Lia
Colton didn't show up for school today. He hasn't texted anyone either apparently.
We're all sitting at lunch having another argument.
I've been zoning in and out my mind constantly going to Colton.
I'm leaning back in my chair and my food sits untouched in front of me while my friends argue over my head.
"I think Hawaii is the better state to live in just because it has the nicest places." Lilly says.
"I'd want to live in Maiami." I speak for the first time this lunch period.
"We're talking about states here Lia." Mike says as everyone pauses to look at me.
"Yeah and I'm talking about Maiami." I say throwing a carrot at him for fun.
"Why Maiami. No offense to Florida but some pretty weird shit happens there." Mike says throwing a fry at me but he misses and hits Kylie instead.
"Hey doofus you hit me!" Kylie throws a piece of bread at him.
"Sorry I didn't mean to." Mike throws a handful of fries our way.
"Maiami has great parties!" I yell before grabbing Ellie's salad and throwing it on his side of the table.
"It's not all about parties!" Mike says throwing more fries.
"Now you guys are just hitting the rest of us." Molly says standing up and and throwing her raspberries around.
Our table starts throwing food at each other then Toby accidentally hits some girl behind Ellie. The girl gives him the dirtiest look and Toby's hands go up in surrender.
"I'm sorry. Uh...uh. Food Fight?" Toby says quietly.
The girl swings her lunch tray at him and food splatters all over us.
We start throwing food back at her in Toby's defense. Then her table starts throwing food at each other and it's a long chain affect before the whole cafeteria is throwing food at each other.
I didn't smile all day till this very moment.
I grab my brown lunch bag and stand up on the table. I dump all my food inside it right on Mike who basically started this food fight.
"Hey!" Mike yells spraying a packet of ketchup on everyone.
Ellie gets under the table to shield herself from food. I grab a handful of strawberries and duck under the table and smush then all over her face.
Ellie gasps.
She grabs whatever yucky food is on the floor and smears it all over my face and glasses.
I wipe my glasses off best I can before crawling out from under the table and joining everyone else.
"Students!" My principals voice booms through the cafeteria and everyone freezes.
I drop whatever food I have in my hand on the floor.
Our principal Scans the crowd of students until his eyes land on our table. There's a teacher standing next to him pointing directly at us.
"You eight. Come with me." He says motioning us toward him.
We all look at each other horrified and start walking side by side out of the cafeteria.
Students in the hall all look at us as we walk down the hall behind the principal. Some of their mouths hanging open.
I see Jake at his locker with Zoe. His eyes following my every movement. Zoe's face contorted into disgust.
"Omg." I hear Zoe say once I walk past the two.
We get into our principals office and for some reason we all stand in a line.
Our principal goes into the nurses office and comes back with towels. He hands each one of us our towels and I start by wiping off my glasses.
"Which one of you started this?" He asks sitting down at his desk.
A chime of "It was Mike.", "It was Molly.", and "It was Lia." Answers his question. Not even Toby taking the blame or being blamed.
"So we don't know exactly who started it?" He asks clearly being sarcastic.
"Well our table was having a debate and I said something Mike disagreed with and he threw a fry at me." I say. I'm notably not scared of the principal.
"She threw a carrot at me first, Sir." Mike says.
"But I never intended to start a food fight." I say.
"Well Molly dumped her raspberries on everyone!" Toby says.
Then we all start arguing and talking over each other.
"Excuse me!" Our principal yells and we stop bickering.
"Toby was the one who said the words 'Food Fight'." Lilly says.
"It doesn't matter who started it anymore. You guys will get cleaned up. Wear the schools old gym clothes and for detention you will help the custodians clean the cafeteria."
"But-" Logan begins.
"No buts. Your parents will get a call."
Our principal gets up and goes into the nurses office. He comes back out with a stack of blue and grey clothes.
Gross.
He hands us each a top and a bottom. And a plastic bag.
"Case closed. You are all dismissed to your respected locker rooms to clean up and I will e-mail your next period teacher to notify them that you will be tardy."
We all nod and make our way out of the office.
Once we get out we all bust out laughing. Everyone in the hall looking at us like we're crazy people.
