“Yeah. That.”
“So are you honing in your study on the analysis of restorative versus enhancements, or are you thinking of delving into what does and does not fall under the definition of augmentation?”
The kid stared at me blankly. “Huh?”
“For instance, some in the field of study would say vaccinations qualify as augmentation, others limit the scope.”
“Oh… I guess … not that. I’m thinking about human enhancements,” he said excitedly.
We’d not even covered this particular topic, and it wasn’t considered part of pretty much any general philosophy course anywhere, but … he’d clearly been Googling his way into a rather obscure topic in the field, and I supposed I had to give him props for that.
“So how do you relate this topic to your own life?”
He looked around mischievously, and when he looked back, he smirked. “Well, I have some … interesting piercings I’d consider enhancements.” His eyebrows shot up as he spoke quietly to me. “If you know what I mean.”
My mouth dropped open before I could stop it, and I had to clear my throat. “Right,” I finally said. “Um… I’m sure it’ll be great.”
He nodded, smiling broadly. “Yeah it will.” He stood. “Thanks, Pro Hess.”
“Pro… Okay. You’re welcome,” I said awkwardly. Piercings?
I made it through one meeting after another, some impressive, some laughably off-base were I capable of laughing. It was halfway through the class period when I gave everyone a fifteen minute break that I found out conclusively Kane was, in fact, in class. He’d been sitting in the last row in the corner closest to the interior wall. He stood, skirting by the other desks with his head down, and he walked straight out of the room without ever looking up at me.
The room emptied out, and I sat there staring at my lap, inhaling and exhaling slowly. When the door was pulled open by the first returning student a few minutes later, my eyes glanced that way. It was him. He paused in the doorway, staring at me but not entering. And that’s when I saw it. He had a black eye and a scuff on his cheek. He stood there frozen until the next student behind him plowed into the back of him because she was too busy staring at her smart phone and not paying attention to what she was doing. He stumbled forward, and then he went back to staring at me for a moment.
He took a deep breath and finally turned toward the back of the classroom. Within ten minutes all of the students had returned. I stood, circling around to the front of the desk.
“How many of you have yet to meet with me?”
Only six hands rose, not including Kane’s because he clearly had no intention of meeting with me given his eyes were glued downward to his book.
“Okay. We should get through this pretty quick. Once everyone has met with me, I’ll do a quick Q and A for any questions you might have and we’ll be done for the evening. You can pick up the study guide for next week’s test on your way out.”
I sat back down, and the next student came up. I made it through four of the remaining students within fifteen minutes, and when the fifth approached, I glanced up. It was winky boy with lazy book buying tendencies.
“Have a seat,” I said.
And he winked at me. Good to see this was off to a fairly predictable start. But what I didn’t predict was Kane suddenly standing from the back of the classroom and walking up front. He stood awkwardly at the side of the front row, clearly lost for a moment as to what he was supposed to do now. I took the rather juvenile opportunity to verbally kick him in the balls.
“Mr. Thorson, why don’t you have a seat and wait your turn.” I stared at him, feeling heat burn through my cheeks but ignoring it and my racing heart.
He stared back, his lips pursed as he watched me. When his eyes shifted to winky boy, his jaw instantly clenched tight, and he shook his head. He sank into the nearby desk chair on the edge of the front row, and I returned my attention to the man, if one could call him that, sitting in the chair next to my desk.
“Hey, I’m James.”
“Hi,” I said curtly.
“Sex.” That’s all he said, and he nodded his head as though I was supposed to be impressed.
“Care to elaborate?”
A few nearby students laughed, clearly having overheard James’s comment, and when I glanced toward them, my attention stopped on Kane. He was glaring at the side of James’s face.
“The philosophy of sex, sexuality, all that good stuff,” James said. “You know, like the discussion we had in class. It was interesting.” His voice was too seductive, and as he spoke, he leaned in, resting his closest elbow to my desktop. “The power of sexual attraction.”
More giggles could be heard nearby.
I cleared my throat. “Yep. Sounds good. Next please,” I said as I glanced toward Kane, but then my eyes bulged.