ethics [ogoc]

one

     "Which do you believe is worse: having sex with your best friend's brother, or having sex with your brother's best friend?"

This is the question that my debate teacher has written on the board in the front of the classroom as soon as the bell rings and we all take our seats.

Mr. Parker is easily the best teacher I have ever had in my entire academic career. He and I have a close relationship, but not in the way you may be thinking; I look up to him kind of as an older brother. After all, he is only 26 years old. He treats all of his students not as kids, but as young adults who are responsible for their own actions and decisions. He feels that as high school juniors we need to be taught our curriculums in ways that are actually useful in the real world, which is only a year or so away. As teenagers, we appreciate him for the real respect he has for us and we always take everything he says to heart. I trust him implicitly as a big brother figure in my life, which is not the relationship that most high schoolers have with their teachers.

So this is why this question is written on the board, and this is why every student in the room already has a hand raised in order to answer it.

"This is one of the best questions you've asked us all year, Park," I call out and he smiles in response.

"I thought it might be relevant to a lot of your lives right now," he addresses the class as a whole. "I was sure most of you guys would love to debate on this question, and by looking at the show of hands, I was right. So when you're answering the question, don't forget to take your opinion and couple it with anything we learned in first semester. If you don't apply the curriculum, I may or may not give you credit for this debate." We all laugh, including Mr.Parker, because we know damn well that everyone that takes this class passes with an A as long as you participate.

All of our hands are still raised, waiting patiently for him to pick someone to speak first. His eyes scan the room as he drums his fingertips on his oversized wooden desk. He squints and stops moving his hand. "Go for it, Gabi."

Gabriella Paige Maloley is a five foot seven, brown-haired, blue-eyed beauty with a 5.3 grade point average and an equally perfect boyfriend named Samuel Wilkinson. Anyone within a ten mile radius of our high school has heard of Gabi and Sam, otherwise known as "the perfect couple". Born to two successful attorneys, Gabriella is expected to follow in their footsteps and attend an Ivy League university to study corporate law. Nathan Maloley, Gabriella's older brother, is infamous among those of us still in high school for three things: his parties, his music, and most certainly his drugs.

To put it simply, Nate Maloley is absolutely nothing like his sister.

But perhaps one of the most important things that Gabriella happens to be is my best friend, and I cannot imagine my life without her.

"Mr. Parker, why the hell do you always pick me first?" She laughs, "You know I hate leading a debate and my hand was definitely not up."

"And I picked you first for those two reasons specifically." He smiles and the class chuckles, "C'mon, Gabi. What do you believe is worse?"

"I'm sure everyone reads that question and immediately tries to argue one way or another, but when you sit and analyze the question, you see that it actually has to deal with our ethics and our moral principles. There really is no factual logic or reasoning to support either side of the argument, and therefore I believe that neither is worse."

"Not spoken like an attorney at all, kiddo," Mr. Parker laughs, "You didn't even pick a side!"

Gabi smiles softly as she shrugs her shoulders. "Maybe I'm just not cut out for law," she mutters under her breath.

Although both of her parents are big-shot lawyers and are practically pushing law down Gabi's throat, she absolutely hates it. Her parents have been trying to get their kids to take an interest in law ever since they first learned how to read. After seeing how Nate's teenage years developed, becoming an attorney dropped off of the table for him quickly, and Gabi was left as the star child that was supposed to shine in the light of her parents' eyes. So she fakes it every day, and keeps her hatred of law a secret to everyone except me.

"Well even though you didn't pick a side, you definitely brought in the chapter on Ethics that we went over right before midterms. Ethics are the moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior, everybody remember?" A collective sound of approval resonates throughout the room. "Alright, great job, Gabi. Who's next?"

He says my name before even making eye contact with me. "Lucy, how about you? What do you think is worse?"

I take an audible deep breath in. "Honestly Park, I agree with everything Gabi said. But if you want me to actually argue it for the sake of the debate, I'll try. First of all, having sex with your brother's best friend would cause some serious shit between them. Just think about it, no big brother wants his best friend with his little sister. He would probably beat the crap out of his best friend or they would never speak again. On the other hand, having sex with your best friend's brother is bad too. Once your best friend finds out that you hooked up with her brother, she would probably try to kill her brother in his sleep and then hate you for the rest of her life. Both of the situations end up with all of the relationships involved being just brutally destroyed and you essentially being left alone."

The room is completely silent after I stop speaking and everyone seems to be taking it all in. Almost half of the class's hands go down after I finish.

"Brilliant analysis Lucy, but just like your partner over there, you still haven't picked a side to stand on. Don't you guys know what debate is?" He jokes, and the silence in the room is replaced by joyous laughter.

"Shut up, Parker!" I continue laughing, "How am I supposed to know which one is worse if I haven't done either of them?"

"Good point, kid. I guess you're right," he sighs. "Could any of you actually tell us which one is worse even just partially based on personal experience?"  No one speaks up or raises a hand. "Damn it," he chuckles, "I guess I'm going to need to find a better question by tomorrow. For the rest of the period you guys can do whatever you want, but let's not set anything on fire today."

The room immediately fills with the familiar buzz of kids talking, laughing, and moving stuff around. That sound has been our sound since kindergarten, growing older and more mature with us until now in our junior year. The buzz is perfect background noise for copying homework at the last minute, or having lunch with your friends in the cafeteria, or just walking from class to class while checking your phone for notifications. This hum of speech and movement allows me to think clearly better than any silent room ever could.

I look over to Gabi's seat and I see that it's empty. Shortly after, I realize that she is at Mr. Parker's desk and they are engaged in a conversation. I'm not sure about what, though. The buzz drowns everything out.

As I watch my animated best friend from a short distance, I start to think about her and the question still written in blue marker on the front board. Having sex with Nate isn't something I ever even thought about, but if I did for some reason, would Gabi really hate me forever? I'd like to think she wouldn't because I couldn't live with her hating me, but it really poses an interesting question.

As for the other side of the question, having sex with my brother's best friend, I would never dare to do that. My brother is a pretty popular guy; a senior with tons of friends, really smart but never studies, really funny without even trying to be, and always the life of the party. Jack Johnson is my big brother, and as much as I hate him sometimes, I'll always love him to pieces.

His best friend, however, is Jack Gilinsky, and I would actually rather drown than to ever have sex with him.

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a/n: well here it is, the first chapter of ethics! i hope it was better than expected for you guys

so i turn the question to you guys, my favorite people in the whole wide world!!! which do you believe is worse?

leave a comment riiiiiight here ok ily -t