We all sat in my father's class waiting his arrival as he was very late. "All right. Where's your father?" Lucas asked Riley. "Are we getting a sub? I don't want a sub. You never know where they've been." Farkle said. "Your Dad's never been late to class before. Could this be the start of an apocalypse?" Mason asked. I turned in my chair facing him.
"Will you calm down? He's one minute late. Stop overreacting." I told him. "What if he never shows up? What if I never learn anything else? I'm going down, sir!" Farkle said. "Oh, he's not even here." Farkle said.
"We lost Farkle. A little help, Maya, Kayden?" Riley asked, getting up and walking over to Farkle who had fainted. Maya looked at me with a smirk. "uh oh." I mumbled under my breath. Maya got up and walked to my father's desk. "Matthews is out, Farkle is down, it's Maya time." She said.
Riley picked Farkle off the ground and placed him in his chair. "Farkle's fixed. No Maya time." Riley said. Farkle fainted again. "You may proceed." Riley said, sitting down.
"During Maya time, we open the confiscation drawer and take back all the stuff from the land of unfairly taken toys." Maya explained. "Maya, I don't think anybody really wants-" Riley began. She was cut off by cheers of our classmates.
Maya picked a frisbee out of the desk. "All right, whose is this?" Maya asked. Mason raised his hand. Maya tossed the frisbee his way. "Thanks small fry." He said. "No problem beanstalk." Maya said, casting a friendly wink his way. Farkle jumped up. "What'd I miss?" He asked. Mason tosses the frisbee at him causing him to once again hit the ground.
" Maya! He is going to walk in and catch you and you're going to be in trouble and I am here to keep you out of trouble, and I will have failed." I told her. "Do you want me to fail?" "Do you want us to show you how to have fun?" Maya asked. "Behaving is fun." Riley said for me. "Come here!" Maya shouted.
"I really don't want to." Riley stated. "I'd rather not." I said uneasy. "You two come here right now." Maya said. She held up her hand showing her ring. "Ring power!" We both stood up and walked over to her. "When we say 'ring power' you have to. It's a rule." Riley explained to our classmates.
"Tell me this isn't fun." Maya said. She picked up a toy gun and shot ping pong balls at our classmates. "Yeah, that seems like fun, but now you did it, so I don't get to do it, so are we sitting down now?" Riley asked. Maya handed me a toy gun. "Why me!" I shouted.
"Do it!" Maya ordered. "Maya, I really don't want too." I groaned. "Ring power." Maya said, holding up her hand. Farkle jumped back up. "What'd I miss?" He asked. Maya and I shot ping pong balls at him and the whole class broke out in war.
The class grew silent and all motion ceased as we saw my Dad enter the class. "When did you guys decide there are no rules in here?" He asked us. Maya and I put the toy guns away. "When did my generosity in allowing you express yourselves make you think you could turn my class into a zoo?" He asked.
"I'm sorry." Maya, Riley and I said, as we took our seats. "I'm sorry." Farkle said from the ground, spiting out a ping pong ball. "I'm sorry." Everyone else, except Lucas said. "Lucas. Why are you the only one here that didn't say 'I'm sorry'?" Dad asked him.
"Because I never do anything." Lucas answered. "No. Because you respect the rules. Because you know without them, civilization becomes chaos. The rest of you are gonna spend the afternoon thinking about that, with the exception of Lucas the good." Dad said.
"Oh, boy! Is that gonna stick?" Lucas asked me. "I'm already making t-shirts." I told him with big grin. Mason chuckled. Lucas walked up to the front. "You put me in a real bad position here, sir." Lucas told him. He looked out at the class who already had my "Lucas the good" T-shirts. "I gotta do something." he said.
"You can fight this, Lucas." Dad told him. "No, I can't, sir. Everyone's looking." Lucas said. "Okay. Do what you gotta do." Dad told him. Lucas took out his phone, and typed in something. Dad got a text alert and read it.
