Don't You Forget About Me

Summary: For better or for worse, we were all stuck with each other until high school was over, maybe longer. What happens on Monday.


I'm a compulsive liar. I've come to accept that. I lie because I need attention when I do talk since I don't get it at home. Or at least that's what my shrink says. He's so mushy sometimes. Anyway, I'm good at telling if someone else is lying. It's all in the eyes. At detention, when Brian asked what would happen Monday, I could see that he would really try to talk to us. It seemed like Bender would only try if everyone else did. Claire would ignore us, and Andy…I couldn't tell with him.

I thought everything would go back to the way it was. Claire would continue to rule the school, Bender would skip class to get high in the boy's bathroom, Brian would be…Brian, and Andrew would hang out with his jock friends. And me? I'd go back to being wallpaper.

I didn't want to go back to being wallpaper. I spent plenty of time being ignored at home. Thinking that maybe I would have someone to talk to was nice but who was I fooling? We had fallen into a routine, into a stupid routine that was our lame-ass high school, preparing us for the social classes in the real world.

The only difference might be John Bender. I went to detention every Saturday for something to do. Almost every Saturday I went, he was there. After a few detentions, he and I started working together. I'd back him up when he got in trouble. He understood that besides that, I refused to talk. We just…clicked. He was the only one who acknowledged my presence in school, usually with a polite "hello." Maybe today he'd talk to me. I didn't know.

I got up that morning, grabbed the first thing I saw off my floor and walked out. I didn't bother to get some breakfast, I knew my mother would have only gotten Froot Loops, which made me sick. I walked to school like every other day, not expecting Claire to pop up next to me and start talking my ear off.

When I got to school, I brushed past everyone, just trying to get to class. I was so invisible, no one even bothered to trip or make-fun of me. Which is why I didn't expect a foot to be out for me to trip over. But it was out there and I fell and my books and papers went flying all over the place. I scrambled to pick them up before they got to stepped on. I reached to pick up my math notebook when another hand got to it first. I looked up and there was Brian.

"Here," he said, handing me the notebook.

"Uh…" I'm a genius, aren't I?

"So…where's your backpack?" Brian asked.

"My parents didn't get me one and I don't feel like wasting my money on a backpack," I told him truthfully. He nodded, like that was a normal thing to say. For me, it was.

"Do you need help carrying your books to your classes?" he asked.

"No," I said quickly. I realized how harsh I sounded. "I mean…I can do it by myself. If you want to help…"

"Yeah sure," he said, grabbing the first few books. "Can we stop at my locker first?" he asked. I nodded and he led the way. When he opened his locker, I peered inside and was surprised with what I saw. It wasn't very organized. He had papers and books everywhere. "It's not very clean, obviously," he said. I didn't say anything. He got a few things, and then we were off.

"What's your first period?" I asked.

"Social Studies with Ms. Belleville," he said.

"I have English with Mr. Kerns," I told him.

"I think Mr. Kerns is right next to Ms. Belleville," he said. We continued walking, looking for a stairwell.

"Brian!" a voice yelled. We turned around and there was a girl in thick-rimmed glasses. "Hey Brian, I was wondering…who is this?" she asked, her gaze falling to me. Her voice had gotten really high-pitched. She looked at me like I was a bug. Three guesses? She liked him.

"This is Allison Reynolds. Allison, this is Christina, one of my friends," Brian introduced. I looked at Christina. She smiled coolly at me.

"We met Saturday at detention," I said, hoping that would make her feel better. It didn't.

"What did you want Christina?" Brian asked.

"Nothing. I should be going." With that, she turned on her heel and left. We got to the stairwell and started the agonizingly slow march up the fourth floor.

"Did you guys use to date?" I asked.

"No, why would you think that?" he asked.

"Because she got insanely jealous when she saw me," I answered.

"Oh. Did she really?" he asked, sounding pleased. I nodded. He smiled. I guessed he liked her too. We finally got to the fourth floor and continued on to Ms. Belleville's class.

"See you," I said, making sure I wasn't specific in case he wanted a way out.

"I'll save you a spot during lunch," he said, walking away. I smiled. I had a friend, possibly.

After Social Studies I saw Claire in the hallway. I smiled at her, but she just walked on by. I went to my next class – science – a bit upset. I sat down next to my lab partner and slumped down into my seat.

"What's wrong with you?" he grumbled.

"Some girl just made a pass at me and when I said no she made fun of me," I lied quickly, before I could stop myself.

"What girl?" he asked. I remembered he had a girlfriend named Heather Parkinson. I toyed with the thought, but shoved it aside. However, it spilled out of my mouth anyway.

"I think her name was…Heather…Parkinson," I said, pretending like I was trying to remember her name. He sat up really straight, looking around for her. I cursed myself inwardly. Sometimes I couldn't control what I said, I just lied. Sometimes I lied to get something out of someone, like I did with Claire on Saturday, which was pretty funny.

"Alright class, settle down," the teacher said, and I sat up. The class passed slowly because we didn't have a lab or anything. Third period came and went, uneventful. As I walked to my fourth period, I looked up to find Andy with a bunch his "friends." I considered walking past them and smiling at him but what if he didn't say anything? What would I do then? I took a different route, cursing myself the whole time for my cowardice.

Sixth period was lunch, finally. I went to lunch to find Brian waving me over. I went to sit next to him. Christina was sitting on the other side of him and his other friends were giving him funny looks.

"This is Allison," he said. They continued to stare at me. "I met her in detention."

"Isn't she that creepy girl that sits in the corner of the lunchroom and stares at everyone?" one guy said.

