Two Of Us Are Lying Now

Bronwyn

An ambulance. A pregnancy scare. Two cheating scandals. And that's just this week. If all you knew of EmCeeWhyTea Secondary school was Pix Riff's gossip app, you'd wonder why we weren't all hunched over in the loos, crying.

"Old news." says a voice underneath me. "Wait till tomorrow."

Dang. I hate being seen reading The Recap by anyone, not least its creator. I turn off my com and slam my locker, glaring down at him. "Why, what next?"

Pix trails behind me, as I fight a lost cause against the horde of students stampeding for the exit. "It's a job," he says with a smirk. "You tutor Scott, don't you? Wouldn't you rather know he has a serial killer for a brother?"

"Had." I corrected him. "The RP caught him." Which was a surprise, as the Rivendell Police were famously useless, especially Sheriff Darity, aka 'Canary in a coal mine',

"Still." he continues. "If people didn't keep secrets, where would I be?" He seems to be following me, keeping up with my speeding strides. "Where are you going?"

"Detention." He laughs, probably surprised- and rightfully so- that the famed geek of the school had to deal with matters as incriminating as detentions. "Reason?"

"None of your business." An alert crosses my com. Trivia practice 4pm. Followed by a text- Gem's here.

Of course. That friend- stealing girl only ever turns up when I'm not there.

( a/n- look, Bronwyn, you have a good reason to hate her but Gem Is Great, ok?)

As a rule, I give Pix as little information as possible. Everyone tries not to. I push through the rotting birch door at the back of the building, and slouch down the old stone brick steps. Most people would expect that this many diamonds would get a better school than this ancient, hulking stone slab. I yank down the lever, the iron door swings open, and I am greeted by Nate Maculany blinking surprisedly at me. "This is detention, missy." Trust him to know. He's been in detention since year 7, the last time we spoke. He's normally in suspension- sometimes for dealing rare and illegal items, such as Spectral Arrows. Rumour is that he even managed to snag an elytra once. Mr. Tin shoots me a glare, so I sit down and notice three other students in Mr. Tin's bad books. Cooper Clay, the school's PVP star, second only to maybe Hbomb. I know if he could, he'd be in the arena right now. Addy Prentiss, the 'pretty one' is also here, which is sort of a surprise. Unless it's for talking to Katherine in class. She does that a lot. The other student is Ryan "Scar" Goodtime, a wheelchair user and your typical disabled kid. As Mr. Tin opens his mouth to tell us what to do, the door swings open one more time. Not very surprising- Gri Gotts walks in. He's a good kid in general, it's just that Mr. Tin seems to have a total fear of technology and anyone associated with it. Which is Gri in a nutshell. He's a pretty popular Youtuber, doing gaming. Therefore, Mr. Tin has a personal vendetta against him.

As he takes a seat, I feel a pang of injustice. I should be awkwardly conversing with Gem over mob trivia, not sitting in a room with criminals and girls who know more about eyeliner than Emberdragon. 

(a/n=hehehehehehehehehehehehehe ember=shakespeare)

Mr Tin is a 'no nonsense' kind of teacher. He's cool though, in a grandfatherly kind of way. Not that shouty. I'm guessing something similar to me happened to at least four of these other students. As I raise my hand to tell him what happened to me, Nate interrupts. "Sir, that com you found in my bag wasn't mine."

"Same."

"That happened to me too!"

"It wasn't mine!" I contribute, waving my plain black com at him as confirmation.

"I'll take that, miss Rojas." he says, prising it out of my grip. Damn. I forgot you'd have to be nuts to bring a com into Mr. Tin's rooms- he spends the first five minutes of every period rooting through bags far too thoroughly that seems necessary.

"You too?" Addy turns to me, clearly puzzled. To be honest, I was wondering why Addy was here. It'd have to be something bad, otherwise she would've skipped it. I guess they had to surgically remove her from her boyfriend.

Everyone exchanges wide looks. Most people here don't talk to each other, but Gri and Scar are friends, and used to be tight with Martyn and Impulse, but they sort of drifted away. Addy and Cooper are also friends, so I wonder how it can be news to them. Maybe "cool" people don't talk about detentions.

"Maybe someone played a trick!" pleads Addy, her voice cracking at the end. As soon as she says that, Simon leans forward, ready to prey on fresh gossip and his favourites- conspiracies. He slowly rotates his head around all three of us before his gaze finally fluctuates between only two people- Gri and Nate. "Why would anyone want to keep kids with nearly spotless records in detention? Why oh why, maybe the people who are in the most? Fun, maybe? Company?"

I look at both of them, but I just can't imagine. Rigging a detention sounds like a lot of work, and everything about Nate screams "AM I BOVVERED?" in big capital letters with glittery bits. He glances at me, for reassurance, maybe, then slumps his head on the desk. Gri... maybe, well I don't think so. I know him a bit, everyone does, and he's always seemed like that neighbour who would bring you cookies sometimes. I can't imagine why he would do that, especially as he very clearly does not want to be here. He keeps alternating between staring at the clock and tapping his foot rhythmically.

Cooper sits up straight (-er, he's still slouching.), and scowls slightly. "Hang on. I thought this was just an error, but maybe this is someone's idea of a laugh. If it is, I'm missing sword fights because of it." Does he need them to survive or something?

"Save it for another teacher, pur-lease. You all know the rules, and you all broke them." Again, Pix and Gri both get the worst glances.He knows that The Recap exists, of course, but he can't do anything about it. Pix only uses initials and never mentions the name of school. "Shut it. You're here until five. I want a 600- word essay on how Red-stone is ruining schools. Follow the rules, or another detention."

"What with?" I have the courage to ask. "There aren't any WTPD's here." Most classrooms have writing devices, but Mr. Tin is still procrastinating.

He crosses to my desk and digs his fingernails into the corner of the stack of paper on the corner of my desk. "The magic of quills. I'll hand them out."

"But how do we know when we've reached 600 words?" Addy inputs. Her expression is what you would call incredibly confused.

"Count." Mr. Tin's eyes widen when he notices I'm still holding my com. "And hand that over. Miss Rojas."

"Doesn't the fact that you're claiming my com twice make you even pause? Who has two?" Nate snickers, so quietly I almost miss it. "Seriously, someone somewhere's laughing."

His snowy- grey beard twitches with annoyance. "Com, Rojas. Unless you want a return visit?" I hand it in as he speaks to the others. "Your coms are in the chest. You'll get them afterwards." Everyone else exchanges sniggers, glances and smiles, probably because their actual coms are safe in their bags.

Mr. Tin tosses my com in a chest and grabs a book and quill as he prepares to ignore us for the next hour or so. I think about my assignment a bit. Is technology really ruining schools? It was only a few contraband coms, and some people make their lives based on tech. Maybe he's bluffing and wants us to contradict him? Or it's a double bluff?

I glance over at Nate, who's writing COMS SUCK over and over in caps.

I'm overthinking this.

- a very very tired piper. I'm sorry, but there will not be another thing for a while-