Detention

By Misanagi

Rating: PG

Pairing/Characters: Gen. Heero. Guest appearances by Trowa, Wufei, Duo and Quatre.

Summary: Prequel to Masterminds. Heero gets his first detention in his new school. (This happens two years after Shattered Glass and two years before Masterminds.)

Warnings: AU, School fic. Teenagers acting like teenagers.

Notes: Written for GW500. Challenge #111: School.

Thanks a lot to Anne for the beta.

There was a student walking on the ledge of a window. Heero blinked and wondered momentarily if he had fallen asleep, but when he looked out the window again, Trowa was still there. Suddenly, Trowa jumped, flipped in mid air and landed on his feet. Heero leaned over the window to get a better look, and saw Trowa bow and wink at him before running towards the parking lot.

Well, that was a useful skill to have.

If Heero could, he would have already jumped out his window. There were better things he could be doing than listening to Mr. Brenston explain equations he had learned years ago. He wondered what class Trowa had escaped from. Heero had met Trowa only yesterday; they had English together. They had talked briefly, just for a few minutes while they walked out of the classroom, but it had been the longest conversation Heero had had in this school.

Saint Charles Academy was certainly an elegant and interesting school, but the students weren't very friendly. Heero had to admit that he wasn't very sociable either but some of the people in the school were downright hostile. In his last school everyone had been too competitive to have time to have friends. Heero didn't want to admit it but he had been hopeful that things would be different now.

They weren't.

Except for Trowa, no one else had even spoken to Heero. Students here did have time for friends, but apparently they weren't willing to make any new ones. By the end of the first day Heero had already decided that he would spend his time in this school focusing on the academic part, but that had also proven to be different than he expected.

When he was seven, Heero was tested and found to have remarkably high scores in abstract thinking, which gave him a high affinity for numbers. He was sent to a special school for gifted children and he had studied there until now. The school only taught until the eighth grade, which meant that Heero had to look for a high school. Scouts had come from different prep schools but in the end Heero decided that he didn't want to move away, and the best school in the city was Saint Charles Academy.

The science and math classes were a joke. Heero had covered everything they were teaching long before in his old school, but Saint Charles refused to let him move to more advanced classes until the teachers agreed with his request, and he had to wait at least two months for that. However, Heero found the social and human studies classes fascinating. In his old school they had focused on working with the student strengths, which meant that Heero had gotten all the schooling he could in math and sciences but very little in everything else.

"Mr. Yuy, why aren't you solving the problem?"

Heero turned away from the window to look at Mr. Brenston, who was glaring at him from the teacher's desk. "I already did, sir."

Everyone had stopped writing and they were looking at Heero now.

"I've been watching you since I wrote the problem, Mr. Yuy, and you have yet to pick up your pencil. We don't like liars in this school."

"I'm not lying," said Heero, frowning. "I didn't use my pencil because I didn't need it." Ten minutes ago Mr. Brenston had copied a problem on the board and challenged the students to solve it. It had taken Heero about thirty seconds to solve it in his head.

The teacher snorted. "If you are not lying, Mr. Yuy, then please..." He extended his hand, holding a piece of chalk to Heero.

Silently, Heero rose from his seat, took the chalk and wrote the solution to the problem on the board. Mr. Brenston glared at the board and then frowned at Heero. "Young man, the exercise was for you to complete alone. Looking at the answers in the back of the book is cheating. We don't like cheating in this school."

"I didn't look." Heero said firmly. He hadn't even known that there were answers at the end of the book. What was the purpose of asking questions if they also gave the answers?

"I think we already discussed lying, Mr. Yuy." Mr. Brenston took the chalk from Heero's hand. "Get back to your seat, and report for detention at the end of the day. I won't have cheaters in my class."

"I didn't cheat," said Heero, not moving from his place. Great, it was his first week in the new school and he was already in trouble.

"We don't like insolence in this school, Mr. Yuy. Get back to your seat before I send you to the principal to get suspended."

Heero was tempted to respond, and insist that he hadn't cheated, but he didn't want to be suspended. He went back to his seat and looked out the window.

Trowa had the right idea.

When the bell rang, Heero gathered his things and turned to the kid seating behind him. "Where is detention?" he asked.

The boy gave him a weird look. "How should I know? Do I look like a loser?" he gathered his things and just before he left he said, "Ask Chang. He's an expert." He pointed with his head to a boy a few seats away, and then left.

Heero walked towards the Asian boy but before he could say anything, Chang asked, "Did you cheat?"

Heero crossed his arms and glared. "No."

"I didn't think so." Chang smirked. "Brenston hates to look bad. I'm sure he knows you didn't cheat either." Chang finished putting his things in his backpack and headed for the door. "Coming?"

Heero nodded and walked beside him. "Is this what I'm supposed to expect from this school?"

"Not all teachers are like that. Brenston is part of the minority." He straightened his uniform tie. "Chang Wufei."

"Heero Yuy." Heero gave Wufei a look. "That other guy implied that you get detentions a lot?"

Wufei smirked. "The students and I sometimes have disagreements."

Heero chose not to ask more about it, at least not for now. "Where's detention?"

"We don't have a detention room here. They believe that detention should be functional so we basically get to do janitorial functions for an hour and a half after school." Wufei shrugged. "You are supposed to stand in front of the principal's office after school and she'll tell you what to do. And don't think about cutting. She has a list and you'll get in trouble if you don't show up."

"I wasn't thinking that," Heero said. "Janitorial functions?"

"Moping and sweeping the floors, picking trash, mowing the lawn; whatever is needed at the moment. See that wall over there?" Wufei pointed at a long wall on the far end of the parking lot. "My friend and I painted that in seventh grade. Took us a week of detention since Lady Une insisted it needed to have three layers."

