Finally, the end of the day was here. I was so happy to finally be able to leave the building. I wanted to ditch detention, leave it behind me. Today had been such a long day. The twins talked my ear off during our lunch hour about their trip to Italy. I was happy for them, it really seemed like they had a great time. They showed me tons of photos on their phones. Half of them I already recognized from their Instagrams.
I was sneakily making my way slowly towards the front doors, weaving between students, keeping my head ducked low.
"*Ahem!*"
Someone's throat clearing made me stop in my tracks, kids moving out of the way of my still figure parting like the Red Sea for me, making their way to freedom. I envied them while I slowly turned around and spotted the principal.
"Why hello there Mr. Blackferd, what a pleasure to see you. Did you have a good day? Well that's good. See I should go now, I have tons of homewo-" he cut me off from my pointless babbling.
"Don't you have detention today Miss Henderson?" He asked, quirking his left eyebrow at me. I blushed profusely, being caught in the act. He didn't know that yet, hopefully.
"I-I-I-" I stuttered, inwardly kicking myself. I just gave myself away. How foolish could I be? I hung my head in shame, slowly nodding. "May I ask how you know that Mr. Blackferd?"
"I am the one supervising detention today Miss Henderson, as I do every year on the first day of school to see who my troublemakers will be for the year. I hope that doesn't turn out to be the case for you Miss Henderson." I quickly shook my head, still looking down. "Good, now you better walk with me there to the room. We wouldn't want you trying to disappear again, now would we?"
"No Mr. Blackferd" I answered back glumly, finally raising my head.
--
When we arrived to the room, there was already several students packed in there. Some straightened themselves in their seats as soon as the principal walked into the room, others gave me curious glances, and the rest continued to do whatever they were doing, obviously not giving a crap, being the real troublemakers of the school.
I sulkily made my way back to the very back of the room and plopped into a seat.
"No sitting all the way in the back of the room Miss Henderson, move to the middle or to the front of the room where I can clearly see you please." I groaned, dragging myself and my belongings out of my seat. What was he? Blind as a bat or something? Damn it, I hated this. Those two were dead for sure now, I would make sure of it. I sat as far away as I could, but stayed in the middle. That seemed to appease him. Mr. Blackferd started to drone on about the expectations for the new school year, and how everyone should dress and act accordingly, blah blah blah.
I opened my bag and grabbed my homework. Might as well be productive while I was here.
--
Towards the end of the detention, my mom started calling. I picked up my phone when it was suddenly snatched out of my grasp.
"NO PHONES MISS HENDERSON" Mr. Blackferd bellowed, red in the face. What the hell? How did he even get in front of me so fast? I was a star pupil in detention. What crawled up his ass and died?
"It's my mother, Mr. Blackferd, it could be an emergency. Please just let me step out of the room and answer her. You know it's just me and her now. I have to look out for her." I pleaded with him. He sighed and signaled for me to go. I quickly stood up and dashed out the door. Thank god.
"Mom?? Is everything alright?!"
"Yes dear, I'm fine. I was just calling to let you know that I need you to pick up some stuff from the grocery store. Could you do that for me please?"
I sighed.
"Mom, you knew I was in detention and that there's a no phone rule in there. But yes I can, just text me what you need and I'll walk to the store."
"Oh that's right! I'm sorry honey, I hope I didn't just land you another detention. I'll text you the list, love you, bye!" And with that, the line went dead. My mom isn't that strict of a parent. Ever since dad died, she sort of let go of the rules, not wanting to hold me back on life in case something were to happen to me. I appreciated it, but I never really did much. She just had to know where I was when I left and did go do something, usually with the twins. I shook my head and slowly walked back into the room and met the principal's eyes.
"Is everything alright?" He asked me. I stiffened and gave him a blank look and nodded my head robotically. Make him think otherwise, so he feels bad. I hope he does. Now, don't go thinking that I'm an awful person. Today has just been a long day and he had annoyed me and slightly pissed me off by yelling at me and making a scene. I walked to my seat and sat like a statue for the rest of the ten minutes. As soon as he said the okay, I was out the door. He looked after me worriedly, his eyebrows scrunched up.
