Survival Of The Fittest

(Karen Nguyen: Pregame Start)

Karen at the desk by the window facing the hallway. She read her Azumanga Daioh omnibus to pass the time before class started. She found the character Sakaki very relatable. She and the character had a fondness for cats. Too bad Sakaki kept getting bit by one cat in particular, Kamineko. This manga brought her a bit of joy and amusement, and if she could, she’d bring it home to read. Unfortunately, her parents forbade Karen from reading manga at home, instead wanting her to focus on studying. Still, at least she can keep the book here, in case she needed cheering up.

It was before the start of first period. She had English in the morning. She liked English class, since it allowed her to read more than just law books. She could stop focusing on law and learn about great authors and their works. She considered writing her own stories for a while, but hasn’t had the chance to practice due to her parent’s strict pressure to study. For now, she resigned to just reading for fun.

(DeMarcus Miller Pregame Start)

DeMarcus Miller hated being early for class, especially not English class. It was bad enough to spend an hour of his day reading and discussing "classics" written by pedophiles that would have been pushing some narrative about acceptance on Twitter if they were alive today. It was bad enough that half the shit they wrote was incomprehensible without a thesaurus and a half-hour to spend on each sentence. It was bad enough that this was somehow considered a mandatory part of "education."

But being early? That meant he was wasting his own time. Couldn't be helped, anyway. Dad had to fill in for one of the early-shift waitresses at The Firepit and figured he would just take DeMarcus to school along the way. That left the boy to find something to do while he was in the building. He spent some of his unexpected free time thumbing his way through his social feeds on his phone while sitting on one of the benches that lined the hallway, but that only chewed up ten minutes. Instead, he expected he could at least catch a nap in the classroom until the bell rung and everyone else made their way in. He didn't expect that someone would already be in the room.

Her name was Kim, or Kelly, or something else with a K, and that was where his knowledge of the girl ended. He couldn't see the cover of what she was reading but as he strode into the middle of the room toward his desk, he managed to glimpse drawings of black-and-white anime schoolgirls or whatever on the pages that were open. He figured they were spending the panels screaming about their sempai-san or oni-kun or whatever.

"Weeb shit." He said. He thought it muttered it but he knew he said it loud enough for anyone to hear. He sat down heavily in his desk, the legs creaking under his weight. He let his bookbag fall to the the floorboard next to his desk with an unceremonious clatter. He propped his right elbow on the desktop and rested his chin on his hand. He realized now he was too wired on his own irritation to take any kind of nap. Instead, he sighed and looked back over at Kim or Kelly.

"Hey. You." He said.

Someone else had entered the classroom. It looked like a large, black boy. DeMarcus Miller, not the most pleasant of company. Karen decided to keep to herself and read on.

Then DeMarcus muttered something under his breath.

”Weeb shit.”

Karen rolled her eyes at the comment. As if she hadn’t heard enough disdain for manga from her parents, some people around school just had to pronounce their dislike for the medium around school too. If they didn’t like, that’s fine, but they didn’t have to be jerks about it.

Karen was fine continuing reading without interacting with DeMarcus. That is, until he wanted her attention.

”Hey. You.”

“What?”, Karen asked in a slightly annoyed toned, not even turning to look at him.

DeMarcus's nose wrinkled at the girls tone.

"I didn't ask for attitude. Damn."

He shifted in his seat and turned his whole body to the girl, ostensibly to give her his undivided attention. In reality, his move was more like a boxer squaring up in the pocket to throw heavy leather.

"I'm just tryna make sure I read whatever it was we were supposed to read."

One hand shot down to unzip the main pouch of his bag and extract a poorly-cared for copy of The Grapes of Wrath.

"Just Chapter 1 and 2 of this shit, yeah?" He said, tapping the spine with one finger.

While he waited for an answer he looked down at the cover. A man, presumably the protagonist Tom Joad, stood on the side of some sun-blasted highway in rural Oklahoma with his jacket dangling his hand. DeMarcus had liked the bastard. Tom was getting his shit back together after one hell of a setback, or trying to. Reminded DeMarcus of his dad. DeMarcus didn't know John Steinbeck but he might have been one of the few good authors the teacher had picked out this semester.

Karen turned to see what he was talking about. DeMarcus had a shoddy copy of The Grapes of Wrath in his hand. They were supposed to read the first two chapters, and he just wanted to check.

“Yeah, that’s right,” said Karen.

The novel was about a family during the Great Depression, setting out for California to find a better life. The author won a Nobel Prize for his work, and is considered a classic in American literature.

“You didn’t forget, did you?”, she asked, raising an eyebrow.

DeMarcus furrowed his brows. Kim or Kelly or whatever seemed to be testing him. And he didn't like getting tested unless it was over 100 MBPS.

"Yeah, I read the motherfuckers. I'm not stupid" He growled. He slapped the book on his desk and it almost slid off the edge. He didn't notice.

"Tom Joad's a solid dude. That truck driver was all in his business and he just shuts it right down. Some people just talk too much."

DeMarcus glanced up at the clock. There wasn't a whole lot of time left until the bell.

