I was late. I knew it the moment I woke up. I looked around, remembering that I was at Zay's house, and was currently laying on his lap. "Oh my God Zay, get up!" I said, shaking him.
"Morning." He mumbled sleepily.
"No! No morning. We're late for school!" I stood up. I was definitely glad that I wore clothes I could wear to school, and I decided that I would be able to pull my hair into a messy bun. Zay shot up, rubbed his eyes, then grabbed his books, grabbed my hand, and walked out the door.
I could only hope that Maya and Riley had my books. We ran down the street, thankful that Zay's house was close to school. As we walked into class, Cory exclaimed, "Yeah, you're all the same. Detention, all of you!"
"We didn't even give you an excuse yet." Zay said, going sit down. Cory went to say something, but Maya turned to me as I sat down.
"Alright, where were you? You didn't come home last night."
"I fell asleep, and so I just slept on the couch." That was true. Maya raised her eyebrow. "And where'd you sleep, Cowboy?" She asked, turning to Zay.
"On the couch..." He mumbled.
Maya turned to me with a pout. "I'm very, very disappointed you." She said, wagging her finger mockingly.
"If it helps Cory, we did make it to class..." I defended. Right as I said that though, the bell rang. Oh great. This'll be fun.
He shook his head. "Sorry, Mr. Babineaux, Miss Huxton, detention." Riley raised her hand. "What do you want?"
"I'm going to be home late today, daddy."
"I know, honey."
~<3~
"You did what!?" Lucas exclaimed, crossing his arms. It was lunch, and the gang was pestering Zay and I about last night.
"I fell asleep on his lap..." I mumbled.
"And you didn't move her!?" He asked Zay, giving him a deathly stare. It wasn't unknown to our group that Lucas saw me as his little sister, and it was obvious that his brotherly instincts were coming out just about now.
Zay raised his arms up. "Don't pin this all on me, man. She's the one who laid on my lap in the first place." Lucas simply glared at him.
"Why didn't you wake her up?" Lucas asked, as the rest of us groaned. It was clear he wasn't letting this go that easily.
"Because he knew that if he did I would've hit him." I said truthfully. "Then I would've gone back to sleep." Zay nodded in agreement. Farkle looked just as unhappy as Lucas, although he hadn't said anything yet.
"Are y'all doing anything after school?" I asked, trying to change the subject. "We could all go to that new Sno-ball place..."
"Sno-ball?" Riley, Farkle, and Maya asked, causing Lucas, Zay, and I to grin.
"Think snow cones except like five times better. I think I screamed when I found out about it last night."
"You did." Zay deadpanned. "In my ear."
"Anyway, we should go!"
"Can't... Red Planet Diaries season premiere." Maya and Riley said at the same time.
"Family business dinner." Farkle said, shrugging.
"Baseball team hangout." Lucas replied.
Zay shrugged. "I'll come, I'm literally doing nothing."
Farkle narrowed his eyes. "No way are you going anywhere with my cousin alone."
"I think that's my choice, Farkle." I said, rolling my eyes.
"I'll tell Shawn and Josh."
"You wouldn't dare." I said, narrowing MY eyes at him.
"Try me."
"I will." I said, smirking. "Can't wait, Zay."
~<3~
"I've always allowed you to bend the rules. But the best of students know just how far they can push before those rules are broken. Today you are not the best of students."
"But you know we're good people most of the time, don't you, daddy? Daddy? You'e my daddy."
"Why do we need rules at all?" Maya asked.
"You think you could make it in a world without rules?" Cory asked.
"I think I could do fine in any world."
"The rest of you believe that?" He asked, causing everyone to nod "Okay. School's out. You've got the whole place to yourselves. No rules. One hour to behave however you want. Let's see what becomes of you." This'll be so much fun.
"Well, I think we'll be perfectly behaved ladies and gentlemen." I audibly scoffed at that.
"And I think within one minute you'll be eating each other." I nodded in agreement, smirking.
"Where are you going?" Riley asked.
"I'm locking you in. The best punishment I can give is to force you to spend some time with yourselves. I'll see you in an hour. Whoever's left." He closed the door and locked it tightly.
"I can't believe it. He locked us in." Riley gasped.
"That's fine. I don't have a problem with that. I'm not claustrophobic or anything. We're trapped. Farkle said quickly, gasping. "I can't breathe. There's more carbon dioxide than oxygen! The ratio is all wrong!" Okay, I love my cousin, but he a lotta work.
Maya and I raised our hands. "Okay, Farkle gotsa go."
"I gotsa?"
"Stop." Riley said, standing up. "This is exactly what my father wants. He wants us to panic and fall apart. We have to show him that we can get through this without turning into a pack of wild animals."
