Please note that these are fictional characters, but they are both consenting adults. Any resemblance to real people is coincidental.
*
It was Rose's senior year of high school, the summer after she turned 18, and she was challenging herself with advanced classes while also starring in the school's production of The Princess and The Pea. The Friday before hell week, she walked into Mr. Whitlock's room after rehearsal because he said he wanted to talk to her about an assignment she'd turned in. The school was empty, even the most dedicated students having finally called it quits by the time her rehearsal finished at 9:30 pm.
"Ah, Ms. Stone. Please, come sit." Mr. Whitlock looked up from his laptop and gestured to the seat next to him, so Rose crossed the room and sat. "Now, it seems that you're struggling to grasp the insidious nature of what you might consider peer pressure, and how it can cause people to do something they might not otherwise do."
"Uh, yes. I mean, I don't care how many times the cheerleaders tell me parting my hair on the side isn't 'in' anymore, I look goofy with a middle part." Rose offered a personal example which elicited a chuckle from Mr. Whitlock, and Rose grinned. She'd always liked Mr. Whitlock; he was young, had a sharp sense of humor, and, Rose thought to herself, he was quite handsome when he smiled.
"In cases like that, it's easy enough to resist a little pressure. But when you're in a situation where mob mentality kicks in, or where there are certain expectations for your behavior, it can be harder to pull free of the crowd, or those expectations." Rose lifted a brow skeptically, so Mr. Whitlock continued. "Alright, I can see that you're unconvinced." He leaned back in his chair with his hands locked behind his head, trying to find a good example to help the young woman in front of him understand.
"Have you ever been to a party?" he finally asked, aware of Rose scrutinizing him while trying to look like she wasn't. He pushed his chair out a bit and turned it to face her.
"I may have been to one or two," Rose allowed, a grin tugging at her lips.
"Excellent. Did they ever involve party games, like Spin the Bottle or Truth or Dare?" inquired Mr. Whitlock. Rose blushed, remembering fleeting kisses shared in front of classmates, or, sometimes, intimate touches stolen in the privacy of a nearby closet.
"I've played a few games, yes." Rose's cheeks turned a deeper shade of pink, and she found herself avoiding eye contact with him. "But, Mr. Whitlock, I don't see how that's similar to the situation in the reading we just did."
"Let's drop the formalities, Rose. Please, call me Callum. Now, when you played Truth or Dare, for instance, what happened if someone chose 'dare,' but then wouldn't follow through once they heard the dare?" Rose pulled her chair away from the table and turned to face her teacher head-on.
"They were usually allowed to change and pick 'truth' instead, Mr....Callum." Rose corrected herself.
"Your friends are nicer than mine were, then. Isn't there any teasing, laughing, cajoling?" Callum asked, grinning broadly.
"I mean, sure." Rose conceded.
"Aha! And does anyone cave to the pressure and fulfill a dare that they initially refused?" Callum continued. Rose hesitated, remembering a friend who had backed out of a dare to kiss her crush, only to be teased into it.
"Maybe. But it seemed like the people who did kind of wanted to go along with the dare but felt like they had to pretend to protest before they gave in." Rose responded.
"That's a kind of pressure in and of itself, isn't it?" Callum winked, then continued, "You're still not swayed by my argument, are you? Perhaps we should try a more hands-on scenario?" He lifted an eyebrow, a glint in his eye that Rose noticed but didn't fully register. She nodded her assent, curious to know what kind of demonstration of mob mentality he'd be able to come up with in an empty school.