As I was casually walking, this gothic girl with green hair ran up to me. She grinned at me and I looked at her confused. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" She laughed and replied:
"That was a great show you just put on! The fake sympathy story and the way you acted when you got back. You should have seen his face! It was absolutely golden ahaha" she started laughing uncontrollably, clutching her stomach. I was afraid she was gonna trip or tip over and conk her head or something. I grimaced, hoping it was subtle. Apparently not. "Why are you making that face like you're constipated?" I gaped at her, completely shocked that she was saying that to me, a complete stranger.
"What? I do NOT look like that! And the first part was true. My dad died in a drunk driving accident my freshman year." I saw her face start to sink into pity, I didn't like that one bit so I backpedaled. "He wasn't the one drunk, the other guy was. My dad never drank."
She sighed. "That's more then I can say for my dad. He always got drunk and cheated on our mom. Now it's just me, my mom, and my older brother Hunter. He's 23. My dad left with some whore a while ago and we haven't seen him since. No letter, no apology, no call, no nothing." I gave her a sad look.
"I'm really sorry about that. We should find him and totally kick his ass!!" She laughed.
"No no, Hunter has already tried that. It's not possible. It's like he disappeared off the face of the Earth. Not that I care obviously. But Hunter has lost a lot. He was going to college but had to drop out and get a job in order to help keep us going. He's the sweetest thing. Although people get intimidated with how he looks. Yeah, his looks correspond with his side jobs, but I swear he's secretly a squish ball." she said with a playful roll of her eyes. I raised my eyebrows at that last thing she called him. A squish ball? And what did she mean by 'side jobs'? I wasn't gonna press it. Instead, I switched the topic.
"Well, back to detention, the second part of my act was fake. I just wanted him to feel bad for yelling at me. You think I maybe overdid it?" She hooted with laughter, shaking her head, wiping tears from the corner of her eyes.
"So then why did your mom call, if it wasn't something serious?"
I rolled my eyes. "She just wanted to tell me to pick some stuff up from the store before I headed home. That's the only reason why I'm going this way. My house in in the opposite direction, five minutes from the school." She beamed and turned to look at me.
"Oh that's cool! We should hang out some time, my house is this way, only a couple minutes from the store. My name's Mindy. I'm a junior. I should be a senior though, being 17 and all, already." I gave her a quizzical look.
"Why are you a junior then? I have to admit, you do look a bit older then you should for a junior. And my name is Daisy. I'm 18."
"I'm only a junior because my mom had to enroll me a year later because we didn't have enough money to send me to school when I was younger. My dad was too busy spending it on booze. But then when she got her paycheck, she would start hiding some of it away from my father. When he found out I had started school from money that my mom was hiding from him, he got really really pissed off that night." She shuddered and rolled her eyes, scoffing and pretending to be unbothered but I could tell she didn't like talking about it. I doubt she told much people about this, if anyone at all. Hastily I switched the topic again.
"I like your hair, by the way!" That instantly made her happy, a full blown smile stretching on her face. Her black lipstick making her already straight white teeth blinding. I couldn't help but smile back. We walked in silence for a while, until we reached the store. She grabbed me into a bone crushing hug.
"Well this is my cue to go then, see you tomorrow?" I nodded my head and waved her off. I blew out a breath. She was gonna be a handful like the twins, I could just feel it in my bones, or maybe that was just them aching from her hug. I liked her though, she seemed really nice. And plus, this was my first new friend since the twins back in third grade.
I shook out my whole body, trying to get them to work again. Damn did that girl have some muscle in her tiny frame. I'm guessing she's about 5 foot 2 inches, because she was even shorter then me, which was hard to beat since practically everyone was taller then me, it seemed.
I walked into the store and whipped out my phone, pulling up mom's texted grocery list. It wasn't that long, but I really just wanted to go home. I blew out another breath. Alright! Let's get this over with!
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What do you think of Mindy? A soon to be friend or future enemy? Hmm... Who knows?? Not me... Hehehe