Chapter 10: Detention

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I was so happy to finally make it to my last period. My beloved art class. The place where I felt that I truly belonged.

The teacher wore a wrinkled light blue buttoned up shirt with a printed Pikachu on the right side. He wore wrinkled dark blue jeans and his wiry blonde hair stuck out in all directions, making him look more like a mad scientist.

"Good afternoon everyone. Last class of the day," he said. "Best class of the day," I said in a low voice as I passed by him. He smirked and nodded. "Exactly, best class of the day! Art!"

"Hey, what's that sticking out of your back pack?" Asked a kid from behind me. I looked over my shoulder. "What?" I asked, half expecting to see a "Kick Me" sign from Mirror taped to my backpack. I felt something reach in my backpack and touch my wings. My eyes widened and I quickly spun away from the kid. "What are you doing?!" I asked, trying not to raise my voice.

The kid pointed to my backpack. "You have a gaping hole in your backpack and theres a weird furry thing in there." he said. My eyes widened. Oh shit. Oh shit shit shit! My hands reached behind, squeezing my backpack and my wings. I blindly felt around till I found the hole. Part of my wing was sticking out.

I pinched the gaping hole closed with my fist and turned to the art teacher. "C-can I go to the restroom?" I stuttered, panicking.

"Yeah, sure. Take the Bathroom pass," the teacher said without really paying attention as he turned his head and walked away. I looked over to where the bathroom pass hung on a nail in the wall. It was a literal toilet seat, hand painted in a strange pattern. In swirly yellow letters, it said Bathroom pass Room 405. I winced.

The bathroom pass was heavy. I walked by two girls who most likely came from the bathroom. They whispered and giggled at me as they passed by. I heard everything they said. I finally made it to the bathroom and went into the biggest stall. I took off my backpack and my wings immediately opened up and stretched.

I turned my back pack over in my hands. Sure enough, there was a seven inch hole in my backpack. It had to have been during the fight with Mirror and her gang. Great. Just great. I didn't know what to do. I didn't have any way of sewing up my backpack or stuffing it. Maybe I could call Monger. He could bring me a new back pack or something.

I pulled out a small flip phone from the side pocket. Monger gave me this phone just yesterday, for emergencies only. It had Monger's cell phone in it. It wasnt anything special. It just called or texted and took shitty pictures. I pressed Monger's number and the phone began to ring.

"Hello?" Monger said.

"Hi, it's me, Bat," I said

"Hi. Is everything ok?"

"I...my backpack ripped," I responded. Not really wanting to tell him about the fight.

"Oh? How did that happen?"

"Um...must have been when I stretched my wings. A kid saw part of my wing poking out. The backpack is very small. I was hoping you could give me a bigger backpack? Please?" I asked.

"Did the kid figure out what your wing was?"

"No. He was just confused."

"Allright. I'll be there shortly," he said.

"Thank you...bye," I said

"Bye."

I closed the phone and took a huge sigh of relief. I decided to stay in the bathroom stall a little longer to stretch my wings. I rubbed the certain areas that were sore and did a few stretches. After that I slipped my wings back in and walked back to class. I came back and sat in the back.

Twenty five minutes later, my art teacher got a call on the class phone. He answered it. He responded with a few words, then turned his head to me and motioned me to come over. Puzzled, I got up and walked over to him. He placed the phone back on the receiver.

"You are wanted at the principal's office," he said. The class went quiet. I didn't see it as a bad thing. I assumed Monger was there with my new backpack. I left the classroom and made my way to the principal's office. The office was small with several file cabinets and accents of red here and there. When I got there, I found Monger and the principal talking. Mongers back was to me. I could see the principals frizzy black hair and her red blazer.

"-she's a good kid. She is never like this," I heard Monger say. Uh oh. The principal saw me and motioned me in. "Come in," she said, using my fake name. I shyly walked in. "Take a seat," she gestured to the two chairs in front of her desk. Monger remained standing. His hands clasped behind his back.

I sat in one of the chairs in front of the principal's desk. I stared down at my shoes. My shoes have gone through a lot. They were wearing out and had huge holes in the sides.

"Do you know why you are here?" Asked the principal. I hesitated. I already heard a snippet of their conversation. "...I think because of what happened during lunchtime?" I asked. The principal nodded. "You were seen taking down a kid bigger than you, and twisting a kid's arm behind his back," she said. I looked up at Monger, who narrowed his eyes down at me.

