Working Boy [Revamped]

The Reveal

The classroom was silent. The desks which were originally organized like a regular classroom were now all pushed to the back of the room. Since their scrap yesterday, Chase was sure Mr. Barr wanted to minimize the risk of them knocking into anything if they fought.

The boys stood, facing each other in the middle of the room. Mr. Barr stood in between them acting as a mediator.

"Okay Samuel, apologize."

"Sorry," he muttered, averting his eyes.

"For what?"

"For being disrespectful."

"Look at him in the eyes and say it."

Samuel scowled, looking straight into Chase's honey eyes.

"I'm sorry, Chase, for being disrespectful," he emphasizes. His defensive body language was saying the exact opposite, earning a raised eyebrow from Chase.

"Will it happen again?"

"No."

"Good! Let's all sit down, shall we?" Mr. Barr smiles, pulling out three chairs and arranging them in a circle before they all sat down.

"Alright, so let's continue from yesterday. We're gonna go around and say something about yourselves."

"Again?" They both groan.

As mean as it sounded, Chase really wasn't interested in anything this boy had to say and his face strongly reflected it.

"Yep! And pay close attention. I'll start. Hello, I'm Mr. Barr and I enjoy fishing on the weekends. Next?"

"I'm Chase," the Trini says. "And I enjoy swimming in my spare time," he turns to Samuel, wary about what he would say next.

Before Samuel even spoke, Chase was silently calculating how far his arm could reach from where he was sitting so he could deck him in the mouth as soon as something slick came out of it.

The blonde sighs before speaking. "My name is Samuel. And um...I can't swim to save my life," he mused, earning a chuckle from Mr. Barr and a small, uneasy smile from Chase.

"Maybe one day you can teach him," the former dean nudges Chase.

"Heh...yeah," he mumbled, awkwardly. As if he'd ever take the time to teach him that nor would Samuel ever be open to that kind of guidance from him.

"Stop that. The only way you can truly understand a situation from someone else's perspective is if you put yourselves in their shoes. Now, I want you to recreate the incident beginning from the football being tossed," Mr. Barr strides over to his bag that sat upon a desk against the wall and pulls out a football before tossing it to Chase.

Chase looks at it, holding it gingerly in his hands before heading back towards the back and sitting on a desk. Samuel went in the opposite direction, sitting at another desk in the manner that Chase was doing it.

This was so stupid.

"Okay, I'm not going to put any liquids near you," the dean muses, "But just imagine it landing in hot soup and it splashing on you."

"Whatever," the blonde rolls his eyes. "Just throw it."

"Oh, and by the way, try to remember the dialogue and think about how it affects you."

Chase takes a deep breath. This was hard. How could he ever put himself in the same mindspace as Samuel? Samuel was so angry, so antagonistic. He couldn't fathom how someone could harbor so much hate in his heart for something that happened years ago. He'd feel disgusted with even thinking those thoughts to begin with. He swallowed hard before readying his hand to throw it.