fandomtownies | Backstreets of Town, Tuesday Early Evening

There were some days when Sparkle was very much a backstreets kind of guy. It wasn't always because he was looking to break into, say, an old abandoned warehouse, or light up and smoke something good and illegal without anyone noticing. Sometimes, he just wanted to duck into some shade off the cutesy little roadways of the island and pretend for a few minutes that he was somewhere urban. Especially after the news about the flooding in Toronto. With power knocked out across so much of the city, he couldn't even get in touch with Lewis to see what the hell the damages were like, since his own primary method of communication with the man was e-mail.

So he was sitting just off the road smoking a cigarette and flipping through a newspaper that he'd snatched from a nearby newsstand, rifling through to see if there was any news in the international section about the state of the flood back home.

"Fuck," he was saying, quite eloquently, to himself. "Fuck fuck fuck."

Edited 2013-07-10 00:35 (UTC)

Karina was trying to decide if a smoothie flavor called orange tangerine was redundant (she was pretty sure it was but it was good, so whatever) when she heard a familiar voice swearing.

Deeming that seeing what was up with him as marginally more important than her smoothie considerations, Karina tracked his voice, and the rest of him down. Which was pretty easy, given that there weren't many people around.

"If I were my mom, I’d be washing your mouth out with soap," she commented, making a face at the cigarette.

"Yeah, well, you're not," Sparkle snarked, narrowing his eyes at his newspaper before looking up at Karina with a frown. "And it's not like your ears are so virginal that you haven't heard the word before, are they? My home neighbourhood is under like three feet of water, I'm gonna swear."

He shoved the newspaper at her.

"I'm gonna swear, and I'm gonna smoke, if that's all the same with you, Mom."

"I’m not my mom," she pointed out, shaking out the newspaper so she could read it. "I was just saying."

Which was almost an apology, if you squinted. A lot.

It kinda felt like he was always shoving the news at her lately... but luckily, she read fast. She winced a lot too. "This is awful," Karina said, scowling at the paper. "Do you have anyone you need to try and reach?"

"Lewis is probably too busy herding kids through flood water to field calls from the punk kid he sent down to the States right now anyway," Sparkle replied, wrinkling his nose and shrugging. "If I don't have a home to come back to or I'm being transferred or something, he'll make sure I know."

The waiting game was going to suck, though.

"But enough about my life, what's going on in yours?"

Give him better news than the papers were, Karina.

Saying ‘I’m sorry’ to Sparkle felt like the wrong thing to say so, despite her inclination to do so, she kept her mouth shut on the sentiment.

"Today? I stacked watermelons and danced with a bottle for class,” Karina shared, taking a sip of her smoothie before offering it to him. Yeah, she’d get his germs, if she got it back, but whatever. It was the closest thing to a hug he was getting, if he wanted it. "In Paraguay. Came in fifth because of the watermelons. Aced the dancing part though. I like the class, I think. Best one this semester."

Of her whole... two.

Wasn't like Sparkle was diseased. Her straw was going to taste a bit like smoke, though. Aware of that, he waved it off, but gave her a grateful little smile all the same.

The gesture was appreciated.

"Best one, huh? You didn't look like you were enjoying Wiggin's class that much yesterday. Was there another one that went to shit on you, too? Or do you just like dancing with bottles that much?"

"Nah," she said, checking the side of the street for unbearable dirt and, finding it okay, taking a seat next to him. "Just that and the so-called philosophy course. My schedule doesn't really allow for more than two at a time but even if I had more, the dancing would win me over so far."

"Not much for sharing with the class, huh?" Sparkle could relate to that one, at least. Last year, when he first took Ender's philosophy workshop, he'd made it his personal mission to be as argumentative as possible. Which, when faced with Ender's patience and his tendency to treat him as another human being, had turned out to be... not very, by the end of the summer. Go figure. "Can't blame you, really. At least a few of the faces on that lawn yesterday were new."

"I suck at sharing," she admitted.

It was totally, entirely true.

"And even the teacher was new to me, which doesn't make me think of him as anything but Professor Creep when he doesn't back off."

Well, Sparkle didn't see that one coming. He spared her a blink, and then decided it would probably be a good idea to take a drag from his smoke, nice and casual-like, before speaking. Give himself a moment to digest that before speaking.

"Yeah? I saw you and Wiggin' goin' head to head back there, heard a bit of the conversation, but Flick and I got talking and I missed some of what was goin' on, there. What'd he do?"

Oh, Sparkle, Karina hadn’t even gotten started.

