Saturday, March 24 1984 7:00 am
Fuck! Here she was on a Saturday. Spending it in detention. Sheila sat in her grandfather's Buick in front of Shermer High School. Joseph stared at his granddaughter sternly.
"I might be hard of hearing, but I was told you had to leave home because of severe allergies..." he began.
Sheila pouted, staring out the car window. Severe allergies my ass, Sheila thought bitterly as she heard her grandfather's words. Chris, her stepdad, probably thought of that lame excuse just to cover up the whole reality of the situation.
"But I did not survive the Great Depression, WWII, the Polio Epidemic and disco without developing a good bullshit detector. So what's really going on?" he said.
Sheila just kept staring silently out the window, unable to look at her grandfather. She knew what she had done at her previous school. It was the reason she was here in the first place. After getting herself in huge trouble, she was so scared that she begged her grandfather to help her. Joseph always loved his granddaughter, but he didn't want her to make any more mistakes. He worked out a deal with her and her parents.
"I made some mistakes at my last school," she said quietly.
"Such as?"
Sheila shrugged. She didn't want to talk about anything. While Joseph didn't believe the excuse her mother and stepfather told him, he didn't know the real truth about her life with her mother and stepfather.
Joseph pinched her arm, making the redhead cry out in pain.
"If it's something you can't tell me, then you deserved that," he replied sternly.
With a sigh, Joseph shook his head in disappointment. His granddaughter was a good kid. Smart. But ever since the divorce and her mother's remarriage, it all went downhill. She was unhappy.
"I promised your parents..." Joseph continued.
"Chris isn't my dad," Sheila interjected bitterly.
"Regardless of how you feel about your stepfather, Sheila," Joseph said. "We have a deal. Remember that we talked about it? If you want to stay here, you have to agree to my terms. Already on your first day of school and you get yourself detention."
Sheila sighed, nodding defeated. She loved her grandpa. She hated to disappoint him. She felt numb as she listened to his lecture.
"I am going to make sure you would get your diploma," Joseph continued. "So even though I love you...if you leave me with no choice, I will make life difficult for you. Understand?"
"Yes, Gramps," she answered.
"Keep your head down and your nose clean," Joseph warned. " Because if you screw up, the next stop is Calvin Military Academy. You remember that part?"
Sheila frowned a bit. She figured her stepfather had convinced her grandfather that she was a bad enough troublemaker worthy of becoming an Army drone. It was one place she did not want to go. She did a sarcastic version of a military salute. The old man went to pinch her again, but she evaded him.
"This is not a joke, Sheila," he said with seriousness. "You don't want to go to military school. Believe me. My advice, be mindful of who you make friends with because the people you surround yourself with, they define you."
"Thanks, Gramps," she said half-appreciative.
"Have a nice detention," he said smiling. "Remember, you're a good kid, Sheila. Be good."
"I will," Sheila said, half-smiling at her grandpa.
She got out of the car and headed inside to detention, shifting her backpack on her shoulders. As her grandfather was about to pull away, she heard the brakes screech to a halt. She turned to see a surly-looking burnout who had walked in front of the car with his hands in the pockets of his ragged trench coat. His dark hair was neck length, his skin was olive, he wore sunglasses, faded tattered black pants and out of shape boots. He had a red bandana tied around his left ankle.
"Watch where you're going, jerk off!" he yelled, banging on the hood of Joseph's Buick. "You could've fuckin' killed me!"
"Fuck you, asshole! You came out of nowhere!" Sheila shouted back.
The burnout lowered his sunglasses and marched aggressively towards her. She was scared at first, but punks like this were nothing but cowards. She had faced worse adversaries back in Detroit. His dark eyes had some circles underneath like he didn't sleep much.
"'Scuse me? You want to repeat that, firecracker?" he said with a dark-eyed glare.
"You stepped in front of the car, dumb ass!" Sheila shot back.
"Well, I've got a witness..." he retorted.
He pointed a gloved hand to a disheveled-looking girl who was looking on silently. Her dark hair covered half of her pale face. She wore a huge black overcoat and had a scarf wrapped around her neck.
"Didn't you see them almost hit me?" the burnout said.
The girl's dark eyes widened...then with a frightened squeak, she turned silently and ran towards the school, hugging her bag to her chest.
"Some witness..." Sheila scoffed.
"Fuck you, you ginger Amazon!" he shot back.
Before Sheila could respond to this obviously lame insult, Joseph honked the horn loudly. There was no way that he would allow anyone to bully his granddaughter.
"Get outta here, you snot-nose commie punk!" he shouted.
"Get some glasses, you ol geezer!" the burnout shouted back, flipping Joseph the bird aggressively.
The burnout shot Sheila a look, then turned on his heel to strut inside the school. Sheila decided to wait until the burnout went away before going inside. She counted to ten and then went towards the entrance.
As soon as she was inside the dark school, Sheila looked at her detention slip, reading it over:
She snickered as she read the reason. This was the dumbest reason to get detention. All for telling off Mr. Vernon for picking on her classmates with a joke. It was bullshit!
Detention was being held in the library. She looked around the empty, dark hallways that were littered with trash. Given she had only been at Shermer High for one day, she had no idea where she was supposed to go. Shit! She was going to be late for detention. God forbid Vernon found out! She didn't think she could deal with that prick any longer, let alone spend a whole Saturday with him.
She wandered the halls for a few minutes, her heart pounding. She saw a janitor hunched over, sweeping up some debris into a garbage can. She approached the man cautiously.
"Um...excuse me," she said.
The janitor looked up with dark eyes. He was tall and thin. His dark hair was balding. He wore a stained blue janitor's shirt with his sleeves rolled up. He had a work glove on his right hand. A bunch of pens were stuffed in one breast pocket. A large ring of keys were attached to the belt loop of his jeans.
He sized up the redhead with freckles dotting her face in an Army jacket. Then smirked and shook his head, knowing that look on new students.
"You're lost," the janitor stated matter-of-fact, resting against his broom.
"Um...yes...Carl," she answered, seeing his name tag. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm new here and I'm supposed to have detention in the library with Mr. Vernon."
"You better hurry, sweetheart," Carl said, smiling. "Vernon doesn't like it when anyone is late for detention."
"No shit," she answered wry. Then cleared her throat, "So...could you tell me where I can find the library, please?"
"Sure thing," he said. "Go down this hall, take a right. The library's on the left. Vernon's office is right across. Can't be too hard to miss."
"Thanks, Carl," she said appreciatively.
"Good luck," he said.
Shifting her backpack on her shoulder, she headed towards the library, quietly mouthing the directions Carl gave her. She ran as fast as she could, hoping and praying she would get there on time. Once she arrived at the library, she ran in...
...then skidded to a halt when she locked eyes with Vernon, who had turned around to see her standing there like a deer in headlights. The last one to arrive.
A soft audible "shit!" escaped from her lips.