Cliché Badass And The Nerd/Fatty

One

Warning: My grammar is not perfect. It's far from perfect. You will find errors here and there.

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"Detention." Mum turned her head slowly. "Detention."

"Detention." I repeated innocently.

"Detention." Jamie, my little brother,echoed from his wheel chair.

"Deten--"

"Can you lot stop repeating that despicable word?" Mum roared in fury. She set her blazing eyes on me and pointed. "How can you get detention when it's been only a week since school started?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but she held up her hand. "No. That was meant to be rhetoric. But really, Emma," she sighed, "when will you try keep your records as detention-free as possible?"

Dad looked up from his book. "Come on, Katie. It's not Emma's fault that the lesson was boring?" He waved a hand dismissively. "Put James on the phone. I'll have a word with him--"

"Principal James," mum interrupted cuttingly, glaring at dad in disapproval, "will not be called up every time your daughter falls asleep in class."

"Well, he better get more teachers who can teach better, rather than putting them to sleep." Dad retorted, giving me a wink. I grinned at him.

Mum lifted the remote control in her hands with a murderous look.

Uh-oh.

"I'm sorry, mum." I said quickly, before she could aim it at dad's head. "I promise I won't get into any more trouble."

"I heard that one before. Half a dozen times." Nevertheless, mum sighed in resignation and turned to the television.

I exhaled. Phew. That was close.

I grinned to myself. She'd forgotten about the deal we made at the beginning of the term. The ridiculous deal where I was supposed to do her a favor if I ever got into trouble this year.

I reached over and plucked two cookies from the sweets jar, handing one to Jamie, who was gaping at the tv screen.

He yawned his mouth open, his eyes fixed on the screen. I smiled and placed the cookie in his mouth. He mumbled his thanks and began munching.

I resisted the urge to pinch his cheeks only because I knew how much he hated it.

"I'm already eight." He'd huffed indignantly when I'd pinched his cheeks last month. "I'm not exactly a toddler anymore."

I leaned forward to dust off the cookie crumbles off his chin.

"By the way, you owe me a favor." Mum said, giving me a you-thought-I've-forgotten? look.

I bit back a groan and nodded. Damnit.

***

After detention, I had a two hour grocery shopping session--which was the favor I owed mum. By the end of it, my entire body was aching. A thousand needles seemed to prick at my arms as I carried the groceries back towards the car park.

"Stupid effing detention..." I cursed under my breath, trying to balance the massive bags on my arms. The French baguette began to slip out of the bag and I let out a string of curse words.

"Need help?"

I lifted an eyebrow and peered over the bags.

No one.

I frowned. Strange. Could have sworn I heard--

"Down here, miss."

I peered downwards.