now clear it," Cupcake challenged.

Jack blinked. "What?"

"Clear it."

Jack let his gaze slowly drift back to the small device and stared at the buttons, trying to find one with 'clear' written on it. His eyes eventually landed on a 'C' and, hoping he was right, pressed it. The screen went blank, which meant he'd either achieved what he'd wanted or he'd broken it. "Haha!" he cried victoriously, waving it in her face. It was a fluke and a lucky guess but he wasn't about to tell her that.

Cupcake looked suspicious but didn't say anything.

"Okay, try this one," Claude broke in, holding out a cable connected to two weird bulby things.

He'd seen people walking around with them in their ears all the time so he was fairly confident he knew what to do with them. When no one laughed when he put them in his ears (noting the little L and R to tell him which was which) he assumed he'd done it right.

Caleb leaned over his brother's shoulder and pressed something on the little device. Sudden loud music blared in Jack's ears and he jumped so badly he fell off the bed with a yelp that he would deny making until the end of time. He tried to cover his ears to muffle the offending sound but it only made it worse.

"Make it stop!" he yelled, sighing in relief when Jamie reached over and yanked the little bulby things from his ears. "What were you trying to do, deafen me?" he shot at the twins. The music could still be heard from where the 'earphones' were lying on the floor.