The Dove And The Grenade.

Chapter 1: Here Comes Trouble.

Paper crunched into a small ball in the back of the classroom while Mr Dougald paced the front of the room in a sleepy lullaby rhythm, his voice was dead and slow as he read the lecture to the class of thirteen year olds. Sleepy and bored teenagers lined up in the vertically aligned desks, doodling in their notebooks or drifting off to sleep; even on a bright and sunny morning like today. The smart kids were inhabiting the front rows, the preppy kids and jocks were in the middle, finally the punks and misfits lined the back rows.

And like a good misfit, that small paper ball that had a doodles and a statement written on it was lying playfully in the palm of a pale hand before it was launched from the soft flesh and rolled off the long fingers. The white paper ball glowed of purity when it was in eclipse of the sun, shadowing the kids in the sun's direct rays. Nobody seemed to have cared though, it was being sent from the back row after all. That paper ball of folded spikes landed in a curly bush of medium brown hair with a crinkling sound. Matty jerked his hand up to take hold of the ball after almost an entire class of drifting between sleep and wake. He knew that it was Eliese who created and sent the ball of notes. He carefully unfolded the ball of paper to see lots of small drawings and an important note.

I NEED 2 TALK 2 U @ LUNCH BEHIND SEX ED BUILDING IT'S SERIOUS. ~LIES.

Matty furrowed his neatly groomed eyebrows before twisting around to face the brunette sitting diagonally from him. The girl's eyes glowed a golden brown in the morning light, same did her skin. Matty admired the Native American culture, ever since Eliese took him to a powwow when they were kids.

"Why?" Matty mouthed with a puzzled expression. He didn't know what was so serious that they couldn't talk about it at the lunch table like they always do. Eliese leaned in towards the boy with a sullen look darkening her features.

"Just do it, please Matty." Eliese begged him in breathless words. Matty has never seen or heard Eliese beg someone to do something for her. It was a feeling that made his stomach twist. He saw urgency on her pale brown face. He's never seen that on her face. Matty realized that this must be important and he needs to comply to her request. Matty pursed his lips and swallowed hard before giving her a short nod.

"Okay." Matty sighed heavily.

"Mister Busek, Miss St Clair, is there something more important for you two to be discussing that is not of the lesson I'm currently teaching?" Mr Dougald questioned the two misfits from the front of the classroom, he stood in front desk the green chalkboard in a white dress shirt, an old knit vest and beige dress pants. Eliese and Matty turned their attention to Mr Dougald slowly with pouting expressions masking their faces.

"No Sir." They both said flatly. Mr Dougald frowned at the two of them before turning on the heel of his brown leather dress shoes; he plucked up and piece of chalk of the ledge then wrote Matthew Busek and Elizabeth St Clair under the word DETENTION. Eliese frowned when she saw that even after more than half a year of knowing her, Mr Dougald still doesn't know that her name is just Eliese and not a nickname for Elizabeth. Matty snickered to himself along with the rest of the class. Mr Dougald spun around to face his seventh grade class with a deathly sharp look.

"I will see you two after School today." He reminded them that they have detention with him today after School.

Eliese licked her chapped lips then sat back in her desk with a restless feeling in her legs and razor winged butterflies in her stomach. Her wrists cramped from forcing her hands not to shake violently and her ankles twitched at light speed, the heel of her shoe tapped the tiled floor quickly, anxiously. This was the last period before she and Matty had lunch, she was unsure of how her best friend was going to react to the news she was about to give him. She hoped he'd take it well but that's just a hope.