Staring out the window, Casper's attention was at the teacher as he spoke, but he didn't bother laying his eyes on the whiteboard they had set up. This room appeared to be a remodelled break room, something that used to contain sofas and coffee tables and as such was rather quaint. Housed within its four walls were as much as thirteen students all sitting at their individual desks. Rather than sitting down himself, the teacher stood so that he could walk about freely in front of the class. Given his rather passionate way of expressing knowledge, this was a welcomed addition. In lack of better words, the man was rather entertaining. "Would anyone like to share their thoughts?" The teacher continued, gazing upon his class with a bright smile. Mutant Social Science was among the most interesting classes to Casper but even so the boy was barely looking at the teacher, never mind the other students. He was more interested in the scene unfolding outside the window. Grass moved in a soft motion, the wind licking past each strand in a careful wave washing over the sea of green, trees gently danced in tune with mother nature's long breaths and birds traveled freely across the sky. How could something be so beautiful in a world so utterly fucked up? It was truly astonishing to see the blatant contrast between nature's beauty and humanity's disastrous tendencies. "I believe your name is Casper, no?" The teacher zeroed in on the boy daydreaming by the large window, the bright smile still ever present on his lips.
"Huh...? Oh, what does he want...?" Straightening his back slightly, the boy looked into his teacher's eyes and returned an answer.
"Yeah...""If I would ask you; What leads mankind to fear us, what would be your response? Of course, take note everyone that this class is here to encourage discussions and critical thinking."
"The fuck does he want to know...? People are idiots...that's it. Though, I am guessing I should give him a better response than that crap." Preparing an answer, Casper leaned back in his chair before turning his eyes down to the notebook on his desk for a moment.
"Guess it's reasonable to fear someone who can shoot fire outta' their ass..." The boy shrugged for a moment, earning a few snickers from the rest of the class, even the teacher. He was not done, however.
"Fear comes from ignorance...if you know how to beat your enemy, you won't fear em'...Wait until every human says hello with a firearm, and you'll see how the fear goes away...The other students looked at the boy and blinked in shock. Had he seriously just jumped to something as dark as death as a simple answer to fear? At this point, there was some whispering going on in class but none of it seemed to phase Casper as he sat looking into the teacher's eyes with the boy's usual, bored expression on his face. "Are you saying that non-mutants are our enemies?" The teacher maintained a calm mood and still sported his bright smile, quite obviously used to debates.
"You tell me..." "I believe it's not so black and white. You are right to say that fear comes from ignorance, but is there a way to remove this ignorance?"
Moving his bangs from his forehead, Casper responded. "You can teach all ya' want...people who don't want to listen...won't..."
"So you're saying that teaching, knowledge, cures ignorance? Indeed, it's a fact most would deem obvious but it is much deeper than an obvious truth. Many fear knowledge itself because we find safety in our established truths. Fearing mutants is an established truth, we appear dangerous and thus fearing us is a person's response." The man wrote a few lines on the whiteboard. "As you say, how can we teach someone who does not want to listen?"
"Force em'" Another student added, laughing as she did.
"We could try to appeal to them. I mean, every mutant is someone's child, right? A lot of students here have been thrown out of their homes because of what they are." A second student presented his opinion. "While that's horrible, I don't think most parents would do that. What I'm trying to say is that we need to make them see the misery of their actions."
"Ah! You're saying we should use emotions to get our point across." The teacher nodded, writing the words
'Emotional Enlightenment' on the whiteboard.
"He thinks we can stop this shit with rainbows and glitter...? Worked in My Little Pony, I guess..." Casper listened to several students mentioning their solutions to the issue, and all of it made sense in one way or another, but with the boy's incredibly cynical view of life, he didn't think that any of it would help. Sure, some people would love you no matter what but those that actually stood in power tended to follow the same cycle of incompetence.
"I think most people who hate us are too old to learn or too young be critical of what they're told." Someone actually made a lot sense with that sentence. "A lot of the hatred towards us includes
all of us, no matter what we can do. My mutation allows me to repair objects that I touch, I can't really hurt anyone with that power. I have been attacked several times for being a mutant, though. People are told to hate mutants, not powers." A lot of sense indeed and he was right. Casper couldn't physically hurt anyone with his powers either, neither could many of the students in the academy. A lot of them had passive abilities or even mending abilities that did the complete opposite of harming anyone but yet they fell under the same category as the person able to burn a building down with a thought.
"I agree..." Casper spoke up again after a while of silence.
"This shit seeps down from the top...from the old to the young...either we get to kids first and convince them that their peers are retarded, or we go for those who are too afraid to listen..."The discussion continued for the remainder of the class, many interesting ideas and theories popping up but eventually they had to end the lesson. There wasn't going to be any homework as of yet, but the class was urged to think about this in a critical manner and learn how to deal with the politics of the outside world with thick skin. It was good to hear everyone's opinions on this and Casper could quite clearly establish that most of them still had hope for coexistence despite the shit they had all gone through.
"Maybe there's still some strength in these broken shells..." Saying that Casper had given up was taking it too far, but he wasn't expecting change anytime soon. Also, he had a hard time believing that mutants could reach the hearts of others when friends and family stood much closer. It was going to be difficult to say the least.
Turning his music on, Casper started down a corridor on his way to the boys' dorms. Moments after he did, saw Captain Native storm by.
"Seriously...?" What was up with him? Everyone had an issue, didn't they? Standing up, Casper walked away from the corridor only to see a girl running past him, the same girl he had seen before who made it her business to touch Nathan's face.
"Uh-huh..." It didn't take long before the boy laid eyes on a toad like creature who also seemed to be in a hurry, albeit not as much as the other two.
"What the fu-...fine! Shit's off here...I get it! Fuck..." Just like any other school, huh? A native, a chick and a toad ran down the hall, it sounded like a freaking start of a joke.
"If they were looking for each other, it's fucking hilarious how they all went in different directions...heh. Oh well..." Was this what it was like to have friends? Running around the corridors looking for each other? Honestly, that appeared more entertaining to see rather than being part of.
Returning to his dorm, Casper sat down on his bed and breathed out, reaching for the cellphone in his pocket. It was around 10.00am, what was up next? Rummaging for his schedule, the boy stretched his hand into his bag and wrapped his fingers around something he had often used against his brother. A soft chuckle left his lips as he retracted his hand and saw the airsoft pistol he had managed to acquire.
"You actually put this in my bag, Leo...? I miss you..." His eyes lingered upon the battery driven airsoft pistol he had used vigorously in 'combat' with his brother throughout the house. The scoldings they got for making a mess was always just around the corner but when their parents joined in, things just escalated to a full out war. The boy couldn't help but laugh at the thought, his fingers wrapping around the plastic handgun.
"I'm doing well...I hope you are, too..."
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