Henry looked at Barry for a moment before turning back to Alex. This infuriated Barry even more. Not only did he ignore the man once, but twice after understanding the implications. But there were no implications. Just someone who overestimated his strength and felt confident because he didn't feel like saying anything. This was typically a person who got their way because they happened to have a group of physically capable men behind them. However, Barry didn't overturn his desk or shove him or attack him. There were clearly rules that restrained him. Maybe he did this in the past and got in big trouble and now he knew the limits. Maybe Barry thought he could be annoyed into action. But that was not true in the slightest.
"Bro. I'm asking politely. Why do you have to be impolite?"
He looked at Barry the third time. Didn't seem like a fellow who would get the hint. He would have to be more physical. As for consequences, he could deal with them, possibly.
"You can ask but I can respond. Isn't that how it works?" I said.
Well, I posed it as a question but I said it in a way that it brooked no arguments. It ought not to at least. Barry looked confused at first, like he was thinking 'I know I can ask, and you can refuse, but who said you could refuse?' Barry took a deep breath like he was about to cry.
"Bro. I'm asking nicely. Why you gotta make me ask so many times? I ask, other people comply"
"You mean you intimidate others into getting coerced by you. You're upset I don't really care about you"
Barry's eyes widened as though hearing the most ridiculous thing. He looked around and people looked away from him, confirming my words. They also snickered briefly, secretly applauding me. It was short enough not to provoke this ticking time bomb.
"Comply?"
Barry asked as though he had no idea what it meant, but he did. He was just confused because I wasn't acting according to his script.
"Agree because they're forced too"
I just say everything bluntly without a care in the world, because him and the guys next to him, supporting him, FEEL weak. They look strong but for some reason I could feel like I might snap them in two without any effort. On the other hand, I look weak but I killed several men with just a punch, when my intention was just to knock them unconsciously at first. I would probably kill them later, but it was my first time and I didn't know what to do. I was intimidated by the legal trouble but right that wasn't any further from the truth.
"What do you mean forced? We're not allowed to intimidate other students"
"So why are you insisting on me going outside with you? I feel like I'm being forced to and I'm saying no, I won't be forced to"
"Brother. Be careful with your words. They might come back to haunt you"
They would come back to haunt someone, but not me. He would later end up in the infirmary, too scared to say anything other then he bumped into a wall really hard. At least, he wasn't strong enough to do the same to me.
Barry stared at me absentmindedly before walking away. He tried his luck but not a single woman agreed to be his partner. They all said they had already been picked, but then some of them picked a partner immediately after as though forgetting that they actually had none and were trying to disassociate from this fellow. This was all taken into Barry who was visibly agitated. His hand kept shaking and trembling. He heaved and huffed as he sat back in his seat. He looked at the girl sitting to his right who immediately stood up and sat somewhere else. The girl took a quick look at him, winked, and gave a thumbs up. Barry saw this and turned back. He witnessed but didn't respond. She didn't mind but Barry's eyes widened even more. Then Barry looked at the next guy over who nodded fearfully and changed seats to be closer to him. Barry nodded and said nothing more.
He looked back at Alex and inquired about the project. They needed to recreate a natural property of jellyfish through chemical reactions and then modify an octopus to do the same thing. Jellyfish shocked anything that touched them when they perceived their life to be in danger. It wasn't an automatic thing but had to be manually triggered. Certain chemical compounds would join up to generate the resulting effect. To do this, they needed an electric base. Iron was a good conductor. They would start with that in a petri dish and add voltage to make it more volatile. Once there was an overflow of discharge, they would add in some iodine to stabilize and control it. They would then graft the skin of an octopus over it and wait for the cells to merge. Then would then let it naturally heal back onto the octopus. In theory it should work and so that's what they did. The project was supposed to be two weeks, exactly the amount of time to do everything. The professor had planned it out well in advance. Now, how many people could figure it out?
He scanned the crowd and saw many women looking back at him, smiling and nodding. Others had figured it out as well. Then he looked at Barry and the kid that was coerced. They were still staring at the project. All this pair did was stare. They didn't write any notes, talk to each other, or open a book. They were clueless on how to proceed, almost like they were there to look smart. The kid was probably too intimidated to put any real effort into the matter, but also nervous of angering Barry based on how much he was fidgeting and sweating. Barry most likely had no clue on what he was reading. He came off as one dumb motherfucker to Henry. By coincidence, Barry happened to turn around at the same time he looked at the man.
There was rage in his eyes but their was self-restraint, at least in the classroom. The eyes said 'I'm going to make you understand' after class, but it was him he was going to make Barry understand. There were people stronger then him and not intimidated. He just hadn't met them yet but now he had.