Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original content from The Breakfast Club. Any new characters and ideas are my own.
"Bye! See you later, have a good day!", Evelyn shouted as she dropped off her little brother at Shermer Junior High. He gave her a begrudging wave as he ran to catch up with his friends. Glancing at her wristwatch, she gave a panicked squeal as she tried her best to not peel out of the parking lot in the old station wagon and head towards her own school, Shermer High.
"Oh, shit…", she grumbled as she gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white. Finally, the school was within site and she carefully and quickly maneuvered into one of the last senior parking spots. Without hardly a glance, she grabbed her backpack and instrument case as quickly as she could, fumbled with the car keys and finally got the car locked before Evelyn all but sprinted to homeroom.
She new she was in for it when there were no students in sight and the bell had just gone off, signalling that homeroom had already started.
"Shit, shit, shit." Evelyn wiped the perspiration from her forehead as she skidded to a halt in front of Mr. Robinson's door. Collecting herself and making sure she looked as decent as she could, she calmly opened the door and attempted to slink into her seat in the 3rd row.
"Ah, Ms. Connor. Lovely to see you so soon after thehomeroom bell has rung...again.", his kind eyes betraying the stern look he had trained on her. After scribbling a note on a pink slip, he ripped it off and held it out for her to collect: a detention slip.
Blushing furiously, Evelyn quickly got up out of her seat to collect her Saturday fate, feeling the eyes of her classmates on her. She risked a quick look at one of her favorite teachers. He was wearing a crisp button down shirt, complete with a sweater vest, slacks and polished shoes. A man in his middle age, he gave off a comforting parental vibe and was always kind and patient with every student he encountered. However, he wouldn't hesitate to right a student should their manners or homework be lacking. He gave her a quick wink that crinkled the corners of his eyes and a small laugh. She felt marginally better. The last thing Evelyn wanted was for her teachers to think that she was a bad student, showing up to homeroom late 3 days in a row "on purpose". It wasn't her fault, necessarily. She had been up so late studying for midterms this semester that she slept through her alarm on Tuesday, Wednesday, and now Thursday of this week. And apparently, that earned her a 9-hour detention on Saturday.
Shit. She was a brilliant student, but her vocabulary was definitely not up to snuff today. Mr. Robinson would not approve. He turned to the blackboard, writing the quote of the day. She gave a small huff as she slumped into her chair, mortified that her reputation as model student was tarnished forever.
One of her peers that she had quite a few classes with, Brian, caught her attention from the 2nd row. She glanced over and saw that he was waving his own pink detention slip. He gave her a small smile and a quick shrug while cramming the slip back into his pocket as Mr. Robinson turned around to face the class to start the lecture.
Brian has a detention on Saturday, too? How on earth did he get one? Like Brian, Evelyn was usually a stellar student that had obviously gotten caught up in something out of their control. At least, that's what it felt like.
She returned a small smile. Well, at least I'll know someone there at detention.
Not wanting to miss anything her English teacher was saying, especially after her appalling tardies this week, she snapped out of her reverie, whipped out a notebook and dutifully paid attention to the lesson.
"How was your day, you two?", her mother asked from the kitchen as Evelyn and her younger brother, Steve, stomped through the front door after a particularly trying day.
Dropping her bag off on the stairs, she hopped onto one of the stools at the counter next to Steve and selected an apple from the fruit bowl to munch on.
"Ugh, fine, I guess." Evelyn mumbled, her head propped up on one hand. She attempted to hide her face with her long, dark brown hair, intent on studying the glossy strands.
"Wait, that's not what you told me!" Steve retorted too enthusiastically, giving her a shit-eating grin. She gave her brother a small kick under the counter.
"Shut up, Steve."
"Hold on. Evelyn, what's going on?"
"Nothing, mom. Just a bad day at school. Cramming for midterms, the usual." She tried waving it off casually, but her mom and brother weren't having any of it.
"Nuh uh! You told me you have a detention on Saturday!" her brother cried with glee.
"A detention? Evelyn! How in the world did you get a detention?" her mother asked. Evelyn shrugged, but she was relieved to see her mother was amused more than anything.
"Hmm, let's see. Did you deface school property?"
"Nope."
"Alright. Did you get into a fist fight with anyone at school?" Her mother could barely keep a straight face as she tried listing off things that Evelyn would absolutely never do.
"Oh my god, mom! Of course not!", Evelyn cried offended. "I was late to homeroom the last 3 days. Happy?" She kept munching on her apple, waiting for her mother's response.
"That's it? Well, Evelyn, I have to say I'm relieved." Evelyn's eyebrows shot up. "Not necessarily that you have to spend your Saturday at school, but that it wasn't a serious allegation."
"Wait. She's not grounded or anything? What the heck!" Steve shouted incredulously, looking with wide-eyed frustration between his mom and sister. He had accumulated no less than 4 detentions this year already, every one of them resulting in him being grounded.
