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Violent Red
A/N: So far, I've gotten two reviews...all from the same person...thank you CaFFy, it's not that I am not grateful to you, but could more people review too? I mean, even if it sucks, you could at least like...tell me.
Liar (It Takes One to Know One) - Taking Back Sunday
He had lied to Gavin.
It's not as if Gavin had been nice to him. Gavin had been an outright asshole to him, calling his mom a stripper, throwing paper at him. Gavin had even wanted Kyle to get hit by a car; Kyle could tell by the way they sped across the street when cars were still coming...
But Kyle had been completely dishonest to Gavin. Maybe Gavin didn't like him, but that didn't give Kyle the right to follow Gavin home, saying he lived on Sunday Street, when really he lived somewhere ten miles across the city.
But he'd REALLY wanted to be close to Gavin.
Kyle sighed as he trudged down Sunday Street, where Gavin and him had separated. Kyle didn't want to be home anytime soon, really. He didn't even really know where he was in comparison with his house. He'd have to walk back to the school, and THEN walk back to his house. As if the walk to his house wasn't long enough already.
"God I'm such a dumbass," Kyle muttered to himself. He had made his walk home even more grueling than normal so that he could hang out with someone who called his mother a slut...and meant it. He sighed and turned around, heading back to the main street he'd walked with Gavin from the school on. The street that was busy but not busy enough to have a crosswalk anywhere on it. Kyle was deathly afraid of cars, and the knowledge that he'd have to sprint across the wide, car-ridden road to get back on the side he needed to be on to get to his house wasn't comforting in slightest.
And neither was the soft something that brushed his nose. It was snowing.
Ms. Peacenik made it seem like she was perfect. Maybe, she didn't dress perfect, or look perfect, but they all thought she was perfectly nice. Even Gavin, though he would never admit she was the nicest woman on the Earth.
But she wasn't.
Ms. Peace slunk into her chair and layed her head on the desk. She was trying to teach a class how to deal with conflict when she herself couldn't. She couldn't even deal with 24 rowdy teenagers; how was she supposed to deal with real adults, real people that she interacted with outside of school?
"SHUT UP!"
Though the "yelling shut up so that everyone will shut up" tactic usually didn't work, somehow Gavin's voice had an impact on the whole room.
"Can't you see? We're giving dear Ms. PeaceNIK a panic attack! She's probably going to have to go to therapy now, because she's not completely normal. Oops!"
Ms. Peace looked up from her defeated position on the desk, and instead of glaring like she was sure Gavin had expected her to, smiled brightly and winked at him. Gavin did not look angry at this reaction; he looked confused. "Why thank you Gavin! You've quieted the class down for me! Now we can start." Ms. Peace walked to the front of the room, smiling still. GENUINELY smiling, too. "Is everyone quite all right?"
"Dude, you just got pwned bad!" one of the gangsters said (Ms. Peace couldn't tell if it was Juan or Ricardo). Ms. Peace laughed at their usage of the 'word' "pwned".
"What is this...pwned that you speak of?"
Daniel, who Ms. Peace recognized as a guy who had gotten into more than a few bad fights, many of them with switchblades and pistols, spoke up. "Pwned is just basically saying...you got owned...like...when he says something to diss you, and you know, it makes you feel bad? Well, you just got pwned!"
Ms. Peace cocked her eyebrow. "But I didn't feel bad."
The class didn't seem to know how to respond to that.
"I didn't let myself be bothered by his insult. And if you noticed, what I said after put Gavin slightly out; he wanted to get an angry or even dejected reaction. Instead, I thanked him. Gavin was a bit freaked, and didn't seem to know what to do with himself for a minute. If I had felt like leaving, than I would have had plenty of time to merely WALK away, leaving Gavin confused and freaked out. I made myself HIGHER above the other person, and by doing so, walked away without worrying about Gavin."
The kids looked somewhat awed. "Does this have a name?" asked Rachel.
"Yes, actually! This is called Giraffe Talk. Making yourself higher than the other person, and letting them know that you aren't going to take any crap from them."
"That doesn't work," a small voice said. Ms. Peace placed the voice as Kyle's.
"And why not, Kyle?"
"Real bullies would just beat you up more," Kyle mumbled. "Believe me, I know."
"I bet you do," Gavin muttered loud enough for the whole class to hear.
Ms. Peace sighed. "Gavin, please be quiet. You're not helping."
"I don't want to help."
"But I want you to."
Gavin scoffed. "Well I don't want to help YOU. So fuck off!"
"Sorry Gavin, I have a boyfriend who will do that for me."
Gavin started, obviously horrified by Ms. Peace's remark. And the bright, Japanese-like grin that lit up her face. Kyle smiled just slightly, and the whole class (mostly Juan and Ricardo) went off into exclamations about "Dude Gavin you just got pwned! By a teacher!"
