I don't own the Breakfast Club

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The next morning, it was the same usual routine for Claire Standish. She had her clothes set out last night for today and was getting ready for another day at school. At the end of the day, yesterday, Claire did not expect for her day to end with paint being thrown at her. Her silk white shirt had been ruined from all of that brown paint and Claire didn't regret the fact that Jennifer had ruined Susan's painting with the heel of her shoe. Even if Claire felt satisfaction from that, she didn't like that her loyalty had been tested. After all those years of friendship that she had with the group, Jennifer had wound them around her finger and expected them to do what she said. Claire hated having to feel that pressure, but it was group that she didn't want to be out of. High school was brutal, but Jennifer's group ruled the school to the point where their classmates respected them.

Respect is earned, not easily given Claire thought and it was a quote that she lived by. From what she could see, none of her classmates had earned their respect even though there would be those who immediately would pick up a fallen book, or get out of their way as they strutted down the hallway, or offer to hold something for them. However, today was going to be a different day. As her father would drop off to school, she was going to go into Christina's car with the rest of the girls and head to the mall. Claire felt uneasy about skipping school. She had never skipped a class before but she was not going to bail out on her friends. And that beautiful Ralph Lauren outfit that she saved from a magazine was waiting for her.

"Ready to go honey?" her father suddenly asked as he stood by the doorway.

Claire finished fixing her hair and nodded her head. "All set," she smiled to him and patted the wallet that was in her bag, that she had filled the previous morning with her father's money. She gave herself another quick look in the mirror followed by a smile before she exited out of the house and into her father's BMW.

"Have a great day," her father said his goodbyes to her as Claire exited out of the car. She shut the door and then headed onto the school's stairs.

The moment that she heard the BMW driving away, Claire made a quick swerve from the steps and headed over to where she saw Christina's car. She smiled as she headed over to the car and saw that all of her friends were inside waiting for her. "You couldn't have come a bit quickly," was the first thing Jennifer said to her as Claire slipped inside.

"Sorry," Claire apologized, "I had a bit of a late morning."

"It's not going to help if Vernon catches us," Jennifer said and faced forward in the car.

Christina slowly shook her head and tapped the steering wheel with a perfectly manicured nail. "Can we please stop fighting?" she said to Jennifer, "Vernon is too busy chasing after delinquents than having to worry about us. And stop being so hard on Claire, Jennifer. You're not the ringleader of this group, you know?"

Claire let out a sigh of relief. At least someone had her back and she was glad that it happened to be Christina. Even though Christina's interests lied elsewhere, Claire was glad that she looked out for her.

Jennifer opened her mouth to protest but Christina held out a finger in the air. "One more word out and I'll let you out in the parking lot," she said and Jennifer immediately shut her mouth. "Good," Christina said as she put the car on drive and the car pulled out of the school's parking lot and into the street.

The drive to the mall was quiet, aside from Katie and Jodie's singing to a Cyndi Lauper song that was playing on the radio. Claire couldn't understand why but there was a lot of tension within the group. She was rather curious to ask about what was going on, but didn't want to get Jennifer's wrath as a response. Hopefully we get there soon she thought as she leaned against her seat and looked out the window. She couldn't wait to get her driver's license and have her very own car. That way, whenever her parents got into a fight, she could just hop in the car and get away from all of their drama. One would think that a girl like her had the perfect life with the perfect parents, but the more Claire grew, the more she began to realize that life was not perfect no matter how much she tried to make it seem like it was.

"We're here!" Katie announced as the group got out of the car and headed inside the shopping mall.

Claire smiled as the welcoming music played in the atmosphere of the mall. Were they really going to spend six hours here? Oh she was going to have the best time of her life, and she was glad that she had enough money to buy what she wanted. She joined her group as they spoke about what stores they were going to go to and where they would meet for the end of the day. There were just too many stores to choose from but Claire knew that she was going to the Ralph Lauren store first. The group then dispersed to different directions.

Claire headed north and once her eyes lied upon the Ralph Lauren store, she was glad to see that the outfit she had seen in the magazine was still displayed on the mannequin. She slowly entered the store and surveyed the mannequin up and down, touching the texture of the dress, the shirt, and the scarf. It's gorgeous she thought as she looked at the price tag and then the amount of money that she had, which was more than enough to cover for the price plus tax.

"Can I help you, miss?" a store clerk approached her with a smile.

Claire turned her head and smiled at the clerk. "Yes," she answered, "I would like to buy this outfit but I just want to see how it fits on me. I know my size, but I just want to be extra sure that it fits well."

The store clerk smiled. "Of course," she said to her, "the complete outfit is right to your left but the boots are over by our shoe department. If you could give me your foot size, I can go and get the boots for you to try on with the outfit."

