Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original content from The Breakfast Club. Any new characters and ideas are my own.
Note: I've kept the majority of the dialogue from the movie for the next few chapters, because I think it's too iconic to change. Anything before or after the detention will, of course, be mine.
Saturday morning dawned bright and way, way too early for Evelyn. Her alarm clock flashed 5:45am and she groaned and struggled to turn the damned thing off. Before she could fall back into a much too comfortable sleep, she shot out of bed and headed for the bathroom.
A nice hot shower should do the trick. Evelyn squinted as she turned on the bathroom lights, blinded momentarily by the bright contrast. While the water was heating up in the shower, she thoroughly brushed her teeth and make quick work of her pajamas. She stepped under the gloriously hot stream of water and sighed. Not a bad morning so far, considering the circumstances. Her shower ended way too soon, in her humble opinion. She dared not be late for her detention today.
Evelyn went through her regular morning ritual of drying her hair and applying her usual light layer of makeup. She paused when she got to her closet, although she didn't know why. She had a pretty consistent uniform of a T-shirt, jeans, and her faithful black Doc Martens. She shrugged. Why she was thinking she should change it up for detention, she had no idea. She chose a long sleeved, form fitting black T-shirt, her blue jeans that were starting to fray on the knees, and her Docs. Once dressed, she gave herself a once-over in her full length closet door mirror.
Evelyn Connor: very tall, average build on the slim side, clear and pale complexion. Most of her features were pretty average and she was okay with that. But her crowning glory, literally, was her hair. Now that was something she took some pride in. Dark chestnut and glossy, her voluminous hair reached her chest in long layers. It was a perfect compliment to her dark brown eyes. However, the current trend for teens was hair that was tortured into perms and hair sprayed until stiff. She shrugged again. It's not like I've ever been a trend setter, or follower for that matter. Reaching for her brush, she gave it one final polish before she headed downstairs.
Her parents were always early risers and today was no different. They were sitting at the kitchen table drinking their usual cup of coffee with the newspaper spread out between them both.
"Good morning, Miss Rebel. Are you excited for your detention today?" her mother asked with a mischievous glint in her eye while taking a sip of her piping hot coffee.
"I can't believe it. Our perfect daughter heading off to detention! What will the neighbors think? What on earth will they say?" her father cried dramatically, barely holding in his laughter.
"Ha, ha. I know, it's so funny, mom and dad. Thanks for reminding me so thoroughly that I do, in fact, have detention today." Evelyn sarcastically replied as she swung open the fridge door hunting for breakfast.
"Oh, we're just teasing, you know that!" Her parents looked at each other and shared a big smile.
"You guys are having way too much fun at my expense.", she huffed, now rifling through the pantry. "And Steve must've eaten the rest of the cereal, what the heck!"
Her mother rolled her eyes, dug through the freezer, and handed her the box of Eggo waffles. "Here, have some waffles. You'll need your energy today!"
Evelyn took the box and shoved two frozen waffles in the toaster. She fixed herself a thermos of coffee while her breakfast was heating up and a sandwich for lunch. She also made sure that she had her study materials in her backpack ready to go. With midterms next week, the 9 hours of potential study time made the detention seem a little bit more bearable.
She checked the kitchen clock: 6:43am. It was a 10-minute drive to school and she figured she'd get there early. As she was grabbing her keys, her dad said, "Now where would you be off to?"
Evelyn turned and paused, unsure of why he was asking that question when he damn well knew where she was going. "Um, to detention?"
"Well, according to Mr. Vernon, all students serving detention are required to be driven to Shermer by a parent." He took a sip of his quickly cooling coffee and set down the cup. "Seems like he doesn't want you younguns ditching halfway through or something like that. Looks like I'm your chauffeur today!"
She groaned. "You've got to be kidding me. It's embarrassing enough that I'm going to detention just for being tardy, but now I can't even drive my own car there? Ugh!" Her head tilted back and she groaned for the umpteenth time. Her father, however, was not to be deterred.
"Oh, c'mon, Evy! It'll be fun. You and me, just like old times!" He grinned and enveloped her into a side hug, exaggerating the ridiculousness of the moment.
"Now Ed, let's not get carried away. Although, I do admit that I wanted to take a picture of this moment." Evelyn stared at her mother horrified.
"You have got to be joking, woman. Good god, dad. Just drive me to school already before she can find the camera!" She planted a quick kiss on her mother's cheek, grabbed her breakfast and backpack, and bolted out the door to the car.
"I'll be back in a jiffy, Linda!", Ed said with a big grin and followed his daughter out to the old station wagon.
