Privilege

CHAPTER XVI: B102

Walking into B102 I took a seat near the back of the class, next to the window- hoping to stay unnoticed, maybe take a quick nap. The rest of the class began to spill in, the room slowly filling up. Placing my books on the desk in front of me, I heard a shout from the front.

"Ouch!" Screeched Shayma, a girl I had known for quite a while now. Her big, brown eyes met mine and she made her way over, taking her usual seat next to me. She turned to me, her ponytail nearly hitting me in the process. "Oh my God! You'll never guess what just happened!"

"What?" I replied, ready for yet another ridiculous story.

"I literally just nearly cut my arm off! One second I was just walking and the next, some fucking door tried to impale me!Like who the fuck does it think it is?" She had a tendency to over-exaggerate.

"No idea." I raised my eyebrows. "You hit your funny bone?"

"Well yeah but it was bad, I think I might need a cast!" Someone please collect her.

"In other news-"

"No fucking way!" Shayma exclaimed, rummaging through her handbag. "I left my notebook in the library! Fuck!"

"Shayma! Language!" The teacher chimed in- probably the only time she ever listened to us.

"Cover me for a sec, Imma go get it." After all this time, her carelessness still caught me off guard.

"But-" Before I could finish, Shayma had already left the room. Ugh, so much for staying unnoticed!

In her absence, I picked up my notebook and began to glance over the previous lessons work.

"Hey, this seat taken?" A deep alto voice interrupted.

"Oh hey, Aalish, right?" I looked up up into familiar eyes.

"Yeah, I asked if I could sit here."

"Well, I mean-"

"Thanks." He cut in, taking a seat next to me. Umm. Okay, rude!

"What are you doing here anyway? I haven't seen you in here before." I queried.

"I just transferred into this class, psychology was shit, I could've easily passed it in the first week. Besides, I can get brain in any class." He followed the joke with a small wink.

"Ha, good one." I chuckled.

"Good morning class, today we are going to be discussing punishments in American prisons." Yawn. "To begin, Aalish, seeing as your new here, join me at the front." Mrs Mulligan ordered. I wasn't surprised when he complied; she was intimidating. "Now, welcome to Government and Politics, do you think that prisoners should be used as a source of free labour?" What a lovely welcome, talk about throwing him in at the deep end.

"Yeah, I guess." I couldn't help but giggle, part of me wanted to go up there with him and give him a run for his money- why on earth would someone transfer into Government and Politics, what was he thinking?

"Mr Darab, please elaborate."

"I mean, I feel like it's a suitable form of retribution, they are criminals at the end of the day and need to be punished." Wow, he had some opinions. I really wanted to challenge him.

"Yeah but surely, prisoner labour is just modern day slavery. To me it seems more inhumane than a punishment." I stood up, the rebuttal slipping off of my tongue, and gave in to temptation.

"No, I don't think so. There's no point in prisoners just wasting away in cells, they may as well do something with their time. I guess that labour provides convicts with occupation." Gosh, he was brave and somewhat passionate, did he really think that he would beat me in a debate?

"But surely, they're just the ultimate captive workforce for capitalist industries, whilst simultaneously stripping jobs out of the communities and into prisons. I think that rehabilitation is a better approach." It had been a while since I actually had to think on my feet, he wasn't half bad.

"Okay, but why would any person want to be locked up for 23 hours a day? And you know, most prisoner families can't actually afford to provide them with money every month to pay for supposed 'luxury' items. Therefore inmates need the mon-"

All of a sudden, the class door flung open, "Circe, I found it!" Shayma shrieked, I'm surprised that she hadn't cracked her glasses yet with the howls that escaped her mouth.

"Miss Kalim, nice of you to join us." Sarcasm dripping off of her tone. "See me after school for detention."

"Shit! No miss please I can't! I have fucking cheer practice and Aimmée will literally kill me if I miss another!" Perhaps she couldn't control her volume.

"Again, enough with the profanities, that's tomorrow evening as well." Mrs Mulligan found pleasure in making her students' lives a misery.

"Ughhh!" She huffed and plonked herself into an empty seat around our table. It wouldn't surprise me if she started stomping her feet like a five year old.

"Aalish, Circe, thank you for that, it's nice to have a little positive competition. You may sit back down." We obeyed and took out seats, adrenaline from our debate still fuelling me.

Beginning another lecture, Mrs Mulligan stood at the front of the room and told us to make notes.

"Not bad for a newbie," I whispered, not really wanting to join Shayma in detention.

"Thanks, you're quite persistent yourself." He smiled back. I could get used to having someone relatively challenging to debate with. "Hey, are you coming to the game tomorrow?" Aaliyah asked. Confused, I raised my eyebrows.

"Game?" I queried.

"Yeah, soccer? I'm surprised that you haven't heard."

"Oh, no, I was considering it, yeah." Ruby had mentioned it earlier on, she seemed really keen to go, I guess it slipped my mind.

"You should. It's a big one, the Rebels are definitely our biggest competition, it'd mean a lot if you came." Apparently last season they beat us in the final by one goal- there's no way that I'll miss it.

"Yeah sure, if you play as good as you debate then they don't stand a chance!"

"You think I'm good?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Umm, no. I was simply boosting your confidence, duh!" Awkward.

"Right, obviously." We laughed. "I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Tomorrow?"

"The game."

"Oh, sorry, yeah, see you tomorrow." Ugh, I really need some sleep...