eight - It's As Easy To Be A Hero As Easy As It Is To Be A Villain

''You broke him,'' Mr. Matthew declares just as he enters the English class that Riley Matthews, Maya Hart, Lucas Friar, Farkle Minkus and Ryan Collins attended.

This new information of the former English teacher no longer working at John Quincy Adams Middle School brought joy to the students, causing them to abrupt into a roar of cheer.

''Quiet!'' Corey hushed. ''Mr. Garaboski retired yesterday-''

This had the students cheering even louder and further given that he won't be teaching till his next life.

''Quiet!'' He repeats. ''The guy survives Vietnam and Mrs. Garaboski and he can't get past you.''

''What can we say,'' Ryan tilts her head to the side and shrugs her shoulders with a feign innocent grin plastering her lips. ''It's a gift.''

''Yeah,'' He clicks his teeth and unfolds a folded piece of paper. ''Well, he left a letter here that expressed his feelings towards your 'gift'.''

Ryan leans forward in her desk, wanting to hear his final words of how unfair his awful treatment was given.

''Dear you little-'' His eyes went wide. ''Okay, I can't read this.''

Ryan pouts and leans back into her seat. ''Just when we were getting to the good part.''

''You know, he always talked about the good old days before 1985,'' Lucas brings up.

''What happened in 1985?'' Riley asked, following along to Lucas' point.

Ryan furrows her brows. ''Forget that. I wanna know why Fetty Wap is obsessed with 1738.''

''1985 was the year the New York board of education said you couldn't hit a kid with a ruler,'' Farkle informs for Riley's Intel before turning to Ryan. ''1738 was the year of the Methodist movement. But Fetty Wap was talking about a drink made in 1738.''

''Bored of education, I do believe I am,'' Maya remarks towards Farkle and his fact, along with school in general.

Ryan cocks a brow. ''So his good old days was hitting kids with rulers and just when I think Fetty had some sort of education, this happens?''

Corey shakes his head. ''Well, now, you're gonna need a new English teacher.''

''That's okay, thanks,'' Maya politely denies.

''Uh, I don't know, Maya,'' Lucas counters. ''You may want to consider this one.''

Ryan turns her head to the side towards the windows displaying those who walked back and forth in the halls.

A woman appeared about her mid twenties, probably Chinese, wearing a leather jacket and her jet black hair tied up into a messy bun.

''Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Ms. Harper Burgess,'' Mr. Matthews introduced towards the lady walking into the room.

Ms. Burgess initiated a wave by lifting up her hand that held her motorcycle helmet and with a kind smile.

''You got a bike that goes with that outfit?''

''Smooth,'' Ryan comments towards the question that seemed to be a little flirtatious. But then again, anything Lucas says seems flirtatious given his undeniable hot looks.

''1800 CC twin cam fat Bob fuel tank wide glide,'' She approached Lucas desk and set her helmet on his desk. ''What do you ride?''

Riley peeked her head aside. ''He rode a sheep.''

''Sixty two pounds quad hoof white fleece, kind you count to sleep, baa baa,'' Maya adds as her teasing for Lucas.

Ms. Burgess narrows her eyes to slits when sending Lucas a challenging gaze. ''Wanna race?''

''No,'' He simply tells her with the shake of his head.

''Ms. Burgess is here to teach you about great books and great ideas,'' Corey encourages as she returns to the front of the room. ''Please give her the same respect that you give me.''

''Oh, we could do better than that,'' Riley adds, causing Corey to cock a brow.

Ryan smiles. ''And by that she means it all depends on how well this goes.''

× × ×

''Frank Miller,'' Ms. Burgess starts as she begins to hand out the pile of comic books. ''The Dark Night Returns.''

''This is Batman,'' Farkle points out.

She points a finger at him. ''A future Batman.''

''What's the difference?'' Lucas asks.

''This story is the continuation based on an original series of characters. Do you guys know what that means?''

''Yeah,'' Riley, Farkle, Maya and Lucas agreed in unison.

Ryan pursed her lips and eyed them with a discrete scold. ''No we don't.''

As their teacher turns around, Riley raised a hand and spoke out. ''Um, aren't you suppose to be teaching us the important books?''

''Mm,'' She hums. ''This graphic novel was as important to its style of literature as any book you can think of.''

''What's it about?'' Farkle questions.

''It's about a world that's become so tough that Batman fights Superman. You will tell me why he does that.''

''You're gonna start by teaching us a comic book, Miss Motorcycle?'' Lucas couldn't help but prosper.

''Why question it? Easy grade for me,'' Ryan chimes in, flipping through the graphic novel.

''Yeah, and you're gonna start by not calling me miss anything. You can call me Harper,'' She allows.

