Detention (ASOUE)

Chapter Nineteen

A strange thing happens when you're in someone else's clothing. It's like you're you, but shifted one spot to the left. Everything about you is the same, it just feels like you've stolen a piece of someone else and tried to pass it off as a piece of you. 

That's exactly how I felt as I gazed at my reflection in the mirror of the school's changing room. Yes, I was wearing something I would easily put together myself, but nothing felt right. The leggings were a little too long but that was easily fixed by turning them up at the ends, and the hoodie fit me awkwardly; the hem coming down a little too low and the sleeves dropping past my knuckles. It was comfortable, but at the same time it was the most uncomfortable outfit I'd ever worn in my life, simply because it wasn't mine and therefore I couldn't relax. Klaus and Violet had been kind enough to lend their clothes to me and if anything happened to them I would never forgive myself. 

I had tipped as much of the gloop out of my shoes as I could and rinsed my socks in the sink. The only thing left to do was put them on, despite how much I really didn't want to. As usual, the hand dryers were barely working so they didn't offer any support in drying them out. The only option was to put them on as they were. After all, I couldn't walk down the halls with bare feet. 

I abandoned the socks and squelched into my shoes, my nose wrinkling in disgust. Then, while I was still in the changing rooms and couldn't get caught by a teacher, I pulled out my phone and sent a message to Lily, catching her up on everything. I didn't expect her to reply until this period had ended but I still wanted to let her know what was going on before I would see her at lunch. 

To my surprise, however, my phone pinged a response back to me almost immediately, along with the information that Lily wasn't at school today because she was sick. I huffed to myself as soon as I read her text. Could this day get any worse?

As usual, I had spoken too soon, because the second I stepped foot out of the changing rooms there was an announcement over the intercom requesting that Klaus and I went to the principal's office.

"What the hell?" I muttered to myself. But my confusion didn't last too long. Surely, it was just to talk about the events that had happened this morning. Maybe, just maybe, Mr Olaf had done something good for once and asked to look through the CCTV to catch Carmelita in the act. And maybe, just maybe, I was about to witness Carmelita getting caught red handed for the first time in her life. All of a sudden, I was excited.

I quickly made my way to the principal's office, somewhere I wasn't entirely familiar with, and knocked on the door. Almost immediately, I heard a voice from inside invite me in. However, something I took note of as I pushed the door open was the lack of sympathy on the principal's face. He did realise I had just been front and centre of the splash zone of my own locker, right? The least he could offer was a reassuring smile.

Instead, he looked like he had just swallowed a wasp and not particularly liked it. 

Before I could consider what was going on anymore though, Klaus burst through the door, not bothering to knock. We both sat down, barely passing a glance between each other, before the man in front of us began to speak.

"I'm very disappointed in both of you," he began, his voice raspy and strained.

Excuse me?? I thought to myself, he didn't agree with Mr Olaf in thinking this whole thing was my fault, right?

The principal continued after clearing his throat. "After receiving reports of a supposed mishap, we decided to take a look at the school's CCTV footage and were shocked and thoroughly upset to discover that both of you decided to use the window of science room four as an exit route yesterday afternoon."

As soon as the words left his mouth, mine was wide open. I truly couldn't believe what was happening. Were we really getting in trouble for something so stupid while Carmelita was sitting pretty and getting away with something ten times worse? All of a sudden I wanted to throw another water bottle at her head.

For the rest of the mini meeting I zoned out. All that was happening was we were getting lectured about school property and how it wasn't appropriate to use windows as doors and blah blah blah. It was boring and I was annoyed and the last thing I wanted to listen to was an old man calling us hooligans at this time in the morning. 

Eventually he let us out, but not before giving us a stern look and a detention slip each. At this point neither of the above scared me anymore. 

Still having lessons to get to, Klaus and I went our separate ways without a word, not meeting up again until after school, where we both found ourselves in detention being lectured once again. That seemed to be the theme for today.

Mr Olaf ranted, "It's unbelievable, really, that I'm expected to stay behind every single day, just because you," he directed his gaze to Klaus, "can't get to school on time and you," he looked at me, "have suddenly decided you want to be irresponsible." 

Klaus and I stared up at him blankly. His little speech seemed to be for his own benefit rather than ours.

Mr Olaf sighed, bringing his hand to his face, before continuing. "You know what? I don't care. I need to be somewhere else today, I can't keep prioritising sitting in a silent room with you two. Just don't do anything stupid and remember to lock the door when you leave, okay?"

At that, he chucked a single key onto his desk, straightened his tie, and was out the door before we could even think about commenting.

"Alright then," said Klaus, sitting back in his seat.

"I think you've got him on the edge of a crisis," I replied.

"Me?"

"I mean if I had to sit in a room with you everyday for a year I'd probably be close to a crisis too."

"Bit rude," he retorted, but he couldn't stop the amused expression that crept onto his face. Half a beat passed before he continued. "But this is perfect. Perfect timing, I mean, with him being gone. Because now we can make a plan."

I narrowed my eyes. "What kind of plan?"

"A plan to get revenge on Carmelita. You know how they say revenge is sweet..."

"You want to prank her with dessert?"

Klaus shrugged. "Maybe not dessert... but what about syrup?"

Now that was a plan I could get behind.

A/N: It's the first chapter of the new year and the new decade! I hope you're all having a good start to the year. I genuinely think that 2020 is going to bring a lot of positive vibes, although I suppose everyone thinks like that when a new year rolls in...

Anyway, I won't bore you guys too much with what I have to say. I hope you're having a great day/night wherever you are and thank you for reading this chapter!