School's back in session and that can only mean one thing--extended periods of dealing with the same annoying people over and over. Maybe it's a classmate, and every Wednesday something stupider comes out of their mouth than the last stupidest thing they said, which was on Monday. Perhaps a professor or other figure of authority is the person you'd like to fight, but you were unfortunately not born several decades ago when actively dismantling the establishment was more "in." Worry not! Here are four surefire, incredibly mature ways to deal with those Problem People in your life.

4. Bad Mouth Them

Ah, gossip, the oldest trick in the handbook. Useful not only for relieving built-up tensions on the matter, but for revealing what others think of your object of distaste. There might be a standing consensus on how everyone feels about Problem Person, and it can be amusing to bandy about mutual mild hostilities with someone you trust.

Just look at the two women up there. The picture seems to implicate that they are gossiping about four-eyes a mere foot and a half away from her--well-within earshot, or otherwise hushed enough to stir suspicion and anxiety. Glasses-wearing-woman may very well be absolutely wrecked by the end of her stint at the Manhattan office, but at least foreground ladies have forged a bond in the fires of "annoyed by the same things" such as corrective vision windows.

3. Self-Medicate

Please don't abuse substances, kids. Sure, you can probably pour a mixed drink into your water bottle and bring it to class and get away with it if you want but I'm advocating neither alcohol nor any sort of drugs. I'm thinking more along the lines of 2005 LiveJournal or MySpace avatars: 100x100 pixel images that were all stolen off Photobucket where they had been stolen from who knows where, and they were always minimally animated or in colors like pink and black, with edgy slogans like "Music is my medicine."

Too far down the rabbit hole? Was that joke too obscure and contrived? In any case, you should find your "medicine" for the situation, if you will, and maybe pretend you're a fourteen-year-old who doesn't listen to anyone. Just aggressively doodle in your notebook and zone out, occasionally nodding or humming in blind agreement, is my point.

2. Passive Aggression

Sometimes you've just got to lie during the course of a social interaction. Sometimes you've just got to suck it up and slap a strained smile on your face and pretend you give two flying pancakes about anything being said to you or the person who's saying it--or worse yet, that you agree with them.

If you are adroit in this and thus in the art of deception, it's a heck of time to smile demurely and then drag someone to their face without them even knowing it's happening. The tactic goes hand-in-hand with sarcasm, and plays well with self-medicating, because it allows you to throw out brutal one-liners without being too invested in what's going on. Later on, you and your foreground lady friend can laugh and gossip about your sick burns.

1. Regular Aggression

Oh, sorry, I mean, use your words to fight them.