"He starts his class off all ‘Oh, you don’t have to like the questions, you don’t have to answer, but also too bad, you’ll just have to tough it out and deal with them anyway when I feel like provoking you and then I’ll just admit that’s what I’m doing to your face and when you take offense I’ll tell you your reactions are shaming the others in class because how dare you not want to spill your secrets to a roomful of strangers! You’re not participating!'"

At least, that had been what Karina had taken out of the class. If he'd meant something else, that had gone right over her head.

“And the whole thing is just really, really creepy. Who goes around farming information from their students? Who can’t even be assed to explain where the whole concept comes from? Who actually doesn’t take a clear sign that someone’s uncomfortable and deliberately ignores their own rules to back off? Giant. Creepers."

She took a vengeful sip of her smoothie.

Welp. Sparkle certainly hadn't seen that one coming, either.

"Farming information?" He raised an eyebrow, took another drag from his smoke, and then stubbed it out on the brick wall he'd been sitting next to. "What kind of information? What do you figure he was prying for, Girly?"

Sparkle found himself torn, now, between loyalty to a teacher he respected, and a classmate, a friend that he'd protect like an angry junkyard dog if it came down to it. It was a kind of surreal feeling, at best. He wasn't going to put his foot in it just yet. Not without really understanding what had happened. But Karina was clearly upset, so something obviously had.

She took a deep breath because however satisfying it would be to shout at Sparkle, he probably didn't deserve it.

Much.

"How am I supposed to know?" she demanded, when she'd throttled her first few responses. "I’m not the teacher who uses his position to ask questions and then ignore the signs when someone doesn’t want to answer! I’m not the one deliberately provoking people who are uncomfortable just so I can see how the fucking tick. It’d be different," Karina conceded moodily, "if he wasn’t the teacher. If another student pulled that shit on me, I’d tell them to fuck off, but I can’t do that to the teacher because, hello, he can slam me in detention or shit all because I’m not playing around with his power trip."

Honestly, the more she thought about it, the more upset she got. It was possible that she was flying off the handle but class had really not sat well with her.

"And I hate creeps who pull that sort of shit."Just in case Sparkle hadn’t figured that out yet.

Somehow, Sparkle had gotten the memo. He was quiet as he listened to Karina talk, busy pinching off the end of his stubbed cigarette for later and then putting it back into the pack it came in.

"You told him you didn't want to share anything personal and he kept pushing, then?"

Again, he just wanted to be sure he was getting the story straight. It didn't sound quite like Ender, not the way Sparkle knew him, but that didn't necessarily mean Karina was going to perceive Ender's quiet nudging quite the same way. After all, Sparkle had only really gotten to know the guy while Ender was still a fresh graduate, still living in the dorms. And Sparkle had no trouble at all telling a guy to fuck off when he felt like he was being pushed too far. Karina didn't have either of those things working in her favour. Not if she was still concerned about little things like detention.

Not that teachers here seemed to reach for detention, granted. The one time he'd gotten it, it had been because he was trying to steal a camel.

"Not in so many words," she admitted grudgingly. "But he was listening to our conversation enough to give me crap for calling it touchy-feely stuff to you, which means he had to have caught that I told you I didn’t want to ask a more pressing question. And, seriously, who asks a bullshit question," like hers had totally been, "when they’re comfortable with the fact that the teacher just admitted that he’s going to pry and expects you to answer?"

Not her!

"Last year, it was me," Sparkle offered, along with a wry twist of a smile. "Sittin' around the class, not giving bullshit answers so much as setting out to argue with every single little thing I possibly could. And damn, does this place give me plenty to argue about."

He gave his shoulders a shrug.

"But yeah, not everybody's gonna want to talk. Not everyone wants to share with a group full of strangers and a teacher they don't know, especially not on the first day, especially around here. I get that. But, you know... there's nothing saying you have to answer honestly. Nothing even saying you can't go, 'Hey, Teach, I'm not comfortable with this question.' And if he pushes more than that... I dunno, come get me. I'll tell him off."

Loyal little junkyard dog.

"That’s not fair," Karina said, frowning. "I’m not shy, but telling him off like that, that isn’t something easy for me to do. He’s a teacher. But what if it was someone shyer? Would they have to cope with being humiliated and provoked because he can’t take an evasion as a giant ‘do not pry’ sign?"

A beat.

"Though I do appreciate you offering to let me tell you and you deal with it."

Sparkle gave his shoulders a shrug.

"It's not easy for some people to speak up when they're not comfortable. He's the teacher, right? So you figure, in like any other school, the teacher tells you to talk and you're supposed to, or you get in shit, it hurts your grade, you get sent home with a note to your folks and a shit mark on your report card or whatever. This isn't a normal school, but it's probably not easy to let go, for, like, people who gave half a damn about that in the first place."

