The Crikeytown Cancellations (short story)

 was the tenth and final story in The Boulevard: Volume One.

Summary
Note here that the story is told as if it were a transcription of a comic, focusing on individual scenes and dialogue within discrete panels.

Panels 1-7
At Crikeytown Comprehensive, the slobs and the snobs sit on opposite sides of the room as their teacher, Miss Snatcher, informs them all that they're being forced to perform in a performance of Macbeth that afternoon for the Mayor of Crikeytown. The slobs are frustrated, as their plan to go to the arcade that day has been ruined, but the snobs are elated, more work for the teacher always helps, and thanks to their family connections they get the best parts in the play. Tommy the Terror slips some pills into the snobs ginger beer during rehearsal. That evening, as the play begins, the snobs playing the Three Witches have uncontrollable gas and force the play to be canceled.

Panels 8-15
In the arcade the slobs play games against each other, Naughty Nancy losing to Tommy, and Zeke the Sneak reading a list of cheat codes in the corner. Three new slobs show up, Jill Thrill, Babyface, and Stu Spencer, all of whom act in ways different from the rest of the cast. Jill is a daredevil racer, Babyface is a wrestling baby, and Stu is an influencer. The appearance of these three prompts The Reader to wonder how they just showed up. As this happens, Tommy regenerates, as does the whole of Crikeytown. People change to keep up with the times, and those that can't adapt are... replaced.

Panels 16-27
Nancy is worried, there are only so many girls who are relevant, and while she's top dog, Jill Thrill could replace her. So Nancy decides that Jill has to have an accident, calling together Zeke and Ned Ed, playing on the former's insecurity and suggesting that Jill wants to erase the later, in order to recruit them for her scheme. She assures the two that all that will happen is running the three new characters out of town.

Panels 28-40
Nancy and her goons lure Stu to a quarry outside town and pushes him down the hole, killing him. She then points out that he was taking pictures the whole time, being an influencer, so they can't rat her out, or they'll go down too. One of the snobs, Soppy Sammy, comes over, shocked, asking if Stu's alright. Nancy threatens him to keep quiet and chases him off.

Panels 41-57
Later on, Nancy convinces Babyface, well, merely asks him, to participate in a deathmatch with Ned. At the end, as Babyface is winning, the arena breaks, killing Babyface and terrifying the onlookers, all of whom are reminded of their own mortality. Sheriff Squarejaw arrives to the scene and declares that he doesn't think that this was an accident. While he's searching for clues, he also decides that Stu's death is connected, leading Ned to have a nervous breakdown.

Characters

 * Tommy the Terror
 * Naughty Nancy
 * Zeke the Sneak
 * Jill Thrill
 * Babyface
 * Stu Spencer
 * The Reader
 * Ned Ed
 * Soppy Sammy
 * Sheriff Squarejaw

Continuity
to be added