Chapter Seventeen: Detention
Jason walks into a convenience store after school with the intent of buying potato chips. He's craving it seriously bad and there's none at home. He gets two packs.
"Hi," a girlish voice says behind him. He turns around to see a blonde girl smiling at him.
"Hey," Jason replies, returning the smile. She looks familiar. Very familiar, so he's trying to pinpoint where he knows her from.
"Jason, right?" She asks.
"Yeah," he looks at her thoughtfully before it clicks.
Party, Chris, Piper.
"You're Piper," he mutters.
"Uh huh," her smile widens, happy to know that he finally recognizes her.
It's a surprise to her that she didn't know him before and he is the best friend of the infamous Christopher Hayes she has been after.
"How are you?" He inquires.
"I'm good. You?"
"Good too," Jason replies, shrugging.
"Thanks for the other day," she smiles, appreciating him.
"It was no big deal. You're welcome," she shrugs again.
"Chris asked about you the next day and he's really sorry," he adds.
"Oh. How's he?" Piper asks, absentmindedly touching things on the shelves.
"He's fine. I saw him in school today," Jason answers.
"Cool," she mumbles then thinks for a few seconds. "Do you mind giving me his phone number?"
"Uhm..sure," Jason agrees and gives her Chris's number.
He hopes Chris wouldn't mind.
"Thanks. I'll call him later," she announces and Jason nods.
They stay awkwardly for a minute without saying anything to each other.
"I have to get going. It was nice seeing you, Piper." He beams as he backs away slowly.
"You too, Jason." She smiles, watching him pay at the counter before leaving the store.
She turns around to get back to business. She finds herself smiling and replaying their conversation in her head.
Hey, wait, why is she smiling?
She has no idea.
About thirty minutes later, Piper is seated in her room as she dials Christopher's number. It rings continuously before he finally answers.
"Hello?" His hot voice sounds in confusion.
"Hey, Chris. It's Piper speaking?" She tells him.
"Piper. Like Piper from the party?" He asks in shock. He begins to wonder how she got his number.
"Yup. That's me."
"How did you get my number?"
"I ran into Jason and got it from him. Hope you don't mind."
"Oh," he pauses. He won't mind if she isn't planning to give him endless calls and send him a thousand messages. But if she does, he's gonna kill Jason.
"It's okay. I'm sorry about the other night. I had to leave early," he tells her.
"No probs. Jason told me," she says.
"Hope you're not mad at me," he says into the phone. He doesn't know why but he doesn't want her to be mad at him.
"I'm not mad at you, Chris." She rolls her eyes but smiles.
"Thank goodness. So how have you been?" He tries to make conversation.
"I'm good." She replies and they keep talking on the phone for a few minutes.
"Thanks for calling. It was nice talking to you," Chris smiles after their conversation.
"Sure. Till next time," Piper smirks, and Chris slightly panics. He hopes she won't worry him with endless calls because if she does, he'd have no choice but to block her.
"Bye," he says and she hangs up.
**
Five minutes into Stephanie's first-period class - History, Chris walks in.
"Care to explain why you're-" Mrs. Greene checks her wristwatch, "- five minutes late, Hayes?" She fires at him as soon as he steps in.
"Uhm...family stuff...." Chris trails off, not wanting to explain himself.
Mrs. Greene looks at him suspiciously as if looking for a sign to know if he is lying.
"Very well then. Don't let this repeat itself," she tells him.
"I won't. Thanks, Mrs. Greene," he smiles gratefully.
"Go have your seat," she dismisses him. He proceeds to find a seat and sees an empty one close to the back, beside a window. After settling, he looks to his left and finds Hazel on the seat beside him.
"Hey," he says to her quietly.
She doesn't look his way. He wonders if she didn't hear him.
"Hey Ha...Stephanie," he says a little louder.
She turns in his direction. Of course, she noticed him walk in. Who wouldn't?
"Oh, you're talking to me?" She asks.
He nods.
"Sorry. Good morning," she tells him, quiet enough for only him to hear. Different questions pop into her head as she faces the teacher back.
Why is he sitting beside her? Why did he come late to class? Steph doesn't think he has ever come late to class- at least not all the classes they have together. And most importantly, she wonders why he's still trying to talk to her. What's his reason?
Ten minutes later, Stephanie is so bored. She begins to doodle until she hears a whisper.
"Psst."
She ignores it and keeps doodling.
"Psst," she hears it again and turns in the direction it came from.
It's Christopher.
What does he want?
"This class is so boring," he groans quietly but loud enough for her to hear. She shrugs and goes back to her doodling.
"You don't agree?" He asks.
She turns and shrugs again.
He smiles with his dimples showing, an amused look on his face.
