By Emmy Poppinga
TW: mature themes
Class of ‘09 is genuinely one of the most eye-opening visual novels I’ve ever witnessed.
The first of a trilogy, Class of ‘09, often abbreviated as CO09, is the edgy, confrontational “anti-visual novel” set in 2007-2009 that allows players to front as the first person POV of Nicole, a cynical teenager currently living in Maryland. Nicole states at the very beginning of the intro, “Make no mistake. I’m a sociopath.” Depending on your choices, the story branches into fifteen unique endings.
Class of ‘09 utilizes dramatic shock humor and dark humor through witty dialogue, aiming to challenge real-world problems in a satirical manner; the primary confrontations being pedophilia and drug abuse as the game examines environment, manipulation, gender, abuse, teenage nihilism, and how that combination stunts healthy character development—especially growing up in a society where looks matter more than anything else. “My life’s just a game,” Nicole states bitterly in CO09: The Re-Up (second game). “A sick, hopeless game.” Growing up, Nicole did not have a stable childhood—she moved districts along the East Coast several times a year, which didn’t allow her enough time to develop relationships with any of her peers and forced her to become independent at an extremely early age. She also witnessed her unnamed father’s death, which is the cause of her PTSD and anti-social worldview. As a result, she turned to drug abuse, contributing to the rocky relationship she has with her mother.
Starting school on the first day—or third day due to a 2-day suspension in another ending—Nicole will encounter her soon-to-be best friend; Jecka, a semi-cynical teenager with a smoking problem, and later on will encounter Emily; a wild ‘bad kid’ who engages in drug distribution. Emily develops an unhealthy attachment to Nicole, even pressuring her into agreeing to a double-suicide in their remedial English class as a way to get back at their English teacher—dramatic much? Jecka and Emily embody enablement as all three believe that smoking and drugs are healthy and okay coping mechanisms, because the girls adhere to rampant 2000s beauty standards, which were put into global motion because of magazines and TV. In The Flipside, a game focusing on Jecka, Jecka explicitly states “I wish I had an eating disorder so I could die hotter.” EDs are extremely dangerous to body health, which shows the extent Jecka is willing to go in order to maintain her physical beauty. Additionally, in a mall scene, both Jecka and Nicole agree that they’re going to die before they’re 30 because they don’t want to end up as “old people with iPods”.
Years of negative experience only continue to reinforce Nicole’s ideologies, especially about gender. These fears about aging and losing desirability offer insight to 2000s sociocultural beliefs and how damaging they were to the youth, especially girls. Nicole has learned that because of her looks, people will let her get away with manipulation, and as a result, often turns her pursuers’ words against them and provokes destructive behavior, as well as verbally abusing most of her peers as a way to cope with her own issues and loneliness. In all dialogue choices, Nicole either goes down a bad path and lashes out or shows that she still has humanity left under all her detachment. Nicole learned to base her worth on her body and physical image as she received more male attention in early high school years. When Nicole meets her male peer Jeffery in a chemistry class scene, upon questioning she pointedly claims she knows exactly how guys think and won’t fall for Jeffery’s games. CO09 portrays a perception of gender that thrives on one simple argument: every male seeks to exploit females. Nicole arrived in Maryland with a negative predisposition of her male peers, which continues to be enforced through frequent interactions with another male peer, Kylar; her gym teacher, Coach Colby; and her unnamed Counselor.
Kylar, a student athlete with questionable views, has repeatedly insulted, threatened and gossiped with Nicole, all actions that further her distaste of him. If Nicole accepts Kylar’s invitation in a gym scene to go to his house, she is greeted with a floodgate of vulnerability and erratic behavior, which confuses her and hurts Kylar’s feelings. There is an unsure air to the interaction as Nicole awkwardly comforts Kylar, and one would assume progress will occur between the two. However, Kylar’s lack of conversational cues and his open admission of only wanting to pursue a relationship with Jecka to “knock her down a few pegs” completely eradicates any thought in Nicole’s head that Kylar could be different. She flatly tells him, “All men will end up rapists or pedophiles anyway, you’re just a drop in the bucket.” Kylar even jumps off a building to prove his love for her, which her mom reprimands her for.
Coach Colby repeatedly uses his position as gym teacher to harass and persuade teenage girls into relationships with him, which he attempts to do so with Nicole. In a locker room scene, Colby entered the locker room and began to flirt with Nicole, which is entirely illegal. When Nicole tersely inquires why Colby is pursuing her, Colby responds, “Look at you, you’re mature enough” displaying his wolfish mindset. In the two endings, Nicole either agrees to go home with him and gets strangled, or has Colby arrested for touching her inappropriately. Jecka inquires in the following scene why Nicole would persist through the date if she knew it would end terribly. Nicole replies that she understood her leverage and that “the second Coach Colby decided to date a minor, he lost the game of life” which spurred her decision to encourage him to place a hand on her thigh before screaming and drawing attention to the two.
Finally, the Counselor, whom Nicole describes as a “marathon pedophile” because he plays the “long game” of encouraging trust and vulnerability with his victims until he eventually convinces a relationship. The Counselor takes on the most real form of pervasive, persuasive tactics used by groomers around the globe, embodying the core ideology that all men are evil and exploitative. The Counselor hasn’t openly confessed to being a pedophile and often deflects conversations somewhere else when questioned, but his approach to female students, especially Nicole, heavily implies that he is, and Nicole outright accuses him of being one in an office scene. He frequently attempts to sell Nicole—and in one storyline, her peer Ari—on his predatory viewpoints, which leads her to despise him. Nicole holds such a deep resentment for the Counselor that she defends Ari, whom she hates, in order to protect her. Nearly every adult male in the game has pedophilic tendencies, and Nicole is reminded that she hates men all throughout the game.
This perspective, when applied to my own life, made me realize just how real some of the situations were. Following the detachment mindset Nicole held showed me how isolating life could feel, and the ability to choose Nicole’s choices fostered my deeper understanding of just how individual every choice is in the real world. Outcomes are unique to every experience. I could talk for days about all the references and allusions CO09 makes as well. The creators wanted a raw, authentic 2000s feel; utilizing time-period events, stylistic choices, and slang, and thus, a groundbreaking indie franchise was created.