Detention (ASOUE)

Chapter Seven

A shrill scream rung out across the cafeteria and the rest of the noise disappeared. There was a moment of silence followed by a volley of gasps, whispers and snickers. 

"OH MY GOD!" Carmelita screeched, "You're SO dead, Quagmire!"

I stood in pure shock, unable to process what had happened. One minute Carmelita was standing over me with a tray she had filled with macaroni and cheese, just to throw over my head. But, when she went to tip it, I stood up and put my arm in front of me to try and block it as best I could. In the process, my arm must've caught the side of the tray and pushed it her way instead because now Carmelita was covered in mac and cheese. And she was raging.

It had been an honest mistake, but there was no point trying to explain that to her. And it wasn't like she would be able to hear me over her own complaining and profanities anyway. So I just stood helplessly as she had her tantrum.

Suddenly the doors banged open and in came a teacher who's name I wasn't sure of. I had seen her around but she had never taught me. From what I had heard though, she was extremely strict, which was why I gulped when I realised she was making a beeline for me and Carmelita.

"What's going on here?" she demanded, and Carmelita wasted no time in clearing up her fake tears to try and incriminate me.

"She tipped this all over me, Miss!" Carmelita lied, "I just came over here to ask if I could eat my lunch with these girls but then they said no and Isadora tipped her lunch on me."

She sniffled a couple of times and then burst out in fake tears, all the while trying to flick mac and cheese onto me. I frowned and was about to defend myself when the teacher huffed and told me to go with her.

I shot a look of disbelief to Lily, who looked equally as shocked, and then turned to follow the teacher out of the room. I glanced over at Quigley, because I knew he'd be laughing evilly at the situation (that was just his character) but my eyes got caught on someone else. Klaus Baudelaire, the boy who usually just kept to himself, was smiling down at the table. Or, at least, that's what it looked like he was doing. I'd never seen him smile but I assumed this was as close as he would get to looking amused. I looked away and focused on the task at hand: trying to get out of whatever punishment was coming my way.

*

Later that day, I was back in detention. But this time, I wasn't sitting in the corner being left to my own devices. Instead, Mr Olaf had me standing by his desk while he interrogated me about the Carmelita situation. Well, I guess it was more like he was ranting to me and going off on tangents about his life. I just zoned out and nodded every so often so it looked like I was taking everything in. Klaus was already there and sat at his normal desk, but this time he had a book. It was a bit of a strange sight. Him sat completely engrossed in a book, with his glasses on, almost looked like a costume. Or maybe this was the real Klaus and his tough persona was a costume? I crinkled my nose, realising I sounded like Lily. It was then I noticed that Mr Olaf had gone silent and was waiting for a response.

"Um... what?" 

He huffed. "I said, don't get into anymore trouble otherwise each case will be settled with an additional week of detention. Is that clear?"

I nodded and agreed and then went to my usual seat. I couldn't believe that Carmelita had got me an extra week of detentions. She was so annoying and the teachers always took her side in everything. I was starting to wonder if her family was paying the school. It would definitely make sense. 

Since Lily and I had written a lot of couplets earlier, I just scribbled into my notebook until I got bored of that and then stared out of the window instead. When I'd had enough of that as well, I turned my attention to the inside of the classroom but nothing interesting was going on there either. Mr Olaf was just frowning at his computer and Klaus was just reading. I figured that was a good way to make the time go fast so I decided that I should get a book in time for detention tomorrow. By the end of next week I might have read enough books to meet my Goodreads quota. I nodded to myself. I might as well make something productive come out of this situation.