Heero snickered. "Do you have detention today too?"

"No… but if you see a blond named Quatre in detention today, tell him he owes me a pizza."

"Is he supposed to be there?" Heero asked.

"Who knows," replied Wufei before entering a classroom. "See you tomorrow, Heero."

"Yeah," Heero said, even though Wufei had already left.

He couldn't be certain, but he thought he had just made a friend.

While the other students hurried out of the school, Heero stood in front of the principal's office, leaning on the wall with his backpack on the floor beside him. The rest of the day had been better but he was still angry about getting detention for something he didn't do. Wufei had made it sound as if it was more a bother than trouble for him but Heero was still frustrated. He shouldn't be standing here in the first place. It was ridiculous to be punished for being smart.

Most students walked by him without sparing him a second glace. Some others looked down at him, as if he was less than they just because he had gotten in trouble. Those rich kids were playing right into the stereotype.

A few minutes later the hallway was practically empty. Heero thought that he was going to be the only one in detention but then he saw two students approaching him and talking.

"You should have seen Miss Carpenter running away from that mouse," said one of them. The kid had the longest hair Heero had seen in a boy. "But I guess you were too busy trying not to fall."

The other one rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't have slipped if you hadn't hit me with your elbow while laughing at Miss Carpenter." They stopped in front of the principal's office and leaned against the wall.

"Well, it was worth it," said the first one between laughs. He sobered a bit and asked, "Now what?"

"We wait. Une should be out soon," said the blond kid.

"The sooner she's out the sooner we can leave. You said we can go after we are done with the slave labor?"

The blond laughed. "Yeah, but believe me, we won't be done soon. Once, my friend and I spent a week painting a stupid wall that didn't even need a paintjob."

"Are you Quatre?" Heero asked, before he could stop himself from intruding in their conversation.

The blond looked confused. "Yes. I'm Quatre Winner." He smiled softly. "How do you know?"

Heero smirked. "Wufei says you owe him a pizza."

Quatre laughed. The other guy apparently had no idea what it was about either because he just gave Quatre a weird look. "Q? Want to explain?"

"Remember Wufei? The friend I was telling you about? Well, we have a bet each semester. The first one to get detention pays for the first pizza we order." Quatre hit his friend on the arm. "And now because of you, I lost. You are a bad influence," he added. "I only met you yesterday and you already got me in trouble."

"Hey, it might have been my idea, but you planned the whole thing down to which mouse to take because he was the runner of the lot."

Quatre shrugged and gave his friend a guilty smile.

"What if neither of you gets detention?" asked Heero.

"Impossible," replied Quatre. "What's your name?"

"Heero Yuy."

The other guy moved forward. "Duo Maxwell. Guess we are stuck in this together, uh? We might as well be friends." He grinned and Heero couldn't help but grin back.

"Making new friends, Mr. Winner?" Lady Une was standing at the door of her office watching the three students. "Maybe you can befriend someone who doesn't get detention every week?"

Quatre smiled at the principal. "Wufei isn't here, Ma'am."

"I wonder how long that'll last," said Lady Une with a resigned tone. "Now follow me, gentlemen."

Lady Une led them to the stage on the side of the gymnasium. "The ballet club starts rehearsals next week and the floors need to be waxed." She pointed at the corner where the brushes, rags and the waxing cream waited. "Enjoy your evening, gentlemen."

"What? We're supposed to wax the whole stage this afternoon?" Duo protested.

"That depends on you, but if you don't finish, you can come for early detention Monday morning to complete the job." She gave Duo a hard look. "Ask Mr. Winner if you don't believe me. He has enjoyed early detentions before." With that she turned around and left.

Duo fell to his knees. "This is cruel and unusual punishment!"

Quatre shrugged. "It's very usual here. Don't worry; we'll get it done today."

Heero and Duo followed Quatre, who had already taken off his blazer and was pushing up his sleeves. "Hey, man," whispered Duo. "Do you know how to wax floors?"

"I believe we need a machine to do that," replied Heero, looking around for it.

"We are not allowed to use it," said Quatre. "Wufei and I stole one once but now they keep them locked away."

Duo grinned. "Do you know where?"

"There's a janitor closet under the stairs." Quatre looked at Duo expectantly. "Why?"

Duo gave a triumphal smile. "I can pick locks."

Minutes later, they had managed to get the machine to the stage and Quatre was busy setting it up.

"Dude, why do you know how to do that?" asked Duo. "You are a rich ass kid. You are not supposed to know stuff like that."

"My housekeeper taught me." Quatre poked his tongue out at Duo. "If she hadn't I would have spent even more hours in detention trying to figure out how to do it."

Heero turned to Duo. "I assume you are not a rich ass kid?"

"Nah, I'm here on a scholarship, directly from public school." Duo loosened his tie and sat on the floor. "What about you?"

"I can pay the school, but I don't own a Mercedes," replied Heero.

The machine started humming softly as Quatre moved it slowly over the wooden floors.

"Hey, Q," yelled Duo over the hum. "How many Mercedes do you own?"

"None," Quatre said, and then smirked. "Father prefers BMWs."

Duo laughed and slapped Heero softly in the arm. "Hell, if he isn't the weirdest rich kid I've ever met."

Heero smiled. "Yeah, he's okay."

"Do you think we'll survive here in rich land?"

Heero watched Quatre wax the floors, remembered Trowa walking on the window ledge and the short conversation with Wufei, and finally, he looked at Duo, sitting beside him and grinning.

"Yeah," he said. "I think we will."

- The End -