The T.R.A.K.Z

Chapter 3: Detention

   Do routine... Check. Go to detention... Pending.

   I have done all the things in my routine. All that's left is to spend an hour in detention. What's worse is that Mr. Munson will monitor us.

   But what was going on my mind was when I told my mom that I was going to detention with four other students last night, I was really shocked to see her smile at me. SHE SMILED. Then she said, "I'm glad you're making friends," and she continued making dinner, leaving me stunned on my chair.

   I was walking in the hallways on my way to the detention room. The detention room was located at the back of the gym, beside the storage room where all the band's instruments were stored.

   Since Mr. Munson is always early for detention --he may hate kids but he loves punishing them--, I opened the door slowly, went in, closed the door, and silently sat on a chair. As I looked around the room, I understood why they chose this room for detention purposes. The walls were painted a dull gray, there were only two small windows at the left side of the room, the fluorescent lights were already dim and dusty, the blackboard at the front of the room has the word "DETENTION!" along with the words "No talking!" and "No standing!" written under it in chalk. There was a waste basket and a box at the corner of the room. Mr. Munson was sitting on his desk at the front of the room, glaring at us. The room was so dull, it made the janitor's closet a more comfortable place to be in despite it's size.

   I noticed that there are only four occupants in the room; Mr. Munson on his desk, Thalia in the middle of the room, the one wearing glasses from yesterday near the corner, Roy who was sitting next to Thalia, and me.

   Just as I was wondering about where is the blue-eyed teen and the other detentionees --I like to call them that, don't judge me-- are, the door was opened widely to reveal the blue-eyed teen panting at the door.

   "Sorry I'm late, Mr. Munson!" The panting teen said loudly.

   "Go to your seat!" Mr. Munson shouted, an irritated look on his face.

   The blue-eyed teen quickly closed the door and sat on a chair which was in front of where I was seated.

   After a few seconds of glaring at the teen in front of me, Mr. Munson cleared his throat then said, "Alright, since all of you are here, one hour of detention starts now."

   Wait, we're the only ones who are in detention? I thought, How about the other detentionees?

   Roy also had the same thought as he asked, "Where are the other students who will be in detention?" We all agreed on what he said and we started to ask the same question.

   "SILENCE!" Mr. Munson said angrily. We all kept quiet in case he will extend our days of detention.

   This is so boring, I thought, after few minutes of doing nothing.

   Just then, the janitor entered, got the waste basket which had a few pieces of paper and left as if we weren't in the room.

   The blue-eyed teen who was seated in front of me reached out his hand toward the door. "No!" he said dramatically, "Take me with you!"

   "SILENCE!" Mr. Munson shouted. We all laughed but after receiving a glare from him, we all shut our mouths.

   Another agonizing five minutes of silence and no one was doing anything except sitting and breathing. Suddenly, Mr. Munson stood up and left the room without a word.

   "Well, that was weird," the blue-eyed teen turned back from his chair and noticed me sitting behind him, "Hi! The name's Zoom, what's yours?"

   "U-uh.." I stared at him. He might think I'm dumb. Say something!

   "Her name's Alex," Thalia said, knowing that I was too shy to speak, "We are the reason she's in detention with us."

   "Oops," Zoom said, "Sorry about that."

   "N-no problem," I said nervously.

   "She talks!" Zoom exclaimed. He's funny, I thought, smiling.

   Zoom sighed dramatically, "I could have done that marvelous prank earlier if Ken over there told me that there were frogs in the lab."

    I'm guessing Ken was the teen with glasses because he said, "That's the reason why I didn't want to tell you," He pushed his glasses to the bridge of his nose, " I knew that you would make a prank out of it."

   I noticed he was shifting his gaze from Zoom, to me, and back to Zoom.

   "And it would be an awesome prank," Zoom said slowly to Ken as if he didn't understand him, then he stood up and went to the box at the corner of the room.

   "Oh look, it's a 'lost and found' box," He opened the box and his face lit up, "My stress ball is here is here, I always wondered where it went after I dropped it." He inspected the stress ball which looked like a baseball to see is it was still okay.

   Thalia faked a cough, "Butter fingers," she murmured.

   "I don't have butter fingers," Zoom lifted something from the box, "Cool! Fake teeth,"

   Roy spoke up, "I don't think those are fake,"

   "Gross!" Zoom dropped the not-so-fake teeth and wiped his fingers on his jeans, "Why are there  dentures in this box?"

    We all laughed at Zoom's disgusted face. Suddenly, Mr. Munson came in and we instantly kept quiet. Zoom rushed to his chair but tripped on the way, making the stress ball bounce off his hand and roll across the floor.

   "Butter fingers," Thalia muttered into her hand. Zoom just glared at her while the rest of us --except Mr. Munson-- chuckled.

    Mr. Munson just stood near the door and said, " Detention is over. Get out, you brats!"

   It hasn't been an hour yet, I thought as I stood from my chair.

   As I was about to leave the school, I remembered that I have Mr. Reed's lab keys. So, I went to the Science classroom, hoping he was still there. Luckily, the door was open and he was on his desk checking papers.

   I knocked on the open door and Mr. Reed let me in. "What brings you here, Alex?" he asked, adjusting his colored tie.

   "I-I'm here t-to return the keys," I said, handing out the keys to him.

   He got the keys from me and smiled, "Thanks for taking care of it," he said.

   "Y-you're welcome, Mr. Reed," I said. I waved him goodbye and left the classroom.

   As I was going home, I can't shake the feeling that he knows something when he smiled.