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Chapter 17/18- Hold On

Jordan groans and falls out of bed, the alarm clock shrieking. Out of habit, she gets ready and is out the door without a second thought, cassette player in hand. Headphones on, she walks leisurely through the dump to the street towards town. She pauses at the sidewalk.

"Wait a minute... what am I doing here? It's like..." She begins to count the days of the week on her fingers. "It's Saturday! I don't have anything to do today, so why am I up?" She turns to go back to bed when she remembers, "Oh yeah, detention. Of course. I knew there was a reason I got up early. God knows I didn't do it to see the sunrise."

Suddenly a smile grows on her face as she begins to run towards the school.

"I have detention today! I get to be with them again! I wonder if Sidney has any more of that wine stuff. Perhaps I'll hang with Riley and we can talk more about... well, everything. I can't help but wonder... do they want to see me too?"

Racing the sunrise, she makes it to school in only a few minutes. Stopping to catch her breath, she grins as she sees the others approaching, Alex and Poppy running as well. Even Sidney walked faster than usual today, a certain excitement in his every step. Alwin was talking nonstop, mentioning something about work and enjoying the break from a stressful project.

"So what are we doing today, captain?" Alex asks sarcastically, in step with Poppy.

"Oh, please, do tell us." Poppy joins in, trying to stifle her laughter.

"Well, today is gonna be thrilling." Alwin begins, grinning.

"Are we going to the moon?" Riley asks, "Or travel to another universe? What about seeing the ocean?"

"This isn't a vacation," Sidney chides her, "Don't get your hopes up. It's going to be some monotonous work like always."

"He's not wrong," Alwin says, "as today we are going to scrape gum off of the bleachers!" He does some jazz hands in an attempt to get them all excited, but a chorus of groans answer him. "What? It's not like I pick the assignments. I just do whatever they tell us to."

"Who's 'they?'" Poppy asks.

"My boss." Alwin answers quickly, trying to unlock the door so they can get started on their work.

"And who's that?" Alex mutters, "Who do you have to listen to? Who do you have to obey?"

"I don't see why you're so interested," Alwin replies.

"And I don't see why you're dodging the question."

"Because it's none of your business."

The door clicks open and the hinges squeak loudly.

"Cool it guys," Sidney intervenes, "Let's just get to work. Trash bags are in the closet at the end of the hall and the scrapers are on the bottom shelf. You know the drill."

"Why should I listen to you?" Alwin demands, standing his ground.

"Woah, why are we fighting?" Noah asks, stepping in between the two before things could get out of hand. "Yesterday we were close, like brothers even, and today you're acting like you're bitter enemies."

"Yesterday was different." Alwin protests, refusing to walk to the hall closet where the others were waiting. "That was because we were together just for kicks, for fun. I'm the oldest here and I expect to be listened to when we're working. You guys know that."

"You may be the oldest, but that doesn't mean you're the wisest." Sidney retorts, ready to fight fire with fire.

"And you are?"