The Mute - a Breakfast Club story - John Bender x Original Character

Chapter 1 - The Mute

"I can't believe they're doing this. They have no right to send my angel to detention on a Saturday for doing nothing!" Edith's dad went off for the 50th time. "You tell Vernon that, okay, honey?" He turned to his quiet daughter, expecting an answer for some odd reason.

She merely nodded and grabbed her bag, preparing to dash out of the car.

"You have a lunch in there?" He asked, but Edith pretended not to hear and slammed the door of the car, running up the stairs without looking back.

She walked through the halls, sighing as she looked around her. This would be a much better school for Edith. She smiled lightly to herself, looking at the empty hallways and relishing in the quiet like she hopefully would for the next 10 hours. 

She turned the corner to the library, screeching to a halt as she locked eyes with five people already sitting in the room. She thought about turning back and just hiding in a bathroom stall before she had a panic attack, but since they had already seen her, she dashed in and kept her eyes on the floor, not looking at the others in the room and taking a seat behind everyone. 

It seemed another girl had the same idea, as Edith noted as she lifted her eyes for the first time. She was about to smile before Mr. Vernon walked in. Edith felt the silent groans radiating off everyone, and she smiled just a bit at the shared feeling they all had. Maybe she would finally find a friend in this library.

"Well, well. Here we are! I want to congratulate you for being on time--" Mr. Vernon starts before the girl in the front (Claire, Edith thinks. She's the most popular girl in school, so Edith's not really sure what she's doing here.) raises her hand. She doesn't even wait to be called on before she speaks, her clear voice bouncing through the huge library, making Edith a little jealous of the girl.

"Excuse me, sir? I think there's been a mistake. I know it's detention, but, um, I don't think I belong in here." Edith rolls her eyes, getting an even better picture of the princess sitting two tables down. 

Mr. Vernon, however, continues to talk, evidently not caring one bit.

"It is now seven-oh-six. You have exactly eight hours and fifty-four minutes to think about why you're here. To ponder the error of your ways..." Mr. Vernon drones on. 

As an exciting interlude, the boy sitting in front of her (probably a troublemaker, Edith thought, based on his clothes and attitude) spit into the air and catches it in his mouth. Claire, witnessing this, looks disgusted, but Edith is a mix of grossed-out and impressed. She doesn't tell any of this based off her facial expression of course, but just smooths out the hair covering half her face. 

It looks bad, but Edith doesn't really care. It gets people to not look at her, and that's enough.

"You may not talk. You will not move from these seats." Mr. Vernon says this just as the boy in the table diagonally across the aisle from Edith starts to shift to the other seat. Hearing his words, he quickly sets himself down again, a panicked energy coming off of him. (Must be a teacher's pet. We could get along.)  "And you--" He pulls the chair out from under the boy in front of her's feet, sending him a glare. "will not sleep."

He continued on, people already getting bored. "Alright people,we're gonna try something a little different today. We are going to write an essay - of no less than a thousand words -describing to me who you think you are." 

"Is this a test?" The boy in front of her interrupts, but to no avail. Mr. Vernon passes out pencils and paper, blatantly ignoring the comment. 

"And when I say essay... I mean essay. I do not mean a single word repeated a thousand times. Is that clear Mr. Bender?" Mr. Vernon looks at the boy (Bender, Edith put in her mental notebook) with another glare, although it seemed like the man always had a glare on his face.

"Crystal." was the response from Bender, and Edith smiled a bit. She was positive that the boy was a rebel, criminal type now, but he was a little amusing.

"Good. Maybe you'll learn a little something about yourself. Maybe you'll even decide whether or not you care to return."