'1001 Ways to Escape Bullying'

CHAPTER 3: Bullies in Detention VS. Getting into Trouble

Freddie:

What was he going to do?

Either he'd show up to detention, get beaten up by Sam and most likely all the other bullies of Ridgeway High School. Or not go and be forever persecuted as the 'good student who bailed detention'. The boy didn't know who was scarier: Sam Puckett or Mrs Briggs. Both were pretty terrifying to him.

In the end, he decided that a one minute beating from a girl was a slightly better prospect than a "black mark" next to his name all the way through to college.

"Are you okay?"

Freddie jumped out of his skin, and turned to notice a concerned looking brunette girl, standing next to him.

"Carly, please don't do that. You scared me."

"Sorry," she replied, smiling a little. "I just wanted to check on you. You've been really quiet today."

"I'm fine," he said, not meeting her eyes.

If he looked her in the eye, he'd feel obliged to tell her everything he was feeling. That was something he just couldn't do right now. Even though he liked her, or even really liked her. After all, she was always so nice to him.

"Please tell me, please?"

Those puppy dog eyes always broke him down. But not today, nope, today was different.

Without another word or glance he grabbed his backpack, slung it over his shoulder and slammed the door of his locker and headed down the hallway. Freddie pushed aside the creeping feeling of guilt for just leaving Carly like that and focused on how he'd spend the next two hours, surviving detention. He'd never gotten detention before today, and hoped he wouldn't be leaving with a black and blue face.

It was a little too quiet when he entered classroom 203 that afternoon. Almost like some vicious predators were lying in wait for their helpless prey.

"Hey look who we have here," sneered a voice. "Hey, Bill, check this out, a nerd in detention."

He hated the way they eyed him, like they wanted to sink their teeth into his neck or something. The sound of cracking knuckles could be heard, even from outside the door. Then it slammed open, revealing a fierce blonde girl.

As soon as Sam walked in, the other bullies, respectfully stood up, as though acknowledging their leader's presence in the room.

That's weird, thought Freddie and looked around at the tall guys, almost trembling in the presence of the small framed girl. He could feel her eyes sweeping across the room, until they caught sight of him.

The spark of fire in them said one thing to him.

Dead. Meat. Benson.

Sam:

Her eyes widened, she let out a scoff as she saw her comrades looking between herself and the boy before them. The nerd actually has guts, she thought, narrowing her eyes now and taking a seat in her usual place. The rest of the bullies also sat down and resumed their conversations.

It was funny how she was the most respected bully out of all of them. Though she knew she deserved to be their fearless leader. Everyone feared her.

"Puckett," one boy hissed. "Why's the nerd here?"

"I'd know this because…?" Sam snapped at him. "Look, I don't know, and I don't care, Carter. Just beat him up."

She looked over at Freddie, and her lips curled into a devious and almost evil grin. He looked so innocent, so weak and so vulnerable. Perfect.

Just like his stupid crush on her best friend. So perfect, that it killed her to watch his puppy like behavior following her heels wherever she went. It was annoying, irritating and beyond amusing to watch him be rejected time and time again. Carly just didn't like him in the way he liked her. Sam knew that, and everyday decided it was her duty to remind him of it.

"Fredgeek Benson," she growled, slamming her fists in front of him. "I warned you not to show your face here."

Freddie just stared at her, wordless and motionless.

His brown eyes always reminded her of chocolate which made her hungry, which made her want some food and right then and there. What did she do when she wanted food immediately? She demanded it and from whichever innocent person was closest to her, which consequently was: Freddie. He looked about ready to burst into tears which only provoked Sam further.

The other bullies watched in amazement as Sam raised one of her hands, ready to slap the boy silly. It was certainly clear to them that she was not a force to be messed with. And if you tried anything: God have mercy on your blessed soul! Sam Puckett was definitely tougher than all of them put together.

He deserved it, she thought, bitterly. Him with the yummy eyes and the cute smile and…

Yummy eyes? Cute smile?

"Please don't kill me! S-Sam, please, don't hurt me. I'll… I'll do anything you ask! Anything!"

The boy begged over and over again, while covering his head with his arms, cowering away from her.

Anything, she thought over and over again. It sounded too good to be true. He'd do anything even though she'd beat him senseless over the years? Wow. He was either just nice or just plain stupid.

"What are you waiting for, Sam? Punch him!"

And that's exactly what she did. Turning around quickly to where the voice had come from, her fist landed right in the guy's nose, cracking it slightly. It started bleeding a little. That was Billy Howard.

The other bullies, who watched in stunned silence, backed off a bit afterwards.

Sam faced the terrified boy and sat down, opposite him, smirking. As Freddie gulped she knew wanted to scare him, which apparently had been working, so far.

"So," she commented, still smirking evilly. "You'll do anything?"

Freddie:

One thing he knew about Sam, was that she could be very charming and with that charm, came persuasion. With the persuasion, came the hurting. It was like a big vicious chain of viciousness.

"Anything," he replied.

He squirmed in the seat but nodded his agreement slowly, not knowing at all what trouble he would be eventually getting himself into.

And chiz, he was scared right out of his pants.

Carly:

Back in her apartment, studying studiously and awaiting her best friends to be finished detention, Carly sat back in her seat and just stared at the blank page before her. As though words would magically appear there and her homework would be finished all by itself. Unfortunately, it didn't happen like that.

As the door swung open, in walked her older brother with an armful of random objects.

That's what they were. All different things for his latest sculpture project, which had no particular theme. The girl smiled at the ridiculousness of it all and closed her note book slowly.

"What you got there?" Carly questioned the weird man.

"Stuff," he replied.

She watched as he stepped back to admire the nice junk pile he'd just created in the middle of their living room floor. Nice, she thought. He's going to expect me to clean all of it up, I bet. Speaking of cleaning, she remembered the state of the kitchen. Her hands rested on her hips.

"Spencer, you better clean up that kitchen before you make any more messes around the apartment!"

"Yeah, I will."

He waved his hand around carelessly.

Carly sighed. Here she was, a fifteen year old girl with her twenty seven year old brother who was meant to be the one in charge around here. Yet he was always acting like a child, while she was always the responsible one.

When will Spencer become an actual adult? She kept thinking to herself. Hopefully sometime soon.