Hey You

Chapter 4

Apparently, she was not the only one.

Nella looked around the assigned detention room. It was nearly full of rowdy kids she'd rather not be with. She guessed those other students probably didn't think the school would hand out detentions slips on the first day of school just like she thought. New students, specially the freshmen, aren't familiar with the school. They need time to find their classes. Schedules also have to be picked up in the first place. There were so many things going on, she thought the staff should have been more lenient and understanding.

"Settle down, people," the teacher assigned to the detention room motioned for the students to take a seat. "My name is Mr. Brown. I am in charge of detention this week. I see familiar faces unfortunately, but welcome back to school and to detention," he nodded to some students including Jane. "I also see some newcomers, welcome to detention. I hope to never see you again."

The students laughed while Nella took a deep breath. She thought this should be the first and last she'll ever have to serve detention. Never again, she thought.

"Whatever landed you here, I hope it's worth spending your first day of school here with me. Those that got swept away by the tardy sweep, I hope you guys take punctuality more seriously like the faculty do. Specially you, seniors, because yes, believe it or not punctuality is something that you actually need in the real world. You arrive late for a job, it looks bad on you, it looks bad for the company you work for. Let this be a lesson, people. Those guards love handing out detention slips, so come on time next time," the teacher advised. "You guys understand?" He asked when the room fell silent, you could actually hear a pin drop.

The students nodded.

"Come on now, I need to hear from you guys. I said: do you understand?" Mr. Brown asked again.

"Yes, Mr. Brown," the students replied out loud.

"Okay then, for those of you who aren't new to detention, you guys know the drill," he nodded his head. Those he was referring to started taking stuff out of their backpacks. "To those new to detention, the rules are as follows: you stay in this class to serve your detention for thirty minutes; then you sit quietly while doing schoolwork and/or your homework. Read. Write. Journal and maybe even reflect on your tardiness. Heck, you can even draw or doodle if you want. Just keep it on paper and not on my desks. Nobody cares if A + B = Forever even if you draw a heart around it. Leave my desks alone. Whatever you do, just make sure to keep to yourselves and stay busy," Mr. Brown instructed. "Oh and no phones, tablets, or any kind of technology whatsoever. I think you guys can survive without your phones for half an hour.

Jane sighed. Then she leaned forward and tapped the back of the student sitting in front of her. "You have paper?" She whispered.

Nella frowned when she felt someone touching her back. Then she sighed when she realized what the student wanted from her. She grabbed a notebook and tore off a couple of sheets and handed it to the student sitting behind her.

"Oh, one's just fine. I'm not really going to do anything. We just need to look like we're busy," Jane smiled sneakily while handing the extra sheet of paper back to Nella. "Oh, and if you have an extra pen, can I borrow that too? Thanks," she said as quietly as possible.

Nella sighed. She took out a pen and handed it Jane. "Thanks. You're a lifesaver."

"Did you not come to school with anything?" Nella asked when she realized Jane brought nothing with her to detention.

"I left it all in my locker. I'm not going to carry all those heavy stuff with me, and besides, when I found out Brown's in charge of detention, I knew he wasn't going to check whether we actually do something. He doesn't care," Jane explained.

Nella took a deep breath. "Okay," was all she could say.

While deep into writing and organizing her schedule for the week, she felt another tap, but it was on her arm this time. She frowned when Jane handed her a note. "What's this?" She asked in a whisper while her head was subtly turned to the side so Jane would know she was talking to her.

"Open it and read it," Jane mouthed.

Nella faced the front and took a deep breath. She unfolded the paper Jane had just handed to her.

Are you actually doing schoolwork?

She sighed and wrote a big YES next to what Jane had written, and underneath it, she wrote, "And you should too!" Then she passed the note back to her.

Not a minute later, the note was passed back to her.

You don't have to. Let's just pass notes to each other. I'm bored. Maybe time will go by quicker if we just talk to each other. :)

Nella rolled her eyes while she folded the paper and dropped it back to Jane's table.

Then she nearly had a heart attack when the paper was dropped by her shoulder and into her lap. She turned around and frowned at Jane who didn't seem to mind that she was getting on Nella's nerves.

Nella set the note aside and continued what she was doing before she was rudely interrupted by her nosy schoolmate. For what seemed like only five minutes, there was finally some much needed peace and quiet. She could finally think again. The short moment of zen ended when she felt the back of a pen being used to write on her back.

"Would you please stop?" She said out loud which made the other students and Mr, Brown look towards her and Jane.

Mr. Brown stared at the two with his eyeglasses on the tip of his nose. "Jane, quit bothering your neighbor." He knew the troublemakers of the school, and Jane was one of them. "If you don't want to do any work, fine. Just leave your peers alone."

Jane slouched on her seat and did a few quiet taps on the table before she put the pen on her mouth.

Nella widened her eyes and thanked Mr. Brown for reprimanding the annoying girl sitting behind her.

The rest of detention, Jane kept quietly to herself. When detention was over and they were dismissed, she watched as Nella darted out of the room like she wanted to get away as fast as she could. Jane didn't even get the chance to return her pen.

She shook her head while she twirled Nella's pen in between her fingers. "Don't worry, new girl, you'll definitely see me again."