Detention (ASOUE)

Chapter Three

"He didn't show you his fangs? Rubbish!"

"Of course not, Lily," I reiterated for the fourth or fifth time. I'd lost count at this point. "Why would that even be a thing to happen?"

She ignored me and sipped her juice before saying, "Maybe he's just waiting for the right moment."

"LILY!"

"Okay, okay! I'm joking. But imagine if you guys actually hit it off and become friends? You'd be, what, his first one?"

I rolled my eyes at her and glanced across to where Klaus was sat, alone, as usual. Or, I guess he wasn't alone. Not technically. The tables in our cafeteria were big, metal rectangles that often housed more than one friend group because of their size. For example, Lily and I always shared one with Duncan and his friends, them at one end and us at the other, although they always managed to take over the entire table if we didn't snag two seats at the end before they got there. Duncan's passion was journalism so him and his friends made up ninety percent of the school newspaper. Most of the time they planned and drafted their articles at lunch, which was how the five of them managed to completely dominate almost the entire table, spreading bits of paper and pens everywhere.

Klaus shared his table with my other brother. Quigley was part of the gaming club, gaming as in tabletop gaming, not video games. Most lunchtimes him and his friends were in the middle of Dungeons and Dragons or other games of that nature, and they occasionally got through a whole quest if Carmelita Spats was feeling nice. When she wasn't feeling nice, their games would usually come to a close when she walked past and flipped the board, sending miniature pieces flying across the room. Today, Carmelita seemed to be restrained at her table, probably by some recent gossip or something along those lines, so Quigley and his friends were safe. At least for now.

I turned back to Lily, who I found scribbling in the back of her book.

"Lily, for gods sake..."

She flipped it around and sat back triumphantly as I took in her design. It was undoubtedly a vampire and, considering our previous conversations, there was a pretty big chance it was meant to be Klaus.

I sighed at her. "Keep drawing him and people will start to think you have a thing for him."

"Not me," she smirked, closing the book enough to show me the cover. My name was there in black and white. She had drawn it in my exercise book, not hers.

I snatched it back from her. "You're a bastard, you know that?"

She cackled in return and then went back to her lunch as if nothing had happened. I ripped out the page, scrunched it up and threw it at her. It rebounded off her forehead and rolled towards Duncan's friends. One of them picked it up and opened it before commenting, "Hot," and giving us a thumbs up.

Lily caught me rolling my eyes so she patted my hand and said, "Just be glad I didn't put his name on it."

"Don't get any ideas for next time."

"Don't worry, I have plenty of my own already."

"You're a pain."

"Thank you."

There was a brief pause where I thought Lily had given up on her annoying antics and anecdotes. I, of course, was wrong.

"Wouldn't they be perfect vampires though?"

I glanced up at her. My deadpanned expression should've been enough to tell her I wasn't interested but, as usual, it just spurred her on.

"I mean," Lily continued, "They all wear dark colours-"

I huffed.

"-and they live in this big gothic house that's probably haunted by all their ancestors, which won't be many because vampires live for like hundreds of years and-"

I zoned out.

*

The end of the day came quicker than I expected and I dashed down the hallway to my English class. When I arrived, huffing and panting in the doorway, I realised I wasn't the first one there. Klaus was sat in the front row, a piece of paper in front of him. He glanced up as I walked in but that was the end when it came to acknowledgements. Mr Olaf did his usual pen-point and then I sat in the same seat as yesterday, right next to the window.

It was a completely different scene from yesterday. It had been all blue skies and sunshine but today it was grey and rain was thundering onto the glass. It was still relaxing, though, just sitting and doing homework and in a way I preferred it like this. It was nice to listen to the rhythm of the rain and it filled the silence perfectly, in a way that meant you didn't notice the absence of noise inside the classroom.

I did some maths problems and then spent the rest of the hour just thinking. I leaned against the window sill and closed my eyes, just listening to the rain. It was so relaxing that I could've fallen asleep had it not been for someone clearing their throat. My eyes shot open to see Mr Olaf standing by the classroom door, hand resting on the light switch. It was then that I realised that my detention was over. Klaus had already left and I hadn't even noticed. I apologised and grabbed my bag, before quickly leaving the room so Mr Olaf could lock it. I wondered if he thought I was actually asleep and I considered waiting to tell him I wasn't, but then I realised it was unnecessary. Why would he care if I was sleeping or not? I shook my head to myself and just focused on getting out of the building as quickly as possible.

However, when I pushed my way out of the door, I saw something that made me freeze. It was a red car, with a familiar face behind the wheel. What were they doing here?