❝So your confidence is quiet.
To them quiet looks like weakness,
but you don't have to fight it
Cause you're strong enough
to win without the war.❞
— Invisible, Hunter Hayes
___
NINE
___
"...Harry Potter," a teenager wearing an oversized sweatshirt with an inconspicuous deathly hallows symbol printed on one of the pockets spoke animatedly.
"Oh, the book about heretics? Because you nerds can relate, right?"
The entire group of teenagers clumped by the door of the library turned to the direction where the snide comment came from. She stuck out like a sore thumb around here, not because of the way she looked—clean and put together, like everyone else— but mostly because of the way she acted. She was dismissive, like how some grade school teachers were when you insisted this boy sitting behind you was pulling your hair every 5 seconds.
She thought she had them because to the stereotyping eye, they were misfits, geeks, dorks—they won't challenge someone like her, well not usually.
"It's all about witches and wizards and all those other stupid childish spells," she even added to nail the point to her already well-built 'I'm a bully' case.
Big mistake there, dear.
If these kids' jaws dropped earlier, they're reattached now and ready for round one.
"First of all, heresy was a concept concocted by Catholic extremists to eradicate any form of counter culture; it resulted in the unlawful and immoral deaths of many—including those 'witches and wizards' you just mentioned. Most of which, by the way, that same religious group apologized for."
"Uh—"
Glen, the same lean, sweatshirt-loving teenager from earlier, despite his clammy palms and trembling hands, cleared his throat to continue. Oh no girl, you're not getting away that easy. He's got a litany ready.
"And no, it's not just about witches and wizards. It has a lot to do with it, yes, but it's not 'all' of it. The book immerses readers into an alternate narrative of racism, supremacist behavior, abuse, greed, obsession for power and yes, genocide. Clearly you have not read it, because if you have and got only that, I advise that you work on your comprehension."
"But—"
"I'd also like to question your definition of childish. Is getting orphaned at one, abused for 10 years, plagued by personal demons from birth and having had to give up his life for others' survival all before he's even legal to drink in any way childish? If it is, then which dictionary did you poach that from so I can raise their inability to adequately define a word to whatever English vocabulary authorities there are?"
Owned!
"Oh for fuck's sake, somebody get Glen a PowerPoint presentation," one of the girls from the crowd who was watching exchange jokingly suggested.
The cruelty in that girl's face faded; it was replaced with confusion and for a moment, regret. I cannot be sure if she regretted what she did or how the table was turned. Either way, it doesn't matter much now. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, in an attempt to will an endless stream of curse words and taunts that could all possibly be synonyms of nerd and stupid, slightly ironic if you ask me.
YOU ARE READING
In Her Words
General Fiction"When he first heard her, he knew. She was his bestseller." Before there were great stories, there were only words. Luke's were smart and eloquent but hollow. It was nothing like Emma's story, bleak and awkward, but honest to a fault. This is a comi...