"We all- Just got -in trouble." Kylie says through fits of laughs.
"Together!" Toby says.
I find myself laughing harder. A few of us folding over from laughing so hard.
"My mom is going to kill me!" Of course Ellie is the only one currently not laughing
"Loosen up Ellie." Logan says. Just like That Night at the Party.
After Ellie pauses for a long while. She starts laughing again.
"Lets go clean up." I say once the laughter dies down.
Everyone gives us judging looks as we walk down the hall towards the gymnasium.
We go out separate ways into the locker room.
"This is one for the books." Ellie says before pulling her top over her head.
"Definitely." Lilly says disappearing into the shower.
I strip off the food covered clothes and step into one of the showers.
I place my glasses and the towel on the ledge. I then strip completely naked and place my underwear on the ledge.
I turn on the shower and wash out all the nasty food. I know that school showers can't ever get to hot so I try to take a quick shower with the freezing water.
Once I'm done I wrap the towel around me and grab my stuff and step out.
I'm the first one done. My hair still feels gross but it's better than nothing.
I put on my undergarments then groufit that my principal gave me.
I put on the shorts that go three inches above my knee. It's December, does he want us to freeze? And then the long sleeve shirt that has my school name on it.
I wipe my glasses one more time with the towel and put them back on.
Lilly steps out of the shower next.
"I know I'm taking a long shower when I get home." Lilly says.
"We all got cute kinda matching outfits now though." I look at myself in the mirror.
It looks stupid.
My shoes are still covered in food.
I rake my fingers through my hair in an attempt to brush it out.
"I gotta get to class." I stuff my dirty clothes into the plastic bag and throw the towel into the hamper sitting in the locker room.
I walk out of the girls locker room the same time Logan walks out of the boys. He's wearing an outfit similar to mine.
"Where you headed?" He asks.
"English. Merkel." We walk as we Talk.
"Mmm Science. Lincoln."
"Tough one." I say.
"Yeah I know. Never teaches shit." He laughs.
"Isn't that the whole Science Department though?"
"Indeed."
"Don't worry I think my English teacher is broken. She's too nice."
The hallway is empty. Everyone is in class.
"We're twinseis right now." Logan looks down at our outfits.
"Yeah we all look stupid."
Logan and I laugh.
"I gotta dip and go to the Science wing." He says.
"Alright bud. See you at detention."
He nods before turning down the science hall. I walk to my locker and shove my dirty clothes in. I then grab my stuff for English.
Even though I've barely talked to Colton the past two weeks. It'd feel more comforting walking into my English class where I have no friends looking like this.
I walk down the English hall and into Mrs. Merkels room.
There's her sub.
It's all eyes on me though.
"Are you Merlia Johnson?" The sub asks.
"Yes I am." I nod.
I then go and take my usual seat.
"Nice outfit." Zoe says.
"Haha. So original." I say sliding back into my seat.
"The project will be do this Friday. Mrs. Merkel Just has us watching a video today." The sub says.
An easy day.
_____
"It's a shame Colton didn't come today." Molly says scooping food from the ground and into a bucket.
All the girls have their hair tied back into some sort of bun.
"He would've definitely enjoyed this." Toby says. "Come to think of it though. Colton hasn't done anything like this in a month."
I feel guilt thinking the reason he doesn't get out anymore is because of me.
"He must be really sick. Being M.I.A for three days." Logan says.
"When's detention over I got somewhere to be!" I say.
"Five more minutes. We're going to be late to hockey and your dad is going to kill us." Toby says.
"Trust me im probably dead meat for this detention." I say.
"Do you really have somewhere to be though Lia?" Lilly asks.
"No. I just want to go home."
"Uh uh, you all are coming to the rink with us. So you all can also get yelled at." Logan says.
"Whatever." Ellie says.
"Don't make me flick this food at you!" Logan threatens.
"I think I have enough food in my hair, but thanks for the offer." Ellie says. "I also can't go to the rink. I'd be even more trouble with my mom."
"Yeah whatever. Excuses." Logan jokes.
"Can my excuse be that I have to wash my hair?" I ask.
"If we have to go to the rink with just a five second shower so can you." Logan says.
