The rest of my classes passed in a blur. Tamie was absent in English, and I passed the time exchanging notes in the class with Gasoline. It was mostly him scribbling about what happened in Chemistry, and me trying to sound as partial as I could about the matter in everything I wrote in reply. Somehow, by third period, the whole school knew about what happened in Chemistry class.

I had Math with Joan, and she wasn’t interested in the least bit about what happened. All through the class, she doodled a tree with heads instead of leaves in her black sketchbook.

In Biology, Jason kept asking me if I was okay, and glancing at me worriedly. I don’t know why he was worried. I was, and still am perfectly capable of handling myself and putting douchebags in their rightful places.

When lunch time came around, I was too exhausted with the looks and whispers, so I took a trip to the nurse’s office to check up on Tamie. I was told she went home, so I wasted time searching through crime novels in the school library. But even there, I got the stares and whispers.

So, I finished my classes without any more drama. Carter wasn’t in my other classes, so I didn’t bump to him. and since I avoided the cafeteria, I didn’t see him again since first period.

The universe gave me a small blessing. I had to be at Charlie’s by four, or five pm, and the detention slip Mr. Dobrin gave me after class indicated that I had to only spend two hours in detention.

School ends by two o’clock, so if I was lucky and quick enough, I would get there probably a bit later than four, but before five.

I wanted to make the best impression on my first day at work. You already know how I feel about first impressions.

When the last bell rung, I swung my backpack on my shoulders, heavy with stress and exhaustion, and made my way to the detention hall, which was more of a classroom than a hall, and stood secluded at the end of the school’s second emergency exit door.

I didn’t bother knocking, and just sauntered in.

The teacher siting at the desk glared up at me like I had interrupted his siesta. He looked like an underfed and underpaid version of Billy Ray Cyrus, with a large mole directly in the space under his left nostril and above his upper lip. His hair was overgrown and slicked back with too much gel which made him appear completely ridiculous.

I also laughed, but caught myself in time, masking my humor with a greeting.

He ignored the greeting and glanced through a computer to make sure I wasn’t standing in for anyone, and that I was truly ‘Ellie Kellerman’.

“Your second day and you’ve already caused trouble, huh?” He said, with a disapproving shake of his head. A lock of hair escaped the gelled prison he had placed it in, and it stood up erect, at the top of his head like an overgrown and ugly, less fun version of a Teletubby.

I ignored his remark like he ignored my greeting and handed him my detention slip, before dragging my feet to a seat at the furthest side of the classroom, already bored and tired just thinking of the hours I had to spend doing nothing.

I was the only person in detention. Well, if you count out low-cost, boring Billy Ray Cyrus.

Carter was assigned the same detention as me, but for some reason, I expected him not to show up. However, the mere thought of the possibility that he might appear out of the doorway anytime sent shivers down my spine and made my heart beat faster.

Before you think of anything, I have anxiety.

And honestly, who wouldn’t feel triggered to think that a person asked for detention just to finish the fight they had begun. Who wouldn’t? What I felt was only natural.

Human behavior… right?

Speak of the devil.

Carter walked through the door. Something told me he was accustomed to being in detention, because when he came to the teacher’s desk, he didn’t even wait for the usual verification, but simply threw his slip at the teacher and plopped down three seats away from me.

I focused on a writing scratched into the desk I was sitting on and pretended not to notice his entrance. In reality, my ears were ringing with the rush of blood, and I had to chew down on my bottom lip to stop myself from stealing a glance.

Two more students walked in together; jocks, by the look of the football jacket they were wearing, and their bulky muscles. Low-cost Billy Ray Cyrus slash Teletubby received the same treatment from them, and I wondered for a moment if the teacher was an actual douchebag and got the same disrespectful treatment from all the students, or if he was just scared of anyone with large muscles.

The two jocks sat a few seats away from Carter.

A blond girl loudly chewing gum entered last. She wore large capri pants and a tank top with a bucket hat. A small oval eyeglass perched up on her tiny button nose. She looked like the definition of dumb, chill, and indie. Unlike Carter, me, and the football players, she actually conversed with the teacher, whose name was apparently Mr. Luigi.

Trust me, the name fits him.

