Three O'clock Detention.
A few minutes later Gordie and Chris were lined up outside classroom 302 with the rest of the detention gang. They weren't surprised to see their old friends Teddy Duchamp and Vern Tessio waiting too. A couple of years earlier the four of them had been really tight but as with most things time had caused them to drift apart. Gordie also knew that Teddy in particular was resentful of Chris. While Chris had gotten out of the shop courses, Teddy hadn't. It seemed to Gordie that almost nobody wanted Chris to take the college courses. Mr Chambers had even used it as another excuse to beat on his kid, claiming that Chris was trying to make his father and his brothers look bad.
Right now Teddy and Vern were holding court with their new friends. When they saw Chris and Gordie, Teddy's face broke into a smug smile.
"Hey if it isn't Gordon Lachance and Christopher Chambers. How nice of you guys to come on down and mix with us"
"Shut up Teddy" Chris muttered.
"So the great Chris Chambers got detention. That's too bad, really." Teddy stepped forwards. "I know how it must hurt you having to mix with us guys"
Gordie glanced at Chris but found his expression hard to read.
"Hey Teddy, hey Vern" Gordie said finally, hoping to break the tension.
"Hey Gordo" Vern offered. Teddy didn't say anything.
"What you guys here for?" Chris asked, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
"Got caught smoking out back, Decroix caught us, she was so mad sincerely and you know..."
Teddy cut Vern off. "Why are you here?" he asked.
"Some shit happened in English class" Gordie replied.
Vern nodded thoughtfully. "Geez when was the last time we talked to you guys?"
Gordie shrugged. "It's been a while I guess"
Teddy nodded. "Long time, no see"
The detention supervisor had arrived. He was a tall skinny man with a weasely face and tinny eyes.
"You know the drill," the man said wearily as he unlocked the classroom door. As each kid filed in they handed him their slip and he ticked them off his list.
Gordie and Chris found seats near each other in the back row of the classroom. They had been on enough detentions to know that they weren't allowed to talk at all and were just expected to sit in silence and do homework. If some poor kid forgot to bring any work with them then they would be stuck writing lines or doing some other mindless task set by the detention supervisor.
Despite this, Gordie found detention almost fun. At least it was quiet and his dad wouldn't wander in and complain about his friends and his mom wasn't there to cry about Denny some more. Detention was almost a relief if you know what I mean.
Next to Gordie, Chris was puzzling over a page of algebra problems. It may as well have been written in German for all he understood of it. He tried to focus but his mind kept wandering. A row ahead and just to the left of Chris was Teddy.
Teddy was pretending to read some book but was really using detention to catch up on sleep, every now and then he flicked balls of paper at some girl sat in front of him. Vern had forgotten to bring some homework. Even after his thousands of detentions he just didn't learn. Instead he was writing 'I will not smoke in the school grounds' over and over. He wrote slowly his face contorted in concentration as he laboriously copied what the teacher had written down.
Gordie was pretending to work on French verbs but really he was writing a story. His mind was filled with images. This story seemed to be a good one and his pen raced over the paper as he tried to squeeze each and every detail from his imagination.
Suddenly the supervisor rose to his feet. "I need to go get some files from my office, can I trust you to behave while I'm away? If any of you pulls anything I will personally see to it that you have detention each and every day for the rest of the school year"
Seeing as it was only October that was quite a threat. Still, as soon as the supervisor left the room began to hum with voices.
"Hey Gordo man what are you writing?" Chris asked leaning over.
Gordie shrugged, "nothing". He instinctively covered up the page with his arm. "What are you doing?"
"Fuckin' algebra. I don't understand any of it" Chris said leaning back in his chair and stretching out his arms.
The girl in front of Teddy had turned around. "Will you quit that," she protested angrily. Gordie watched with interest. He didn't recognise the girl, she probably didn't live in Castle Rock.
Teddy smirked then held out a hand "Teddy Duchamp"
The girl shook his hand reluctantly "Laura"
"Hi Laura" Vern piped up beaming. "I'm Vern Tessio"
Laura smiled. She was kind of pretty with longish brown hair and green eyes. She was the only girl in detention today.
Laura looked around "this school sucks"
"You new here?" Chris asked out of nowhere.
Laura glanced at him "Yeah but I'm only going to be here a couple of months". She paused. "I'm just staying with relatives while our house gets packed up. We're moving to California"
"California's cool" Chris offered then slumped back into silence.
Laura stared at Chris for a minute then turned back to Teddy. Teddy caught on to her confusion and awkwardly introduced his ex-friends.
"That's Chris Chambers and Gordie Lachance. Don't bother with them though, they're just pussies"
Vern laughed and, to Teddy's obvious delight, so did Laura. Gordie glowered but stayed silent. Chris didn't even react in fact it seemed as if he hadn't even heard.
