Smells Like Winter

02: Veins & Needles

"I got a detention?! W-What? But why? Mrs. Blossom, I..." Maddy stuttered, panting as if she was out of breath. She had broken into a sprint to reach the school building in time for her first class, but, instead, she had bumped into the headmistress in the hallway. And her mind was still trying to process the woman's last words that echoed in the empty corridor.

"I said: DETENTION." Mrs. Blossom's squeaky, extremely irritating voice sounded strict and high-pitched enough to make Maddy's ears bleed. "You were late. And your appearance today is absolutely disrespectful, young lady! Now head to your class. Immediately." As she pronounced those words, the headmistress' glaring eyes shot daggers at Maddy from behind that awful pair of spectacles she had balanced on her hooked nose. She turned around in an extremely pompous twirl and walked her way across the corridor, her pencil skirt remaining immovable on her wide hips and her high heels making the floorboards creak underneath her tottering feet.

And thus Maddy was left hanging in the corridor, with her jaw having dropped to the floor. Her expression went blank, eyes fixed on her feet, looking at her untied shoelaces without really seeing anything.

Holy. Shit. I just got a detention. Maddy panicked at the thought. This was her first detention ever. Mum is going to kill me. Hell, I'm screwed. What am I...?

The loud ringing of the school bell interrupted her thoughts, snapping her out of her trance. She jumped at the deafening sound which drilled her eardrums, blinked a couple of times and looked around cautiously, like a lost puppy.

It's okay... It's just a detention. Ain't that big of a deal.

Maddy swallowed thickly as she made her way towards her locker in big strides. The corridors were already starting to get crammed with students coming out of their classrooms, students whose voices and giggles mingled with the metallic sound of lockers being shut somewhere in the near distance.

Maddy was wishing she could dig her hands deep inside the pockets of her favorite ripped jeans, those same jeans that she was forbidden to wear at school. Instead, she was wearing that stupid pleated skirt that her mother had meticulously ironed from the previous day, only for the rain to bedraggle it.

"Maddy!" her best friend's voice calling her name from a few steps away.

Maddy lifted her eyes on the girl who was waiting for her in front of their adjacent lockers. Clarke's slim figure was a few meters in front of her, balancing on one foot. Her caramel hair was dead straight, styled in a long bob with bangs that were softly falling in front of her almondish honey-colored eyes. She looked truly ethereal.

Unlike Maddy.

When their glances met, Clarke covered her mouth with one hand, clearly struggling to keep a straight face, the other one holding a half-full carton cup of coffee.

"Girl, what happened to you?" Clarke's eyes scanned Maddy from head to toe, overflowing with a teasing humour. She was barely holding back her bell-like laughter. "You look like a drenched cat," she informed her bluntly, and then burst into giggles.

"Thanks." Maddy rolled her eyes at her best friend, although she knew Clarke was right.

"What happened?"

"Late night study. Missed the bus. Forgot my umbrella." Maddy shrugged. She reached for the hem of her sweater and peeled it up her body, then threw it inside her locker with hatred.

"You? Missed the bus? Well, that was unexpected. Did you do the essay at least? Actually, that was a stupid question. Of course you did. The question is: What did you write?"