I looked away, my shoulders tensing up. The principal continued. "We know you are new here, but we don't allow that kind of behavior at this school-"

"I was just sitting at a bench and they came up to me and shoved me to the ground!" I defended myself. "It was five against one. I didn't start the fight!" I added. The principal sighed. "Regardless. Your actions harmed-"

"I got hurt!" I showed her my bruised arms and red fingers where it scraped the concrete ground. "I was not intending to hurt them. I was only defending myself."

The principal's dark eyes narrowed. "You shouldn't have fought back. You should've reported it to a teacher." I lowered my arms. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was being punished for being bullied.

"Mirror and her gang were the ones who started the fight. All because I was "sitting in their spot," Mirror and the Jok- I mean...Jason Gonzalez...I don't know the other kid's names," I tried one last time.

"Miss Henderson and Mr. Gonzalez are our top students at this school. They have the highest grades and their families have helped this school with funds towards our new science building and our recently being built new tech building."

My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe it.

The principal continued. "I'm letting you off with a warning. If I see another photo or another report of you in a fight, I'm suspending you." She looked up at Monger who nodded his head silently. I got up and started walking towards the door.

"Oh and one more thing," said the principal. Monger and I turned around. The principal shuffled through her papers on her tidy desk. "It appears I have been getting a few complaints from your teachers about you wearing your backpack and beanie in class."

Monger took a step forward and started feeding her the same bullshit excuses I have been feeding my teachers. The principal nodded. "I see. Well, I'll try to have a meeting with them. It appears that her geography teacher gave her detention."

"Do I have to?" I asked her.

The principal thought for a minute. "For your beanie and backpack. No. For getting into a fight. Yes. It's only for an hour after school. You are to meet at the recycling center on the outskirts of the school." She showed me a map and pointed. It was near the new science building and the building under construction. "There, Mr. Schmidt will tell you what to do," she said.

With that, Monger and I left the principal's office. The bell had already rung and kids were already filing out of their classes. School had ended. Detention had begun.

Monger silently pulled out a triple extra large black and orange hoodie sweater. "I didn't have time to find a bigger backpack for you. Right after you called, the school called me about how you got into a fight with a bunch of kids," he said, eyeing me. I looked away. Thankfully I had my sunglasses on so he couldnt see my eyes. I thanked him for the sweater and changed in it in the bathroom. When I came out, the baggy sweater went all the way down to my knees. It was huge on me.

Monger walked with me to the Student Recycling center. It was a small version of what I'd imagine a junkyard to look like. Chain linked fence surrounding a big recycling machine that shredded paper, and mounds of paper stacked in cubes along the sides. There were already a few kids there waiting. Most likely they got detention too. I recognized a few kids. One was the motor bike kid, Kennith. The other was Hunter.

Hunter waved to me. I pretended not to see him. When we arrived, Mr. Schmidt came out of the small building. He was a heavy guy with a big stomach that stuck out far from his waist. He wore a buttoned up blue shirt and dirty jeans. He looked us over before telling us to walk single file into the building.

"We are going to have a talk when you get back," Monger muttered to me. I didn't respond. Monger left me in the hands of Mr. Schmidt. The small group of troublemakers and I walked single file up the ramp and into the building. The small classroom smelled like baloney and paper. Papers were tacked to the walls and rustled when we walked in. The place looked sad and grey. Nothing colorful or cheery was in this room. Mr. Schmidt made us sign a paper indicating we were having our detention, then handed us each a pair or rubber gloves, a trash bag, and a grabby thing to pull trash out of.

"You are to collect plastic bottles and cans all over the campus and come back once its 4:20," Mr. Schmidt said. Kennith snickered when Mr. Schmidt said 4:20, making a few other boys in the detention group laugh as well. I just rolled my eyes. With that, we were told to go and went our own separate ways. Well, tried to.

"Hey! Wait up!" Hunter called and caught up to me. I groaned quietly and slowed down. "Hey, Hunter," I said half-heartedly. "Such a coincidence that we both have detention together," I said. Hunter nodded. "Yeah! Isn't that great?"

"Oh yeah...yeah. Great," I said trying not to sound too sarcastic. Hunter smiled happily. His blonde hair blowing in the breeze. "How did you get detention?" he asked me. "The fight," I responde. "And yourself?" I asked him back as I used my claw tongs thing to grab a water bottle out of a trashcans put it in my bag.

"I was talking too much about how the government is actually a bunch of lizard people in disguise during my history class."

That would make a whole lot more sense.

"So, what is up with the orange question mark on your sweater?" asked Hunter as he started collecting his bottles.

"Oh, uh…it's…a band," I said, "The…Question Marks…" Man I was bad at lying.

I was amazed that he bought it.

"Cool!" he said enthusiastically.

...

