fandomhigh | Living With Difficult Women [Tuesday, Period 5]

When Max arrived for class today, he wasn't alone. "We've discussed a number of generalities, and talked in pretty broad terms about what we're doing in this class, but today I wanted to delve into things a bit more concrete. So, as you've probably noticed, I brought an assistant. Some of you might know Sophie already. She's an accomplished actress, and she's generously agreed to play the part of a difficult woman for today's class."

Sophie was looking at this as both helping a friend, and a demonstration exercise in manipulation. Because really, students shouldn't let themselves be taken in by someone trying to play them, male or female... but she felt young female students should have every advantage possible, should they need to use these techniques. She wasn't going to ask Max if he'd realized that.

"Thank you, Max. It's lovely to be here." She shot him an amused look. "How quickly do you wish me to become difficult?"

Max chuckled, flashing her an amused grin. "Would you be willing to wait until I explain today's class activity?" he asked.

"Nooo, I don't think so. I'm the guest. Really, you should be catering to my whims already," Sophie said, looking pensive. Then she blinked. "No, I've changed my mind. Go ahead. I'll wait. I can do that." She sighed long-sufferingly.

She was already doing a great job! Max resisted the urge to beam as he nodded. "Thank you. I appreciate it." He turned to his students. "With Sophie's help I'll demonstrate a couple of different techniques. I won't be pointing them out, so you'll need to be paying attention. After that we'll split into groups, one lead by me, and another by Sophie. You'll each pick one of the groups to join for some discussion of the techniques used and what else might have been done instead."

With a grin, Max turns back to Sophie. "Whenever you're ready."

"Keeping in mind that you have every right to be 'difficult', and that not only can it get you lovely things, it can also preserve your safety, I will now demonstrate one of the most important techniques: evasion." She smiled sweetly at Max. "Hello. So lovely to meet you. I'm Catherine D'Medici."

Really, you'd think it was her real name.

"Catherine," Max repeated thoughtfully. "Ah, forgive me, I thought you were someone I knew." See that? He didn't contradict her there.

"Is she prettier than me?" Sophie asked, giving him another coy smile.

Then she gave him Crazy Eyes. "She is, isn't she."

"What? Don't be silly," Max shook his head emphatically. "It's clearly a ridiculous idea that anyone could be prettier than you." Outrageous flattery. A particularly dangerous technique since it was so obvious. If you misjudged your target and she didn't find it amusing...

"That's adorable of you to say so." Sophie smiled brightly. "Where shall we hold the wedding? I'm partial to gazebos."

"Oh, er... yes." Max blinked a couple of times. Wow... he hadn't had to deal with that particular question in years. "I've been meaning to bring that up... You see, I'm... um... being relocated. For work." It was a terrible lie, but if you'd really found someone who was truly crazy, often you could get away with those.

"You will write every day though, won't you?" Sophie looked mournful. "I'll treasure the special time we had together."

"Of course I will!" Another outright lie, but one that wouldn't be revealed as such until he was a long way away.

Sophie turned and smiled at the class. "And he has now utterly forgotten that he intended to buy me a drink."

Max blinked. Then laughed. "Layers upon layers of difficulty. Well done!"

"Now," he turned to his class. "You've seen a couple of different techniques. Both from Sophie, which gives you some examples of, admittedly extreme, behaviors you might have to deal with. And you've seen a few of the ways to do that. Now, there are always other things to deal with, and other ways to deal with them."

"So, those of you who want to discuss my technique, join me over here. And those who want to get some pointers from Sohpie, well, she's right there."

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Which Anakin was not in the mood to allow today, so his hand was simply somewhere else before Max could clamp down.

Jedi reflexes weren't too shoddy either.

He throttled back--for now--his instinct to toss Max into the nearest wall and was content to merely glare.

"This is not impressing me with how innocent you might be."

Max quirked an eyebrow in something like disbelief. "Defending myself from an unprovoked attack is a sign of guilt where you're from?" Well, mostly unprovoked... kind of.

"Raven says you put her in the clinic, and you're standing here giving me attitude," Anakin said. "I'm hardly unprovoked."

There was a reason Obi-Wan did most of the talking in diplomatic negotiations.

"Let's not forget who set the tone for this discussion," Max glared, hand rising to touch his lip where it was beginning to swell. "You didn't come here to find out if I did anything, you came here to punish me." Already decided on the whole guilt thing.

Of course Max would have reacted similarly if the situation had been reversed... Though he usually preferred to start with intimidation rather than violence.

Anakin didn't look the least abashed. "If you'd preyed on one student already, there was no reason to start things off nicely."

"And since I didn't?" Max prompted, that mocking edge creeping into his voice again?

If it weren't for his worry over Raven and what really could have happened to her, he'd have been a lot more sarcastic...

"Since you said you didn't," Anakin corrected.

Surely Max couldn't be expecting an apology...

Max shrugged. "I suppose it's too much to expect any remorse from you when you discover you've falsely accused and assaulted an innocent man, huh?"

Somehow he managed to impart that single rhetorical question with an impressive amount of disdain. Max didn't have much use for people who couldn't own up to their mistakes.

"Nobody's innocent," came the reply from the ethics teacher.

How very petty of you, Anakin.

That was good for another sarcastic eyeroll. "I see. So you kust wander around punching everyone for whatever it is they're guilty of. No wonder you're so popular."

"Look. Clearly Principal Washburn needs to hear about this sooner rather than later. Do you want me to go with you when you talk to her?" You know, to hold Anakin's hand. "Or do you think you can handle it on your own?"

For his own part, Max intended to spend most of his time out of sight. No point in inflaming the situation before they figured out what was actually going on.

"I can handle it," Anakin said sharply. "I'll talk with her tomorrow."

And with that, he whirled on his heel and stomped out of the classroom.

Social niceties were for other people, apparently.

As Max watched Anakin stride off, his cocky grin faded away.

Someone had attacked Raven, which was nowhere near good. And they'd managed to convince her that it was him who did it (not even a hothead like Anakin would fail to check at least that much... probably.) And that meant that whoever had really done it was still out there. Still a threat to his students.

And he couldn't hunt them down. Stalkin around at night would only serve to confuse the issue further, providing the real culprit with more cover. Max sighed and resigned himself to spending the next few days not leaving his apartment.

Living With Difficult Women [Tuesday, Period 5]

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