Farkle raised his hand. ''Harper.''

''Yes?'' She responds.

''I just wanted to see if it would work,'' Farkle twiddles with his folded hands.

Ryan throws her head back and groans, ''Only you would have to be the one to test it.''

''Farkle and Ryan.''

''You know our names, Harper?'' Farkle continues to question, dragging out the first name basis until he is comfortable.

''I know all of your names,'' She includes. ''Mr. Matthews told me all about you.''

Riley lifted her head from her book and asked. ''When is this due please?''

''Hi, Riley,'' She waved.

''Hi,'' Riley mimics.

''How do you like having him here?'' Harper asked directly other as she was referring to her father.

Riley closes the graphic novel and responds, ''It's terrible.''

''It's wonderful,'' She corrects. ''My father gave me, my love of books.''

''He did?''

She nods. ''He's why I became a teacher. It's why he named me, Harper.''

Ryan title her head up. ''He named you after, Harper Lee.''

''You know?''

She smiles softly. ''Her best work was one of my mom's favorites.''

''Maybe you'll figure it out quicker than the others.''

Lucas turns his body haphazardly to look at Ryan. ''Look at you being smart and for once, not making a reference to a TV show.''

''Nope, trust me, I have enough of The Original lines to make Corey confused to his end point,'' She convinced with a wicked grin.

''So,'' The principal barges in. ''I'm passing by your classroom on this, your first day and I can't help noticing that somebody has a comic book-''

He takes a brief pause to look around. ''That everybody has a comic book.''

''It's initially called graphic novels,'' Ryan corrects. ''And I can already tell that she's trying to teach us something important.''

''Well, she's not. It isn't literature, it's comic books-''

''We can have Siri and Google testify that,'' Ryan objects.

''And we can have Siri and Google testify that comic books are against school policy, Ms. Burgess. So is calling her by her first name.''

''Depends for what school-''

''Pipe it, Collins,'' He snaps. He tosses one of the book he confiscated from a desk onto Harper's desk. ''You will gather these up, and you will teach something important.''

A book on top of a pile set at the corner of her desk caught his eye, speaking him enough to pick it up. ''To Kill A Mockingbird. Are you familiar with this?''

''I know this book.''

''Then teach it, Ms. Burgess,'' He commands. She takes the book being handed to her before the principal leaves with the door being closed behind him.

Ryan inwardly pouts at the deflated adult who looked as if given up.

''So,'' Harper places the dull book on the desk and picks up the originally assigned one. ''The Dark Night Returns. Read it tonight and tomorrow, we'll learn something important.''

Ryan cheered along with the others before Harper stopped them. ''Ah, stop it. You're not suppose to like a teacher. You're Maya.''

''Oh no, what are you doing to me?'' Maya takes a stand continues the round of applause.

× × ×

As Ryan enters her bedroom that was just open by a tab, she looks up and her eyes enlarge, causing her to her look down and let out a dry chuckle.

''Okay,'' She starts aloud. ''This may have turned into a crack house, but it's not a trap house, people. Out!''

She makes sure to avoid gaze towards the two strangers getting it on in her bed.

Once they leave, Ryan walked over to her desk, a place to drop her homework for the moment before going towards her bed.

She throws her blanket onto the wooden oak flowing and pulls off all the sheets covering her mattress and adds it on to the pile she was making on the floor. She then reaches for her pillow and tears it away from it covers.

Gathering her beds comfort and protection, she leaves her bedroom and manages to make it downstairs without tripping over a step.

''Dad!'' She calls.

She cocks a brow at her father who sat in the busy living room crowded with various people upon genders.

''I thought we agreed that my room is off limits?'' She prompts.

''Is this the girl?'' A man points a thumb back at her.

He nods at him. ''Yeah. Ryan, meet my friend, Jimmy. Jimmy, my daughter, Ryan.''

Jimmy stands and switches the scotch glass to his other hand in which he offers his right hand towards her to shake.

''Pleasure.''

Sneering down at his hand, she makes eye contact with him. ''Kind of got my hands full thanks to your friends rolling around in my room like its a pig sty.''

''Ryan,'' Marvin calls warningly.

Jimmy raises his hands in surrender, a smirk pursed against his lips.

''I get it. We are in your palace, the least we could do is to show some respect.''

She remained with her sour expression. ''A palace is clean and holds purity. There's none of that here. At least not anymore.''

''I'm sorry that we brought this on you,'' Jimmy apologizes sincerely, his smirk long gone. ''A kid shouldn't have to have seen half of the stuff you seen for the couple of nights. It's not fair.''

''It's not like I have much of a choice.''