As they pulled up to the front of Shermer High School, she quickly glanced around and noticed a few other students arriving. Thankfully, her dad didn't put on a show when they got to school. Ed Connor was pretty good about knowing the when-and-where of embarrassing his children. He let Evelyn off easy this time around.
"Alright, here's your stop, kiddo. I guess it would be wrong to say 'have fun'?"
"I think you would be right in that regard. Thanks for the ride, dad." Evelyn gave her father a smile and a gentle fist bump on the shoulder before gathering her things and heading to the library.
Today is going to be a long day, she thought ruefully as she trudged up the stairs.
She was a few minutes early before the 7:00am reporting time, but there were already a few students waiting. She recognized Claire Standish, one of the most popular girls in school. Wealthy, well-dressed, and seemingly snobbish. But to be honest, any interaction she had had with Claire in classes had been relatively positive and nothing out of the ordinary. They just didn't run in the same social circle. She nodded her head in acknowledgement as Claire eyed her as she walked in.
Brian was sitting at a desk adjacent to Claire and gave her a small wave as she walked over. Pulling a chair out from the desk in the front row, Evelyn got herself settled then leaned over to talk to Brian in a whisper.
"Are you ready for what's probably going to be the longest 9 hours ever?"
"Tell me about it. My mom reamed me out and practically threatened me to do nothing but study today." He gave a nervous laugh and adjusted the collar to his inside-out green sweatshirt. Brian and her weren't close friends, but they were in a lot of the same academic classes and found it relatively easy to converse with one another. But on the whole, he didn't seem super comfortable speaking with the opposite sex, which Evelyn sometimes found endearing. He was a good, smart kid, just uncomfortable in his own skin. A lot of students at Shermer could relate.
Brian turned his attention to fidgeting with his hat and gloves on the table, unsure of what to say next. Evelyn took the moment to look past him to the back desk and her eyes landed on Allison….Allison…...she couldn't remember her last name. Raymond? Roberts? Reilly? She was stumped. Apparently she had been staring for a while because Allison jerked her head over and locked gazes with her. Her expression was definitely not the friendliest. Shit. Evelyn gave a timid wave and when that didn't break the odd student's gaze, she turned around and faced front, already feeling like an idiot.
While she had been talking with Brian and having a staring contest with Allison, she had missed one of the school's top jocks, Andrew Clarke, settle into a seat next to Claire. That wasn't surprising, they probably knew each other pretty well.
She glanced at the clock. It was a few minutes past 7:00 and it looked like there would only be 5 students for detention today. Evelyn didn't know what to expect from detention seeing as it was her first time, but was more at ease seeing the small number in attendance. She took out her thermos full of coffee and was about to take a sip when the door to the library crashed open and in walked one of the most notorious "bad boys" of Shermer High. John-fucking-Bender.
Everyone froze when he walked in, practically strutting as if he owned the place. If his reputation was anything to behold, he'd probably been in this library on Saturday more than any student currently at Shermer. Evelyn was sure Vernon had personally seen to it. The assistant principal's grudge against the unruly senior was famous. His ultimate goal was to see John Bender expelled, but even he hadn't been able to manage that. Bender knew the loopholes of the Shermer disciplinary system too well.
He strode in with his usual confident swagger, completing his grungy look with a pair of shades, touching everything he passed. Although they only had one class together, History, he rarely showed up and when he did, he either dozed off or took a half hour bathroom break. The teachers gave him a wide berth as long as he wasn't being a loudmouthed wiseass like he's known to be. Evelyn was also pretty sure he had been held back a year at some point. He was probably around 19. She was one of the youngest in the grade, not turning 18 until May.
A lot of girls at Shermer, her best friend Candice included, had a crush on John Bender. Yes, he had the bad boy image and was handsome. But to Evelyn, his good looks were marred with the constant pissed off grimace that usually adorned his face. And I thought the popular kids always looked high and mighty. That was the one and only thing John Bender had in common with that crowd.
He passed by the front desks without a glance at any of the students sitting there, and casually draped himself in a chair at one of the second row desks. It wasn't until he put his feet up and threw off his sunglasses that Vernon stalked in to the library, diverting their attention from the delinquent.
Vernon came to a halt near the front desks surveying his group of Saturday victims, the stupid grin on his face that everyone longed to smack off.
"Well...well. Here we are! I want to congratulate you for being on time." He gave a nasty chuckle.
Before he could continue with his monologue, Claire raised her hand. "Excuse me, sir? I think there's been a mistake. I know it's detention, but...um...I don't think I belong in here…", she said, weakly gesturing to the surrounding students. Evelyn scoffed at that slight insult.
