I copy down the notes in my History class as I wait for the bell. Noah Puckerman sits behind me, breathing down my neck.
"Mathews is totally trying to stare down that girl's shirt." He murmurs with his face just inches behind me. Looking up, I see that our teacher is, indeed, trying to stare down the loose shirt of a blonde in the front row.
"Of course you would know what leering looked like." I say, glancing at him for only a second before turning back to my notes.
I jump slightly as I feel his finger trailing a pattern on my neck, pushing my ponytail to the side.
"Stop that!" I try to whisper-yell.
"Danielle," Mr. Mathews says, "no talking during a lesson, one more word and you will get an afterschool detention."
I narrow my eyes at him, who does he think he is? Threatening me with a detention? I'm the best student of any of his classes.
"I think it's the fact that he's not getting laid, that's why he's such a bitch." Noah says, getting even closer to me.
"Stop talking to me." I say, glaring at him.
He holds his hands up innocently, "Calm your tits." His eyes travel downward after he says that.
I turn and hit him with my notebook before looking back to the front. I'm not particularly friends with Noah but I do know him from Temple. He use to sit behind me and pull my hair when we were younger, actually he still does that but it's more like he plays with it now instead.
"How about coming over tonight?" It's almost a repeating thing. Almost everyday he asks me to come over and I always say no. We're not friends and I will spend no more than the required school hours with him.
"Go away." I say without turning.
"We're in class, can't really leave." He quips.
The bell rings at that exact moment and Noah leaves with a simple, "Later." As I said before, we never spent more time together than the required school hours and the three classes we have together but he skips two of them so I only ever see him in this class.
"Danielle." Mr. Mathews say as I start to leave the classroom, which is almost completely empty.
"Yes." I narrow my eyes, daring him to say what I know he's going to say.
He hands me a piece of paper, "Your detention is this afternoon."
I glare at him but, no matter the words I have half a mind to say to him, I don't want to get another detention.
This is all Puckerman's fault, I think as I storm out of the classroom. Never in my sixteen years have I ever gotten a detention. The word is bitter in my mind, he's lucky that detentions don't go on records.
My next two classes pass by easily but I couldn't help my bad mood. Standing outside the classroom that detention was being held, I take a deep breath as I prepare to enter what might be hell. I can only imagine the kind of people that will be in there, Goths with their dark clothes and awful makeup, foul jocks making bad innuendoes; idiotic cheerleader's giggling and gossiping.
"What are you doing here, Mena?"
I turn and see Noah walking towards me, hands in his pocket and a bored yet slightly curious expression on his face.
"Detention," I say quietly.
His eyes widen before he lets out a loud laugh, "You detention!" He continues to laugh as if I had told him the joke of the century.
"What is so funny?" I ask.
"The fact that little Miss rules and regulations has a detention."
"Hmm, it's your fault I'm even here."
He rolled his eyes and stopped less than a foot away, "Well, maybe I might just get you another one."
Rolling my eyes, I take a step to the side, "I shouldn't even wonder why you have detention, should I." I raise an eyebrow.
He smirked, "Got caught fucking a Cheerio in the janitors closet."
I grimace in disgust, how can he even sound proud of that?
"That's disgusting." I say.
"Whatever, lets go in." He moves past me and opens the door, surprising me when he actually holds the door open. I stare at him; he rolls his eyes and grabs my waist, pulling me in the room.
I look around, yep, okay not as bad as I imagined. There are no delinquents smoking while someone has sex besides them. In the room were only three other people, one is a pale boy dressed in black, red and blue with black nail polish and eyeliner and two of them are Cheerios. I aimlessly wonder if one of the Cheerios is the one he was having sex with in the closet.
Noah sits me down in a seat before sitting behind me. He's starts playing with my hair again.
The teacher in charge of detention today comes in with narrowed eyes; the florescent lights hit his balding head and cause a slight glare.
"Alright, take out all phones, IPods, and any other electronic devices and give them to me." He says as he starts making his way around the room with a small basket.
I frown for a bit before taking out my phone, I didn't want to give it to him but I guess it's one of the rules of detention since it's suppose to be a punishment.
I run my fingers over my black phone case with small white dots; the thought of my phone leaving my sight for a certain amount of time put an unsettling feeling in my stomach. I don't know what kind of germs these teenagers have. I mean, who even knows if those Cheerios even wash their hands after having sex with the outrageous number of guys in this school and those diseases that could be covering their phones.
When the teacher gets to Noah and I, Noah simply throws his phone in there while I clench my phone tight light in my hands. The teacher glares at he as he shakes the basket impatiently, I carefully put my phone near the side farthest from everyone else's but it's a lost cause because when he turns, the basket turns causing all the phones to fall around mine. Now I have to sanitize my phone when I get home.
"I will be in the room across the hall, don't talk because I will be able to hear you." He sneered at all of us before making his way out of the room, leaving the door open. I thought teachers were supposed to stay in the room during detention.
Immediately, the two Cheerios start gossiping. The Goth boy puts in his headphones that he hadn't given to the teacher and Noah starts playing with my hair again. I sigh and take out my homework, might as well start it now instead of at home.
Not even half a minute later, I can feel Noah's hot breath on my neck as he leans in.
"You are such a nerd." He mumbles, letting his fingers weave through my hair. I hate that he never makes any effort to talk to me outside of class but when we are together, he acts like we're the closest of friends.
"There is nothing wrong with wanting to do homework so I don't need to think about it later, you should do the same."
He snorts, "Yeah right." He gently pulls a few strands of my hair, "And besides, I got no home homework."
I roll my eyes but I guess he doesn't even know about the homework he has since he always skips class.
"Well then, you might as well study." I say, looking down at my blank sheet of paper.
He chuckles, "You know I don't study."
"It's never too late to try something new."
He is silent and I try to block out the chattering cheerleaders as I try to focus on my Red Badge of Courage essay rough draft. I'm on the third paragraph when I hear the cheerleaders call him.
"Puck, do you want to come over to my house tonight, Laura and I are going to have a sleepover and we want you to come." One of them says, pointing to the skinny brunette Cheerio next to her.
I roll my eyes before going back to my paper.
"No thanks ladies, I think I'm gonna try something new." Noah responds. Now that shocked me. Noah never turns down an opportunity to sleep with women and possibly contract an STD.
The girls are outraged and they turn their backs to him, whispering angrily to each other.
I turn back to him and raise an eyebrow.
He raises one back, "What?"
"Try something new?" I wonder.
"Yeah, but it's more like a break." He shrugs but smirks at me and I roll my eyes.