Unlike Sparks.

"Plus you don't know him, right? Makes it harder. He's not so bad, not if you do know him, but oh my god I know all about stranger danger, people you don't know asking you to talk about things you don't wanna discuss, don't even get me started." It had taken some work for Sparkle to feel comfortable enough around here that people knew he was gay, and nobody on the island actually knew the background he came from before the home, not really, not even his own boyfriend. Talking was something he preferred to do on his own damn terms, too. "Weird, though. We both had like opposite experiences with him. He's the first teacher I ever had to give me even a bit of respect. I don't mind talkin' to him if you're still uncomfortable later."

"I don’t like him," Karina admitted. "Not even a little. I hate that kind of smooth-talking, back-talk type. It’s never led to good things for me."

She laughed a little and it sounded tired. "And I don't change my impressions of people easily." At least she knew her own flaws? "If you don't mind... I wouldn't mind you talking to him. I don't know what you'd say but, yeah, I'd just shout incoherently at him and I expect he'd be all 'and that's a reaction, interesting!'" Karina shook her head. "Back home, classes are important but the teachers are all teaching normal things. Math isn’t an excuse to ask personal questions. Social studies doesn’t dwell on secrets. When my teachers talk to me there about anything outside of my work, it’s to tell me I need to slow down and take a break."

She was a straight-A student. Which was pretty impressive when balanced on top of the heroing gig and the superstar gig. She probably did need to slow down.

Not that that was going to happen.

Sparkle nodded a little.

"And, see, I didn't have the attendance scores at my other schools for the teachers to know me that well. We were always moving, or there was other shit going on, or I just didn't care enough to go to class that day. Here, it's like, shit, I'm stuck on the damn island, and even the teachers have this chance to figure out who you are. I had this talk with Alenko last week about Canada. Just, sat down and shot the shit for a while about Tim Horton's and chocolate bars, and around here that's... like... less weird, somehow, even though he's the only guy on the faculty to give me a detention so far. I don't fucking get it."

He drummed his fingers on the upturned garbage can he was sitting on, and then shrugged.

"I think maybe some people take that different comfort level around here for granted. Like, not everyone comes from the same school situation in the first place, and some people have been here for years, and they just forget how weird it is to tell people, especially people in a position to grade you on what you tell them, all of this personal stuff. A question can say just as much as an answer does, in the right situation."

"I don't think I'd do that," Karina said slowly. "Just talk to a teacher that way, about anything. I hang out with a few adults at home and they're great but teachers are in a different category."

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "As for telling people personal things... I get crap at home for not telling people things either. I could, the only thing stopping me is me, but I've got my reasons for not. I don't know, maybe that's why the class was so weird. With him assuming that's okay and it's just... not, to me."

"Hey." Sparkle reached out to poke Karina's shoulder. "You think you're the only person around here with things you don't want to just open up and talk about? I make up stories, fucking lies all the time, just so people keep guessing."

And that unto itself was no secret, really.

"I'm gonna stick with you not having to talk about anything you're not comfortable talking about, you know. Class or no class, teacher or no teacher, nobody can make you talk about shit you don't want to. And in a place like this, most people would have your back on that, you know? If someone started getting on my case about, like, life in the home or whatever, I'd get on their case right back. Some things, you don't push."

"Quit that," she said, though her voice lacked heat. She didn't really care. "I know. I try not to make up lies but I have a few times, just to get people off my back. I get it."

Karina shook her head. "That's a pretty speech but I don't think that's Wiggin's style. Not when he admits to provoking students for reactions. It makes me feel like an experiment."

Which... no thanks.

"Well, then the way I see it, you have a couple of options," Sparkle replied, shrugging his shoulders and stuffing his hands into his jean pockets. "You can just refuse to speak up through the class for the rest of the term. It's just a summer workshop, it's not like it'll show up on a transcript if you wanna get into college later. You can make a point to just keep not saying anything that means anything. Yesterday was only class one, we're barely getting started, but if I remember right, mostly we just talk about whatever's relevant that week. What we think of people turning into animals or what we did to deal with the fucked-up-attacker of the week, that kinda thing. It's not all about pouring your heart out in front of the ignorant masses."

He grinned a little.

"You can take it the other way, and just not shut up. Tell everyone exactly what you think of the topic of the week, be shameless about it, stuff useless crap down people's throats until they can't separate it from the stuff you wouldn't want them to know anyhow. Or you can focus on what other people are saying. Get them to talk so you don't have to. Treat it like a challenge, like... like you've got this enemy throwing strategy at you to see how it sticks, and then meet it head on with your middle fingers up and a fucking grin on your face. If I didn't fail last summer doing it, I don't think you will."

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