The tension is broken when Carl the janitor walks into the room; he ignores us and heads to the foreign languages room, taking the trash out. "Brian, how you doing?" Carl asked once he finished, "Your dad works here?" Bender asked, Brian seemed embarrassed, "Uh Carl?" Carl stopped and looked to Bender, "What?" Bender leant back on his chair, "Can I ask you a question?" Carl faced us now, "Sure…" "How does one become a janitor?" Carl smirked slightly, "You wanna be a janitor?" Bender scoffed a little, "No, I just wanna know how one becomes a janitor because Andrew here, is very interested in pursuing a career in the custodial arts…" carl seemed a little ticked off by this, "Oh, really? You guys think I'm just some untouchable peasant? Peon? Huh? Maybe so, but following a broom around after shitheads like you for the past eight years I've learned a couple of things...I look through your letters, I look through your lockers..." I noticed Bender quickly look up at this confession, "I listen to your conversations, you don't know that but I do...I am the eyes and ears of this institution my friends. By the way, that clock's twenty minutes fast!" glancing round to Bender I saw the smirk on his face.

After Carl had left we tried to make up for lost time, "Here, tie this on my head." Bender spoke putting his red scarf in front of me; I looked to him confused but laughed a little. I stood up and tied the scarf around his head, "Happy?" He answered with a whistle of a marching song, I smirked slightly and the soon the rest joined in, even I did. It was hard to whistle whilst trying not to smile though; I didn't know how Bender kept a straight face. When Vernon came in through the door everyone stopped whistling, I continued but changed my whistle into Beethoven's 5th. Bender glances to me and Vernon simply stares daggers at me, "Alright girls, that's thirty minutes for lunch…" Vernon cut off my whistling. "Here?" Andrew asked, "Here…" Vernon confirmed, "Well I think the cafeteria would be a more suitable place for us to eat lunch in, sir." Andrew offered, "Well, I don't care what you think, Andrew." "Ugh dick? Excuse me, Rich…" I glanced to Bender with a smirk on my face, "Will milk be made available to us?" Bender asked as if this was a really important question. "We're extremely thirsty sir…" Andrew spoke, "I have a very low tolerance for dehydration." Claire added, although I didn't think she did have a low tolerance. "I've seen her dehydrate sir, it's pretty gross." Andrew supported her point.

Bender stood up suddenly, "Relax, I'll get it!" Vernon quickly stopped him, "Ah, ah, ah grab some wood there, bub!" Bender grins widely before slowly sitting down again, "What do you think, I was born yesterday?" I leaned back almost mimicking Bender's attitude, "It's debatable sir." He scowled to me and I heard Bender chuckle slightly, "Shut it, you little brat." I scowled slightly, and the whole room seemed to deflate, "You think I'm gonna have you roaming these halls?" he paused before pointing to Andrew, "You!" he then roams his finger over Claire before pointing to the back, at Allison, "And you! Hey! What's her name? Wake her! Wake her up!" Allison suddenly looks to him, "Come on, on your feet missy! Let's go! This is no rest home!" Ali grabs her bag and stormily follows after Andrew. "There's a soft drink machine in the teacher's lounge." Vernon soon left after Andrew and Allison.

We were all sitting around waiting for Allison and Andrew to get back, Brian was standing behind the railing, Bender was sitting on a table with one of his legs on the table and the other on a chair, and Claire was leaning against the statue in the middle. I on the other hand was sprawled out on a table completely bored out of my mind. "Claire… you wanna see a picture of a guy with elephantitis of the nuts? It's pretty tasty…" I chuckled a little but heard the scoff of Claire, "No thank you…" she groaned, "How do you think he rides a bike?" I don't think he could ride a bike… "Oh, Claire… would you ever consider dating a guy like this?" I heard another more dramatic sigh from Claire, "Can't you just leave me alone!?" I rolled over now laying on my front to get a sight of this conversation, "I mean if he had a great personality and was a good dancer and had a cool car…" I piqued up, "Although you'd probably have to ride in the back seat 'cause his nuts would ride shotgun." I laughed once she looked over to me in utter disgust. "You know what I wish I was doing?" Claire spoke, "Op, watch what you say, Brian here is a cherry." Brian was a little confused by this, "A cherry?" he asked looking down to Bender, "I wish I was on a plane to France." Claire mumbled, "I'm not a cherry." Brian retorted, "When have you ever gotten laid?" Bender asked looking at him, "I've laid, lots of times!" Brian defended. "Name one!" I called over, "She lives in Canada, met her at Niagara Falls. You wouldn't know her." I chuckled a little, "Ever laid anyone around here?"