Indie blondie also sat at the very first row of chairs. Who does that? Why sit in the front row while in detention? What was the point?

Finally, giving in to my curiosity, I stole a glance up at Carter. Surprise, we made eye contact. I gave him the dirtiest look I could muster and tore my eyes away, glaring up at the ceiling and huffing out loudly to show my annoyance.

His image and outline registered itself in my head as I glared up at the white ceiling like it was the cause of my despair. He was in all black, exactly like he had been in first period, with ripped jeans that looked like a newer and more expensive version of the one I was wearing.

I tried to clear my head and focus on something else.

Now, let me give you a tip, as a person who has seen many detention halls and classrooms in her short years of high school. When you are trapped in those empty and boring spaces; daydream. I’ve figured out that daydreaming is the quickest and easiest way to make the time fly by.

Daydream about fictional worlds. Cook up adventures in your head. Pretend to be in the shower and think deeply about the meaning of life. Think of anything and everything you can to stop yourself from looking at the douchebag who’s undoubtedly staring at you from three seats away.

I soon discarded the idea that Carter had asked for detention because he wanted to get back at me or continue the quarrel we had begun. After all, we had been in detention for almost an hour and yet he didn’t say a word to me or attempted to get up from his seat.

Maybe it was guilty feeling after all.

Mr. Luigi cleared his throat and got up. He looked at us with a silent warning, as if we would escape detention through the windows if he left the classroom. After a specific gaze of disapproval and slight disgust at me, he left the classroom, probably to go to the bathroom. He seemed like the type of guy that would go to pee after every hour.

This is it. I thought…

Carter got up from his chair, and my heart leapt to my throat. I focused my gaze straight ahead and tried to stay calm and look unbothered.

I was forced to show my alertness when the two football players got up from their seats, backing up Carter as he walked leisurely to my table.

“What do you want?” I asked icily, glaring up at them.

The indie blondie in front of the class stopped smacking on her gum. I was pretty sure she had done a one-eighty-degree turn to face us and see what was going on, and what was about to go down.

If anything happens, she’d be the one to tell the whole school population.

“You love to run your mouth, don’t you?” Carter inquired sarcastically, cocking his head to the side and folding his arms.

I ignored him and his minions, thinking if I gave them the silent treatment, they’d leave me alone.

One of the jocks brought out a bottle from the large pocket in his football jersey. I glanced back up at the bottle, but before I could read the label or register what its contents were, the guy uncapped the lid and emptied the contents on my head.

The indie blondie gasped.

It was toilet water. I could smell the slight fading smell of pee, and the strong overpowering smell of bleach. He had poured toilet water on me.

Ah… I thought.

So, this was what they had planned for detention.

I blinked and wiped the gross water from my eyes with my shirt. A slow anger bubbled within me up to the surface. The feeling of humiliation made me want to cry, but I turned my tears into more reasons to be pissed and stood up abruptly.

The chair toppled backwards and crashed to the floor.

Before I knew it, I lunged at the jock who still had the empty bottle in his hand. I was screaming and hurling colorful insults at the lots of them.

The football player braced for my attack, and when he was in a distance close enough, he grabbed my waist and threw me over his shoulder.

I met the floor with a thud. Pain shot through my spine, and right knee.

Now, I know a few things about fighting. I was still rusty in the area of self-defense but I knew how to throw a punch and kick out my legs, and ultimately that was what matters right? Those were the main and basic moves. So, when the second football player ran towards me, I kicked out my legs from under him and he lost his balance.

Toppling to the ground like I had done earlier, but in a less graceful manner, he grabbed wildly for something ng to hold on to in a desperate and pathetic attempt to stop his fall.

The moment he was down and defenseless, I straddled him and landed punches after punches to his face. He blocked a few, but I got about five solid punches targeted at his nose that made them bleed, before Carter and his other minion dragged me off their friend.

I was thrown again into a stack of chairs at the back of the classroom.

At this point, I think my pinkie finger broke in half, and the pain shooting through my whole body due to the contact with the chairs and floor made me unable to comprehend what was going on.

Someone was choking me, and my vision blurred.

Imagine me; Ellie Kellerman, dying in the hands of some cliché and childish high school bullies. Tragic. But don’t worry, I didn’t die.