Eat My Shorts

Arrival and introductions

  I sat on a stone divider across the parking lot and watched my fellow detentionees arrive, not that I would know any of them, it was only my first week at Shermer. I took a drag on my cigarette and watched a car drive up. It was pretty nice looking, fairly new, I assumed. A minute or two later a red head stepped out. Even from this distance I could tell she was pouting. I checked out her clothes. A popular, without a doubt. She'll be a pain in the ass.  

The next kid looks like a complete dweeb. Great, another whiner. It was getting pretty close to the time we had to be there and I didn't plan on being late and give Vernon an opportunity to nail me with more detentions. I stood up and crushed the cigarette butt under my skate shoe. I put down my board and rolled up to the school and entered behind a girl dressed in dark clothing and a parka.

  I entered the library and surveyed the scene. Red sat next to a kid who could only be a jock in the front right row. Directly behind the populars was a slightly sketchy looking guy in a trench coat, his feet were kicked up on the table. Definitely classified as hot in my books.  He didn't look too annoying. The nerd sat on the opposite side of the aisle from him and the girl I had seen walking in had taken her seat at the back desk, farthest from everyone else. 

I continued on my way to my seat and took a note book off the front desk and shoved it in my moss green shoulder bag. I sat down in the seat next to trench coat dude and slung my bag onto the floor beside my seat. He raised his eyebrows and seemed surprised. He was about to say something when Dick walked in.

  "Well. Well. Here we are! I want to congratulate you for being on time." 

  Red raised her hand. "Excuse me, sir? I think there's been a mistake. I know it's detention, but...um...I don't think I belong in here."

  I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Tough luck Princess." She turned and glared at me.

  Vernon went right on talking. " It is now seven-oh-six. You have exactly eight hours and fifty four minutes to think about why you're here. To ponder the error of your ways."

  The kid next to me leaned back and spat into the air, catching it in his mouth again. Red looks totally disgusted and holds back a gag. I raise my eyebrow and smirk, that really can't be all that easy. Trench coat returned the smirk.

  Dick continues unhindered. "You may not talk. You will not move from these seats." The nerd who was about to move sat back down. Vernon made his way over to our desk. "And you, will not sleep." He knocked Trench coat's feet of the desk and glared at both of us. "Alright people, we're gonna try something a little different today. We are going to write an essay, of no less than a thousand words, describing to me who you think you are."

  Trench coat looked up. "Is this a test?"

  Vernon ignored him and began passing out paper and pencils. Once again he stopped when he reached our desk. I leaned back in my chair and glared at him. "Gonna lay some more rules on us, Dick?"

  He turned his attention towards me. "For that, Miss Alvarez, I will see you next Saturday." He passed us paper and pencils. "And when I say essay, I mean essay. I do not mean a single word repeated a thousand times. Is that clear Mr. Bender and Miss Alvarez?"

  "Crystal." 

  "Sure thing, Chief." My words were laced with malice.

  "You just earned another Saturday. You will learn I am not a man to be messed with."

  I slumped lower in my seat. "Shit." Well, he officially hates my guts.

"Good." Said Vernon. "Now maybe you'll learn something about yourself. Maybe you'll even decide whether or not you care to return."

  The nerd raised his hand and stood up. "You know, I can answer that right now sir. That'd be no for me 'cause-"

  "Sit down Johnson."

  He looked worried and sat down. "Thank you sir."

  "My office is right around that hall." He pointed. "Any monkey business in ill advised. Any questions?"

  Bender spoke up. "Yeah, I got a question." Vernon narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?" I smirked.

  "I'll give you the answer to that question, Mr. Bender, next Saturday. Don't mess with the bull young man, you'll get the horns." He mimed bull horns with his hand and left.

  "That man, is a brownie hound."

  "Damn right."I agreed, putting my feet on the desk and getting comfortable.