Brian quickly shushed Bender and began pointing at Claire, I think he meant he wanted to get with Claire, and not how Bender took it, although I had an idea that Bender knew as well. "Oh you and Claire did it!" Claire spins around and eyes them both, "What're you talking about?" she interrogates, "Nothin', nothin'." Brian spoke to Claire before turning his attention to Bender, "Let's just drop it, we'll talk about it later!" Claire however wasn't letting this go, "No! Drop what, what're you talking about?" Bender went on to explain, "Well, Brian's trying to tell me that in addition to the number of girls in the Niagra Falls area, that presently you and he are, riding the hobby horse." He concluded, Claire looked to Brian with another look of disgust, "Little pig!" as if she would believe that… "No I'm not! I'm not! John said I was a cherry and I said I wasn't, that's it, that's all that was said!" Brian tried to regain himself, "Well then what were you motioning to Claire for?" Brian had gotten himself into a situation, "You know I don't appreciate this very much, Brian." I personally wouldn't give a shit. "He's lying!" Brian defended, "Oh you weren't motioning to Claire?" Brian looked to Claire desperate, "You know he's lying, right?" "Were you or were you not motioning to Claire?" Brian gave out a heavy sigh, "Yeah, but it was only… was only because I didn't want her to know that I was a virgin, okay."

Bender stared at him for a while and he became defensive again, "Excuse me for being a virgin, I'm sorry…" Claire laughed a little, the whole fiasco becoming clear now, "Why didn't you want me to know you were a virgin?" she asked moving and sitting on the side of the table. "Because it's personal business, it's my personal, private business." He concluded, "Well Brian, it doesn't sound like you're doing any business…" Bender joked, but Claire had to come in on the higher horse. "I think it's okay for a guy to be a virgin." She spoke pointedly; Bender looked to her a little surprised, "You do?" Claire only smiles and nods. "What about you Alice?" Bender asked looking to me; I shrugged my shoulders, "As long as he gets the job done, who gives a damn." Claire scoffed and I flipped her the birdie.

"Why's Vernon so mean to you? I mean, he's mean to other kids, but not like that?" Claire asked once she'd spun around, "Yeah?" Brian also asked leaning over slightly. I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know, I think he's got a personal vendetta against me. He's hated me since I started here." Claire hummed. "You're in some of my classes aren't you?" I crossed my arms, "Nice of you to notice me." She scowled a little, "I only notice you because you're always making trouble." I scoffed slightly, "Oh piss off, you don't know jack shit about me." She seemed offended by my crude language and sat back around in a huff. I felt a small nudge on my elbow and looked around, Bender was smirking slightly, and I stared at him with a straight face. My lips soon turned up into a smile when he started smirking, "Fuck you." I punched his shoulder lightly; he feigned hurt and rubbed his shoulder, "Ow, the pain." I scowled playfully and grabbed his shoulder, "I'll give you pain in a minute if you don't stop it." He quickly grabbed my wrists, "But I'm not doing anything…" he paused leaning closer and pulling me towards him. "Yet." He almost breathed the words over my lips. As he let go of my wrists we both stayed still for a moment, me looking into his eyes and down to our almost touching lips, and him doing the same. "We're back." The door was swung open and I pulled away, Bender lingered for a moment before smirking and leaning back. "You took your time!"

