The broken ones

Chapter 5: Punishment

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It's finally Friday. A day of fun, but it wasn't that all great for Jack.

He heads to school, knowing what awaits him after what happened yesterday. Once the school bell rings, everyone heads to their first period and as usual, Jack follows his classmate.

Before he can head inside his classroom, a group of girls start to crowd around him.

"Goodluck mate," His classmate smirks, and ditches him before more girls came surrounding Jack.

"Hey where you going?!" Jack called out for his classmate, but was completely ignored.

Such a good friend. Jack flicked his middle finger internally.

"Hi Jack. I bought you something," One of the girls said, handing him a gift bag.

Jack glances around the hallway as other girls begin pushing their gifts in front of his face for him to take, and he spots her, right down the hallway.

The girl he's been dying to see all week. The girl he genuinely likes. Kyla.

Kyla stops in her tracks and watches the scene before her eyes. The group of girls followed Jack's gaze and all of them are now staring at her. With awkwardness consuming the air, Kyla turns around immediately and walked to where she just came from.

Jack wanted to chase after her, but he forced himself to stay. The girl with the gift bag clears her throat, bringing Jack's attention back on her.

"I'm sorry, I won't take that," Jack politely declines the gift. He pushes his way through the crowd, ignoring the pain glares the girl was giving him.

He enters his classroom and sits at his assigned seat.

After the second bell, the teacher went ahead with her teaching.

Only a few minutes into the lecture, someone comes in the door and whispers something to the teacher. Jack watches carefully, and as his teacher locks eyes with him, he knew it was something to do with him. While the teacher continues to talk with the person, his classmates starts to talk.

"I heard Jack broke out of detention yesterday with other students, Mr. Edgar was throwing a fit this morning," One of his classmates said behind Jack, as if he wasn't there.

"Really? Jack's a bad boy now?"

He scoffed quietly.

"That's crazy."

The rest of his classmates continued their gossips, and now everyone is aware that Jack isn't as innocent as they thought. As if he was innocent.

"Jack. They're calling you to the office," His teacher called out.

The whole class grew quiet as they watch Jack gather up his stuffs and walked out the classroom. A part of him felt guilty for letting himself get in trouble. But he will never forget how crazy it went yesterday. As much as he hates to admit it, he wants to do it again.

As he entered the office, the three girls were already there, sitting right across the principal's desk.

Neither of them looked happy, and Jack knew from the dreary atmosphere that they'll either get suspended or worse, expelled. Thoughts started to cloud in his mind...

Where will I school once they kick me out? Will I be able to graduate?

Jack sat next to Edna, but the principal doesn't budge yet. Her intimidating stare pierced daggers right at them and they knew that they wouldn't leave this school or this office unscathed.

The office door opens a moment after, and Neil comes in. They watch as he slowly closes the door behind him, and he turns to face them.

Jenny gasped at his sudden appearance. The bruises on his face is shown quite visibly, and they watched as Neil tried to hide them away from their sight.

"Well what happened to you?" Jack asked as Neil sat carefully next to him.

"Save it for later," Neil gritted his teeth in pure annoyance as their principal eyed him suspiciously.

"Now that everyone is here!" Ms.Polly, the principal, shouted to gather all of their attention. She cleared her throat before continuing on. "I heard you guys broke out of detention and then broke into Mr.Edgar's class to get your phones. Is that true?" She takes off her glasses and stared deeply into their eyes.

Well no shit Sherlock is that why you called us here. Edna thought to herself.

Feeling a bit intimidated, the rest of them nodded their heads while Edna rolled her eyes impatiently.

"Our guards had to chase you guys through the woods. Do you know how dangerous that was for all of you?" Her caring side starts to make its appearance, but it wasn't until she gets up from her seat and takes out a pile of papers from one of her drawers.

She drops it on her table, startling them.

"All the rules and regulations are written here with all the punishments you need to go through when rules are broken," She informed them, putting back her glasses on as she scans through the pages.

It took about 20 minutes for her to go through it, and Edna is dying from boredom. Jack just wanted to leave immediately.

"She's the principal and she doesn't memorize this regulation shit?" Edna whispered quietly at Jenny's ear.

"Shh.." Jenny smacks her hand, but the corner of her mouth pulled upwards into a grin.

"So what's our punishment?" Neil asked, trying to get this over with and feeling the need to get out of this hell room. He wanted to get out.

"Since you guys been through detention," Ms.Polly sits silently, thinking of any punishments that goes through her head.

"Please don't expel us. Please don't expel us," Bea mumbles to herself quietly.

There is no way she can't suspend or kick 5 of them out of this school all at once. It'll ruin Norton High's reputation.

The office door swings open again, and Mr.Edgar walks in, keeping his eyes on the 5 kids who fooled him yesterday. Disappointment and anger was all he could express on his face.

"I have a punishment for these kids," He speaks up, putting his hands on his hips. "Next week Monday, you guys are going to clean the Art room. I want it spotless and clean. No dirt anywhere," He turns to face Ms.Polly for an agreement.

"and an additional 8 essays of your apology for what you did wrong," She said, bringing more burden on the 5 kids. "Back to back on each pages! I'd rather have you students suspended, so I should not be hearing complaints. Do I make myself clear?"

Neil rolled his eyes. He hated essays. Writing isn't his favorite thing to do, so essays? Not a chance.

"I said, do I make myself clear?!" Ms.Polly said in a stern voice that made Bea tremble.

"Yes ma'am," each of them mumbled.

"See you kids at detention today too," Mr.Edgar smiled widely, and walked out the door like he accomplished what he wanted.

They expected worse though.

After Ms.Polly finishes off with another boring lecture of the rules and regulation, they head back to class except for Neil who was told to stay behind. To what concerned Ms.Polly, was the visible bruises on his bare face.

This time Jack doesn't seem too happy about what happened yesterday because when he entered his classroom, the whole class averted their attention on him.

Then the whispering of gossips begin.

He quietly saunters to his seat, but all he could hear were the nonsense things his classmates were saying.

"I bet he got himself expelled,"

"It's his problem, he acts all tough."

"So are they going to kick him out of the basketball team?"

Jack rolled his eyes, and stayed quiet. Just like he always does.