Vernon rightly ignored her and started passing out paper and pencils. "It is now seven-oh-six. You have exactly eight hours and fifty-four minutes to think about why you're here. To ponder the error of your ways."
Bender leaned back in his chair, hocked a loogie and then caught it in his mouth.
"Ugh, you're disgusting." Claire wrinkled her nose and shot him a glare.
"And you may not talk. You will not move from these seats. And you", he pointedly looked at Bender, "will not sleep. Alright people, we're gonna try something a little different today. We are going to write an essay, of no less than a thousand words, describing to me who you think you are."
Bender raised his hand. Oh fuck. It's only 7:08am and it's already beginning...Evelyn silently groaned as she slowly put her head in her hand, waiting for him to ask his question.
"Is this a test?" He smirked knowing how much he could rile up Vernon. The assistant principal stared back. The hate was palpable and definitely mutual.
"And when I say essay, I mean essay. I do not mean a single word repeated a thousand times. Is that clear Mr. Bender?"
Bender smirked. "Crystal."
All gazes switched back to Vernon, the tension starting to mount.
"Good. Maybe you'll learn a little something about yourself. Maybe you'll even decide whether or not you care to return." He placed his hands on his hips, satisfied with his speech.
Evelyn saw Brian get up from his seat out of the corner of her eye. Trust him to intervene totally not at the right moment.
"You know, I can answer that right now sir. That'd be 'no', no for me, 'cause…"
"Sit down, Johnson."
"Thank you, sir." Brian sat down immediately, averting his eyes anywhere but to Vernon.
"My office is right across the hall. Any monkey business is ill-advised. Any questions?" He glances around to the odd group of students, daring them to speak. Of course, one takes the bait.
"Yeah, I got a question." Vernon narrowed his eyes at Bender, wondering what dumb question he was going to ask in front of everyone.
"Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?"
Evelyn snorted quite unladylike into her hand while the rest of the crew were trying to stifle their laughter. Bender looked pleased with himself; Vernon looked furious.
"I'll give you the answer to that question, Mr. Bender, next Saturday. Don't mess with the bull young man, you'll get the horns." With that, he stalked out of the library, already in a hellish mood.
"That man is a brownie hound."
A few moments of silence pass, the show clearly over for the meantime. Evelyn grabs the pencil and paper and immediately starts to brainstorm her essay. The quicker I get this done, the sooner I can get to studying for my midterms. But her concentration was cut short when she heard a loud, clicking sound. Turning to the direction of the noise, she was flabbergasted when she saw Allison chomping away at her fingernails. Slowly, all attention turned towards the strange girl who seemed to not give one shit that everyone was watching.
"You keep eating your hand you're not gonna be hungry for lunch." In a classy retort, Allison spits her chewed off nail at Bender. He grimaces. "Nice…"
Evelyn shakes her head at the gross scene and turns back to her paper, determined to at least get it started. She lets out a small sigh and hunches over to concentrate when it's immediately broken by Brian muttering behind her. What. The. Fuck. She swivels to look at Brian and sees his pen clipped to his lip and half of it up his nose.
"Who do I think I am. Who are you? Who are you? I am a walrus."
She sees that she's not the only one who has noticed. Bender is completely enraptured by Brian's monologue, totally unblinking. Slowly, he finally realizes he has an audience and nervously takes the pen off his lip. He squeezes out a wheezy laugh, points to his paper and tries to make conversation with Bender. "It's the shits, huh?" Another squeak when he realizes his joke goes unappreciated.
Instead, Bender turns his attention to the table in front of him. He crumples up his paper and tosses it over to the front table, completely missing Claire and Andrew. They roll their eyes at each other, knowing he's doing it just to be a dick. Already bored, he starts singing the melody to "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream.
Evelyn glanced at her watch. It was only 7:22am and she was going to lose it. "Oh my god, just shut up already." She meant it as a whisper but apparently it was a little louder than that as Bender immediately stopped singing and looked at her. She glanced in his direction and was rewarded with a sarcastic wink. Definitely not amusing to her. He started singing again, getting joy out of seeing Evelyn get frustrated.
I'm not going to let him get to me. I'll block him out and just ignore him. She uncapped her thermos and took a healthy swig of her coffee. Ah, much better. She put her pencil to her paper and…
"Hey, homeboy. Why don't you go close that door and we'll get the prom queen impregnated." Bender suggested to Brian with his ever present smirk.
