High school is a savage ecosystem where the loudest people usually think they run the show. We all remember that one student who treated the classroom like their personal kingdom and refused to follow basic social norms. But every once in a while the quiet kid in the back has a clapback so perfect that it restores balance to the universe. One student on Reddit just delivered a masterclass in malicious compliance that deserves a standing ovation.
Our narrator is an 18-year-old senior who has moderate hearing loss. She gets by in school by sitting near the front so she can hear the teachers but she also has hearing aids for when she needs them. Most of the time she keeps it low key and her hair covers her ears so people don’t really know about her condition. It is her business and she handles it.
Then there is Lily. Lily is the antagonist of this story and quite possibly the most annoying person in this school. Her defining personality trait is that she refuses to walk up to people to have a conversation. Instead she just yells at them from across the room until they come to her. It is rude and lazy and the teachers have apparently given up on trying to stop her.
The drama started when Lily missed a day of notes. Since nobody sitting near her wanted to deal with her she decided to target our narrator who was sitting all the way on the opposite side of the room. Lily started her usual routine of screaming across the class to get attention.
Our hero actually could hear the yelling but she made a choice. She decided she wasn’t going to reward this laziness. She kept her head down and kept working. This went on for ten full minutes. Ten minutes of a girl screaming a name across a classroom because she refused to move her legs. The entitlement is truly breathtaking.
Finally Lily hit her breaking point. She huffed and puffed and actually walked over to the narrator’s desk. She was furious that she had been forced to exert physical energy. She started berating the narrator calling the whole situation stupid. And then she said the magic words. She loudly asked “what are you deaf?”
The entire class was watching. The stage was set. Our narrator didn’t get angry. She didn’t yell back. She simply turned to Lily slowly. She reached into her bag and pulled out her hearing aid case. She took her time.
She put the hearing aids in her ears while Lily stood there watching. Once they were settled she looked Lily dead in the eye and loudly asked “what?”
I am absolutely deceased. This is not just a comeback. This is performance art. Lily turned bright red and walked back to her seat in shame. She tried to use a disability as an insult and found out the hard way that the person she was yelling at actually had that disability.
The narrator’s sister thinks she was “mean” because she could technically hear Lily the whole time. But the sister is missing the point entirely. This wasn’t about hearing. This was about manners. You don’t scream at people like they are servants and you certainly don’t use ableist slurs when you don’t get your way.
So is she the ahole? Absolutely not. Lily played a stupid game and won a stupid prize. Maybe next time she needs notes she will try walking over and asking nicely like a human being.