Hunter and I spent our hour talking and collecting our bottles. Most of the trashcans were already gone through because Kennith and the others were seeing how fast they could collect bottles and cans and have the most before the hour was up. I'm guessing he did this a lot.

Hunter checked his watch. "It's almost time, want to start heading back?" We only collected about twelve bottles and three cans altogether. I nodded my head. The sun was very hot. I could feel my makeup melting. I tried staying in the shade as much as I could.

Kennith passed by us and lifted his full bag of bottles. "I win!" He said. I gave him a look. "It's not a competition," I told him. He smirked and pointed at me. "Hey, I saw you at lunchtime fighting Acid and The Gap kid.

The Gap kid? My god these nicknames.

Kennith gave me a smile full of crooked teeth. "You were badass." With that he left. I just rolled my eyes and continued walking. Hunter's heart was pounding in a weird way. "You were badass. Those moves..." he said. His heart beat faster as he turned away. I felt my face burn and looked away too.

Just as I did, I stopped when I thought I saw something move in the trees. I turned my head. Nothing was there. October? No. It didn't seem like October. It felt familiar for some reason. I couldnt put my finger on it. Too big to be a bird. Too small to be a bear. It just felt...familiar-

"You ok?" asked Hunter.

I nodded. "Yeah. Just thought I saw something," I said. Hunter looked over to the trees where I was looking. "Was it that crow again?" He asked. I shrugged. "I dont think so, it looked bigger," I said. Hunter thought for a moment. "Like Mothman? Or the Jersey devil? Did it have Bat wings? Maybe it was that Bat girl I saw!" He said. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"Yeah. That bat girl. It could've been her," I said, trying to not sound sarcastic. Hunter didn't seem to notice as he pulled out a camera from his pocket. "Which way did you see her fly? I gotta take more pictures of her."

I'm standing right here, I thought. I had to keep myself from snickering. It was kind of funny seeing Hunter get all excited for a cryptid or even me, but I decided to be nice and bring him back to reality. "I don't remember, but I'm sure she will turn up again. Come on, we gotta go back and return these cans."

Hunter seemed to relax, but seemed somewhat disappointed. I felt bad, but I needed to get back to the base. I didn't want to be stuck in detention forever.

Once we brought the bags of cans to Mr. Schmidt, he told us we were free to go. Hunter stretched his arms over his head. The sun was now peeking through the trees. The clouds were changing from white to a light pink and yellow. Our shadows were longer and stretched alongside eachother as we walked out of the school and down the cracked cement sidewalk along the chain linked fence.

"That was a nice detention. I never have anyone to talk to when I get detentions," Hunter said. I just nodded my head. My wings were feeling very sore in the sweater. I wanted to stretch them. Patrick was already waiting for me in the car. Hunter sat on the bench.

"Well, see ya," he said.

I hesitated. "Do you want Patrick to take you home?" I offered. Hunter looked up at me in surprise. "Really?" He asked. His heart was beating fast. I nodded, already regretting. He was in the car before I could change my mind. This kid would hop into vans if kidnappers had a "cryptid" or a monster girl in it. Patrick smirked at me from the rearview mirror.

"Who's your friend?" He asked. Hunter waved. "Hi! I'm Hunter Thorson. You can call me Hunter..." and then he went into his whole back story the whole drive to his house. I tried drowning him out by looking outside at the passing trees and cars.

When we pulled up to Hunter's house, Hunter finally stopped talking about his life and unbuckled his seatbelt. "Thank you, Patrick. Thank you, for the ride," he said my fake name and waved. I awkwardly waved back.

"I'll see you later!" He said as he ran towards his house. It was a small yellow house with a red door. Yellow and pink flowers bloomed in front of it. One side of the grass was over watered while the other side was dying, even though a sprinkler was going off on its side, trying to keep it alive.

When he was in the house, I immediately took off my heavy sweater that felt like a tent on me and let my wings stretch out. Patrick pulled away from the curb and started heading to the one lonely road that winded up to the base.

"Nice seeing you making friends," said Patrick. I shrugged. "I consider him more of an acquaintance. He's a bit annoying if you haven't noticed." Patrick moved his head a little. "Quite the chatterbox, but still a really nice kid. Still good to have someone to talk to, and not be alone." He said. I shrugged and looked out the window. Watching birds fly overhead. I sighed. Feeling my heart sink. I missed flying...

...

When Patrick and I got to the base, it was almost six. I didn't see Monger thankfully. He said he wanted to talk to me but I guess he got wrapped up in another meeting or something. I didnt want to talk to him. I made my way down the elevator to where the monsters were kept. Susan, Link and Butterfly were still gone. No one came around to greet me or welcome me home. Not even B.O.B., whom I had no idea where he was.

