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James wanted to break his skull on the desk.
“Enslaved peoples weren't only bound by the intents of their masters, but by law--”
“I know, Anna,” James grumbled. God, he needed Parker right now.
“Women could be kept in concubines at even such a young age as twelve, and--”
“I know , Anna,” James repeated louder.
This stupid report. Well, not actually stupid. James appreciated the effort the teacher was making to educate her students about the true horrors of slavery.
But did he have to go through it? And with Anna ? The most oblivious, annoying asshole in his whole grade ?
James didn't take this stuff as hard as Parker did. He never knew why--he still despised it, it still made him sick to think about, to remember , he still had the occasional nightmare about it, and it still pissed him off to no earthly end --but he didn't have panic attacks anytime someone went into any sort of detail about it.
He figured that had to do with the fact that he was a bit more detached from the past than, say, Alexander or Parker, along with his lack of Sally Hemings-esque ventures.
And yet here he was, stomach roiling and fingernails digging into his arm as fucking Anna spouted off fact after fact after fact.
“The killing of an African American at the time wasn't even considered murder, and, if said African American belonged to the killer, it might not have even constituted as a crime,” Anna said as she typed it out.
James understood that, technically, she wasn't doing anything wrong. She was working on their project, and trying to get him involved. That didn't mean he could unsee the images of cracking whips and broken backs and downcast eyes and--
“James?” Anna asked, “James, are you listening?”
“Yeah, yes, go ahead,” James gritted out, trying to keep down the soggy chicken nuggets he'd had for lunch.
Actually, he was so fucking glad Parker wasn't here.
“Okay, great because I just found this article about the founding fathers and holy shit . They all had slaves, pretty much. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, all of them! How fucked up is that?” Anna babbled, “These guys are seen as, like, the pillars of freedom and equality, and they had sla --”
“I am perfectly aware , Anna,” James snapped. “I know how slavery worked. I know how utterly despicable it was, I know! You don't’--you don't have to keep carrying on about it! You can just type it out! I-I can look over it later or something!”
“Whoa, James,” Anna said, slowly raising her hands in the air, “Unwad your panties, jeez. Just ‘cause your boy toy isn't here, doesn't mean--”
“You say one thing about Parker,” James growled, “ One thing , I will make sure you regret it for a very, very long time. Got it?”
Anna gulped. “Sure! Sure. Okay. I'll, uh, I'll just go… look for books… or something,” she muttered before grabbing her things and leaving as quickly as she could.
James sighed, his mind wondering back to everything Anna had mentioned.
He knew he wouldn't be getting any sleep that night.