"Rebel With A Cause" or..."Detention Day at Shermer High"

Chapter 3: Group Therapy & End of Detention

Allison waves the piece of paper over her head:

"What is that?" Andrew asked. "It's Scott's transfer letter." Allison replied. "That's mine. Give it back!" Scott yelled. Scott tried to grab the letter, but Allison held it out of reach. "Seriously Allison, it's not funny!" Scott yelled. "Uh huh." Allison replied. Scott tries to appeal to Allison with genuine emotion: "Allison, please. Don't." He says. "I would never do that to you." Seemingly having a change of heart, Allison extends the letter to him. "Less talking, more reading." Bender said as he snatched the letter out of Allison's hands before quickly scanning it over. "Ahhh." Bender said with amazement. "What?" Claire asked. "Well, according to this, our friend Scott here, didn't come to Shermer by choice." Bender stated. "He got expelled from his last school." "Whoa. Even Bender hasn't been expelled." Brian stated. "Yet." Andrew added. "Scott was expelled from Dewey High on the grounds of-" Bender started to read. "Bender, look out!" Scott said suddenly. Scott pretends to point to something behind Bender, and he instinctively turns around. While he's distracted, Scott pulls the letter out of his hand. "I can't believe you just fell for that." Scott exclaimed. "Well at least the rumors were mostly true; Good to know you're not just a poser." Bender stated. "What do you mean mostly?" Scott asked. "Well, I also heard you were an idiot, but I'd say you're more of an asshole." Bender replied. "Uhhh, thanks?" Scott replied. "What's the difference?" Brian asked. "There's a fine, but definite, distinction." Bender replied. "Which would be...what?" Brian asked. "Listen dweeb, I don't have time to get into the subtleties of derogatory diction with you right now; We've got bigger fish to fry." Bender sniped. "So what's the story Scott? Spill it." "You don't wanna know, and you wouldn't understand." Scott replied, trying to avoid the subject. "I know why you got kicked out of your last school." Allison said. "Give it a rest, Allison." Andrew said. "He'll tell us if he feels like it." Claire chimed in. "Which will probably be next to never if you flemwads don't stop bothering me!" Scott sniped. "Why are you so freakin' weird?" Brian asked Allison. "To conform is to die a slow death." Allison replied. "So you're weird because you think not being weird is a slow death?" Claire asked. "You really want to know why I'm so weird?" Allison asked, frowning. "I think it might shed some light." Brian stated. "Seriously Allison, what's going on? Are you ok?" Scott asked. Allison jerked her head away as her eyes filled with tears. "Allison..." Scott starts to say. "Well if you really want to know why I'm so weird, then empty my bag onto the table." Allison replied. In unison, the rest of the group all say: "No."  Allison looks hurt and then resentful. Just to spite everyone, she dumps the contents of her bag onto the couch anyway. Lots of stuff comes out. "Holy cow! What is all that stuff?" Andrew asked.  "Do you always carry this much stuff in your bag?" Brian asked. "Yeah...I always carry this much stuff in my bag; You never know when you may have to jam." Allison replied. "Are you gonna be like a shopping bag lady? You know like, sit in alleyways and like talk to buildings and wear men's shoes and that kinda thing?" Brian asked. "I'll do what I have to do." Allison replied. "Why do you have to do anything?" Brian asked. "My home life is un...satisfying." Allison replied with feeling. "So you're saying you'd subject yourself to the violent dangers of the Chicago streets because your homelife is unsatisfying?" Brian asked. Tears began to form in Scott's eyes, and he suddenly got up and walked to the back of the library and hid behind one of the aisles. "What's his problem?" Bender asked. "I don't know, I think they might have hit on something." Claire stated. "I don't have to run away and live in the street...I can run away and, go to the ocean, I can go to the country, I can go to the mountains. I can go to Israel, Africa, Afghanistan..." Allison rambles. Brian looks at her and then moves over to Andrew. "Andy...you wanna get in on this? Allison here says, she wants to run away, because her home life is unsatisfying." Brian stated. "Well everyone's home lives are un- satisfying...If it wasn't, people would live with there parents forever." Andrew replied. "Yeah, yeah I understand. But I think that hers' goes beyond, you know, what guys like you and me consider normal or unsatisfying." Brian explained. "Nevermind...forget it, everything's cool!" Allison said as she started putting everything back in her purse. "What's the deal?" Andrew asked. "No! There's no deal, Sporto; Forget it, leave me alone." Allison said. "Wait a minute, now you're carrying all that crap around in your purse. Either you really wanna run away or you want people to think you wanna run away." Andrew said. "Eat dirt!" Allison yelled as she got up and walked away. "The girl is an island, with herself. Okay?" Brian said. Andrew gets up and goes after her. "Hi, you wanna talk?" He asked her. "No!" Allison yelled. "Why not?" Andrew asked. "Go away." Allison said. "Where do you want me to go?" Andrew asked. "GO away!" Allison yelled. Andrew turned away and Allison starts to cry. "You have problems." Allison stated. "Oh, I have problems?" Andrew asked sarcastically. "You do everything everybody ever tells you to do, that is a problem!" Allison yelled. "Okay, fine...but I didn't dump my purse out on the couch and invite people into my problems...Did I? So what's wrong? What is it? Is is bad? Real bad? Parents?" Andrew asked. Allison begins to cry silently. "Yeah." She says. Andrew nods. "What do they do to you?" Andrew asked. "They ignore me." Allison says sadly. "Yeah...yeah..." Andrew replied. They both start crying silently.

Meanwhile, Claire went over and found Scott crying in the aisleway. "Are you o.k.?" Claire asked. "No." Scott said, still crying. "What's wrong?" Claire asked. "I don't want to talk about it o.k.?!" Scott yelled. "I'm just trying to help." Claire said sympathetically. "I know, I just, I don't want to talk about it." Scott said. "Was it something they said?" Claire asked. "Yes." Scott said with tears still in his eyes. "What was it?" Claire asked. "Didn't I just say I didn't want to talk about it?! Are you hard of hearing?!" Scott snapped. "I'm sorry! I'm just trying to help." Claire said, a bit scared by Scott's sudden outburst. "I know, I'm sorry. I just..." Scott said, then he completely broke down crying. Claire put her arms around him and embraced him sympathetically. "Sshhh, I got you." She said. Scott cried into her shoulder. After a few moments, Scott began to calm down. "Feel better?" Claire asked. "Just a little bit. Thanks for coming to cheer me up." Scott said. "I kinda owed you one. I guess we're even now, huh?" Claire said. "Yeah." Scott smiled. "Come on, let's rejoin the group." Claire suggested. She and Scott walked hand-in-hand back to the group.