You Must Remember This

Chapter 23: Raindrop Prelude

John did not mind at all that Juliet was now in his Chinese class. She was unfailingly kind and patient with him, particularly the latter: while John considered his mind to be a steel trap, it was really a sieve, and Juliet was always there to help when John forgot simple ideas like what they were supposed to have done as homework or the word for "yesterday." It seemed only fair that someone with natural ability would be rewarded proportionally. It took him a few weeks to doubt this notion. Too many times did Mrs. Huang smile particularly genuinely when Juliet entered the room, and Juliet was often sent on special missions to copy papers or gather supplies during class; Juliet often arrived a few minutes late with a lanyard around her neck and a pile of papers in her hands. Rarely did this special treatment reach the level of favoritism, but when coupled with the fact that Mrs. Huang barely knew his name, he simply had to wonder. A little bit of hypothesizing never did anyone any harm.

"Who really runs the school, do you think?" John asked Ernest during a physics lab; Ernest readjusted their inclined plane and turned to him.

"Is this a thought experiment or just a casual question? Do you expect me to know?"

"I don't think it's either of those things. I think it's a question rooted in very real concerns, ones which we may derive from observing what goes on around us. It's becoming all the more clear, at least to me, that there are some people to whom the rules do not apply, who are free to do as they please and at no great personal cost."

"So you mean the club people like Alan."

"What about him? But anyway, when I see people like Juliet show up to class late because they were running errands across the school, when I certainly was never given the same opportunity to even prove my merit, what am I supposed to think? That life isn't fair? That it should just be accepted fact that a few people are able to control the rest of us on little strings to do whatever they very well please whenever they'd like?"

"That's exactly what we're supposed to believe, John. Life isn't fair. I can't believe it's taken you three years to come to that conclusion. You saw what they did to Jason earlier, although I do admit it's kind of karmic, but there are some people who lie and cheat and swindle simply because it gets their blood pumping. That's no excuse. Let me tell you a secret about your club that Frank would never tell you because nobody would listen to him:"

"Go on?"

"At some point in Mrs. Huang's class, Frank and I were talking about some sort of stupid philosophical dilemma, I can't even remember what it was at this point. But anyway, Frank said something stupid that he thought to be exceedingly clever, I challenged him on it, and he took that as a dare. So he went off to find the first gullible flirt like Juliet who was willing to give him the answers he wanted to hear and wrote some drivel just to convince her that he was a little Mr. Perfect and soothe his raging ego. And so he went off to build his personality cult and arrange everything just so that now he gets to plunder the school and everyone thinks he's right. Do you know why Mrs. Huang's so nice to Juliet? She's her TA. Do you know who else is her TA? Frank. You're absolutely right. It's clear who runs the school: idiots."

In John's mind, Ernest spoke paradoxically. He had to be wrong because he was criticizing the club and the near-mythical recollection of its founding; especially with Juliet on the team, Frank had been more willing to discuss her initial involvement, if only as an inspirational tale. He had neglected to mention her hug or her peculiar fascination with bubble tea and his personal life, instead choosing to discuss the open-hearted mentorship he had delivered and the effusive insights he received in return. But John could not believe that Frank had that killer instinct in him to mess with someone like Juliet just to settle a bet. Frank had been so kind to him freshman year! And wait a second—at the theater that night, Frank must have known what was up with his ticket. He must have romantically planned it out with Regina, all just so she could get her sweetheart. It was straight out of a movie, in a good way. But wait! John wasn't Regina's sweetheart then, or at least he did not know it at the time. All this was leading him somewhere, and it was leading him astray. Ernest was wrong. But Ernest was also right: everywhere John looked, too many favors were exchanged. John considered himself above playing whatever dirty games his classmates played, but that wasn't the mindset that brought success at the end of the day. The rich were robbing the poor, and they were too stupid to know it.