Eat Crow (Cheap Thrills 6)

“Let’s keep it PG, Kenya,” Tamsin suggested.

“I did. But people are still saying it means that, and, like, no way.”

One of the boys sneered at the girl. “Maybe you shouldn’t be such a kiss ass?”

“Ben,” Tamsin snapped. “One more of those, and I’ll send you to the principal’s office.”

I braced for an argument, but he blushed and looked down at his desk instead. “Sorry, Miss Waite. I understand what you’re saying and how good an example that is, but she’s always digging away at me and my friends.”

Not wanting to dwell on it and run the risk of making things worse, I continued with my plan.

Holding the book up, I tapped the front of it. “Who here has heard of an author called Alexander Pope?”

All of them looked back at me blankly.

“Alrighty then. Pope was an English poet who died in 1744, but he wrote a satirical piece that’ll always be one of my favorite books in the world called The Rape Of The Lock.” The title had the intended reaction as all of the students' eyes widened. “Exactly. The word rape is brutal and ugly, and back then, it was probably the same, but he managed to create something from it that highlighted how affectatious and vain society was.”

One of the boys held his hand up. “What does affectatious mean?”

“Pretentious, fake, and like it’s being done for show,” I replied, tapping the book again. “See, in it, the man cuts a lock of hair off the girl—”

“I’d kill him,” one of the students snapped, holding her ponytail in her fist. “My brother cut my hair once with those scissors that don’t even cut through paper. I glued him to the toilet seat.”

Everyone burst out laughing, including Tamsin and me.

“Understandable. I’m an only child, but my best friend’s male, and if he’d cut my hair when we were younger, I’d have done the same.”

Don’t think about Logan. Too late, there goes the blush.

Clearing my throat, I continued, “Anyway, the woman reacts by being overly dramatic, and society does the same thing. It’s like everything comes to a stop, and it’s the worst thing that could ever happen.”

This time they all looked at each other dubiously.

“For real, back then, it was all about how you looked, and any action against that was the kind of thing that would win trophies and long speeches at award ceremonies nowadays. That’s what Pope was aiming for when he wrote it—to highlight how vapid and pretentious society was. They all wore wigs to prove their stature, even the men spent hours powdering and putting red blush on their faces, and without that, you were nothing.”

One of the boys sitting at the back raised his hand. “That sucks. Who cares if you look great? I haven’t showered for three days, and I’m okay.” He sniffed under his arm and lowered it quickly.

“Exactly. Not only did Pope strike a blow with the content of the piece, but he struck a blow with the title of it, too. Rape—it’s one of the ugliest words, isn’t it?” All of them nodded. “Back then, it was ugly too, but they didn’t have social media or the type of mentality we have today.”

“Because they were too focused on their appearances?” One of the boys shouted.

Clapping my hands together, I pointed at him. “And there you have it. We’re conscious of how we look now, but it doesn’t define our society. Well,” I added with a smile, “not as much as it did back then.?

?

This made most of them laugh, and the others who didn’t still smiled.

“He was bringing attention to what was important by using it while making fun of how affectatious society was at the same time. What do you think would happen if an author wrote a book with a title like that today?”

A pretty girl at the front shyly raised her hand. “No one would buy it. We don’t like that word.”

“You’re probably right. Not many people I’ve spoken to have read or heard of this book, and when they hear the title, they look appalled by it. That’s because the weight and knowledge of what the word means are well known.

“Would you ever throw a sentence with it in it at someone? I mean, I can’t even bring myself to give you an example, but think back to the ‘go kill yourself’ one that we’re trying to get you to stress to people you meet online is unacceptable, and think along those lines.”

“Do people still buy that book?” another girl asked.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “But for the content alone, they should. It’s an amazing piece of literature, and it shows how values, ideals, and society have changed in comparison to back then.”