Survival of the Fittest
Abel didn't take well to classes. It wasn't that he was no good at them, far from it, but they bored him. They were just another mark of his oppression, just another hoop that they wanted him to jump through and, much as he would never admit it, it stung that he could never jump as high or gracefully as Cain could. If he obeyed, if he did the lessons well as they wanted him to, then he might as well just not exist – his meagre spark would be consumed and overshadowed by the raging fire of his brother, and he would be spare parts forever. At least when he screamed and kicked, people noticed him and knew who he was, at least when he was shouting then he was heard. It was a lesson he had learned early on, and one that stuck with him.
So he had chosen to nap during this morning's history class, not even bothering to mask his contempt for the teacher and her subject as he laid his head down on his desk and closed his eyes. Some of the other children – most of them significantly older than Abel due to his advanced skill-set – started nudging one another and laughing. As long as they didn't get on the bad side of the feral beast, he could be quite entertaining to have in the classroom.
"Nightroad! Sit up and answer the question."
The teacher's whip-crack like demand did nothing more than make Abel squint one eye open to fix her with a dull gaze, before very pointedly closing it again and ignoring her. He had no interest in talking about the extinction of dinosaurs, it was irrelevant and stupid, and nothing she could say would change that. Or, so he had thought, one phrase making him sit up and sneer with disgust in his eyes.
"-adaptation has proven why humankind is the superior species, we are capable of learning from history's mistakes and using intelligent rationale to prevent them happening again."
"Bullshit."
Abel's voice was low as he glared around the room, filled with contempt for all of them. Their arrogance, their stupidity, their... species.
"Humankind is worse than a plague, a fetid fucking boil on the planet. You're not escaping extinction by moving to another world, you're delaying the inevitable. At least the dinosaurs didn't invite their own destruction, you've got nobody to blame but yourselves for your overcrowded and diseased planet. You think you're the intelligent ones? Fuck that."
The teacher had tried to stop him, mouth opening and closing silently in shock at his outburst, but he just ploughed on regardless. One of the other boys in the class had been listening with a rapidly darkening frown – he was proud of his father and mother, both working here on the colony for a brighter future, and this animal was degrading their efforts.
Afterwards, the black eye on Abel's face from that first punch felt almost sweet as he spat on the twitching unconscious form of the older boy. Perhaps lessons weren't so bad after all.