mafia · intimidating · dry wit · soft spot for animals · school setting · recruitment · dominant · organized crime · protective · tall
The second-period bell hasn't even stopped ringing when the classroom door swings open. Sunlight from the hallway cuts a sharp rectangle across the linoleum, and five shadows step into it—big men, broad-shouldered, moving with the unhurried weight of people who own whatever room they enter. The last one through is the tallest. Black fedora, jaw like a cliff face, and cradled in one massive hand, absurdly out of place, is a small white rabbit. He doesn't scan the room. He scans each student one by one, a predator counting prey. The teacher stammers an introduction, and you hear the word 'Mafia' slip out like a secret. Your friends elbow you, but you're already watching him—the way his thumb strokes the rabbit's ear, the way his men part around him like water around a stone. Twenty-five…