Claire and Andrew whipped around, disgust on their faces. Evelyn stared open-mouthed at Bender. What a pig! She immediately felt bad for his attention being placed on Claire. She might not be the friendliest person but she hadn't done anything to deserve that remark. She felt her blood began to boil, but Andrew beat her in the retaliation.
"Hey!"
"What?"
"If I lose my temper, you're totalled, man."
"Totally?"
"Totally."
Claire shot Bender a dark look. "Why don't you just shut up! Nobody here is interested!"
He blatantly ignored her and focused his attention on Andrew who is ready to bust out of his seat. "Well, hey, Sporto. What'd you do to get in here? Forget to wash your jock?"
Brian was nervously glancing at the door where Vernon had been peeking his head into every few minutes, afraid he was going to hear them. "Uh, excuse me, fellas? I think we should just write our papers."
"Look, just because you live in here doesn't give you the right to be a pain in the ass, so knock it off!" Andrew huffed and sat back down in his chair and happened to catch Evelyn's eye in the process.
"Andrew, he's just doing it to get a rise out of you. Just ignore him", she said as calmly as possible willing the tension to go away.
"Sweets, you couldn't ignore me if you tried." Bender leaned on his desk to get a good look at Evelyn, trying to get a rise out of her.
"Watch me."
He gave her another sarcastic wink and watched her intently as she slowly turned back around to face front.
"Ah, I see. Playing hard to get, Sweets?" He looked over at Andrew who was still seething. "Wait a minute. Are you guys like boyfriend/girlfriend? Steady dates? Lovers? Come on, Sporto, level with me. Do you slip the band geek the hot beef injection?"
Bender grinned as he saw Andrew rocket out of his chair, knowing he got the reaction he wanted. Evelyn, on the other hand, was just shocked that the school delinquent knew something about her. She was pretty sure though that he didn't actually know her name. That brought her some comfort.
"Go to hell!" Andrew yelled.
The whole conversation was just so stupid, she started laughing. Bender's expression faltered.
"Hey, what's going on in there?" Vernon yelled from his office.
That just made Evelyn laugh even harder, trying desperately to stifle the sound into her bunched up coat. The tension had finally broken and everyone seemed to calm down significantly with Evelyn's strange outburst.
After a few minutes of blissful silence, she hears Bender starting to stir. He walks over and hops on the railing. She instinctively knows he's about to say something, but beats him to the quick.
"What if…"
"Don't. Just don't say anything, Bender. If you're going to do anything today, give us just a few more minutes of peace and quiet. God knows that's not going to happen a lot during this detention." Evelyn said without even looking up from her paper. At long last, she was finally able to start writing down the introduction to her essay. The others looked up in surprise.
Bender looked at her incredulously. It's not often he was spoken to in such a calm yet commanding manner. Usually, it was just someone yelling at him. That, he could handle. This reaction from her took him a little longer to process; he had no retort. The other students that knew Evelyn were at least somewhat familiar with her strong and confident nature. Seeing that nothing else was amiss, they settled back into the silence. That is, until Bender opened his mouth again.
"What do you say we close that door."
It was too good to be true. Evelyn set down her pencil, folded her arms, and listened to whatever plan Bender had just come up with.
"We can't have any kind of party with Vernon checking us out every few seconds."
Brian nervously glanced over. "Well, you know, the door's supposed to stay open."
"So what?"
Andrew was done being silent. Shocking. "So why don't you just shut up. It was nice for the few minutes you actually did. There's five other people in here, you know."
"Oh, good. You can actually count. I knew you were pretty smart for a wrestler."
"You know, Bender, you don't even count. I mean, if you disappeared forever it wouldn't make any difference. You may as well not exist at this school."
"Damn, Andrew. That's harsh." Evelyn looked in disbelief at the jock. Sure, Bender was a jerk but those words were a low blow. But already seeing how his temper flared, she wasn't surprised.
Andrew had the decency to look a little sheepish. "Well, it's true. If he disappeared no one would notice!" he said trying to defend himself.
Bender looked between the two, trying to mask his hurt into a look of indifference.
"Have you not taken into account all of the shit we've just dealt with in the last hour? I'm sure it would be pretty obvious if Bender weren't here. It would definitely be a lot more quiet." That shut Andrew up. Bender smiled at Evelyn which she promptly ignored, trying not to encourage him.
However, he wasn't done pushing Andrew's buttons. Evelyn should have seen that coming a mile away.
"Well, why don't I just go and join the wrestling team? Maybe the prep club, too! Student Council…"
Andrew and Claire burst out laughing.
"Nah, they wouldn't take you."
"I'm hurt.", he mock pouted.
Claire narrowed her eyes. "You know why guys like you knock everything? It's because you're afraid."