"Detention." Dad told him. "Oh, thank you, sir." he said , taking his seat. "Feel better, Huckleberry?" I asked. Lucas nodded. "I'm just like you now." Lucas told me. "Yeah, you're exactly the same." Maya said. "Yeah, you're all the same. Detention, all of you!" Dad told us.
Riley and I raised our hands. "What do you want?" Mr. Matthews asked. "I'm going to be home late today, daddy." Riley informed him. "I know, honey." Dad told her. I raised my hand. "What do you want?" He asked. "I'm going to be home late too Dad." I told him. Dad rolled his eyes at me.
~~~~~
"I 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." Dad said. "But you know we're good people most of the time, don't you, daddy?" Riley asked, "Daddy? You're my daddy."
"Why do we need rules at all?" Maya asked. "You think you could make it in a world without rules?" Dad asked. "I think I could do fine in any world." Maya answered. "The rest of you believe that?" Dad asked the class. Everyone else nodded.
"Okay. Well, guess what guys? School's out. You've got the whole place to yourselves. No rules. One hour to behave however you want." Dad explained to us. "Let's see what becomes of you." "Well, I think we'll be perfectly behaved ladies and gentlemen." Riley told him. "And I think within one minute you'll be eating each other." Dad said. He walked towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Riley asked our father. "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." Dad told us. He walked out the door and locked it.
"I can't believe it. He locked us in." Riley said. "That's fine. I don't have a problem with that. I'm not claustrophobic or anything. We're trapped." Farkle said, wheezing. "I can't breathe. There's more carbon dioxide than oxygen! The ratio is all wrong!" "Okay, Farkle gotsta go." Maya said. "I gotsta" Farkle asked.
Riley stood up. "Stop. 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." Riley said. "I'm hungry." Lucas, looking at Farkle.
"What do you mean by that?" Farkle asked. "Nothing. I'm just really hungry," Lucas said, standing up and walking over to Farkle's desk. "Because we're best friends." Farkle said. "Yeah, you know what else?" Lucas asked, "I don't think I've ever been this hungry."
Maya stood up. "I feel ya, Ranger Rick. I'm kinda hungry, too." She said. "And it's not like a regular kind of hungry, right?" Lucas asked. "No, no. This one's deep. It must be attended to." Mason replied, standing up.
"Oh, guys, can we just show a little discipline?" Riley asked, walking over to us, "I mean, how much more time in here could we possibly have?" We looked over at the clock to see only 1 minute pass. We turned back to Farkle. "You know I could eat, too." I said.
Farkle stood up and began to back away. "What? What are you looking at?" Farkle asked, "Guys! What are you seeing right now?" "Stop talking, chicken." Lucas said. "All right, come on!" Riley shouted.
"Let's prove my father wrong. Let's form our own perfect society. Rileytown is a land of goodness and rainbows where everyone folds their hands nicely like so." Riley said, folding her hand. "Who wants to live in Rileytown?" "Nobody wants to live in Rileytown!" Maya shouted. "It's too lollipop!" I added. "You're too lollipop!" Riley replied. "Riley, my sweet little gummy bear, I'm a lotta things but I ain't no lollipop." I said.
"Rileytown has order, structure and our hands folded like so!" Riley shouted, folding her hands again, "What do you got?" Maya stood up onto a chair to speak. "I got Mayaville! No rules, no laws, no hand folding and nobody says no!" Maya shouted. Farkle looked up at Maya. "No." Maya told him.
"You got chaos is what you got! I got order, you got chaos!" Riley told her. "You got lollipop, we got whoo!" Maya shouted. "Okay, detention may be bringing out the worst in us, but at least we're making the time pass." Riley said, looking up at the clock to see it change to 3:02. "Eat Riley!" Maya shouted.
"Okay." Riley said. She held one of her hands out and covered her eyes with the other. "But no biting." She said.