"I'm hungry." I groaned at Lucas' outburst, putting my head in my hand.
"What do you mean by that?" Farkle asked nervously.
"Nothing... I'm just really hungry." He stood behind Farkle.
"Because we're best friends."
Lucas nodded. "Yeah, you know what else? I don't think I've ever been this hungry."
I rolled my eyes. "Okay, I'm all for rebelling in class, but if we're gonna rebel, can we go bigger, and maybe not eat my cousin...?"
Maya just ignored me. "I feel ya, Ranger Rick." At this point I decided to block them out, sitting crosslegged on Zay's desk.
"You're going to fall off, Kenz. You're going to make the desk flip over, fall off, and hit your head."
I smirked. "Oh really, Babineaux. I don't believe you." Zay went to stand up, before sitting back down, causing the desk to fall back for a moment, and me to jump. I would've fallen, if he hadn't grabbed my waist to keep me steady.
"Believe me now?" He asked, smirking. I nodded, wide-eyed, still holding onto his arms. We looked at each other, smiling, and I gestured to his arms on my waist, blushing. "Oh... um... right, sorry..." He said awkwardly, blushing. He let go, and I smiled sheepishly. Apparently, the little 'eat Farkle' incident was over, because Lucas came over, picked me up, and moved me back to my desk, causing Zay and I to roll our eyes.
"All right, come on! Let's prove my father wrong." Riley walked to the front of the class. "Let's form our own perfect society. Rileytown is a land of goodness and rainbows where everyone folds their hands nicely like so." She folded her hands. "Who wants to live in Rileytown?"
"Nobody wants to live in Riley-town!" Maya and I exclaimed.
"It's too lollipop!" Maya said, rolling her eyes.
"You guys are too lollipop!"
I scoffed. "Sister, we're alot of things, but we ain't no lollipops."
"Riley-town has order, structure and our hands folded like so! What do you got?"
Maya stood on her desk, and I stood up next to her. "We got Hartville! No rules, no laws, no hand folding and nobody says no!" Farkle looked up at us, about to open his mouth.
"No." We chorused, shaking our heads.
"You got chaos is what you got! I got order, you got chaos!"
"You got lollipop, we got whoo!"
"Okay, detention may be bringing out the worst in us, but at least we're making the time pass." We all looked up at the clock to see it tick to 12:02.
"Eat Riley!" We said, pointing to her.
"Okay. But no biting."
~<3~
"Why are you guys over there? Why can't we just be one happy society that runs the way I think it should?" I scoffed at that. The class was divided into two groups. A wartown, and a peaceful village. Where was I you may ask? I was in the wartown. Honestly, slightly surprised with myself.
"Because you want us to be all you."
"We're not all you, Riley. I mean, you know the only reason I've never been able to choose between you? Because if it was you all the time, life would be like, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la." Riley coninued to chant along with him.
"And if it was you all the time, life would be like Descensus in cuniculi cavum!" He screamed, and Maya snarled.
"I need to be both of you guys, which is why it's actually fitting that Kenzie turned out to be my cousin."
"But who are you going to be with right now, Farkle?" Riley asked.
"Before you answer that," I said, standing up and walking over to the back door, "You may want to consider a little thing I call this." I opened the back door.
"He forgot to lock the back door?" Lucas and Zay asked.
"Maya, Kenz... we're in detention. You can't leave."
Maya shrugged. "Hey. School's out. He said we get the place to ourselves. He said to make our own rules. Rule number one: See you around, Suckers." and, grabbing Zay's hand, I followed my sort-of-sister out.
~<3~
We ran down the hallway of the school, covered in war paint. We stopped, and Lucas groaned. "Well, this is less fun when there's no one to chase."
"Everybody else is in detention. I'm finally cool and nobody notices." Farkle sighed.
"We're losing them, Maya." I whispered to her, and she stepped forward.
"Okay, okay. Watch this." She walked up to a vending machine, backed up, kicked it. Nothing happened. "Huh! Also, ow!"
Lucas stepped forward. "Maya, if there's no good kids out here noticing us, then, what's the point?"
Maya pulled Lucas closer by the collar. "You questioning my leadership, hop-along?"
"Well that got strange." I whispered to Zay, scoffing. "And Lucas was mad at us for leaning on each other?"
"I think what mad dog is saying is what good is being bad if there's no other kind of people around?" I pulled Farkle closer by the collar. "I'm Batman." He said, causing me to giggle and let go.
We heard wheels squeaking, and they all ducked down, leaving me perched on the top of the bench. "Who's that?"
"I agree with mad dog and Batman." Janitor Harley said. "For me, it was very important for us to be among the good."
"Why?" Maya and I asked.
"Because even the good kids, you may never find out what they are."
