It's a Cruel World, Sir (Student/Teacher)

25 | Perception

— 25 — 

Leon clears his throat, making everyone's head snap to him. "Now that we've established—uh—that, maybe we should discuss this thing with Canty?"

Nikki rolls her eyes, surprising him. "What's to discuss? We go in, we rip out his heart, we give it to Cupcake as a present, then we leave Chase and Cupcake alone for a few days. Problem solved."

My face heats up. "Why do you need to leave us alone?"

Her grin is demonic. "I thought that would be obvious, my dear Cupcake~"

"Seriously? You got stuck on that part?" TJ mutters. "You know she just threatened to rip out someone's heart, right?"

"So?" I wonder, tilting my head.

Nikki snickers as TJ shakes his head. "You two need to work on yourselves."

Leon sighs, interrupting us. "This is serious, guys. A professor is in the pocket of some gang leader."

"Which is why we'll take care of him as soon as possible," Whitler joins in.

"That'll just give another professor a reason to attack Cupcake," Leon points out.

"Then we'll take them out too," Whit says easily. "Eventually, people will get the point."

"What if they don't?" he wonders.

She scoffs. "Have you met the sniveling professors at Pacific? After two or three professors go down, they'll leave us alone."

"Okay, but what if they don't?" Leon says again. "Are we just gonna deal with this shit until we graduate? You know Cupcake's gonna be left alone when that happens, right?"

"Exactly! Which is why we have to make sure no one has the audacity to—"

"Maybe that's part of the problem," he interrupts.

"What? How?" she demands.

Beside me, Chase nods absently, deep in thought.

Immediately, Whitler rears on him, glaring fiercely. "If you have something to say, then say it," she grouses.

He blinks, clearly coming back to the conversation at hand, before he smirks. "I simply believe Mr. Reid may be onto something, that's all."

"Excuse me?" Whitler demands, crossing her arms.

It's a sign Whit's losing her temper, so Nikki motions for Chase to stop talking.

He ignores her warning, though. "Mr. Reid may be onto something," he repeats easily. "What if people keep attacking you because you keep retaliating?"

She looks at him incredulously, but it's Nikki who asks, "What d'you mean?"

"Frankly speaking, you seven spend too much time trying to prove that what others think isn't important," he elaborates, looking at each of us. "Does it matter whether people think you're heartless? Ideally, no, it doesn't, but the reality is that people's perception of you affects you whether you want it to or not."

"No, it doesn't," Whit argues. "What someone thinks of me doesn't change who I am."

"That's true," he agrees. "But it does change how others treat you. You can see it in the professors: because they believe you're in a gang, they treat you as such. They cower out of your way when you're in front of them, but they attack when you're not around. They go above and beyond themselves trying to make your life harder just because they don't want to be bullied into submission, so they give you extra homework or they make your test questions harder or they kick you out for the littlest of things—small, rather petty, acts that make them feel a little less badly about themselves."