~~~~~
We all had the desks separated Into to groups. Maya's group were stacking the chairs up while Riley's group is just sitting in their desks on the other side. "Why are you guys over there?" Riley asked, "Why can't we just be one happy society that runs the way I think it should?"
"Because you want us to be all you." Maya told her. "We're not all you, Riley. I mean, you know the only reason I've never been able to choose between you?" Farkle asked, "Because if it was you all the time, life would be like, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la." Riley joined in. Farkle then stopped and walked over to Maya.
"And if it was you all the time, life would be like..." Farkle began. He growled. "Descensus in cuniculi cavum!" Farkle shouted. Maya gave a growl of her own. "I need to be both of you guys."
"But who are you going to be with right now, Farkle?" Riley asked. "Before you answer that, you may want to consider a little thing I call this." Maya said, opening the door. "He forgot to lock the back door?" Lucas questioned. "Maya, we're in detention. You can't leave." Riley said.
"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." Maya said. She walked out the door an some of our classmates followed her. I turn to follow her. "Kayden?" Riley asked, wondering if I would stay with her. "Riley, If I leave her by herself then she'll go crazy. If I leave you you'll still be here with your hand folded." I said. Riley nodded and I walked out the room. Farkle and Lucas met me outside.
~~~~
The first thing we decided to do was raid the art classroom and paint our faces. We then decided to go on a chase in the hallway. "Well, this is less fun when there's no one to chase." Lucas announced. "Everybody else is in detention. I'm finally cool and nobody notices." Farkle said. "Plus the face paint is kinda itchy." Mason said. "Not now babe." I growled.
"Okay, okay. Watch this." Maya said. She walked up to the vending machine and kicked it. "Huh. Also, ow!" Maya said.
" Maya, if there's no good kids out here noticing us, then, what's the point?" Lucas asked. Maya looked at me and snapped her fingers. I pulled Lucas closer to me by his shirt collar. "You questioning her leadership, hop-along?" I asked him. "Okay, these names you're calling me are killing my street cred." Lucas whispered to me.
"Aw. And what would you like me to call you?" I asked. "I'd like you to call me Mad Dog." Lucas replied. "You don't seem like a mad dog to me." I told him. "What do I seem like to you?" Lucas asked. He gave me a really cute innocent look.
"You know that lamb that Mary had?" I asked. "And, suddenly, I don't like the way that this is going." Lucas said. I wink and let go of him. Farkle and Mason walked up to Maya, Lucas, and I.
"I think what Mad Dog is saying is what good is being bad if there's no other kind of people around?" Mason asked. Maya pulled Mason closer by his collar. "I'm Batman." He said. We heard wheels squealing and ducked down.
"Who's that?" Darby asked. "I agree with Mad Dog and Batman." Janitor Harley told us. We all stood up. "For me, it was very important for us to be among the good." Harley told us. "Why?" Maya asked. "Because even bad kids have good parts. But without the good kids, you may never find out what they are." Harley answered.
"You told us you were one of the bad kids when you were younger." Farkle replied. "Well, you know, I used to intimidate people. Make 'em see things my way." Harley explained. "Did they?" Maya asked. "For a while." He answered. "What happened?" I asked. "I met a good kid." Harley replied.
"But you seem like such a nice guy. It's hard for me to think you ever intimidated anything." Lucas said. "Oh, yeah?" Harley asked. He walked up to the vending machine and stared at it. Then everything came falling out. He grabbed an orange and left.
"Okay. Maybe he's right. Maybe we need a good kid around." Maya said. "To find the good in us." Darby said. "Yeah. Let's go steal one." Maya said. We all walked back to Mr. Matthews' classroom.