"Oh, god. You richies are so smart, that's exactly why I'm not heavy in activities!"
"You're a big coward! You're afraid that they won't take you. You don't belong so you just have to dump all over it."
The conversation was getting heated again. Even Allison stopped whatever she was doing to listen.
"Well, it wouldn't have anything to do with you activities people being assholes, now would it?" his voice getting slightly louder with every reply.
"Well, you wouldn't know. You don't even know any of us."
Bender quickly looked around at the rest of the group staring at him.
"Well, I don't know any lepers either, but I'm not gonna run out and join one of their fucking clubs."
Andrew felt that he needed to contribute. "Hey, let's watch the mouth, huh?"
There was an awkward pause as he and Bender stared at each other in complete loathing.
"I'm in the math club", Brian said to no one in particular, just desperately wanting to be a part of the conversation. "And I'm in the physics club, too."
All gazes swiveled to Brian, who blanched under the weight of all the attention now being paid to him. Still, an awkward silence.
"I'm in band." Evelyn grinned at Brian, saving him from the uncomfortable situation. He returned the smile gratefully.
Bender looked to Claire. "Hey, Cherry. Do you belong in band?"
She seemed offended by the question. "I don't even play an instrument."
"So?"
Evelyn was watching her reaction, well aware that the popular kids steered clear of any club that required talent or brains. It's not that she wasn't used to having a stereotype afixed to her, but she had a history of becoming defensive if she felt it was needed.
"So, you need to know how to play an instrument to be in band."
Bender switched tactics. "Say you did know how to play an instrument. Would you be in band?"
"That's like, a club that's not the same as other clubs."
"Oh, but to dorks like her…"
"Hey!" Evelyn half-heartedly exclaimed, somewhat scandalized.
"...they are. What do you guys do in your club?"
"...We play music...with our instruments.", Evelyn answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"So, it's sorta social. Demented and sad…"
"Hey!" Evelyn shouted again, but close to laughing.
"...but social. You load up, you party."
"Oh, yeah. The band banquet is always bitchin'.", she said barely containing her laughter.
Bender grinned at her, surprised to find that he was enjoying the fact that this chick didn't mind going along with his bating. She's alright. And then Claire ruined the fun banter.
"Only burners like you get high.", she said with a smug attitude.
"Look, you guys keep talking and Vernon's gonna come right in here. I've got a meet this Saturday and I'm not gonna miss it on account of you boneheads.", Andrew said grumpily.
"Oh, and wouldn't that be a bite. Missing a whole wrestling meet."
"Well, you wouldn't know anything about it. You never competed in your whole life!"
He put a gloved hand to his forehead, mocking a deep hurt. "Oh, I know. I feel all empty inside because of it. I have such a deep admiration for guys that roll around on the floor with other guys."
Silence.
"Ah, you'd never miss it. You don't have any goals." Andrew crossed his arms in a huff.
"Oh, but I do!"
"Yeah?"
"I wanna be just like you! I figure all I'd need is a lobotomy and some tights!"
Brian's head perked up and looked disbelievingly at Andrew. "You wear tights?"
"No, I don't wear tights. I wear the required uniform."
Brian, Evelyn, and even Allison chimed in: "Tights."
Andrew glared at the three of them. "Shut up!"
All of a sudden, they hear Vernon shuffling outside in the hallway. Bender quickly takes a seat in between Claire and Andrew, much to their chagrin. He then hurries up to the hallway door and peeks his head out. Vernon is getting a drink from the water fountain and muttering to himself. Now was his chance to fuck with him. He looks directly above him and sees the screw that helps to keep the door open and secure.
"Fuck yeah", he whispers to himself. He reaches up to undo the screw as Brian fidgets in his seat, watching what he's doing.
"Bender, that's school property, you know, it doesn't belong to us. It's not something to be toyed with."
As if on cue, the door slams shut and Bender tosses the screw into the stacks of books as he runs back to his seat, trying to look as innocent as possible. They all started arguing.
"That's very funny, come on, fix it!"
"You should really fix that!"
"Am I a genius?"
"No, you're an asshole."
"What a funny guy."
"Fix the door, Bender."
"Everyone just, shhhhh!"
They hear footsteps rapidly coming towards them in the hallway. They all turn to look at Bender to see him with a shit-eating grin on his face. Vernon realizes something's amiss and starts incoherently yelling on the other side of the door.
Evelyn looked towards the door with growing anticipation. "Oh, shit…"
Whew! This chapter's quite a bit longer than the first. Please leave a review!
~QueenOfTheBrassQuill