fandomhigh | Living on the Outskirts, Friday, Period 2

Today when students entered the classroom, they might notice how the usual pastries were completely absent. The seating set-up was the same, if only because the teacher had walked in to see the seats all shoved aside and had decided, to hell with it, he wasn't going to make the attempt to rearrange them. Oh. And the room smelled like burning brimstone. A little.

//Sick bloody joke,// the leather-wrapped teen who had taken a seat on top of the teacher's desk was grumbling. Well, 'grumbling.' Talking directly into the students' heads was more like it. And he wasn't even particularly good at it yet, considering the way he had to pause every few words in order to round up his focus all over again. //'A guide to fitting in... for those not meant to?' Really?//

Today's class might be a touch counter-productive.

//If yer not meant to... yer not meant to. World's got a pecking order to it. We... can't all be superheroes or rock stars or... prom kings. And a person'll just get burned if they set their sights... too high. Whose idea was it, having th'likes of me teach this? 'Those not meant to.' Plonkers.// Was young, skinny, burning Jonothon a little grumpy? Yes. Yes he was. //Th'way to fit in... is to find somebody who... happens to be as big a freak as you are. Anyone else... is probably just trying t'make themselves... feel better.//

He cast a look around the room, chestnut-coloured eyes glowing fire-hot for a moment.

//Tell me I'm wrong. Go on. Try.//

... That was probably about as close to an assignment as the class was going to get from Jonothon today, yes. So, go on. Tell him he's wrong.

[Open!]

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"I cannot think of anything that would make a difference in how those who do not fit in are viewed by others without that trouble," Yeul said quietly. "There will always be those who are uncomfortable, to put it mildly, with people who are different."

Which was desperately sad.

Yeul kept her voice soft and her eyes on her desk. "But I think that, perhaps, though it may not make a difference those who are not 'freaks' and how they feel, that those who are different should know that they are more than just their differences. Reducing someone to just being a 'freak' even if, especially if, that is a belief held by another 'freak' takes away everything else that they are as well."

//So, you're saying it's dehumanizing... t'be considered a freak among freaks,// Jono paraphrased, perhaps poorly, as he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. //And we should... what, keep in mind that we're all... people, even when we're sitting on th'outside, looking in?//

Edited 2012-11-30 16:25 (UTC)

Yeul looked up at him. “I would not use the word ‘dehumanizing’,” she said quietly. “But I think it a sorrowful thing if the only people who might even have a chance to even vaguely understand one another spend their time pointing out each other’s differences and crying ‘that person is more of a freak than I am’.” She paused to consider her words carefully. “I do not mean to say that everyone who is a… a freak, to use your word, must get along with one another. But it seems pointless and needlessly cruel to deliberately lash out with harsh words towards the people who are freaks, because of their freakishness, if you’re also a freak.”

//Never said I was going to... lash out at people who're as... as messed up as me,// Jono grumbled, apparently not thrilled with being lectured when he didn't even want to be here in the first place.

Because life was unfair, that was why.

//Not even looking to find someone... worse off. Just saying there's... no point trying to fit in among people who... can't begin to comprehend what it's like.//

That said, he was totally a freak among freaks. He just didn't know the full extent of how poorly he'd be treated even by other mutants, yet.

She lifted her shoulders in the slightest of shrugs.

“As you wish,” Yeul said agreeably. “I do not believe anything I could say would change your mind on that matter. The rest was less meant as a lecture and more as an opinion.”

But that he’d taken it as a lecture was interesting in and of itself.

//And everybody is certainly entitled to one of those.//

Didn't mean Jono had to like that opinion, but it was true enough. He gave his boot a scuff against the leg of the desk that he was sitting on, and then shrugged.

//People are people. It'd be... nice, if it were really so simple, out there in th'real world. Wouldn't it?//

“I think so,” Yeul said honestly. “But I am probably the wrong person to ask. A great deal of my time is spent far from other people. I do not have much first-hand experience at the sort of dislike we are talking about. Only supposition and thoughts.”

Living on the Outskirts, Friday, Period 2

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