Ryan walks out of her house, leaving Jimmy to ponder over the stubborn and angered preteen.

She let's out a sigh of relief when opening the garage where there held the washing machines and dryer.

While Ryan pouring in the detergent, her phone vibrated continuously in her back pocket.

''Oh my god,'' She mumbles, setting the container of Tide harshly onto the machine and digged into her jeans for her phone.

''What,'' She hissed when answering the call on its final ring.

''Woah,'' The optimistic cowboy responds, shocked. ''Someone's cranky.''

Another sigh falls from her lips, more frustrated than the last. She has a hand against the white metallic machine, leaning against it as she responds, ''I don't know if you can't hear the pounding of RMB music but I can and it's even worse when you're in the same room as it.''

''Your dad listens to that kind of music?''

She rolls her eyes. ''No, but his friends do.''

''Isn't this the third day these parties been going on? With all due respect, but just ask your dad to knock it off,'' He suggest.

Lucas doesn't know the deal the Collins family gotten themselves into. The deal is kept a secret between Jimmy, Marvin and Ryan.

''He's having a mid life crisis,'' She waves off as a lie. ''He'll be over it soon enough.''

''I'll take your word for it, Ryan,'' He submits. ''Have you done Harper's assignment yet?''

''Ah!'' She yelps. ''Sh, I'm only on page one.''

He laughs on the other line. ''Oh god, you suck.''

She laughs along with him, forgetting for just that split second all the music, all the people, all the problems going on. ''You love me, Friar.''

''How can you be so sure?''

She gasped, her hand pressed against her heart to feign hurt. ''Are you trying to fight a battle you'll know you'll lose?''

''Maybe I am, maybe I'm not.''

''Then maybe, I won't be bringing those blueberry muffins you like from Fernandez panadería,'' She hints.

It was a bakery her mother used to take her to. Every chance they could, when Gia would pick Ryan up from school, they would stop by the family bakery and order a chocolate marvel cheesecake.

But, they would just order one with two forks and they would just sit in usually empty business and share that one piece of cheesecake, dishing over the events that had happened in their day.

''Come on, don't bluff, Ry,'' He began to beg. ''You know how I feel about those.''

''Nope,'' She shakes her head as she closes the lid to the washing machine. ''It all depends on how I'm feeling now.''

''I know I'm on thin ice, but I hate you.''

''I love you, I hate that, I love you!'' She sang with a wide grin.

''Stop! We talked about this!'' He exclaims.

''And I told you that I didn't agree to your needs,'' She tsked at him. ''Don't you ever listen?''

× × ×

''Can good change?''

''Of course,'' Ryan responds towards Harper class discussion question. ''In fact, it's easier to change from good than from bad.''

''But can evil change?'' She counters.

''It seems like just when we think we've seen the worst that there can be, somebody comes up with something,'' Lucas chimes in.

''Why do you suppose that is?''

Maya shrugs her shoulder. ''Because his evil that fascinates us.''

''But doesn't good have to win in the end?'' Lucas questions.

''Does it?''

Ryan sat in the moment of silence the class endured, when principal Yancy walks in.

''So, I'm passing by your classroom on this, your second day, and I see no Mockingbird. But I still see comic books,'' He takes note of.

''Yes, we're studying the nature of good and evil,'' Harper briefly explains to her boss.

He gasped. ''I don't care. Class dismissed.''

Ryan's eyes enlarged as Harper asked, ''Excuse me?''

The principal ignores her and attends towards the students. ''Study hall, all of you. Except Farkle. You, go sit in a garbage can.''

Ryan furrows her brows at the smiling boy. ''Yay.''

''Leave now,'' Principal Yancy repeats.

Ryan sat up in her seat, protesting against the principals orders. Every teacher has a plan for a students comprehending and because he doesn't see that, it's wrongfully unfair.

''Go,'' Harper insist. She knew her students weren't going to leave without her consent.

Little did everyone know Harper and Corey were going to get fired.

× × ×

''In Frank Miller's, The Dark Night Returns, the keyword is dark,'' Riley starts off the class presentation based on how well Harper has been teaching within two days for not only Principal Yancy but for the superintendent. ''He doesn't write heroes or villains that you are used to. You have to really think about what's right and what's wrong.''

''The pictures make you work, too,'' Maya chimes in. ''You have to look up, down, across, and sideways, but I believe he's trying to get us to look at what out own world has become. Up, down, across and sideways.''

''Heroes that should be friends with a common goal,'' Riley takes the lead again. ''Fight each other instead.''

Farkle takes a stand. ''One hero was trying to inspire his old friend to take a look at the world, and realized that it's changed. So, he needed to change, too.''

