Hard Marks

Michael Campbell is 15 years old, and he is a diagnosed sociopath. He has researched enough about antisocial personality disorder to know that “high-functioning” is somewhat of an outdated term. For lack of a better one, he simply calls himself “clever”.

Michael firmly believes that empathy and morality are vestigial emotions; implanted in us by the careless whims of evolution, woefully unsuited to our modern world, and which he is genetically fortunate enough to not be constrained by. He is highly analytical, curious, and charismatic. He is also impatient, easily annoyed, and prone to wrathful outbursts, but he has worked hard to suppress these emotions when doing so is advantageous. He likes to understand social systems, with a keen interest in group psychology and economics. Had he been born into a particularly privileged family, he would likely be on track now for a prestigious law school or an internship in the finance industry. Unfortunately for everyone, his mother died from complications in childbirth, and his father drank himself halfway into the grave afterwards. Michael has more or less raised himself, and he learned from a very young age how to manipulate people to get what he wants. 

Michael is the consummate capitalist. In grade school, he made his lunch money by flipping treading cards at recess and copying answer keys to math tests, selling them to his classmates. With middle school life, came the introduction of social vice, which Michael made great opportunity from. He would swipe beer cans and cigarettes from his father, and sell them to his peers at a steep markup. He ran a secret poker game in study hall, where he would fleece members of the chess club. And it wasn’t long before he was thinking bigger. He observed, made connections, and planned meticulously. When freshman year of high school rolls around, Michael will be ready.

Hard Marks is a gritty crime drama novella set in a modern American high school. It follows a shamelessly amoral young man and the Breakfast Club-like group of misfits he gathers into his budding criminal organization. Theirs is a story often repeated in hushed rumors and gossip at the lunch table, but rarely put to print, of the many social ills that plague adult life seeping into the places we try our best to keep them out of; our children’s classrooms. Fictionalized, though grimly grounded, Hard Marks gives no comforting reassurances and leaves the reader with no easy answers. Manuscript complete at 43,000 words.