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Prompt

In a typical American high school cafeteria during midday lunch period, fluorescent lighting casts harsh shadows over long tables packed with two hundred students eating from plastic trays. Maya, a quiet 16-year-old with long brown hair in a simple sweater, carries her lunch tray toward the trash bins when Connor, a 17-year-old senior in a letterman jacket with blonde hair, deliberately steps into her path. His open palm strikes her cheek hard, sending her tray flying and chocolate milk exploding across the linoleum floor. The entire cafeteria falls silent, phones rising like a forest of screens. Connor stands over her as she grabs a table for support: "Watch where you're going." The side gymnasium doors burst open and Marco, 17, strides in wearing red leather boxing gloves laced tight, headgear pushed up on his forehead, compression shirt dark with sweat, mouth guard hooked at his collar. Students part as he walks deliberately across the cafeteria, his gloves completely still at his sides. He stops four feet from Connor, who looks at the gloves nervously: "You can't do anything with those on." Marco looks down at his hands, then back up: "I know. That's why I'm keeping them on." He kneels beside Maya in his full boxing gear and carefully picks up her tray with the bulky gloves, then helps her stand. The camera captures the weight of his choice - hands that could destroy kept wrapped in red leather as protection for everyone in that room. No logos, no brand names, no watermarks, no text overlays.