white boys (river phoenix)

22

He cleared his throat again as if he was uncomfortable,

"Right. Afternoon. Sorry I'm late, had a bit of a run-in. Well, today class, we'll be talking about some of time's earliest philosophers... Socrates, Aristotle, Plato. Many others. Now, I hope you've all heard these names before."

As the lesson dwindled on, Robin found herself scribbling down mostly illegible notes about Aristotle's ever confusing ideas- like that beauty is intrinsic to the being and the soul and body are unified. Mr. A didn't explain once why he was teaching them a full on philosophy class, and so he went on blabbering about these guys who Robin found a little bit pretentious,

"Well, it may surprise you to know that these guys are all linked, despite Aristotle's disagreeing with Plato on the idea of beauty being abstract to the being. Alexander the Great taught Plato, who taught Aristotle, who taught Socrates."

Robin tried to memorize that as she made a flowchart of who was taught by who, refraining from labelling their names "pretentious white male one, two, and three." She felt River's heels dig into the rails beneath her desk. He slouched back in his chair and his head lowered, but he peeked up at Mr. A through his glasses that Robin admittedly found really cute and thought made him look like a sweet little bunny rabbit. He sighed under his breath and muttered something despicable ("How'd this guy even get a permit to teach?") before breathing out loudly through his nose, clenching his jaw and then opening his mouth to comment,

"Actually, Socrates taught Plato. Aristotle taught Alexander the Great."

"Oh, River. The one who came late to his first day of my class. Astonishing to me that you have something to say," Mr. A chided him in the shadiest way known to mankind.

River made a face, raising his brows and ignoring his petty comment and continuing unfazed,

"Well, sir, logically your defense doesn't make any sense. See there's no way Aristotle could've taught Socrates because Socrates died in 399 BC, Aristotle was born in 384 BC. Now, you plug in some basic math and well... that's about fifteen years after Socrates died. Can't teach someone who's dead already."

Mr. A looked baffled, and a disturbed look came about his face as he realized that River, despite his inability to show any more of a drive for Mr. A's class than "I need to attend to pass", might be right. He puffed up his chest and lifted up his chin in a pathetic attempt to look more masculine,

"How would you know?"

"Jesus Christ," Robin muttered under her breath. Not only was Mr. A a horrible teacher, he was also easily intimidated at the idea of his students learning more than him despite the fact that he was teaching.

"You told us sir," River replied, trying to conceal his amusement.

Some of the class let out stifled giggles and Stacey said loudly,

"Someone's a smartypants. A lot of girls are into that, you know Riv. It's totally attractive."

Robin was just glad the bell rang shortly after that.

As promised to herself, she had left the classroom and the school without uttering a word to any of her friends. She made sure to conceal herself from any possible blockades - Heather, either of the Coreys, Dennis, Stacey, or worse, River, and was out of the double doors within minutes.

She made her way towards the library on foot and got there in less than ten minutes, then entered the library through its creaky doors. The familiar scent of old books came into her senses. She wrung her hands together as she looked around for Mathilde, or someone who would help her get into the interview. She'd arrived early for her two thirty interview at two fifteen, which meant the waiting time wouldn't be too lengthy. A part of her wanted to do the interview, wow the people and get it over with, while another part of her wanted to go home and never face it ever again. She wasn't extremely nervous but she had a few jitters because she'd never had an experience of this sort before. She had never been pressured to get a job because her life was always at ease what with the amount of money her parents were making.