Stereotypes [Calum Hood AU]

Chapter 3

Calum walked in the library that afternoon with a nervous feeling in his stomach. He was never good at group projects, he was better doing projects and school assignments alone. He just let everyone else in the group do it for him. But this time around, he felt like he would actually have to do some research. Racism is some pretty heavy stuff. He spotted Kiara, Janet and Ken near the back of the library. He couldn't help but notice how pretty Kiara looked today. Her hair was straight and her dark skin was glowing. She laughed at what Ken said. Calum took a deep breath and headed towards the table. Ken was the first one to notice.

"Hey!" Ken greeted. Ken stood up from his seat and hugged Calum. Calum was slightly taken back. No one ever usually hugs him. Not in school. He awkwardly patted Ken on the back. With a big smile, Ken pulled away and sat down. Calum sat down next to Kiara.

"So, where's Kelly?" Calum asked, setting his bookbag down on the table.

"I just texted her," Ken replied. "She should be here in a minute."

"Well, we can get started without her," Kiara said, she took out four worksheet hand outs out from her bag and handed one to Janet, Calum, Ken and kept one for herself. "I remember Mr. Forrester saying before we actually do some research, we can ask each other some race-related questions so we don't put anything stereotypical in the essay."

Just as Kiara was supposed to continue, Kelly walked into the library with none other than her boyfriend, Jake O'Connor. Calum internally groaned. He sees Jake practically everyday at lunch, does he really need to see him while he works on his project too? Kelly spotted the group in the back and headed towards it, dragging Jake behind her by the hand.

"Hey, sorry I'm late," Kelly spoke. Kelly had tan skin and a slight accent.

"No problem," Ken answered, glancing down at the worksheet.

"I'll come pick you up later, okay?" Jake whispered to Kelly. Kelly smiled up at him and kissed him firmly on the lips. Calum wanted to gag.

"Okay," she said, and sat down at the table. Jake turned around and headed for the door. He never noticed Calum.

"So, I was just saying," Kiara got cut off by Kelly.

"Is that your real hair? It's pretty."

Kiara touched her hair self consciously. "Yes..."

"Really? That's not like a weave?"

Kiara narrowed her eyes at Kelly. "Are you stereotyping me?"

Kelly shook her head. "No, it's just that, don't black girls wear weave?"

"You're stereotyping me, do you even know what stereotyping means? It's when a thought that can be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things. You're a cheerleader right?"

Kelly nodded her head, she had no idea where Kiara was going with this.

"Well, since you're a cheerleader, cheerleaders can be stereotyped as white skinny blonde girls with low IQs, dates the quarterback of the football team and is a slut. I'm not going to judge you and say you are all of those things. Because why? I don't know you and I'm not going to criticize what I read in books and watch in movies. I'm smarter than that."

Kelly just sat quietly and took everything in. Kiara took that as a sign to continue working.

"Okay, well, like I was saying before Kelly walked in," she cleared her throat. "Um, just before we actually start writing the project and researching on it, Mr. Forrester handed us worksheets to ask each other questions," Kiara handed one to a still quiet Kelly. "Who would like to go first?"