For, Marley

The Next Few Days of Detention

        I had tons of fun at detention. Well, as fun as you can by scraping off goo off the walls and guess random authors at the board. Every day, (not  Marley and I would still jump out of our desks, throwing paper around and yelling Lancaster random answers like, "John Green!" or "J.K. Rowling!" or even "AVI!" Then one fateful day on what I think was a week from the first day, where Marley and I were working on homework. A new face showed up at the door, late as hell. I so wished it was one of Marley's friends, or even just Jamie. Sadly, not.

        Brandon "Runt" Manning, one of the star linebackers on the football team. Despite his name, he was one of the biggest players. Marley and I looked up. Runt sat on the other side of Marley. "Hey." He said.

     Lancaster put his feet on the desk, "You're late, Runt. Care to explain yourself?" He asked.
     "Yeah. Practice lasted longer than anticipated. Then I went out with the boys and got something to eat. Now I'm here."

     "Twenty two minutes late." Marley added.

     "Well, I'm here now. Glad to see you too, good-looking." He winked. Marley rolled her eyes and continued on her math homework. 'Good-looking'?

     I looked over at Marley. She wasn't much of a fashionable person. Marley had her black hair tied up in a ponytail, some of the ends in tiny knots. She had a headband with red, yellow, and blue small flowers on them. Even though she would wear her fandom merchandise most of the time, she was wearing a faded flower tank top with a white cardigan over it and black leggings tucked in white snow boots. She looked up at me. Crap, I was staring. I jerked my head back to my homework which I finished and put away. Pre-Dave, why are you so stupid?

     "So what exactly is there to do here?" Runt asked, "Bullshit around till the bell rings?" Marley just sighed softly and closed her books.
     "It's detention, what do you expect us to do?"
     "I dunno."

     Lancaster stood up. "Well, since you guys are done. I need one of you to help me transport these books to the bio lab. They're quite heavy and my back is killing me." Marley stood up instantly, going towards the boxes of hardcover books.

Runt got up when I did, "Hold on there, Marley. These look too heavy for a pretty lady. Let a man-"

     "Sorry. I wasn't listening. What'd you say?" She had two boxes piled on one arm, the other taking out an ear bud. I snickered, then picked up a box. Jeez, it definitely was heavy. I could barely carry two.

     "Those seem to be the only ones so far. Runt, you can stay here and play some chess while they go to the bio lab and unpack it." Lancaster said, taking out a chess board. Runt groaned and sat down.

     I followed Marley out, careful enough to not trip over the tape. After passing three doors, Marley looked behind us and stopped. "What's wrong?" I asked.

     "I'm not that strong." She said and knelt, sliding the boxes down on the floor. There were some small imprints on her arm from where the boxes rested.

     "If you couldn't carry it, you could've let Runt help you."

     "I couldn't just let him bring me down just because I'm a girl. That's not how it works." She said, rubbing her arms. "I can carry tons of books. I'm strong enough." She gave herself a pep talk and stood up. I suppressed a smile. 

     "At least let me help you. We can switch off the amount from time to time." I suggested. She pondered, then nodded. We switched off the books every three doors we passed, not including the ones on the long hallway. I didn't exactly remember what we talked about, only that we had a lot in common. Books, writing, television shows, organization... She was a little more on the fandom side than I was. I'veread Sherlock. She's watched Sherlock.