We Were Outcasts

Chapter Three

        I managed to get through the rest of the day without any other encounters with bullies or verbal beatings from teachers. As I finished packing my backpack to go home, I remembered something. I let my had fall against my locker and groaned.

        Detention.

        I didn't even know where detention was held. I looked around and spotted Danny putting books into his locker. Slinging my backpack over my shoulder, I headed over to him.

        "Hey, Danny?"

        "Oh, hey Max," he greeted me as he shut his locker.

        "Um, you have detention too, right?" I asked hesitantly.

        He nodded. I thought I saw the corner of his lip twitch, as if he was holding back a smile.

        "Can you show me where it is?"

        He nodded again. "Follow me."

        "You know, you really didn't deserve to get detention," I said as we descended a set of stairs. Danny just shrugged, picking up his pace a little. I had to take longer strides to keep up.

        "I'm used to it," he replied. "Ms. Kover's always been a grouch."

        "Does she treat everyone like that?" I asked.

        "Pretty much. Everyone except Tawni," he nearly spat the last word.

        I remembered how she'd treated Tawni like she was some kind of goddess. "Why does she like her so much?"

        "Everyone likes her, or at least everyone pretends to. She's filthy rich."

        "So everyone likes her just because she has money?" 

        "That's how it works. If you don't have money, you're at the bottom of the food chain."

        "It shouldn't work that way."

        Danny shrugged again. He halted in front of a door with a rusted, worn handle.

        "Max," he said as he turned the handle, "welcome to detention."

        Detention was not what I expected. At the back of the classroom we entered, music played loudly from a stereo. A girl sat at a desk near the back, drawing in a sketchbook. Two boys were playing a board game at a table. Another boy stood on top of a desk that a girl sat at. He seemed to be showing her a magic trick but she was more focused on the book in her lap.

        "Hey!" the magician nearly shouted when he saw me. "Fresh meat."

        One of the board game boys reached over and turned the music down. "Hey, Jette," he called. "We got a new kid."

        Only then did I notice the teacher behind a bookcase next to me. He smiled when he saw me.

        "Hi there," he said cheerfully. "I'm Mr. Jette."

        "Uh, hi," I replied awkwardly. "I'm Max."

        "What're you in detention for?" one of the board game boys asked. He had sandy blond hair and blue eyes. 

        "Um, I was late to class."

        "Why?" the other gamer asked. His hair was light brown, his eyes so dark they were nearly black.

        "Well," I started, not sure if I wanted to tell them the truth.

        "It was Carver," a voice in the back piped up. The girl who'd been drawing in her sketchbook got up and walked over to us. "I saw him stop her in the hall," she continued.

        "Carver sucks," the magician commented. Everyone nodded in agreement.

        The sketchbook girl gave me a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry, I should've stopped to help you."

        "It's okay, I wouldn't mess with him either if I had a choice," I laughed nervously.

        She smiled. Her black hair was cut into a short pixie cut and her eyes were a hazel color. "I'm Arriane." She pointed to the blond boy. "That's Lane, his friend there is Mason. Aaron is the magician, obviously you know Danny."  She turned towards the girl who was still intently reading her book. "That's Dice, she doesn't talk much."

        At the sound of her name, Dice lifted her head and gave me a shy smile and a small wave before returning to her book.

        "Well," Mr. Jette said, "this is detention. Or my detention at least. There's another teacher that does detention, but that one's a lot worse. If you end up here, it means you didn't actually do anything wrong and you've been recruited by one of my lovely students," he spread his arms out to acknowledge everyone else in the room. "I don't really have any rules, just don't tell anyone about this or I won't be able to do it anymore."

        He went over to his desk behind the bookshelf and busied himself with paperwork. 

        "So?" Danny asked me. "What do you think?"

        I looked around again, trying to find something to say.

        "The next ninety minutes might actually be fun," I replied.