As Farkle sits back down, Lucas stands up. ''But he wouldn't, so he fought against him. Which was hard to look at because the world is dark enough and heroes are supposed to bring light.''

''Everyone in this room knows that someone with real power doesn't need to hit a kid with a ruler to get the kid to want to learn.''

''Because this is a new world,'' Maya speaks. ''And we don't do that here. Frank Miller turned a comic book into- what's the word?''

''You know the word,'' Harper encourages.

''Literature.''

Ryan the stand from her seat. ''Harper was named after someone who wrote a great story. To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee. And when it comes down to reading the book, the important book, we have to realize that figuring out the good from bad isn't as easy as black and white.''

''You did this in two days,'' The superintendent questions out of disbelief.

''They're smarter than they want us to know,'' Harper chuckles.

''She did that in two days,'' He exclaims. ''Shape up, Matthews.''

''Yes, sir.''

''Jon, comic books are against school policy,'' Principal Yancy prompts.

''Yeah, and you can hit a kid with a ruler in nineteen states.''

And with that, Principal Yancy dismissed himself in silence.

''I guess we just defeated out villain,'' Ryan smirks.

× × ×

''Niñita,'' Maria calls out towards Ryan who entered the family establishment. ''Oh, it's been so long.''

Ryan smiles at the elder who came from around back to cup her cheeks and place a gentle peck on her forehead.

''Larissa told me that you stopped by the other day. I started taking more shifts just to see if you'll pass by again.''

Ryan smiles. ''Larissa gotten so big.''

Larissa is Maria Fernandez daughter, her last child, actually. She was about the age of four by the time Ryan had left New York.

''You ought to talk, Niñita.''

Ryan chuckles at the back forth compliment.

''Is there anything you need?'' Maria rushed back behind the counter of delicious treats. ''I don't want you being late.''

''I'm already late, señora,'' She waves off. ''Let me get two dozen chocolate marvel cheesecakes and one blueberry muffin.''

''That's a big order, Niñita,'' Maria notices. ''Whose it all for?''

''Uh, my class,'' She stammers when reaching into her bag for her wallet. ''I'm feeling good today and I thought it'd be a nice treat.''

In other words, she knew Harper was going to remain their English teacher. The presentation was more than enough proof for her evaluation.

''That's nice,'' Maria smiles. ''How's your father? I'm surprise he wanted to move back.''

She shakes her head. ''His job wasn't working out, and he was home sick like me. We thought it'd be best to come back.''

Maria towered two medium size boxes and one small one on top of the counter.

''78.95, Niñita,'' She charges.

She hands her the hundred dollar bill and waits patiently for her change and receipt.

''Here you go,'' She hands over.

''Thank you,'' She smiles graciously as she receives her change and roses back into her bag carelessly.

She watches Maria tie the boxes as one and hands it over.

''My condolences, Niñita,'' Maria apologizes. Ryan was wondering how long it was going to be until she brought up her mother. ''You deserve better.''

She pursed her lips. ''Gracias, senora.''

Ryan carries the box all the way until she enters Mr. Matthews history class, where a round of applause erupts towards Harper who stood in between Corey and superintendent, Jon Turner.

''I came just in time,'' She smirks. ''Two dozen chocolate marvel cheesecake and one blueberry muffin for the freakish cowboy.''

''Chocolate marvel cheesecake?'' Riley repeats curiously. ''Is this from-''

''Fernandez panadería,'' Ryan nods. ''Yeah.''

''What's the big deal?'' Farkle asks.

''Her mom took us once,'' Maya answers. ''Riley bought a strawberry shortcake and I ordered a brownie. Ryan shared a chocolate marvel cheesecake with her mom. They made us try it because we never had before and Riley and I just watched them talk about whatever. It was fun.''

''Did you ever go again?'' Harper asks, as she helped Ryan take out the bakery treats.

Riley shakes her head. ''No. It was more of a mother and daughter thing anyway.''

Ryan wanted to tell Ryan about her mother's passing. She just didn't know the proper time or right approach.

Lucas tore Ryan away from her thoughts with a loud gasp. ''Is that-?''

''Yes, Lucas,'' Ryan smiles, holding up the baked good. ''A blueberry muffin.''

'See, I knew it was going to be a good day.'

Ryan's Outfit For Day 1 Of The Chapter!

Ryan's Outfit For Day 2 Of The Chapter!

Ryan's Outfit For Day 3 Of The Chapter!

Ryan's Outfit For Day 4 Of The Chapter!

authors note; because of my desire to make a Niklaus Mikealson fan fiction, I decided to make a schedule for the days I'll be updating my books do I can complete them faster.

Apathy will be updated every Monday.