We were riding Metro to the Caps game last night (a 7-4 win over the Panthers -- WOO!) when two teenage guys got on the train. They were in fine fettle, whooping it up and laughing with each other, full thug wannabees with wispy facial hair and supreme confidence.
They spread out in the train, sitting apart from each other in separate rows, talking loudly and profanely, making faces at each other in the windows, and generally acting like they owned the world.
And then four teenage girls got on the train. Four loud, laughing, sassy girls cutting up even more than the boys. They stood by the train doors, teasing and trash talking, out on the town on Saturday night.
Those boys physically shrank a foot. No more talking, no more boasting, no more spreading out and owning the car. They clammed up tight, sat up straight and stared out of the window, doing their best to be invisible.
The girls totally noticed them and simultaneously totally ignored them, until one plopped right down next to the kid in front of me. He cringed, literally cringed.
The girls, of course, saw him cringe and pounced. He knew he couldn't win, so he just smiled and tried to disappear as the girls teased him. I really had a hard time keeping a straight face.
Then four older ladies got on the train. The girls got real polite just then, deferring to the older ladies, cleaning up their language and acting right. When two other boys got up and offered their seats to the ladies, the Lead Girl scolded Baby Thug:
"Get up and give them your seat! Don't you have any manners?"
It's hard out there for a thug. Especially when faced with Miss Thang and her posse.
