Proceed With Caution

Chapter 15

Angelina's POV

Ah. Nothing puts me in a better mood than having English class first thing in the morning. I was so done with life, but somehow Carrie seemed to have swallowed a bowl of sunshine and Skittles and was skipping along beside me like a kangaroo on steroids as we walked to class.

As soon as the clock struck eight, Mr Harrison entered the class as usual. And to say he was in a bad mood would have been the understatement of the century. Clouds gathered over his head in a gelatinous grey mass. I had seen murderous looks before, but this look on his face seemed as if he wanted to drive a chainsaw slowly through each and every one of us until blood splattered everywhere.

The most alarming thing, however, was the bruise on his right eye. It was startling and puffy like a little purple-blue mountain jutting from his eye socket. We all stared at him in horror like he was an awful piece of modern artwork.

"Erm... sir?" Jennifer Grant began, awkwardly raising her hand and turning it to a head scratch. Mr Harrison glared at her.

"Um... what happ- I mean um... is your eye... what happened there?" she stuttered.

He rolled his eyes — well, eye — and rummaged through his bag for a stack of papers.

"That's really none of your business, Miss Grant." he replied, taking the paper clip off the papers. "We'll be doing a comprehension exercise. If anybody isn't done by the time the bell rings, you'll be given detention today at 3.30 after school, no questions asked. I don't care if you have football practice or cheer practice or some other meaningless practice. Immediate detention. Do I make myself clear?"

The class chorused in compliance as he distributed the comprehension. I mentally groaned. The passage was on economic policies, hooray. My favourite. I wanted to crumple the paper into a ball and rip it to shreds. But this was one of the times where even I dared not anger him even more, because one wrong step and he would go full Pompeii on all of us, and I don't mean that in the way Jessica would want.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The moment the bell rang, everyone scurried to put their comprehensions on the teacher's desk and fly out of the classroom like bats out of hell. Mr Harrison gave every person who passed by him menacing looks, like a hawk prowling above a bunch of rats. The bruised eye made him even more of an asshole than I thought was possible.

I told Connor and Carrie to leave first. I had not finished my comprehension. I had one question left to complete, but it was already a little past 9, and the bell had already rung, and I was screwed, and Mr Harrison was looking at me. Oh god. I quickly scribbled some nonsense down on the paper to finish it once and for all.

"No, it's fine. It's fine. Take your time, Miss Velazquez. Shall I pour you a drink while you're at it? Tea, perhaps?" he said acerbically.

"That would be lovely," I replied, and secretly laughed and panicked at his impending response. He just looked at me, and then looked down at his paper.

"Detention. 3.30." he stated matter-of-factly.

"But I'm done. And it's only 9.02."

"I said to be done when the bell rings. You were done after the bell rang. Detention."

"Oh come on, can you just give me a break? It's just two minutes,"

"Keep arguing and I'll end detention at 6."

I frowned. Unreasonable bastard. It was just two fucking minutes.