"Perfect," Claire said as she gave the store clerk the size of her feet before taking a hold of the outfit that was on the rack. A couple of minutes passed as the store clerk arrived with the boots and Claire took them to the fitting room. She slipped out of her clothes and into the Ralph Lauren outfit. She completed the look by putting on the boots and hanging the white scarf around her neck. "Wow," she said as she turned from one side to another and saw how perfectly the outfit fit her body. This outfit was win and there was no second thought about it. She changed into her original clothes and took the outfit along with the boots in her hands and headed to the register. "I want to buy this."

The clerk was more than happy to assist her with the purchase, as well as make a sale on such a great outfit. After receiving the total amount, Claire handed her the money and with the purchase in her bag, she headed out of the store. At that moment, Claire thought of heading to other stores to see what else they had to offer but she had spent the majority of the money on one outfit and she didn't have enough to buy anything else. I came here and bought what I wanted. I don't need anything else she assured herself and headed over to the Food Court where her friends agreed to meet.

Claire didn't know how much time had passed by when Jodie appeared in the Food Court. She carried an endless amount of bags and Claire was shocked to see how she was able to carry all of them. "Did you buy the whole mall, Jodie?" Claire asked as she helped her friend with the bags.

Jodie let out a sigh as she plopped against the chair and let out an exaggerated breath. "I needed to find a dress for prom!" she said, "but I didn't know which ones to get. I'm going to try them on at home, pick one, and return the rest." She rubbed her eyes with her hands and looked up at the redhead. "Did you get a dress for prom?"

Claire smiled. "I have already picked one out," she said to Jodie. "I bought it last week and can't wait to wear it."

Jodie's lips tilted into a smile. "Anything looks good on you, Claire," she said.

Pretty soon, the rest of the group met up in the Food Court. There were countless amounts of bags that each girl had and Christina complained how she was going to fit them all in her car.

"Whatever," Jennifer said, "we gotta head home before my parents get back."

Claire titled her head to the side. "You guys are going home?"

"What do you think?" Jennifer asked her, "our parents called the school that we wouldn't be there today." When Claire answered her with a blink of her eyes, Jennifer rolled her eyes. "All of us pretended to be sick, didn't you get the memo?"

"No one told me about this," Claire said to Jennifer.

Jennifer threw her arms in the air and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Can't believe this," Jodie muttered under her breath, "if you get caught, then we get caught and I am not spending my day in detention. God Claire, you're just so...stupid sometimes."

Claire furrowed her eyebrows at that remark and swallowed. "No one told me anything about calling out sick," she said, "my dad dropped me off at school and you guys were waiting for me at the parking lot."

"So now it's our fault," Jennifer said as she looked from one girl to another, "wow, thanks Claire." She scoffed as she picked up her bags and shook her head in the process, "you guys can go on home for yourselves, I'm taking a cab."

With those words, Jennifer walked away from the group and each girl was left dumbfounded as to what happened. "I'm going to go with her," Katie said as she picked up her bags and followed the same route that Jennifer had taken.

Seriously? Claire thought as she watched Katie walk away from them. Her eyes then fell on Christina and Jodie as both remained silent on the matter. "If you think you're going to get in trouble because of me, I can find my way home."

Christina let out a sigh. "No," she said to her, "I don't want to get in trouble either but I will drop you off home. I mean, school is not over yet but what's the point of going back. You'll probably be in trouble anyway."

That was the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Claire knew that there was no way out of this mess and whatever consequence was given to her, she was going to have to face it like a mature lady that she knew herself to be. "Okay," she said to Christina as she gathered her bags. The three of them exited out of the mall and into Christina's car. Just like they had arrived, the drive back was in silence. At least the car didn't have the same tension as it did with Jennifer being in the passenger seat. When Christina pulled up by the driveway, Claire gave her friends a reluctant smile and got out of the vehicle.

As she walked to the doorway, the moment that she opened the door and walked inside she saw both of her parents standing by the doorway. "Don't be too harsh on her," was the first thing that her brother said, followed by her mother's, "you are in big trouble young lady!"

Claire set the bag on the floor and looked from one parent to another. "It was only one time," she defended herself, "I won't do it again."

"You have some nerve to skip school. I got a call from the vice principal saying that you were not at school today. Do you know how worried we were about you?" her mother scolded her.

Claire looked from her mother and then to her father, hoping that he would give her some support on the matter.

Her father took a deep breath and walked over by his wife's side, "I will handle this," he said to her.

"Oh like you always do?" Mrs. Standish snapped back at him, "money is not going to fix her getting a Saturday detention. Now I have to tell the Franklins that we won't make it for our brunch this week because our daughter decided to play hooky. Unbelievable!" she exclaimed before storming away from her husband and daughter.

Saturday detention, great Claire thought as she took the bag in her hands and headed to her room.