I grabbed my backpack and fished out my small pile of homework. I sighed. Another thing why I wasn't happy coming back to school for. The homework.

I sat down at my boring desk that had just a lamp on it. I hated my room. There was barely anything in it to call it a room. I really needed to get out and buy things to make my room more of a room. Maybe some more books, or some plastic bats.

Shaking my head to make me focus, I tried to start my homework. Science and Math weren't my thing, so I walked out of my room and down to Doc's room. Doc rarely left his room so it was easy to know where he was.

I knocked on the door.

No answer.

I tried again.

"Doc?" I asked.

An explosion happened behind the door, causing me to jolt a little. A couple minutes later, the door opened. Doc was covered head to toe in dust and debris.

"Oh! Hello Bat, what can I do for you?" he asked in his cheerful voice, unphased by the situation he was just in. I cleared my throat. "I need help on this work sheet, its science and algebra," I said showing him the papers

Doc examined the papers.

"Hmmmm…" he said as he looked at them. "I can help you with this. Come inside and I'll make us some tea," he said. I cautiously came inside his room. I had never been in his room before. What I remembered was that it was clean. Now it was dark and smelled like trash. Trash was littered everywhere, which explained why it smelled of trash. It wasn't pleasant.

"Here we go," Doc said as he cleared a pile of trash off of a table. I wiped the chair before sitting down. Doc smiled at the clean table and placed his hands on his hips. "Allright, now for the tea," he said. Doc went over to a complicated machine which I guess made tea. I took off my beanie and shoved it into my pocket, causing my ears to spring up.

"You don't have to make me tea, Doc," I said politely. Doc waved my words away.

"Nonsense. Its three o clock. Tea time."

"It's six twenty one Doc."

"...it's three o'clock somewhere," he said.

With that, he handed me a teacup with what I was guessing was his crazy version of tea and a floating candy wrapper in it. I thanked him and moved the tea far away from me. Doc downed his tea in one gulp. He took a pencil out of his pocket and started helping me with my science homework.

During the time we spent on my homework, he insisted that the book was wrong and his way was right with the math. He kept saying the facts were wrong in the science book and rewrote them. I had to pull it away from him. I didn't want to get in trouble for returning a school textbook with writing all over it.

When we were finally done, I sighed, closing the book. Doc noticed. "What's wrong, Bat? Are you allright?" He asked me. I shook my head. "School has been rough," I told him. Doc's big bug eyes got bigger. "Oh? How so? This is only the second day."

I told him about the fight and how I got detention for it. I told him about the teachers getting upset at me for wearing my hat and backpack in classes. I just told him everything that was bothering me and on my mind. Eventually, I told him about my encounter with October. Doc's long eyebrows went up in surprise.

"He's still around?" He asked.

I nodded. "He told me information about John. He's working somewhere in the school or around the school. I looked around the campus but couldn't find anything." My wings went down as I sighed, laying my head down on the table.

"I am tired of this. I wish I already knew where John was. I wish I could know that John will be found and taken to jail." Doc was silent for a moment. He nodded his head. He placed his hand on my shoulder.

"I know Bat. We all do...We don't know what the future will hold...but we can only do our best in hopes that it benefits us," Doc said.

I sighed. Turning away. The future. What would the future hold for me? I didn't want to screw up and make John win. Felt like it was all up to me. The burden. The fate of the world in my hands. I turned back to Doctor Cockroach but he was already walking away from me, scribbling some notes down in his pad. Seems that he got inspired by another project. I decided not to break him away from his thoughts. I quietly left his room.

Walking back to my room I checked what me and Doc worked on. Hopefully it was right. I slowed to a stop when I came near Link's room. I hesitated before deciding to go inside. He said it was ok for me to use his equipment.

I mainly punched the sleeping bag to get my frustrations out. I hated the school. I hated Monger. I hated my life. I was so upset. It felt like the whole world was against me. I wanted to scream at something and watch it fly across the room and end up smashing through the wall.

I screamed, watching the punching bag rip off from its stand and fly straight up into the air. I flew after it and punched it hard. Imagining it was Mirror. The punching bag came rocketing down to the ground. It wasn't enough to put a dent. I grabbed the heavy punching bag and gave it some more kicks and punches. I threw a three pound weight into the air and screamed at it. It went up so fast and got wedged into the ceiling. Oh shit. Took me a while to pry it out.

Besides destroying Link's room, it overall felt good. Soon after I was very exhausted. I forgot to eat dinner. I remember coming back down from the ceiling with the weight in my hand. I decided to lay down on the cold floor and take a rest...

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