"I have longer hair." I argue.
"Still doesn't get you out of it."
I roll my eyes.
I stand up and dust off my hands.
I grab a broom and I just start sweeping. We've scrubbed down pretty much all the tables.
Ellie stands up and grabs a mop. To help this go faster. I sweep away food and she mops at some parts of the food and the floor.
"Wonder if we're gonna have to eat lunch with the principal tomorrow. Or the rest of this school year." Molly says.
"Don't say that!" Toby says.
"Why?" Molly asks.
"Cause then you'll accidentally speak it into existence." Toby says.
"Oh shut up Toby!" Molly says throwing a big scoop of food into her bucket.
I look up at the teacher who is supposed to be monitoring us while we clean. He's knocked.
"You know we could just walk out any moment and he wouldn't know." Toby says.
"Yeah I'd rather not." Mike says.
"We've only got a couple more minutes left so by the time he wakes up detention will be over anyway." Toby says.
"Yeah let's start packing up." Logan says.
We all stop cleaning up the cafeteria and we put the supplies provided to us near by the cafeteria door.
"Better see you all at the rink. Ellie is the only exception." Logan says walking out to the parking lot.
Yeah whatever. My mood is deflated.
But maybe Colton is at the rink.
_____
"On the line!" My dad yells at the three boys who showed up to practice late.
"Detention Never ends." Kylie says.
As punishment. My dad made us girls fold towels.
I have absolutely no clue if Colton is or was at the rink because well, we came late.
We watch the boys do what we would call in lacrosse suicides. Every time I think of suicides I always imagine myself lying down on the field waiting for my turn for the fiftieth time.
We had to do them in gym class once and so many people did not survive. The boys locker room...oh my.
"We didn't even get into any serious trouble." Lilly says.
"Not according to Ellie. But hey, we did start a cafeteria wide food fight." Molly says.
"Let's Go boys pick up the pace I got somewhere to be!" My dad yells and then blows the whistles.
"I sure am glad I'm not doing that." Lilly says.
I fold my last towel and place it neatly on top of the pile.
I pick it up and walk out of the rink area to where the boys locker room is.
I kick open the empty boys locker room and place the towels down where they are supposed to go.
I scan the locker room to find that all the boys little cubbies have looked like they've been messed with today except for one.
I observe it from a far to find that it is Colton's.
He didn't show up to hockey.
Shortly after the girls come in with their piles of towels and sets them where they go.
"Ugh. How do they get dressed in this filth." Lilly says placing a hand over her nose.
"Boys will be Boys." Molly says walking out.
I can't stand the smell either.
I join the rest of the girls outside the locker room and sit on the bench.
"Why are you so down Lia?" Lilly asks.
"No reason." I say, "just getting in trouble deflated my mood I guess."
I look down at all our similar clothing that our principal gave us.
"We look like we're in prison or something." I say.
"School definitely feels like one." Molly says.
The boys drag themselves across the lobby area to the locker room. They all move slowly.
"I'm gonna go throw up in the bathroom for a few minutes." Mike says pushing the door to the locker room open.
"Merlia." My dad says from behind them.
I stand up.
"Yes?"
"Come here for a minute." He says.My dad stays put where he's at and I walk to him. "We have to go to the Davis' tonight so tell your friends they can go home now. Coach Monty will be here until the last boy leaves. But you gotta get yourself cleaned up." My dad says.
"Okay." I nod.
I walk back to my friends.
"You guys can go home now. I got somewhere to be." I tell them.
They all let out sighs of relief and make their way out.
I follow behind them to my car. The parking lot is almost empty. Since hockey practice was over about an hour ago.
I get into my car and then I start crying. For what? I don't know.
But I know that I'm not enjoying it. I put on sad music anyways to make me cry harder.
I drive home which is about a fifteen minute drive.
During my drive I let out a scream. It felt good.
I arrive at home and get out of the car. I go straight to my bathroom.
I strip off the ugly school clothes and then my underwear. I place my glasses on the sink and get in the shower.
I turn it right to hot and sit on the shower floor hugging my knees to my chest.
I have no idea why I feel like this.
__________
•End•