Ms. Peace sat down in a rolling chair that she kept in the front of the classroom. "Kids, could you move your desks into a circle? It'll be easier to have a discussion if you all can see each other."
"What if we don't want to have a discussion?"
Even if all of everyone's voices were exactly the same, Ms. Peace would have been able to tell that it was Gavin speaking to her. "Well, we do want to have a discussion! So circle up everyone!"
The class groaned while moving their desks into a circle. Ms. Peace looked up at the clock. "We have 75 minutes now to talk about whatever we want to talk about. And don't worry about certain people...coughGAVINcough... saying that you're dumb. Because MOST of us, except for maybe Gavin, want to hear about anything that you'd like to talk about. And if someone...Gavin...says ANYTHING he will get a suspension, and I will probably fail him. So...anything any of you want to share?"
All was quiet for a few moments. Then, Roger spoke up. "My locker got tagged today."
"Oh really? What did it say?!" Rachel asked. It was becoming common knowledge that Roger and Rachel were practically best friends now.
"It said 'Die you tranxexual phag'. But...they misspelled both transsexual and fag!" Roger laughed heartily, as well as most of the class. Ms. Peace even found herself smiling.
"So...you made yourself higher than the person who tagged your locker," Ms. Peace said with a charming smile on her face. "By making their action wrong instead of blaming yourself for their action, you did the absolute right thing."
"Are you going to report it?" Freddy asked. Freddy was...mysterious. Ms. Peace thought he was the kind of guy who would probably become a serial killer one day.
"I already did, actually," Roger replied. "They said that they'd 'look into it'. I think they took one look at my locker and said 'This is normal teenage stuff, who cares?'".
"They don't understand us," Ricardo said. "We're like, totally not gangbanging, but they all think we are! And they're playerhating on us all the muthafucking time, and all we want to do is chill!"
"And like, smoke pot," Gavin muttered.
"Not all of us smoke pot yo!" Juan defended his friend. "I think you're playerhating on us too!"
"Ooh I'm scared. Are you gonna jump me after school?" he challenged.
"Maybe we will!"
Ms. Peace shushed them in a very hippie-like way. "Now now my little butterflies..." she didn't get much further.
"DON'T CALL ME A FUCKING BUTTERFLY YOU GODDAMNED FLOWER CHILD!"
The class was silent. Juan and Ricardo had actually shrunk back a little bit at Gavin's volume. Ms. Peace looked down at the desk and sighed.
"Gavin...you can't be doing this. You aren't dealing with the conflict in the right way at all!"
Gavin didn't look embarrassed in the slightest. "Ms. Peace, they were threatening me!"
"And you took out your anger on ME, by calling me a Goddamned flower child. Do you think that made me happy?"
"Yeah. Do your fucking Giraffe Talk or something."
"Well...Gavin..." Ms. Peace sighed. "Giraffe Talk isn't about making it not hurt inside. It's just about helping you cope with what was said to you without hurting anyone. I'm Giraffe Talking right now, because I'd dearly love to strangle you right now."
Gavin just snorted. "Whatever." Gavin did appear slightly put out though, and took a seat back in his seat.
"So...class...what do you think is the best way Juan and Ricardo and Gavin could have solved their conflict?"
"Oh brother..."
Gavin scowled, though now it was somewhere off to the side.
And then he saw Kyle. Walking in a completely opposite direction from the way he went yesterday.
"HEY! DIPSHIT KYLE FAG PERSON!" Gavin yelled across the parking lot. The miniature boy jumped and turned towards Gavin's voice. He looked just a bit confused. "COME OVER HERE!" Gavin yelled. Kyle started running, SPRINTING to get over to Gavin.
"Uhm...hi?"
"Your house is this direction, smart one," Gavin said while pointing in the direction of the street they had traversed the day before, nearly getting hit by cars in the process.
"Uhm...uhm...I'm going to work..."
"Where do you work?"
"Uhm...shit...I can't remember what it's called?"
Gavin cocked his eyebrow at the stupid kid. "You're a dumb faggot."
"S-sorry..." Kyle mumbled, staring down at the not-yet-white ground.
Gavin just rolled his eyes, looking down at the small boy. "Haha...you're really short. I find you fucking hilarious!" Gavin gave the kid a slight pat (smack) on the back, not noticing Kyle wince in actual pain.
They parted ways after that. But it wasn't before Gavin made sure to remind Kyle that his mom was indeed a complete whore.
"She...she's not..." Kyle just shook his head. "Whatever." And then he walked off in the other direction.
"Buh-bye little bastard!" Gavin said in a sing-song voice.
That kid was one hella easy kid to make fun of.