"That first chapter was boring, though. It shouldn't take that long to talk about a dust bowl or whatever."

“Well, maybe that’s just how books were written back then,” Karen said, “Sometimes you need a slow burn to get to the main points.”

Karen turned a page in her manga. In all honesty, she just wanted to keep reading about Osaka daydreaming about Chiyo’s pigtails being detachable, rather than talk about the Great Depression. It was hard enough having to read about a dark time in history, but to live through one this past year with the pandemic.

“I wonder if someone will write a prize winning book on the pandemic,” Karen said.

"There's a difference between a slow burn and a pile of ashes." DeMarcus murmured.

He looked at the cover again, at the artist representation of its protagonist. Yeah. They should have just started with him. DeMarcus dropped the book on the corner of his desk, in full view so the teacher would know from the jump he was ready for class.

Then the girl was talking about award-winning pandemic books. DeMarcus felt his jaw tighten and his back stiffen. He gave a derisive snort.

"Somebody'll write some New York Times best-seller about finding love in lockdown or something. Maybe there's vampires, or werewolves. I dunno what monsters people like dreaming about fucking these days. But the real stuff?, the good shit?" He straightened in his seat. "Like, the expose someone's gonna put out about the China virus conspiracy? I bet you it'll get buried. No one wants to hear about it."

“I’m sick and tired of Asian Americans getting blamed for this crap,” Karen said in response.

Karen recalled a little incident where her father, Chi, was accused of being a “Chinese spy” by delusional hick. They came up to her and Chi on the street, not caring how crazy they looked in public. Fortunately, neither her nor Chi were hurt, and the crazed man got a stern scolding from Chi and the rest of the pedestrians before slinking off.

“Anyone who thinks I had something to do with the pandemic can screw off,” Karen said, annoyed.

"I mean, I'm sure you didn't have anything to do with it personally or anything but still. Whole fucking thing was suspicious. Comes out of Wuhan and they hush everything up? Please." DeMarcus said.

It never crossed his mind that his temporary conversation partner might not have been Chinese. A lot of things never crossed his mind, like that it might be distasteful to hang the possibility of a nation playing around with bioweapons on some girl in his English class. Or that Kim or Kelly or (Karen? Maybe it was Karen) was only entertaining his company because he had intruded on her quiet moment. But then, some people were just sounding boards to him anyway.

"I don't think all Asians should just be catching shit, though." He said, a rare concession, which he immediately ran back with the next casually delivered statement. "Somebody gotta pay for that last year, though."

“I just want to move on,” Karen said. “Move on from this pandemic and get back to some kind of normalcy.”

Karen looked back at her manga. She wanted to keep reading more strips before class started. These comics offered her escapism from the stress of her daily life. From school, from her parents, and from the effects of the pandemic. Unfortunately, this conversation was reminding her that life had taken a turn for the worst for everyone.

“If you lived with parents like mine, quarantine would be unbearable,” she added.

Oh good. Another one hoping she could just go back to how everything was, like everything hadn't changed. Well whatever, it wasn't DeMarcus's job to educate. The girl would find out how the world worked now on her own terms, and in her own time. He couldn't stop a sour look from crossing his features but he didn't engage with her point otherwise while she looked back at her weeb comic.

Then the topics of parents came up.

"Couldn't be me." He murmured. "My pops kept his shit together. Business was going ok, Canon's administration let him work through it and get some windfall. If anything, I'm more scared of the after. Who knows what this Kirby fuck's gonna do."

DeMarcus leaned back and looked up at the clock. Just a couple more minutes.

'What your parents do, make you wear masks at home?" He snickered.

“No,” Karen replied, “But they were constantly monitoring me, making sure I was studying. They’re always breathing down my neck about that. Even when I’m bringing home A’s.”

Karen’s parents always pressured her to keep up with her studies. All in the hopes of making her a lawyer like them. Anything below an A was unacceptable. She didn’t want to dwell on the consequences.

During the pandemic, while everyone was stuck at home, doing classes online, Karen’s parents pestered her more than usual to stay focused on her schoolwork. As if they didn’t trust her to get it done on her own without them checking. It was infuriating to Karen.

“I’ll be glad to get some time to myself around here,” she said.

"Oh. I know that. My ma won't get off my ass. About growing as a person or whatever. Whether its grades or otherwise."

That much was true. He wasn't the smartest and his mom was quick to let him know. His dad gave him a little shit but then there were some things about the public education system he didn't trust so he let some stuff slide.

"Yeah, alone time can be good. I vibe with that." DeMarcus said, once again not noticing he was keeping this girl from the thing she clearly wanted. "Not gonna be much peace in a little bit, though. Have to listen to the teacher's bullshit now."

Karen looked up at the clock. There was a minute left before class started. She decided to put her manga up for the time being and brought out her English textbook, and her copy of The Grapes of Wrath. Some students started to flood into the classroom.

“Well, back to business,” Karen said, then she turned to DeMarcus, “Good talk, I guess.”

Karen turned back to face the front of the class. Time to get class over with. She’ll read some more of her manga during lunch.

(Karen Nguyen, continued elsewhere…)