Farkle looked at him strangely. "You told us you were one of the bad kids when you were younger."
"Well, you know, I used to intimidate people. Make 'em see things my way."
"Did they?"
"For a while."
"Then what happened?" I asked.
"The same thing that happened to your mom... I met a good kid."
"Your that Harley Keiner?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. Another of my mom's stories from highschool.
"But you seem like such a nice guy. It's hard for me to think you ever intimidated anything." Lucas said.
"Oh, yeah?" He walked up to the vending machine, touched it, backed up, tilted his head, and everything fell out onto the floor. Then, he grabbed orange and walked away.
"Okay. Maybe he's right. Maybe we need a good kid around."
"To find the good in us."
"Yeah. Let's go steal one." I suggested.
~<3~
the first thing Riley did after we allegedly kidnapped her, was pull out wipes. "Everybody clean off your faces, you look ridiculous." She handed one to me. "Go get 'em tiger." She whispered to me, nudging me towards Zay.
I walked over to him. "You got a little something." I motioned to his whole face. He went to feel where it was, but I shook my head. "Here let me help." I took my wipe, and wiped his face off, blushing. After I finished, he went to help me, causing me to blush even more.
After he finished, I sat on the bench, rubbing my arms. Maybe the tank top that I had worn last night, wasn't the best school clothing. "You cold?" He asked, sitting down.
"A little..." I said, shrugging. Then he took off his sweatshirt, me suddenly realizing what was about to happen. Oh no, not a cliche movie moment...
"Here..." He said, handing me his sweatshirt. I put it on, and Lucas, Riley, and Farkle chose that moment to walk over.
Lucas rolled his eyes. "Out of all the cliche moves, Babineaux." Zay just laughed.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
~<3~
"You have fun?" Riley asked, as we all gathered back in the room.
"I did. It was quite enjoyable. And you?"
"Someone had the idea to put me in a bag. Did you hear about that?"
"Really? Well, you know, there's some bad kids out there." I said, shrugging.
Cory walked into the classroom. "Okay, guys. Detention over."
"Dad?" Riley asked.
"Yeah?"
"Remember how you told us that people change people?"
"Secret of life."
I looked up at him. "Well, when you're not with those people..." I started, trailing off.
"How do you keep from changing back?" Maya finished, and I knew we were thinking the same thing.
"You guys went a little wild, did you?"
"Whatever we got is strong in us, Matthews."
"Well I know that Kenzie has those Shawn and Gia genes... not sure about you, Hart..."
RIley sighed. "Yeah, me too, but the other way."
"Harley!" In walked Janitor Harley Keiner.
"Right here."
"You watched them?"
"Like a hawk." I audibly gasped.
"What?" Riley asked.
"You're with him?"
"You're a spy??"
"Yeah. He's my good kid."
"What do you got?" Cory asked him.
"Everyone went nuts, except for Zippy. Why didn't you go nuts, Zippy?"
"I was without Maya and Kenzie. Without them, I don't think i'd ever unfold my hands."
"What about these two here?" He asked, pointing at Maya and I.
"Maya and Makenzie were the ringleaders. They were the first ones out the door."
"We were without Riley."
"Without Riley, we may never come back."
"Okay. Well, detention over, guys. Everyone out."
"Dad." Riley protested, already knowing what was coming.
"Everyone out." He repeated.
"So, you were like us?" I asked Harley, and he nodded.
"What changed you?" Maya asked.
"Well, it turns out there is always two doors. He showed me the other one. It's good to know there's someone like that around." Then, he walked out.
Cory turned to us, smiling slightly. "Okay, so, how long did it take for you to go full-blow Maya and Kenz?"
"Five minutes." We chorused, smirking.
"Five minutes. That's four more minutes than last time."
"See, we're making progress, Matthews."
"So, you weren't there this morning?"
Cory nodded. "Yeah, the subway was late or something."
"Or something." Maya nodded.
"You know, Maya, Makenzie, it's a good thing to know, I don't always have to be in this room to give my students a test."
"And it's a good thing we got people who check up on us every once in a while."
"Yeah. Okay. So, what's next?" Cory asked us.
"We sit here another hour." I said, frowning.
"GIrls, whatever you end up deciding to be, the best thing I can teach you right now is that there are consequences to our actions. The rules are there to help us."
"We'll try harder next time." Maya said, sighing.
"I know." He said, walking towards the door.
"Hey, Matthews." I called out.
"Yeah?"
"Next time I'm gonna put some war paint on Riley's face." I said, smirking.
Cory nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure she's counting on it." He walked out the room, closing the door. We sighed, before looking up.
"Riley!" We exclaimed, and she looked in through the window.
"Right here." She said, sitting down on the floor, against the door.
We may not have been there yet, but we were making progress.