Detention buddies (Slowly being edited)

-6-

At school, the bus driver told Principal about the fight on the bus, and he gave me another two weeks of detention since it was two fights in a row. That's where I am now. Other kids come and go, but the first five ones who were in here are always here. I guess we're the trouble makers. Or maybe they did some big thing together and have detention for forever. Who knows? It's the beginning of the second week now.

"Ok kids, detention is going to be a little different today. You will each be assigned a room to clean. And you have to clean it until it's spotless," Mr. Franklin announces. "Caden, you have room 316. Evan, room 317." So that's his name. "Mackenzie, room 314. James, room 315. Cole, room 313. And Ryan, room 312. Get to work. There's cleaning supplies in the janitor's closet across the hall."

I sigh and plug my earbuds in. I slide my phone into my back pocket and exit the room with everyone else. We all head to the janitor's closet. I grab some white board cleaner, a towel, gloves, and some wipes, then go to Mrs. Smith's room, room 312.  I put on the gloves and start wiping off desks. I find myself singing quietly while I work. Then, I start to turn my cleaning into dancing. I dance and sing while I spray the whiteboard and wipe it off.

"Holy crap you're good." Someone says. It scares me so much that I squeak and  drop the spray bottle. The person starts laughing. I turn and see Cole in the doorway, laughing so hard he has his back bent over. I glare at him. He just laughs harder. Eventually, he gets over it and says, "I'm sorry. I couldn't help it, the expression on your face was priceless. But when I said you're a really good singer, I meant it. Maybe not so much a good dancer though..."

I glare at him, and squirt a spray of cleaner at him. It doesn't actually reach him, so he goes on. "I can sing too, you know." Cole says.

"Everyone can sing. Unless they can't use their voice." I say, folding my arms.

"I meant I can sing well."

"Haha. Let's hear it." I say and he does sing, putting on a performance too, which I just laughed at. He's surprisingly good -at singing, not dancing. He has a beautiful singing voice that I was not expecting. "Meh, it's ok."

Cole smirks. "Oh come on. I know you think I'm a good singer. Everyone does."

"Well, like I've said before, I'm not everyone." I say, picking up the spray bottle and getting back to work. "Don't you have a room to clean anyway?"

"Well, some people aren't as slow as others." He says and I roll my eyes. "You should play your music out loud."

"No."

"If I help you, will you?"

"No."

"Oh come on."

"No."

"I'll keep bugging you until you do."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"Oh fine!" I say, throwing my hands up. I unplug my earbuds and turn up the volume. I start cleaning again and, after a minute, say, "Hey, you know how you said you'd help me if I played the music out loud?" He nods. "Well, are you just gonna stand around or are you going to help me?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm getting to it." Cole says. "Oh, I already put my towel up, let me go get another one. Hang on a sec." He leaves the room. I start cleaning again, but have an idea. He scared me bad earlier, so why not get revenge? I look around the room and quickly think up a plan. Then I see a red marker on the whiteboard marker holder thingie and grab it. I ink some on my face and go behind the teacher's desk and lay down to make it seem like I fell and hit my head on the desk. After a little while, I hear footsteps.

"Ryan?" I hear Cole say. I wait. "Ryan?" He calls again, voice growing more concerned.

I say with a fake weak voice, "Cole." I hear Cole say my name again and walk over to the desk. He gasps. "Ryan!" He comes over and kneels down next to me. I try to keep a straight face. How is red marker and a badly placed person that convincing?

"Oh god. How did it happen? Is it bad? Is the nurse still here? Should I take you to her? Um. What do I do? Argh!" Cole looks around frantically. "Ugh Ryan, you're really not helping with this." He says, though I can tell he is really concerned. It's sweet, how he cares like that.

Then I can't help it anymore and burst out laughing, rolling around on the floor. "Wha-" Cole says, then realizes I'm fine and glares at me. I don't really notice though because I'm too busy laughing. I roll around on the floor, right into Cole. "Oh my God, the look on your face was absolutely hilarious!" I say and burst out laughing again.

"Ok haha, you got me. Yay." Cole says and glares at me. I'm still half on top of him from rolling around from laughing. "What was that for?"

"Revenge!" I say, still laughing. He looks confused, so I explain. "When you scared me earlier?" I say, but he still has a quizzical look. "Ugh. When I was cleaning the board and you came in."

"Oh, right." He knots his lips to one side. "But you nearly gave me a heart attack, and when I scared you, that was nothing."

I scoff. "You're not the one who got scared." I tilt my head to the side. "Wait..."

Cole raises an eyebrow. "What?"

"Did you say I almost gave you a heart attack? Aww, do you care about me like that?" I say, teasing him.

His cheeks turn a little red, and I do an internal happy dance, proud that I made him blush. "What? No, I- um... I just said that 'cause... 'Cause we're friends! Yeah, only 'cause we're friends." He scratches the back of his neck. "Well, I assume we're friends."

"I don't believe one bit of that." I say and get up, reaching my hand up to wipe the marker off of my face. "And anyways, we're not friends. I don't have friends."

Cole stands up. "Whatever. Let's just get back to cleaning." We walk to the board and start cleaning. My music is still playing. Cole starts singing to the music with his pretty singing voice and I can't help but eventually join in. "Golden Days" by Panic! At The Disco turns on.

"Ooo! I love this song!" Cole says. I roll my eyes. "Golden daaaaaays! Golden daaaays!" He sings. Soon, we're both singing "GOLDEN DAAAAAAAYS!!!!" Really loud. When it's over, we both start laughing really hard. We get done cleaning and leave the room. When we get out, we see everyone else from detention. I back up, awkward. "Um..."

Mackenzie speaks up. "I'm sorry." She lets out a laugh. "Me and James heard you singing and told the others. You guys sound amazing together!" She grins wildly.

The guy that I found out is Evan points at Caden and says, "I didn't want to, but he dragged me here." He pulls up his hood farther over his face.

I look at Cole, but he's just grinning. "Umm, thanks I guess?" I say to them.

Then the announcements say, "All detention students, please report to the bus." We do and go home. I can't help thinking that maybe we did sound good together.

•••••

Love you little piggies! K BYEEEEEE (Backs into the shady corner I always back away into with a creepy smile)