Hiding in Plain Sight

Detention

     We all dashed down to Fennec's room, her scream still echoed in my mind, "Fen, what's wrong?" I screamed upon reaching her room.

     "They stole my Zayn poster!" She cried, dropping her head into her hands.

     "Fennec, I'm gonna kill you!" I screamed, I launched myself at her but was held back by Hoary who had grabbed my arms, "We were afraid something happened!"

     "Something did happen!" Fennec wailed, "My. Zayn. Poster. Is. GONE!" She shouted, piecing every word on its own, "Besides, the door is closed so it's not like people heard."

     "The doorknob is not on the door, the door physically cannot close!" I shouted.

     "Well sorry that my Zayn poster is gone!" Fen screamed, crossing her arms and pouting, "I liked that poster, it was my favorite."

     "We could always get a new one." Darwin offered, trying to be gentle.

     "No!" Fennec rose from her bed and stomped over to where the Zayn poster had once been, she raised her hand to the wall and sighed, "The stores stopped selling the right type of poster, there are none left, like, anywhere. They've been discontinued."

     "I'm sorry for your, well, loss." Hoary began, "But there really isn't much we could do about it and there still isn't a doorknob. We really have to get to work."

     Fennec gave a long, over exaggerated sigh, "I understand, just leave me. I need a few minutes."

     "Okay?" I pulled Darwin and Hoary from Fen's room and closed the door, "Now," I turned to them and placed my hands on my hips, "Who knows how to put in a doorknob?"

***

     The next day was far less chaotic then day one, I once more woke to Christina Perri's "Human" and pulled myself together. I slipped on my fluffy yellow-white slippers with fox faces on them and walked over to a drowsy Snow. Tapping her on the back she whipped her head around to stare at me, Snow pulled her legs out from her curled up body and slowly moved into a stretching position, giving a silent yawn. Once I opened the door, Snow scampered out of my room and to my love seat, it was her favorite place to sit.

     "Hey Fen, excited for class?" I asked, opening the fridge for my mango yogurt, "Oh yeah, the Dragons took my yogurt. What a start to the day." I reached onto the counter and grabbed a croissant.

     "To answer your question, no!" Fen whimpered, "I can just tell that Dire's gonna be tougher today than yesterday." Fennec ran her fingers through her hair and pulled her ears so the were sticking straight up like mine. She shoved her spoon in her mouth making it look like she had one jagged fang, "I'm Dire and I'm gonna make sure all wolves will be valued above all else." On the last word the spoon fell out of her mouth and clattered onto the floor, making Snow peak around to see what had happened. "See, today's gonna be just peachy."

      "Oh hey, where's Alfie?" I asked, pulling out a new spoon and passing it over to Fen.

     "I tried to wake him up but he nipped my hand." Fennec raised her hand for me to see the bandage, "He's a slow riser."

      "I've gotta go get ready, I'm gonna try this new makeup look and it takes me a while." I walked off into my room and slammed the door, "What to wear, what to wear." I pulled open my dresser and grabbed a dark brown sweater, "Oh, and a pair of jeans would look really cute with this!" I squealed, pulling jeans from my closet. A knock pounded on my door.

     "Hey Cori, you okay? You're talking to yourself!" Fennec shouted through the door.

     "Yeah! Just got a good outfit idea!" I shouted in reply, I pulled on my outfit and quickly put on my makeup, putting on a dark rose lipstick, I pulled my dark rose beanie on to match and pulled on my signature combat boots. "What do you think?" I shouted, jumping from room to show Fen.

     "Pretty good, just this one thing." Fen walked over and pushed my hair onto one shoulder, "Lord, your hair is thick!" She shouted, I looked into the mirror we had hung in the hallway and I smiled.

     "Perfect!"

***

     Class droned on, nothing interesting whatsoever, except for the fact that Fen, Hoary, Darwin, and I got some serious scolding for forgetting to buy our textbooks the previous day. When we stepped into Study of Predators and Prey, my stomach dropped, the chalk board was covered in righting, the main thing being:

     OPEN TEXTBOOKS TO PAGE 48

     "Oh, we're so screwed." Darwin whispered, we all pulled of our beanies and hid them in our book bags. We took our seats in the back, hoping not to get noticed.

     "Did you not get your textbooks?" Professor Sechuran asked, eyeing our blank desks. I nodded quietly and dropped my gaze to my converse, "I see. Please get them soon, but it's o-"

     "It's okay Sarah, I'll handle this." I heard Dire say, my heart beat faster and faster as he approached us. "Look up, girl." I reluctantly raised my head to see him snarling at us, "No books? Detention." Dire barked, he regally walked back to the front of the room. He stared me directly in the eyes, I matched his stare and scowled. I was not at all happy about this.

     The rest of class passed my as a blur, I kept my gaze down and hands on my lap, when the class was finally over, I slowly rose, daring to look around.

     "Your detention will be quite simple." Dire approached the four of us and snarled, "Our bathrooms haven't been cleaned since last year, here is what you will be using." Dire passed a different toothbrush to all of us.

     "This is a joke, right?" Hoary asked, raising his eyebrows, "I thought this was something they only did at military schools."

     "Oh, so this toothbrush isn't good enough for you, huh?"Dire snatched the toothbrush from Hoary hand and gave him a q-tip. "Knock yourself out." Hoary looked up at Dire, dumbfounded. Dire led us all to the bathroom and gave us a role of paper towels, some soap, and a bucket. "Now, I have some business to attend so, don't move!" Dire slammed the door of the bathroom and I heard him storm away.

     "Okay, he just led us through a hallway with our ears out, that was crazy dangerous!" Fennec leaned back against a stall, "Anybody got any air freshener?" I tossed her my mini can that I carried around with me. Fennec sprayed the can and tossed it back at me. "There. Clean."

     "I'm gonna go check out what Dire's up to." I fastened my beanie back to my head and headed out. I heard Dire speaking to a voice I couldn't identify, I adjusted my beanie to hear better.

     "Listen, I want to help you, but that attack on 328 was crazy risky, you're lucky they were out." I heard Dire whispered, my heart hammered hard against my chest, I was in dorm 328. It was Dire's fault, or whoever he was talking to. I quickly slipped back to the bathroom and turned to my friends.

     "Wow, that was fast." Fennec said.

     "You got caught, didn't you?" Darwin laughed.

     "Guys," I gasped, "You will not believe what I just learned."