"Yes, she is but she's my friend," Brian snapped, closing the subject. They all nodded and looked at me with new interest. Brian looked into his lunch. "Damn, mom forgot to pack some apple juice," he said, and walked over to the lunch line. Christina gave me a frosty glare.

"Hello Christina," I said.

"How do you know him? How do you really know him?" she asked. I wanted so bad to come up with some lie, but I had to make this work.

"We really did meet in detention," I told her.

"How many of you were there? Was it just the two of you, all cozy?" she asked.

"No. There were other people. I hung out with one of the other guys more than Brian," I said. She looked into my eyes and nodded.

"So…are you going to be sitting with us tomorrow?" she asked. "My mom is a genius at baking so if you have any requests I bring in sweets every Wednesday and I'll need any requests by tomorrow," she explained.

"I like cupcakes," I offered. She smiled. Brian came back.

"What do you have for lunch?" he asked.

"Same as Saturday."

"You are aware that if you have that every day your teeth will grow completely rotten, right?" he said, looking at my lunch sack will disgust.

"I am very aware of this."

"Just making sure." I pulled my bread, Pixy Stixs, and Cap'n Crunch out onto the table. I got quite a few stares as I made my sandwich, but I didn't really care. My mom always got salami and I hate salami, so I have to improvise.

"Whoa," was all Christina could say. I smiled.

"Hey look, it's Andy," Brian whispered. I looked up. There he was. I pretended like I didn't care, but I couldn't stop my eyes from straying his way.

"What do you want from him? He's just another pea-brained jock," said some guy on the other side of the table.

"He is NOT a pea-brained jock, asshole," I snapped.

"Okay, sheesh," he said, looking down at his lunch. When Andy got closer to the table, Brian stood up and yelled:

"Andy! Over here!" Andy looked over at us. His friends pulled him back, but he waved them off and sat down next to me.

"Hey Allison," he said shyly. I looked at my hands.

"What…what…what is…" the guy from before stuttered.

"Sorry, is it okay if I sit here?" he asked. The guy only nodded. Andy smiled.

"What's for lunch?" Brian asked. "Same as Saturday?" Andy nodded, holding up a huge bag.

"Where have you been all day? I've been looking for you so I could ditch those bozos," Andy asked me.

"Around," I answered. I didn't want him to know I was hiding from him.

"Have any of you seen Claire?" Brian asked.

"I saw her but she didn't say anything," I recounted. They both looked a bit sad, then went to eating their lunches.

"Am I missing something?" Christina asked.

"We all kind of…bonded during detention," Brian summarized for her. She nodded.

"Who else was there?"

"Claire Standish and John Bender," Andy answered.

"You talked to John Bender? I didn't think he talked to anyone except the other hoods," Claire said.

"Okay, one, he's not a hood. Two, apparently he does talk to other people since he talked to us," I said.

"Look, there's Claire!" Brian said, pointing to the lunch line. I stood up and waved her over. She looked away. Brian stood up and waved to her as well. She still wouldn't look at us. We sat back down.

"Look, Bender's coming this way," Andy said. Bender stopped in front of our table.

"Well, I was going to ignore everyone since I was being ignored by Cherry over there, but it's obvious she's the only bitch here, so I told my friends to fuck off because I'm sitting here," he said, flopping down across from me. I smiled. Typical Bender.

"Thanks," Brian said.

"Hey Cherry! Get your ass over here before I drag it over!" Bender yelled in Claire's direction. I looked back at her and she finally heaved a little sigh and came over here with her lunch. She gracefully sat down next to Bender.

"Hi guys," she said, not looking at any of us.

"Thanks for saying hi to me this morning, I really appreciate it," I told her coolly.

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine. You sat here," Brian said. It was true. We had already forgiven her.

"What? No inedible, raw fish today?" Bender teased. She rolled her eyes at him and started eating. Bender grabbed Brian's lunch and started looking through it. He then proceeded to eat some of it.

"I'll make sure to bring two lunches tomorrow," Brian said.

"I'd offer you some of mine but I don't think it'll be enough for me, so…" Andy said. I glared at him. "Fine." He gave one of his sandwiches to Brian. Brian's other friends just stared for a while, but eventually joined in on our conversation. It was the best lunch of my life.

Now here I am, after school at a nearby park, perfectly happy. Andy and I are sitting on a bench and he's got his ar


m thrown around me. Brian is sitting in front of us, doing his homework, and Claire is chasing Bender around because he stole her headband.

"Everyone? It's pretty late, you should get to your homework," Brian says. We all stare at him. "Never mind." Claire takes the opportunity and jumps onto Bender's back, knocking him down and taking back her headband.

"Hey, my dad bought me a car so if you want, we can carpool. I remember Brian saying he lived kinda far from school, so…" Claire offers. We all nod. "Okay, well I've gotta be home, so I'll see you," she says, grabbing her backpack. Bender picks up his books and follows her. "Stalker."

"It's only stalking if the person being followed is creeped out by the person doing the following and I know you enjoy my company," he says smugly. She's shaking her head, but I see her smile.

"I should go too," Brian says, getting up. "I'll see you guys tomorrow morning then," he says, walking off. It's just Andy and me now.

"I missed you today," he says.

"I'm sorry. I was…I don't know, nervous I guess, that you would try to forget about me. About everything that happened Saturday."

"Are you kidding? I could never forget you," he laughs. I smile. He leans in to give me a quick kiss.

"I should go," I say.

"Of course, I'll walk you home," he says. We get up and he takes my hand.

I remember everything that happened today, how we all just fit. I know it would be impossible now for any of us to forget anything. For better or for worse, we were all stuck with each other until high school was over, maybe longer.


My first Breakfast Club fanfic. What do you think?