Chapter
Thirty-seven
Truce
Rys
began by stating his topic: “Why I think
Feminism has delivered on its promise…”
“Well,
to start with,” Rys flicked his hair in
that way that so many girls found attractive, but irritated most of his
teachers no end “…to start with, this
seems so obvious. Like most teenage boys, I’m probably more than a little bit
clueless about how it feels to be… a girl….” Darcy laughed… the teacher gave
him a warning glance and Paige glared at him momentarily. “… but I have so many awesome female friends,
that I know are not only my equal but often ten times better than me, at so
many things,” Rys looked directly at Paige, who blushed when he said this.
Darcy noted the moment and kicked the front of the chair in front of him –
quite lightly but enough to make Mackenzie turn around and smirk.
And on and on Rys went talking about how
feminism had delivered by highlighting the basic superiority of women in so
many areas! It was a little over the top – taking the topic to the opposite
extreme, but it won him extra points with the majority female voters.
When class ended after a heated discussion
amongst both opposing teams the bell rang.
The only person who, once again, hadn’t
been paying attention to closing statements (because he’d been texting his
sister again) was Darcy.
But Mrs Tartt wouldn’t let him go without a
comment.
“And what do you think, Mr Donovan?”
“Huh? About what? Oh, well that was Rys and
Mackenzie’s argument… I thought Mack did great.”
“I’m asking whether you think it was better
when males opened doors for females?”
“Um… in some ways it was respectful and
kind.”
“Oh. Not sexist and condescending?” Paige
asked.
“Paige,” Mrs Tartt said, “you know not to
speak out when it’s not your turn.”
“Well, how can I not when his views are so
obviously archaic?”
“You
don’t know that. I only said, it is considered a form of politeness to open
doors for a woman.”
“And
what would you know about that?”
“Oh, you know what I know Paige Bennet? It’s
girls like you who punch above their weight that really give feminism a bad
name!”
Mackenzie laughed, she loved watching Darcy
and Paige argue.
“And it’s boys like you who make girls like
me really want to…”
At that point, Paige’s temper really got the
better of her and she threw, actually threw her eraser at Darcy making the entire
class shake their desks and chant “fight fight fight” as if there was about to
be an all-out war.
Mrs Tartt calmed the class and asked Paige
and Darcy to stay back.
“You know why I’m giving you both afternoon
detentions, don’t you?”
Darcy said nothing. Paige didn’t speak
either. They were both hoping this – the one and only ‘incident’ of their junior
year, wouldn’t affect their near perfect academic scores.
Both Darcy and Paige wanted to go to UCLA. Well,
Darcy was tossing up between that college and Oxford – where his grandfather went.
Both stayed silent.
“I’ve
decided to pair you both up for next class. Here’s the topic. You can start
work during detention.”
For the first time, Darcy and Paige looked
at each other – speechless.
