fandomhigh | Attitude: Deal With It, Friday, Period 2

"Yo, Rookies! Today, we're gonna talk about a topic that's near an' dear to my heart, yo. We're gonna talk about rules." See, that wasn't so bad, was it? "And breakin' 'em."

Ah.

"The thing about honin' your attitude is that you gotta figure out just when the rules you're lookin' at are friggin' ridiculous, yo. Do this? Don't do that? Okay, that's cool. But what harm is there in chewin' bubblegum in the classroom? An' why the hell should anyone care if you're sittin' around in the mall for a few hours doin' nothin', just so long as you ain't hurtin' nobody? An' why you gotta have short, naturally-colored hair to get a job out there? Who the hell are those tattoos an' piercings even hurtin', anyhow?"

Yeah, Reno was totally the type to loiter, with his long hair and pierced ears and tattooed face. But he usually did so while well-armed, and nobody generally bothered him as a result.

"Today, we're gonna talk about different rules you've seen around that just don't make no friggin' sense to you, and you're gonna tell me how you think doin' those things ain't hurtin' nobody, and just how you plan on goin' about breakin' it. An' if anybody sees a reason why the rule you wanna break is valid, they're gonna go right ahead and tell you why, yo. This class is about separatin' the rules from the guidelines, but if someone's gonna legitimately get hurt over this shit, I ain't havin' none of that, yo."

Reno was a real sweetheart when he wanted to be. So there.

[OOC: OCD is up, classtime is now!]

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Well, now, weren't they just getting philosophical over here? Astrid felt that this was the reason she typically didn't say much in classes, but, then again, there she was, still talking.

"A balance, then," she said, "because you break some rules, you end up somewhere worse than where you started."

Mother.

And to an extent, her, and she hadn't even broken any rules to get here.

"Plus, there's a ripple sometimes. Like a stone in the water. Breaking a rule doesn't always effect just you."

Reno felt himself nodding. Hey, kid was using her brain. She didn't have to agree with him for him to appreciate that much.

"Seen it happen," he allowed. "Seen it happen in a big way. Seen it go the other way, too, where followin' the rules got a lot of people hurt, though. That's where usin' your brain about them rules gets important."

Yeah, they weren't talking bubblegum in class anymore, were they?

No, they most certainly weren't. Still, Astrid had taken the piece of gum from the desk, nodding in agreement as she unwrapped it and put it in her mouth.

And that might have been it. She chewed, her mouth closed, of course, because that was a rule, too, wasn't it? Etiquette and politeness, a little thing that even her rebellious mother followed more often than not. It might have seemed that she was done, but, no, she was just waiting until the gum was chewed and soft enough.

Astrid leaned to the side a little as she took the gum out of her mouth and pressed it onto the underside of the desk. "See?" she said. "Ripples. I broke the rules, so now some poor janitor has to scrape that off. Or the next kid who sits here is going to get a nice brush with some ABC gum."

Sure, it wasn't boarding school or prison or genocide, but, hey, that's what metaphors were for, right?

Reno bit the inside of the cheek, looking faintly amused.

"I see you ain't met the school's janitor yet."

Maybe it was for the best she didn't know Fosse.

Somehow, Astrid managed to blanche an even paler shade of white.

No, she hadn't met the janitor yet, but no matter what he or she was like, she suddenly didn't want to, and, just like that, the gum was peeled off from the underside of the desk, neatly gathered back in its original wrapper.

Which wasn't to say anything about all the other pieces of gum that were already there, but at least now she didn't worry that she'd be made to scrape all the other stuff off after school or something.

"No," she admitted, "and I don't plan to yet."

"Smart," Reno agreed. "Big guy. Dunno if he's got a temper, but I wouldn't wanna find out."

He tilted his head a little.

"But hey, your point about repercussions stands, yo."

"If you wind up in a worse position wouldn't that imply that you broke the wrong rule?" Rufus asked easily.

He considered that.

"Or you were stupid enough to get caught and therefore deserve whatever punishment you get."

"Which is exactly my point," Astrid responded. "Most rules aren't worth the trouble. Some are, but if you're going to break them, at least make sure you can without screwing everything up. And don't do it for stupid reasons, like ego or jealousy or pride."

"If you take away ego, jealousy, and pride, what would you say motivates people to break the rules?" Rufus asked.

Astrid's head tilted. "Are you saying those are the only things that motivate you to break the rules?"

"I'm saying that they're things that commonly motivate people to break the rules," he said smoothly. "And wondering what else you thought there was?"

"Something being common doesn't make it any less stupid," Astrid said, "so if you're going to break rules for stupid reason, you'd better hope the rules you're breaking are equally stupid. There's safety, security, sanity. A kid stealing bread because he's starving isn't stupid; that's survival. A kid stealing a video game to impress his friends or just to prove that he can, that's stupid."

"I wasn't inquiring about the inherent stupidity of any of the actions," Rufus said dryly.

But, like, sure. Okay, Astrid.

Astrid snorted, just faintly. "No," she agreed, "you weren't. But that wasn't the only thing I said, either."

Attitude: Deal With It, Friday, Period 2

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