A Guy Like Her

"This semester you won't be having exams or assignments," Mark Thompson exclaimed in the first lesson of my social studies class. "You'll be coming up with your own assessment." The class of about fifteen glanced at each other uneasily. "This semester we will be talking about social standings, the differences between males and females, rich and poor and ethnicities. People tend to be blindsided by their own problems and by the end of this semester I hope you all will have a little more understanding and patience for other people. This is the first class of the year and none of you know much about each other, unless by some chance you have come from the same college. Today, you are all putting your first impressions out there for each other to judge. For the sake of conversation, I want you guys to have a look at each other and make assumptions about each other, but keep in mind this isn't a chance to be nasty to each other. Please do it in a nice way."

I sat back in my chair and looked around the room. Christiana Brinkley sat in the corner, we had gone to College together and I had always thought of her as a dumb blonde, she tapped her acrylic nails against the table as she studied the people around her.

"Michael Stewart is obviously a dumb jock," Christian Mayor announced first.

"Christian Mayor strikes me as an attention seeker," Mary Whitley stated straight after.

"I think Mary is a book worm, Christiana Brinkley continued on the chain of assumptions.

"Christiana comes across as a bimbo," I piped up.

"Lucy is up herself," Taylor Cadley said after me.

"Taylor is a player," Michelle Newby kept it going.

"Michelle is a rich snob," Henry Gregory said.

"Henry is an emo." And it continued on until everyone had spoken.

"Alright that was great. Now I want you to think about what was said about you. Do you agree or disagree?" Mark pushed the discussion further.

"I disagree," Taylor exclaimed straight away. "Just because I don't want a girlfriend but still want to get laid, doesn't mean I'm a player. The girls I'm with know what they're getting into when they start flirting back with me."

"Alright, and does anyone have anything to reply with to that?" Mark asked looking around at us all expectantly.

"Well in that case, that would make you a slut then," I said before I could stop myself, turning to Taylor to measure his reaction, shocked at myself.

"How?" Taylor looked at me, clearly annoyed.

"Well, you want no strings attached sex and the way you just explained, there are quite a few girls you have sex with. If you were a girl you would be considered a slut, but because you're a male, society deems you a legend for getting with as many girls as you can."

"Oh, spare me," Taylor groaned and rolled his eyes. "That is such a typical whiney girl answer, you all think you have it so hard but the only difference is that guys just don't care, girls are too uptight about what each other are doing."

"Excuse me, it is way harder to be a girl then it is to be a guy," I scoffed back at him.

"Oh my god, are you serious?" he asked me, looking exasperated. "We have to deal with you guys, and that is way harder then actually being a girl." I saw out of the corner of my eye, other guys in the class silently agreeing with him.

"What the hell are you talking about? Half the time its males putting the most pressure on girls to be the perfect girl with the perfect personality and looks and all guys have to do is go to work and come home to sit on the couch and scratch themselves occasionally," I glared at him, happy to see the girls agree with me, with a nod of their heads.

"... and hand over all our hard earned money so you can buy even more clothes when you already have a wardrobe bursting at the seams. You know why we scratch ourselves? Because we can't afford to do anything else when a woman has sunk her claws in and not to mention you're all conniving bitches."

"Excuse me?" I asked in a high squeaky voice, looking at him stunned.

"You are! Girls are so normal when you first meet them and then you turn all psycho freak when the guy has mistakenly decided you were normal enough to date."

"No wonder you're a slut with a perception like that!"

"I take back what I said before, you're not up yourself, you're a feminist lesbian."

"Alright, that was good but I think that's enough," Mark quickly spoke up after the whole class had sat silently during Taylor and mines 'discussion' that was quickly turning into a possible brawl.

I spent the rest of the class silently fuming about what Taylor had said to me. What a horrible opinion of women! But, we weren't the only ones who got into heated discussions though and by the end of the class everyone had a good idea of what stereotype other people thought they fitted into.

"So now you know what other people think of you," Mark lent against his desk. "For your assessment I want you to think about what the 'easy life' is to you and then I want you to live it. It may be something as simple as you think that rich people have it the easiest, so you spend a week living as a 'rich person'. Have a think about what you might want to do for your assessment and come have a chat to me or email me before the end of the week. Thanks guys, get out of here." Mark threw his hands towards the door and with that we were dismissed. Mark was cleaning up his desk from where he had laid out his teaching notes before the class and I waited until the room cleared out before I got up and approached him.

"What can I do for you, Lucy?" Mark asked me.

"About the assessment," I replied, playing with my fingers nervously. "I think it would be silly to miss out on what was just handed to me with the discussion I had with Taylor."

"You're probably right, but what would you like to do with it?" He enquired, raising his left eyebrow questioningly.

"The assessment... how far can we go with it?" I asked slowly.

"Well, I wouldn't recommend killing someone just so you can walk in a murders' shoes." Mark smirked a little; I gave him a small smile in return, guessing that was meant to be a joke. But it was a pretty lame joke.

"I was thinking, maybe if I could, live in a guys shoes..." I trailed off as I almost winced waiting for him to burst out laughing at me.

"I think that would be an amazing idea. Do you live on campus?" I nodded, affirming. "Alright, well I'll have a talk to the housing officer and the head of drama to see what we can get done in the way of hiding your, uh..." He looked me up and down, uneasily. "Female attributes... and we should be able to start your assessment quite early on, so you'll be finished with it faster." I nodded eagerly.

"Thanks," I beamed. "I'll see you next week." I waved as I walked from the room.

This assessment should be a piece of cake, spending a week as a guy will be so easy. I should ask Mark if I can do it for a month or something.