The first week of a partnership is delicate. Our working relationship was almost shot when Maddie proposed running an entire article on Taylor Swift. Charlie disagreed so vehemently that for once in his life, he was incapable of emitting a single sound.
Later in the week, Charlie insisted that he would play “good cop” despite his deep-seated mean-spiritedness and general embrace of everything “bad.” Maddie, upon being asked to play “bad cop,” blitzed out during the weekly staff meeting “get here @now or we hate you!!!!” and promptly lost all credibility with Mirror writers and members of The Dartmouth senior staff. Her subsequent nervous giggles throughout the staff meeting could either have been interpreted as an attempt to redeem herself or the ravings of a lunatic.
Things smoothed over by mid-week. Maddie learned that if she doesn’t respond to Charlie’s texts and blitzes, he will continue to send texts and blitzes.
For his part, Charlie learned that he can too expect frequent over-communication. A choice example: Maddie responded to a blitz Charlie sent with, “Thanks for blitZing [sic]. I plan at being at ROBO [sic] from after 10As until we publish.”
She responded to her own blitz, “Are you there now?” (Perhaps now would be a good time to note that it was 11:59 p.m. on a Wednesday.)
She re-replied, “///we good co editors”
The final blitz: a kissy emoji.
(Within minutes, she replied to a different email with: “Ugh Charlie you are the besttt [sic].”)
Yet things weren’t always so calm. The two narrowly avoided tragedy once it was revealed that Charlie had triple clicked Maddie on Friendsy with no response. Maddie said she doesn’t use the app, but that did little to ease Charlie’s niggling and persistent fear that he will die alone.
Perhaps these details are too private — but that is exactly the sort of question this issue of The Mirror raises. Here, Mirror writers take on the campus graveyard, students who lose privacy because they arrive in Hanover already famous and secret campus nooks. We also publish a deep investigation of medical and personal leave that shares the stories of students who took time away to heal.
Take a peek!