Evelyn laughed and ruffled his shaggy hair while he attempted to swat her hand away. "That's not fair! Why do I get grounded and she doesn't?" She laughed again and tried to squeeze him into a bear hug while he struggled to get out of her grasp. "Ew, get off of me!"
"Oh c'mon, honey. This is Evelyn's first detention. Ever. We were beginning to worry that she wasn't at all related to any of us. Besides, your first detention was years ago, sweetie, and we 'celebrated' just the same. If Evelyn gets another one, you can count on us to have her sent straight up to her room. Fair?" She held out an apple as a peace offering. He glared at the offending fruit and with an enormous sigh and roll of his eyes, he took the snack and slumped off to the living room to watch TV.
"So, how do you feel about your first detention?" Her mom, Linda, asked her eldest, most responsible child.
Evelyn shrugged. "I'm frustrated that my sparkling record is now marred by this stupid detention. I was late only by a few minutes the past 3 days! I was up late studying and kept sleeping through my alarm. And now I have to waste 9 hours of my precious freedom at detention? Ugh, it totally sucks!" She groaned and sank her head onto her outstretched arms, milking the situation with a dramatic sigh.
Her mother just laughed. "Oh, wait until your father hears about this." Evelyn's head shot up, slightly panicked.
"You don't think he's going to be mad, do you?"
"Mad? Oh, honey. He's going to think it's hilarious. Our straight-A, band geek, role model daughter has a detention", Linda exclaimed with a laugh and a kiss on her daughter's head.
"Gee, mom. Thanks for making me sound so cool." She chucked her apple core into the trash and trudged up stairs to practice her trumpet for the upcoming spring concert. She was first chair, the section leader and she had to practice. As a teenager, she tried to play it off like she didn't care what people think of her. But truth be told, she actually was pretty confident in her abilities academically and socially. She wasn't a part of the populars, but she wasn't an outcast either. Evelyn sat firmly in the middle, well liked by staff and fellow students, finding that hard to reach balance of maturity but also having fun now and again. She had a handful of really good, close friends in addition to a few more acquaintances. Sure, she was given a half-hearted label as a "band geek" but she was relatable to her peers and not too wrapped up in her own world to not enjoy the rest of what high school had to offer. She could honestly say she generally enjoyed her time at Shermer High.
She glanced at her alarm clock that sat on her nightstand amid a clean and organized room. "Four-thirty. Alright, let's get to it." Practicing and studying were again on the agenda for tonight, but she would definitely be getting some much needed rest tonight. No need to push her luck tomorrow morning when she had already earned her Saturday detention.
Evelyn sat in the lead chair surrounded by the rest of the trumpets, warming up before the band director, Mr. Bennett came to the podium. They had a miniscule amount of rehearsals left before their final concert of the year and they were all feeling the pressure. Every moment of every rehearsal counted and although it was only March, the program was pretty damn ambitious. It was the beginning of 3rd period on Friday. Evelyn had finally made it to school on time today; early, in fact. There was no way she was going to repeat her tardiness for a fourth time that week. How embarrassing.
Her attention snapped back up to the podium as Mr. Bennett, one of her other favorite teachers, greeted the ensemble with a smile and started with the usual announcements about the upcoming requisite playing tests that they'll be subjected to until the concert. Her ever mounting pile of homework was getting her worked up, to say the least. She sighed. Oh, well. Par for the course. What wasn't par for the course, however, was the alarm that started blaring throughout the band room right as they were about to start rehearsal.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me."
By the time the entire school had exited the building, every student had been accounted for, and then were allowed to go back after deeming it a false alarm, 3rd period was over. That pissed off Evelyn and the rest of the serious band students to no end.
"Son of a bitch! We needed that rehearsal and some asshole just had to pull the alarm as a prank.", her best friend Candice moaned. Evelyn shoved her hands into her coat pockets. For March, it was still pretty cold.
"Ugh, I know. I wonder who did it?" They shuffled back into the warm hallway, putting their coats back into their lockers while grabbing books for their next class: Calculus.
"Evelyn. There's only a handful of people at this school it could've been. This shit isn't new. It was either Michael Peterson, Chris Hughes, Alex Campbell, John Bender, or that weird chick, Allison Whats-Her-Face", Candice said ticking them off on her fingers matter-of-factly. "They're repeat offenders and I'm sure Vernon can't wait for them to graduate."
"On the bright side for us, we're all seniors and we're only stuck with them until graduation. How have none of them been expelled yet, that's my damn question?" Candice laughed in agreement as she and Evelyn sped down the hallway to their next class. Thank god the rest of the day went as planned. She wasn't sure she could handle any more of her classmates' shenanigans.
Author's note: I love the idea of a 6th character in detention, and I know it's been done so much. But I wanted to at least give some extra context surrounding that Saturday, making the detention just a sliver of the story. I hope you like what I have so far! Please leave a review!
~QueenOfTheBrassQuill