"You're doodling, so it's obviously boring to you too," he smirks.
She sighs and rolls her eyes.
"Okay, I agree. It's boring," she tells him.
"Mr. Hayes and Ms. Valentine, would you like to tell the whole class what you're whispering about?" Mrs. Greene asks sternly from the front. But that isn't a question- it's a command.
They both freeze and Steph eyes widen. She shakes her head slightly and lowers it, letting her short hair cover the sides of her face.
Her cheeks flush in embarrassment when everyone looks their way.
'Way to go Steph. Your being invisible plan is not quite working, is it? For starters, Christopher Hayes is talking to you. And everything that concerns him gets attention. Bummer,' she tells herself in her head.
"You want me to repeat myself?" Mrs. Greene miffs. One thing about Mrs. Greene is that she hates having to repeat herself.
"No, not at all," Chris mumbles.
"Well...."
Mrs. Greene is answered with silence. Chris glances at Hazel. She's definitely not going to talk and he can't possibly tell Mrs. Greene that they were agreeing on how boring the class is.
"You came late to class and that wasn't enough, you go ahead and disrupt it, huh?" The teacher seethes.
"Detention, both of you, Today for an hour," she declares and continues the lesson.
Steph's eyes widen in alarm.
She didn't just say detention, did she?
Stephanie has never gotten detention. She has been keeping her good girl, clean slate status - well, up until now. She turns to glare at Chris. He shrugs and mouths a 'sorry' to her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Finally, school's over. Now, I can go home," Brooke announces as she meets Stephanie at her locker.
"Actually," Stephanie sighs. "I have detention."
Brooke stares and blinks. Then stares and blinks again.
"What?!" She exclaims.
"You heard me," Steph deadpans.
"Holy macaroni!" Brooke exclaims dramatically, touching both sides of her face with a shocked expression.
"How....how did that happen? You," she points at her, "detention?" She gapes.
"Christopher Hayes happened," Steph replies in monotone.
"Chris?" Brooke asks with confusion written all over her face.
"Yeah. Mrs. Greene caught us whispering to each other in class and gave us detention," Steph explains.
"Why- "
"Save all your questions for later. I don't wanna be late, B." Steph cuts her off.
"Want me to wait?"
"For an hour? No way. I can't let you do that. I'll walk home. I'll talk to you later," Steph says and begins to walk away.
"Okay, bye."
Stephanie walks to the room she'll be spending the next hour in and takes a seat.
Chris walks in a moment later and sits behind her. Then two guys enter also and proceed to the far end of the classroom.
"Hey Hazel," Chris says behind her.
Who's Hazel? Steph thinks.
She doesn't look back because she isn't Hazel. Then he pokes her.
"Hey."
She turns around frowning.
"What is it this time?"
"I'm sorry, okay?" He mutters.
She raises an eyebrow at him.
"I'm sorry you're in detention. I didn't mean for this to happen." He apologizes, running his right hand through his hair.
Steph looks at the slight mess he has made in his hair and has the sudden urge to touch it.
Where did that thought come from? She mentally asks herself.
"It's okay, I guess," Steph shrugs and returns to her original position.
"And just so you'll know. I don't like detention either. The last time I had one was in 9th grade," he informs her.
Stephanie turns to face him so fast that it's a surprise she doesn't get whiplash.
"Really?" Her lips part in surprise.
Chris chuckles. "Why is that so surprising?"
Before she can even think of an answer, the detention monitor walks into the room.
"Okay, delinquents. You'll be here for an hour and you're not allowed to talk," the monitor orders menacingly.
The teacher takes the seat assigned to him at the front. About ten minutes later, he stands and walks out of the room.
A few seconds later, one of the guys at the back exclaims.
"Finally!"
Both guys stand and head towards the exit.
"You're supposed to stay here for an hour," Chris tells them with a bored look on his face.
"Do I look like I want to? I'm leaving." He pauses. "And what is the 'almighty' Christopher Hayes doing in detention, huh?" The guy with spikes asks, he did air quotes when he said almighty.
Chris shrugs. He owes no one an explanation. His friend who has been staring at Steph finally speaks up.
"What's a pretty girl like you doing in detention?"
Chris notices Steph become uneasy.
She shrugs, just as he did.
The one with spikes chuckles. Chris finally remembers his name.
"Are you one of his whores?"
Steph's eyes widen. Did he just call her a whore?
"Bark off Blake," Chris bellows.
Blake is known for causing trouble here and there. He skips class and does other stuff. Some people believe he is into drugs. It's a surprise he hasn't been expelled, but he's sure it has to do with his parents being rich.
Blake and his friend chuckle while Chris has a scowl on his face. They turn around and head for the exit.
"And for your information, she's not a whore. She's nothing close to that."