~~
Our whole group ran in screaming with a giant net. We picked Riley up and carried her out of the classroom. Once we returned to the hallway I pulled the net off of Riley. We crowded around her. "Everybody clean up your faces. You look ridiculous." Riley said, pulling out some baby wipes. I grabbed a wipe and started to wipe Mason's face clean. "You know, you went a little crazy today." Mason said, looking into my eyes. "Which is why I need both of my sisters. Maya brings out the adventurous, wild, and crazy side. Riley brings out the kind, caring, self aware side. Together they make me who I am." I said, watching my sister with a smile.
~~~~~~
Maya returned with Riley's group and they were doing a chant while Riley, Maya's group, and I sat with our hands folded. "You have fun?" Riley asked. "I did. It was quite enjoyable." Maya replied. "And you?" "Someone had the idea to put me in a bag. Did you hear about that?" Riley asked. "Really? Well, you know, there's some bad kids out there." Maya said.
Dad then entered the room. "Okay, guys. Detention over." He said. "Dad?" Riley asked. "Yeah?" Dad said. "Remember how you told us that people change people?" Riley questioned. "Secret of life." Dad replied.
"Well, when you're not with those people, how do you keep from changing back?" Maya asked. "You two went a little wild, did you?" Dad asked Maya and I. "Whatever we got is strong in us, Matthews." Maya said. "Yeah, me too, but the other way." Riley said. "I went a little wild but Riley brought me back." I replied.
"Harley!" Dad shouted. Janitor Harley entered the room. "Right here." He said, as he stood beside Dad. "You watched them?" Dad asked. "Like a hawk." Harley replied.
"What?" Riley asked. "You're with him?" Maya asked. "I feel so betrayed" I said. "Yeah. He's my good kid." Harley replied.
"What do you got?" Dad asked. "Everyone went nuts, except for Zippy." Harley asked, referring to Riley, "Why didn't you go nuts, Zippy?" "I was without Maya and Kayden. Without them, I don't think I'd ever unfold my hands." Riley said.
"What about these two here?" Dad asked, pointing to Maya and I. "Maya was the ringleader and Kayden followed. They were the first ones out the door." Harley answered. "We were without Riley." I said. "Without Riley, I may never come back." Maya said. "Without Riley, I can get a little wild." I said.
"Okay. Well, detention over, guys. Everyone out. Except Maya and Kayden" Dad said. "Dad." Riley said. "Everyone out." Dad said. Everyone stood up and left. So it was just Maya, Dad, Harley and I.
"So, you were like me?" Maya asked Harley. "What changed you?" "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." Harley said. He then left. I looked at Dad.
"Okay, so, how long did it take for you two, to go full-blow Maya?" Dad asked. "Five minutes." Maya replied. "Five minutes. That's four more minutes than last time." Dad told her. "So, you weren't there this morning?" Maya asked. "Yeah, the subway was late or something." Dad told us. "Or something." Maya said.
"You know, Maya, Kayden, it's a good thing to know, I don't always have to be in this room to give my students a test." Dad told us. "And it's a good thing we got people who check up on us every once in a while." Maya said. "Yeah. Okay. So, what's next?" Dad asked.
"We sit here another hour." I said. "Kayden, Maya, 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." Dad told us. "I'll try harder next time." Maya said. "I know." Dad said. "I'll try to keep myself and her from going too far." I said. "I know." He repeated.
"Hey, Dad." I called. "Yeah?" Dad asked. "Next time we're gonna put some war paint on Riley's face." Maya said. "Yeah. I'm sure she's counting on it." Dad said. He left and closed the door.
Maya and I sat there for a while. "Riley!" Maya shouted. Riley peeped through the door window. "Right here." She told us.
~~~~~~~~~
Maya and I sat in detention and I pulled out my journal and wrote:
All it takes is an Influence. A good influence can encourage you to be a better person. To make good choices and walk through life with a positive out look and your hand's folded. A bad influence can cause you to go a little wild. To be bold and break rules. Sometimes you need both. To make you adventurous and bold while allowing you to keep positivity and morality in mind. ~ Kayden Matthews.