Page 10 of Liar & Champion
I didn’t pay as much attention to the speaker as I did the crowd. By the time it was wrapped up, I was ready to stretch my legs.
“That’s not a bad idea,” the skinny guy said at the end, braced, like it had taken courage to talk to me.
I was a big guy, but I’d made a point to look friendly today. “Good to hear. I’m Nix.” I held out a hand and he took it, wincing as he prepared to be crushed by my ego-driven strength. I was as gentle with him as I’d been with Kitten. Were all kids so delicate these days? “We’ll have to meet up and talk about it later. I’ll let you know what I find out about the clubs.”
“I checked on my phone during the lecture, and they don’t. So…”
“Great. Let’s meet up tomorrow and discuss it, say around five and go grab a beer and…” He was underage. “Root beer, of course.”
He fixed his glasses. “Yeah. Okay. We can meet on the green to talk about the self-defense club. I’m Henry.”
“Good to meet you, Henry. Have a great first day of the rest of your life.” That’s what the brilliant orator had said. I suppose it was worth repeating, particularly since no one else seemed to have heard it the first time.
Sunny the kitten was in my Philosophy class. She smiled so bright all by herself, it was like she was competing with the sun. She’d bounced into class like a kitten after a milkman. I slid into a seat at the back and listened to Sunny chat cheerfully with another girl about the pros and cons of co-ed basketball. The other girl wanted to know why Sunny didn’t play organized sports. I wasn’t as interested in that as I was in the girl herself. What would it be like to spend six months with someone that optimistic? Would it get tedious or addictive? Neither one of those were great options.
I glanced around the room and noticed two other girls from my dossier, the stunning brunette and a milky girl who was a touch up blonde. How Daniel had found out about the hair dying of females was a mystery I did not want to unravel.
The brunette gave me a once-over and smiled at me. That smile said, ‘we could have fun together without any strings, are you interested?’ The thing is, I doubted she’d be nearly as fun as Kitten, because there would be no flying skateboards or spontaneous porch dancing.
I glanced over at Sunny, the blonde who was a natural blonde, without any touching up whatsoever, and saw her pull her shirt up to show a scar on her stomach to the basketball player, explaining how she’d gotten it with such earnestness. It was a beautiful scar, but her own skin was even more stunning. No tattoos there, either.
The teacher started class and I forced my attention forward, past the girl who was oblivious of what those flashes of perfect skin would do to a man. The teacher talked about various philosophies and how they would interact in a real life setting. While the teacher lectured, I looked up the names to go with the faces of all the females in the room. The stunning brunette’s name was Littlefield, Christina, and had a long list of past beaus.An experienced girlfriend would suit me much better than a naive kitten.
“Do any of you have a philosopher whose teachings resonate with you?” the teacher asked towards the end of class with a professional smile. How old was she? She wasn’t in the dossier, but I felt more kinship with her than most of the kids there.
The class was quiet. I raised my hand and spoke before she could call on me. “Hobbes.”
The Camaro kitten turned around with a slight frown between her eyebrows. “Life is ugly, short, and brutal?”
“Brutish,” I corrected and winked at her when she recognized me as the guy who’d saved her from the flying skateboard.
She was still frowning, even as she studied me, like she was thinking about the implications of my favorite philosopher more than how astonishingly handsome I was. “Why would you think that? I get that life can be short, believe me, but it doesn’t have to be ugly, particularly when there are such beautiful people in the world, like you.” She delivered that with a completely straight face, without a flicker of flirtation. She was being matter-of-fact about the way I looked, which was as strange as it was refreshing.
I cocked my head. “Beautiful? I’ll leave that to the fairer sex to decide. It means that life is short and hard so we need to take as much out of it as we can. No regrets. No second-guesses. If you hesitated, you failed. The moment is the only thing that matters, and every moment matters.”
“Live in the moment? Really? You don’t find that a little bit short-sighted?” She smiled apologetically, but she wasn’t backing down.
If she wanted a fight, even if it was genteel and polite, I was always obliging. “I feel like we’re on unequal footing, you knowing my deep, dark, philosophical leanings and I don’t knowyours. Maybe you’re an anti-believer without anything that you’re willing to put on the line.”
She lifted her chin. “If you really want to know, I’m actually a Stoic, and I believe in Sen’s Capability Approach.”
And there she went being smart, sweet, and strong all in one adorably wrapped bundle of cuteness.
“Really? Tell me more,” the teacher said, nodding for her to continue.
Sunny glanced around at the class and kind of flinched when she saw the way the gorgeous brunette, Christina, was looking at her before refocusing on the front. “First of all, you have to make the best of what you’ve been given. Second, people shouldn’t live carelessly and spoil more than their own lives. Life is a precious gift that has to be protected and sculpted into something beautiful. When people throw away their potential or live beneath their capabilities, it’s not only tragic, it’s morally wrong.”
I’d had no idea what Sen’s Capability Approach was. I’d be googling that. I didn’t expect to be schooled by a little kitten, and I didn’t exactly agree with her, but still. “You can’t judge how another person needs to live,” I said as gently as possible, recapturing her attention. Her eyes were so luminous, so full of emotions I didn’t understand, but wanted to. “Sometimes life is all about the moment, honey. Sometimes one moment is all you can handle at a time.”
The brunette cut in with a sharp laugh. “That’s right. Life’s hard, honey. No one nominated you to judge their potential and whether or not they’re reaching up to your standard of perfection.”
Christina Littlefield said that with pointed venom directed at Kitten, like it was personal. Ah, the drama of the well-bred but no longer wealthy vs. the up-and-coming.
Kitten’s eyes widened showing her hurt and confusion before she frowned down at her desk and started getting her things together. Typical prey behavior, but I’d seen her on the board, and the girl had a spine, so why was she folding to the beauty? Not that I cared.
“Time’s up for today,” the professor said, giving me, Christina, and Sunny equally delighted smiles. “It’s going to be a very good year. I can tell.”
Sunshine left as quickly as possible, before I had the chance to catch her.
