Modern Day Breakfast Club

It's All Part Of Your Image

   Things had calmed down since Brent and Alan had their altercation and we were all sitting quietly in our original seats when the Janitor, Carl Reed, walked in pushing a trash can.

   He went into the room in front of us and put the trash in the trash can he brought then walked out of the room and asked, "Bram, how you doing?"

   "Your dad work here?" Brent asked Bram and when he shook his head he turned back to Carl, "Uh, Carl?"

   "What?" Carl responded.

   "Can I ask you a question?" Brent wondered.

   "Sure," Carl replied turning toward the six of us.

   "How does one become a janitor?"

   "You want to be a janitor?" Carl asked looking very confused.

   "No, I want to know how one becomes a janitor...because Andrew's very interested in a career in the custodial arts," Brent answered making Bram laugh.

   "Really?" Brent smiled and Alan glared back at him then Carl spoke again, "You think I'm some untouchable peasant, serf, peon? Yeah? Maybe so, from following a broom after shitheads like you for the past ten years I've learned a couple of things. I look through your letters. Look through your lockers. I listen to your conversations, you don't know that, but I do. I am the eyes and ears of this institution, my friends."

   I looked over to see Brent smiling a crooked smile when Carl informed us, "By the way, that clock's 20 minutes fast."

   Around five minutes later, I looked back at the clock which read 11:50am, meaning that it was now 11:30, Brent started whistling and soon the rest of us were whistling along with him until Richard came in and we all stopped but Brent who whistled a little part of 'Beethoven's Fifth Symphony' making Richard glare at him.

   "All right, girls, that's thirty minutes for lunch."

   "Here?" Alan asked, sounding both confused and angry.

   "Here," Mr. Vernon confirmed.

   "I think the cafeteria would be a more suitable place, sir," Alan suggested making Vernon roll his eyes.

   "I don't care what you think, Alan," Vernon snapped.

   "Dick, excuse me, Rich, will milk be made available?" Brent asked making me laugh softly.

   "We're extremely thirsty," Alan informed Vernon.

   "I have a really low tolerance for dehydration," Cassandra lied.

   "I've seen her dehydrate, sir, it's pretty gross," Alan added

   "Relax, I'll get it," Brent volunteered and stood when Vernon protested.

   "Grab some wood there bub, you think I was born yesterday? Think I'm going to let you roam these halls?" Vernon asked then turned to Alan who was pointing at Cassandra and Abby and pointed at them both but Abby wasn't really paying attention, "You, and you, hey! What's her name? Wake her up, come on! On your feet, missy, let's go, this isn't a rest home."

   Vernon went back to his office when Alan and Abby went to go get soda, we all moved back and Cassandra started leaning on the sculpture while I was sitting at Abby's table turned toward everyone else and Bram was sitting awkwardly on the railing with Brent to the right of him sitting at a table.

   I felt Brent's eyes on me ad turned to se him smiling crookedly at me making me smile back, he looked at Cassandra and asked, "Cassandra, want to see a picture of a guy with elephantitis of the nuts? It's pretty tasty."