Andrew laid the cans of soft drink on the front table. Everyone was getting their lunches out and setting them on their tables, Claire was the first one to get hers out. Bender seemed real disgusted by what she had, "What's in there?" he asked, "Guess, where's your lunch?" he glanced back to me, "Alice is wearing it." I looked up to him and slapped him on the back a little, "You're nauseating…" Claire mumbled under her breath. Bender reached forwards and grabbed two cokes, throwing one back to Ali who caught it without even looking, and placed the other in front of me. "Thank you." I smiled. Bender then catches what Claire is setting out, "What's that?" Claire seemed bewildered, "Sushi…" Bender obviously didn't know what sushi was, in fact neither did I. "Sushi?" I asked now interested, Bender looked back to me before I also leaned forwards to see the un-known food. "Rice, uh, raw fish and seaweed." She explained, "That sounds horrible." She rolled her eyes a little at my comment, "You won't accept a guy's tongue in your mouth and you're gonna eat that?" Bender really did sound disgusted. "Can I eat?" Claire wasn't really asking, "I don't know… give it a try."

Andrew was the next one to get his lunch out; Andrew most probably had enough to feed the whole football team. He takes out about three sandwiches, a bag of potato chips, an apple, a banana, a bag of cookies and a carton of milk. I, Bender and Claire all stared at him in shock, "What's your problem?" he directed his question to Bender. Bender glanced to me, I shrugged slightly and he shook his head. I soon looked around to see what Ali was making for lunch, she had already taken the meat out and was pouring pixie stix onto the bread, and she then adds her cap 'n crunch on top of that. She crushes the two sides together before shoving it in her mouth. We all look back slowly, leaving Ali to her sandwich. I sigh slightly and pick my own bag up, "So what you got?" Bender asked already looking over my shoulder. I looked round to him, "Whatever I managed to shove in my bag before I got out of the house." I soon found a bag of half eaten chips, and what was left of a chocolate bar. I then found something else, a small piece of broken plate. It must've slipped into my bag from the encounter of my drunken mother this morning. "I guess I should return it to my mother, who knows when she'll throw it at me again." I hushed most of it under my breath and dropped the plate piece back into my bag. I looked down as Bender placed his hand on my knee, surprisingly it wasn't a flirtation, it was more of a condolence. I looked round to him and saw his solemn face.

Then he was gone, over to Brian's table. I shook my head and began eating my 'food'. "I can read! PB & J with the crusts cut off...Well Brian, this is a very nutritious lunch, all the food groups are represented. Did your mom marry Mr Rogers?" I heard Bender ask and looked over to where he was sitting with Brian, "Uh, no, Mr Johnson…" Brian replied. "Ahhh…." I caught Andrew and Claire share a smile. "Here's my impression of life at big Bri's house." Bender stands up and walks over to the middle of the room, in a loud and seemingly fatherly voice he pretends to call up the stairs. "Son!" then in a kiddie voice, pushing his cheeks to signify dimples. "Yeah dad?" Dad. "How's your day, pal?" Kid. "Great dad! How's yours?" Dad. "Super, say son, how'd you like to go fishing this weekend?" Kid. "Great dad, but I've got homework to do!" dad. "That's alright son, you can do it on the boat!" kid. "Gee!" Bender then acts like a mother and the father are talking, "Dear, isn't our son swell?" Mom. "Yes dear, isn't life swell?" Bender then mimes mother kissing father, before a disgusted look is given and Bender pretends to uppercut the mother. Suddenly it's not so funny anymore, and the downcast look on Brian's face shows that.

"Alright, what about your family?" Andrew asks now looking to Bender who's sitting on the table next to me. He stands up and smiles a little, going back to his stage, "Oh, mine. That's real easy!" Bender starts and points forwards as if pointing to someone in front of him, "Stupid, worthless, no good, God damned, freeloading, son of a bitch, retarded, bigmouth, know it all, asshole, jerk!" this is his father talking, "You forgot ugly, lazy and disrespectful." His mother piped in, which apparently earned her a smack round the face. "Shut up bitch! Go fix me a turkey pot pie!" now acting as himself, "What about you, dad?" father, "Fuck you!" himself, "No dad, what about you?" father, "Fuck you!" he's now yelling, "No, dad, what about you!" father, "Fuck you!" he then pretends his father has hit him a recoils. Everyone's silent…

