Teaching cybersecurity the traditional way — PowerPoint slides, textbook chapters, vocabulary lists — is very professional. Very boring. Basically a guarantee that students forget everything by Friday.

The question I kept asking myself: if I had to choose between "memorizing the definition of lateral movement" and "watching a fictional teen's digital life implode in real time" — which one would actually stick?

The answer is obvious. Chaos is memorable.

So I created Marcus Washington — a kid whose Instagram gets hacked, whose mom becomes an impromptu IT security consultant, and who realizes his email is connected to Navy contractors, making him accidentally a potential door into the entire Hampton Roads defense sector. That's not abstract. That's a problem. And somewhere around Chapter 3, students realize they've accidentally become security-literate.

It's sneaky. I know. But it works.