fandomhigh | How To Get By In A Hostile World, Wednesday

"So if there's anything I found out in our first class, it's that a lot of you are really terrible liars," Atton said. "Well, not really terrible; if you were really terrible, I'd have figured out the exact truth without trying. But you're bad enough to make any sentient with half a brain go 'I'm pretty sure you're hiding something', which is about the deadliest sentence in the galaxy."

He sat down on his desk. It was kind of his thing.

"We've already talked about making your first impressions work for you - that's one kind of actually effective lying. Let people believe what they want to believe anyway, maybe feed the fire a little bit, and you'll slip under everyone's radar. Which, when you have a secret, is pretty much all you really need."

He shrugged. "Well, unless your thing is making up really weird lies and then people just stare at you." Not that he knew anyone like that. Sparkle. "But your best bet is to come up with something you can actually make yourself believe in."

"Anyway, this week, you're going to try and lie to your fellow students," he said. "We're taking a page from Ethics class and playing two truths and a lie. You tell the class two things about you that are true, while you lie about the one thing. If you're smart, you use the truths to hide the lie. Don't bring up anything you don't want everyone else to find out about as a lie, by the way, because that's just asking for trouble."

Atton crossed his arms, finally. "My name is Atton Rand, I was orphaned when I was about your age, and I was born on the most peaceful planet in the galaxy. There, that's mine. Now let's hear yours."

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"I'm just running it past you because if you think something's irresponsible, I'm in trouble," Atton said.

"Yeah, but me thinking something is responsible is usually a pretty good sign of that, too," Sparkle pointed out. "I did try to steal a camel that one time."

He and Cade had been so close, too.

"He wanted to be set free."

"I think Cade and I tried to eat a monkey once," Atton offered. "I don't remember that well. No, wait-- we were going to sell it on the black market."

"Remember that time when I stepped in a zebra?"

Good times.

"God, we're all huge fucking morons."

Good of Sparkle to just clue in to that now.

"We were kids," Atton pointed out. "...Well, you two were, I was trying real hard to fit in."

"You weren't bad at it," Sparkle pointed out with a shrug. "Shit, it wasn't even all that long ago, for me or Cade. Of course I'm the only loser that's still in school right now."

There was no escape.

"I haven't even tried to kidnap a zoo animal in, like, months."

"It becomes less tempting without Cade around," Atton said, shooting a quick glance Sparkle's way. "He had a habit of getting the really stupid ideas. Probably the death sticks talking."

"See, the worst I get with my drug of choice is a craving for Cheetos," Sparkle replied, wrinkling his nose. "Or, you know, completely fucking hammered. I need a good enabler around for animal-stealing. Those are hard to come by."

"Or you could say you're going to be eighteen... whenever," Atton said, "Leave the animal-stealing life behind."

Yeah, sure.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?"

Animal. Stealing. He was never successful at it, so it wasn't like it even hurt anything!

"Hey, you're not stealing any animals anyway," Atton pointed out. "Might as well make it official. Unless you're going to run around and grab somebody's pet."

Not that Atton would care. He was not a pet person.

"What? Nah. I already have one of those that I'm pretty sure I can't take with me after I grad," Sparkle sighed. "At least if I steal a tiger, I know I have to put it back."

Yes, he was still resigning himself to going back to Toronto.

Like a moron.

Atton didn't specifically say anything to that; he just threw Sparkle a look that read are you absolutely sure that isn't completely stupid?

He hadn't treated this complex of Sparkle's with anything approaching seriousness until he'd met Lewis. After that... yeah.

Sparkle didn't really say anything back, either. He just shrugged his shoulders a little. Wrinkled his nose.

Maybe it was completely fucking stupid. So?

"You can crash at my place if you ever need to later," Atton said finally, casually.

Seemed like the least shutdown-inducing thing to say.

"Might come to that," Sparkle replied, after taking a moment to sort of chew on that. To maybe even be thankful for it. "We'll see, I guess."

He made stupid decisions, but he wasn't so stupid as to assume that he'd get what he wanted from this. Ever.

"Yeah, yeah, the future's one big expanse of I-don't-know-what," Atton muttered. He shook his head. "Class is over. Clear off, kid. Go get drunk or something."

"See," Sparkle said, cracking a wry grin as he reached for his backpack, "now that's irresponsible."

He was so going to, though. So.

Atton shrugged. "I'm going by Nar Shaddaa drinking age here," he said. "So it's perfectly responsible. Somewhere."

Nar Shaddaa didn't have a drinking age.

How To Get By In A Hostile World, Wednesday

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