"Is that for real?" Brian asks, "You wanna come over sometime?" Bender asks a little angry at this, I could tell he was pissed, "That's bullshit. It's all part of your image; I don't believe a word of it." Andrew spoke sitting back forwards. Bender looks hurt, and I can tell he's not faking that, "You don't believe me?" he asks, Andrew glances round; "No." he speaks, "No?" Bender asks again, "Did I stutter?" Andrew retorts. Bender walks over to him and pulls up his long white sleeve, a circular burn mark is in the crook of his elbow, "Do you believe this? Huh? It's about the size of a cigar…" Andrew tries to look away, "Do I stutter? You see, this is what you get in my house when you spill paint in the garage." I didn't doubt his story for a minute; in fact I was sure that scenario had been carried out. Bender begins to walk away, visibly tense, "See I don't think that I need to sit here with you fuckin' dildos anymore!" he almost yells. He storms over to the map table and looks around for a moment, he then yells and throws all the maps onto the floor and climbs up to the second floor balcony using the now empty table. "You shouldn't have said that." Claire whispers to Andrew, "How would I know, I mean he lies about everything anyway." He mutters, I scowled a little and leant forwards, "You don't even know him." They looked back before feeling the guilt and returning to their lunches.

After a while I stood up, no one had moved or spoken since Bender got angry, and he hadn't moved either. Claire and the others looked back to me but I mostly brushed them off, I quietly walked up the stairs and stood next to him, a couple steps up from him. "Mind if I sit?" I asked, he looked up to me, only now noticing my presence. "Whatever…" he mumbled before pressing his forehead against the plank of wood again. I sat down anyway, my legs hanging off the edge like his. "I like your shoes." I commented, not wanting to bring the episode back up and wanting to take his mind off of it. He looked round to me with an odd look but then let out a little chuckle, accepting the compliment, "Thanks, yours are cool too." I looked down to my army like boots, they were similar to his expect mine were laced up and had straps going criss-cross over them. "So, uh… you seem to be the only one who knows what I'm talking about." He muttered, not really looking in my direction. I held out my packet of crisps for him and he took a couple, "Yeah, takes one to know one I guess." I laughed bitterly and shrugged my shoulders, swinging my legs back and forth. "How bad is it?" I asked him, he laughed a little maybe unaccustomed to letting his personal life out, "Bad enough that I sleep in my trousers." He admitted. I was a little shocked, "That bad…" I shook my head a little, "What about you?" he asked this time looking over to me, I let out a sigh butt knew I'd tell him. "I have a knife under my pillow, and a ladder by my window." I joked, but he took it seriously. "Are you serious?" he asked, looking over to me. I nodded my head sombrely. "Hey I've got an idea, c'mon." he smiled and stood up holding his hand out, I smiled and took it gratefully.

Bender lead me down the stairs and over to the desks, "Come on you pussies, we're going to my locker." I looked to him along with everyone else, no one really moved for a minute until he clapped his hands. The others stood up as we began towards the library door. He slowly opens the door and peaks out, apparently Vernon had gone to get his own lunch, I, Claire and Bender were walking at the front, Brian and Andrew were walking next to each other and Ali was hanging at the back. "How do you know where Vernon went?" Claire asked Bender, "I don't…" he smiled and looked to her, she looked a little panicky. "Well then, how do you know when he'll be back?" Bender smiled wider and quickened his pace, "I don't… being bad feels pretty good, huh?" Claire looked like she was actually enjoying this, I smirked and Claire hung back a little. "So what are we doing?" I asked, hoping I'd get more information from him. But alas he didn't bend only slipped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer, "It's a secret." He whispered into my hair, I giggled and a small blush formed on my cheeks, "Whatever." I laughed and pushed him away a little as we got to his locker.

There seemed to be two parts to his locker, the bigger bottom one and a smaller top one. When he opened the big one a guillotine slammed down cutting a converse in half, "Slob!" Andrew sneered once seeing the inside of his locker, to be honest it looked a lot like mine. "My maids on vacation." He spoke pressing a small button which opened the top locker, Bender may seem like an idiot but he was smart under all the jokes. He yanked a bag out of the top and took another bag out of that one and another one, until he came down to a small package. I leaned over his shoulder with wide eyes, "Drugs…" Brian was also the next to see the package, "Screw that Bender… put it back!" I was already jumping for joy. As we walked down the hall we had to plan some way to get back without getting caught, "We'll cross through the lab, and then we'll double back." Bender spoke as we stopped for a minute. "You better be right, if Vernon cuts us off it's your fault, asshole!" Andrew growled out.

