Sitting in Mr. Matthews class, I was fuming quietly from my spot in the back. I lost my debate about what color the sky was to Evan, which I'd totally had in the bag. I'd even slightly nerded out about the visible light spectrum, but then Evan went and argued that it was more important what we interpreted rather than what it actually was, so Mr. Matthews had give him the point.
Currently, Farkle and Riley were taking their turns.
"The Sun shines during the day," Mr. Matthews started. "Miss Matthews will argue the affirmative."
Riley began to talk. "Good morning everybody. Do you know why people say that in the "morning"? "She hit her desk and walked to the window, pulling open the blinds, before saying, "Poom!" She smiled at everyone and walked back to podium to curtsy. "Nailed it."
Maya smiled at her best friend. "How could you possibly lose?"
"Like this," Smackle said, gesturing to Farkle.
"First of all," he began, "let's understand that 'day' and 'night' are merely words invented by human beings to communicate simple constructs apropos of nothing."
I didn't understand most of the words that came out of his mouth, but Smackle loved it. She moaned and shuddered, causing Mr. Matthews to stare at her. Gross.
Farkle smiled at her, leaning in and saying, "Apropos," again. Smackle sighed and made a cat hand towards Farkle. I don't know why she was acting like she was an anime character, but it was uncomfortable to watch.
"Thank you, thank you very much," Farkle said to Smackle, before he spoke to the rest of the class. "Anyways, science tells us the sun is always shining, and what appears as day and night is merely our angle of proximity at a particular time to the earth's revolution."
Riley started to mock Farkle, making glasses with her hands and sticking her tounge out. Mr. Matthews just watched, seemingly confused. I couldn't blame him, I was kind of lost too.
"And for extra credit there is no such thing as time."
Riley made a T with her arms and yelled, "Time!"
Farkle didn't seem to care, as he contimued making his point. "Our debate topic therefore is false.The sun does not just shine during the day, it also shines during the night, just not on us."
Riley scoffed. "I win."
"How do you win?" Mr. Matthews asked. I agreed with him but kept it to myself.
"Because I have high hopes," Riley said. "Because when you believe po-"
"And the debate winner is Farkle Minkus!" Mr. Matthews said, causing us all to applaud. I was glad Farkle won because nepotism is a thing here, but I lowkey wanted Riley to win for the meme.
"I don't understand. I said what I believed, how could that be wrong?" Riley whined.
"There is no wrong, Riley, but there are rules to a debate."
Since when did she care about rules if they inconvenienced her?
"Ok, who cares about the rules when we know the sun shines during the day?"
"That's interesting, isn't it?" Mr. Matthews said, before turning to the class as a whole. "How often do we get so lost in what we think that we refuse to listen to what the other side has to say, huh? You guys know why we debate in history class? History teaches us that most wars start because we don't listen to the other point of view."
"I'm not trying to start a war," Riley protested. "I just think it's OK to feel strongly about what you believe in."
"Wars were fought over the right to think and speak freely," I said under my breath. Evan seemed to hear me and nodded.
YOU ARE READING
Girl Meets Closet
FanfictionAll Jason Anderson wanted was to get through history class. His life was hard enough as is. But when Mr. Matthews calls on him to share some thoughts, his life will change. For better or worse, he needs to be ready to take on the world.