As we began walking down a hall we all glanced down and saw Vernon, it's then I knew this would be a running match. This school was huge and who knew which way Vernon would go. We quickly began running through the halls, each time we went to go down one, Vernon was there, or we only just missed him. As we were running down another hallway Bender spoke, "Wait! Wait, hold it! Hold it!" we all stopped looking back to him, "We have to go through the cafeteria!" that sounded like a good idea, but apparently Andrew had a better one. "No, the activities hall!" I looked between them, "Hey man, you don't know what you're talking about!" Bender pointed his finger to Andrew's chest. "No you don't know what you're talking about!" he pointed back. Allison squeaked, "Now we're through listening to you, we're going this way!" Andrew led the way and Claire and Brian quickly followed after him, I and Allison looked to Bender, Allison was stomping her feet, "Come on, let's just go." I spoke. He sighed but began running grabbing my arm to pull me along.

As we rounded a corner and ran down a set of stairs we came to our doom, the hall was closed by an iron gate. "Shit!" Bender slams the gate, "Great idea Jagoff!" Bender comments already thinking something through, "Fuck you!" Andrew yelled, "Fuck you! Why didn't you listen to john?!" I yelled pushing his shoulder slightly. "We're dead." Brian spoke our thoughts. I was about to put myself up for sacrifice, "I'll get his attention." I spoke. They looked round to me, "What? No way." Bender spoke, Ali grabbed my sleeve and tugged on it giving me a squeak. I laughed a little, "What's the worst that could happen." I shrugged my shoulders, "No, just me." I looked to Bender, "What do you mean?" I asked. He didn't answer and only shoved the package down my tank top, expertly slipping it into my bra. I was a little shocked and my cheeks were no doubt bright red, "Get back to the library, and don't smoke it until I get back." He smirked and before I realised what happened his lips brushed against mine before he vanished. Running down the halls singing, "I wanna be an airborne ranger…!" we watched after him as he hit all the locks on the lockers as he ran.

We managed to get back to the library in one piece, once inside we all let out a sigh and got back to our seats, I sat with Ali at the back, my cheeks still red. She squeaked a little and I looked over to her, we turned back a little not facing the rest of the group. "You're blushing." I laughed a little and covered my cheeks, "I just can't help myself around him." She giggled a little. And then the doors opened, we all looked around seeing Vernon pushing Bender into the library. "Get your stuff, let's go!" he orders Bender who only sits down at his chair. "Mr Wise guy here has taken it upon himself to go to the gymnasium. I'm sorry to inform you, you're going to be without his services for the rest of the day." Vernon explained, does that mean I could smoke his drugs? "B-o-o h-o-o!" Bender spelled out over sarcastically. "Everything's a big joke, huh Bender? The false alarm you pulled, Friday, false alarms are really funny, aren't they… what if your home, what if your family…" he rethought this, Bender would most probably be happy if his parent's died. "What if your dope was on fire?" Bender smirked, "Impossible, sir… it's in Alice's bra." Andrew laughs a little and I cross my arms over my chest as Vernon tries to sneak a look.

"You think he's funny? You think this is cute? You think he's bitchin', is that it? Lemme tell you something. Look at him, he's a bum." He then speaks to all of us, "You wanna see something funny? You go visit John Bender in five years! You'll see how goddamned funny his is!" Vernon then walks round to stand in front of him, "What's the matter, john? You gonna cry? Let's go…" he grabs Bender's shoulder who stands up quickly, "Hey, keep your fucking hands off me! I expect better manners from you, dick." He spits out. Bender took his sunglasses off and laid them in front of Andrew, "For better hallway vision." As Bender leaves his pushes most of the stuff on the secretaries table to the ground, he slammed the door before Vernon could walk through, who only slammed it open himself. After that the whole room took on a different tone, no one said anything but it was like nothing needed to be said. I stood up and walked over to his seat, sitting down slowly and sighing, I took the drugs from my bra and rolled it over in my grasp. "What're we gonna do with that?" Claire asked looking around, I looked up to her, not feeling in the mood to sneer at her. "Wait until he comes back." She frowned a little, "What makes you think he'll come back, Vernon said-." I quickly cut her off, "Bender will do the exact opposite to what Vernon says… he'll come back, I know it."