Forget Me Not
Chapter Two: Going Downhill
The sounds of lockers slamming shut surrounded me as I got my books for my first class. English. Who invented the subject anyway? I mean, I don't usually walk around talking this like I do? Not too funny, eh? And I was starting to complain again... I have to control that.
As I went through another day of school, the usual thoughts went through my mind. 'Why doesn't anything interesting ever happen to me? Why can't the school just burn down? When will I find love?'
The average questions a teenage girl ponders, huh? I had no clue that all those questions would be answered sooner or later... in some form.
It was lunchtime, and I followed the wafting aroma of cafeteria food to the cafeteria. Childish as it may seem, I brought my own lunch seeing as I didn't want to risk food poison due to the food served there.
I pushed open the doors and the scene of people in line and settling with their food greeted me. A few seconds of glancing around the cafeteria and I found Joey waving at me from a table. I was going over to sit with the gang, who were all two years older than me. But that didn't matter. Even though Joey liked to refer to me as 'kid sister Ren', they still treated me as their equal, not just the sister of their friend. So likewise, I was trying to seem mature, like I wasn't some little kid overjoyed that it was lunchtime. Though that was pretty much what I was feeling.
I carefully stepped over the remnants of a food fight that happened moments ago, silently thanking the gods that nobody threw anything in my direction. Dodging chunks of disgusting food isn't really my thing.
Upon getting to the table, I flopped down and sighed as I laid my head on the table and closed my eyes. Pure bliss. The roars and stench of an eatery environment, a sticky patch of juice nobody bothered to clean up on my right, and Joey talking a mile a minute to himself on my left.
Everyone else bought their lunches from the cafeteria, disgusting as it may be. Although most of it was used as war material or waste, than actual eating. Tea, Yugi, Tristan and Duke sat down with their trays of foul smelling excuses of nourishment, and so began the ritual of 'Guess The Mystery Meat'.
"Ten bucks says its baloney mixed with sewer water", Tristan announced to the table at large.
"Looks more like chicken stuffed tuna cakes to me", Joey said, prodding the meat with a fork. "Hold on!" he shouted. "It winked at me, I swear.."
Tea rolled her eyes. "I dare someone to try it", she said, jabbing a portion of the meat with her own fork.
Duke grinned. "I'll try it first", he said, earning him a skeptical look from everyone. Stabbing a piece of the meat with his fork, he took a quick glance at everyone before popping the disgusting piece of chow in his mouth. Everyone stared with baited breath as he chewed and finally swallowed the portion.
"...Are your insides burning?" Yugi whispered.
Duke had a baffled look on his face before popping another piece in his mouth, then another. "It actually tastes fine", he said earning everyone a sign of relief. "Turkey smothered in sauce."
"I love the rare occasions when the food isn't poisoned or anything", Joey said as he began to shovel the food in his mouth, causing the table to give him disgusted stares.
I opened my paper bag and take out the peanut butter sandwich I had packed in there. Chewing on it slowly, I listened to the conversation everyone was having.
"It looks like we're not going on any trips this year", Yugi said.
"That's not fair, I'm always looking forward to a reason to leave the classrooms", Joey grumbled.
"You can do that yourself, by landing yourself in the principals office", Tea pointed out causing everyone to chuckle.
"But I heard that the teachers are planning something", Tristan spoke up. "Something they're only letting a few students in on".
"Then how do you know that we might get in on it?" Yugi asked.
"...I don't." Tristan mumbled to himself.
Lunch was almost over, and I threw my junk in the garbage, preparing myself for the second half of the day. We were almost at the door, when it happened. I mean, I lose my guard for one millisecond and the next thing you know, I'm flat on the floor. Remember that part about being mature and stuff? It wasn't working out.
I had almost reached the door, and I had even reached for the handle, when suddenly, WHOOSH!
I slipped and fell on my behind, in clear view of the whole cafeteria. Talk about embarrassing. Looking around me I saw that there was a giant grape juice stain there, and nobody had bothered to put a caution sign there. But then, they probably didn't think that anyone would be stupid enough to not watch where they were walking. My face started to burn up.
'Oh crappity crappity crap cakes...' I screamed in my head.
Quickly scrambling up with the help of Joey and Tea, I hurriedly rushed to the bathroom to check on the damage, with Tea dashing close behind me. Slamming open the washroom door, I stopped at the mirror and inspected my rear-end. There was a giant purple juice stain on it, practically screaming, 'laugh why don't you?' Heaving a sign, I grabbed the paper towels and proceeded with trying to clean it up a bit. Tea came rushing in, looking worried.
"You're not hurt are you? Are you crying? Not everyone saw, you know, and-", Tea started gabbing away, as she came foreword to help me out.
"I'm not hurt... only my pride", I muttered under my breath as we both tried our best to tidy up the stain.
Finally, after a lot of scrubbing only a faint mark was there, which was almost indistinguishable. Tea left after some encouraging words and my thanking her a jillion time. I tried to imagine that there wasn't an almost-invisible-but-not-quite purple stain on my skirt, but it wasn't working. Slowly clasping the door handle, I braced myself for the ridicule and stares and laughing and... I'm freaking myself out now. I could just imagine them pointing at me and laughing their heads off, and it wasn't a lovely scene.
I squeezed my eyes shut and slammed open the door, walking a bit faster than normal. So much for concealing the purple catastrophe..
I went through two whole hallways without anyone pointing, or laughing, or anything. Maybe I had hope yet! This is finally the time for me to start thinking positive! Some old guy was right, good things follow bad... or however the proverb went.. Either way, I'm not going to let anyone make fun of my little slip!
While I was having my little mental motivational speech, I forgot all about the fact that classes started ten minutes ago. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that nobody laughed at my little cafeteria blunder. Either way, the rest of that proverb is probably 'good follows bad and bad follows any ray of sunshine that happens to fall into your life'.
As I passed the science classroom, the door swung open, making me jump.
"MISS WHEELER, YOU ARE TEN MINUTES LATE FOR CLASS, DO YOU REALIZE THAT!", the science teacher Mr. Smith burst out.
Another thing I forgot to mention. Tardiness is a crime here, no matter how late you are. You can get punishment for one minute too.. it sucks going to school under the same roof as a tardy fanatic principal.
"MISS WHEELER?" Mr. Smith repeated.
"Y-yes!" I stuttered quickly. "I'll just get my books and get here as soon as possible!" I called over my shoulder as I began to run to my locker.
"Alright, but get here soon. And you also have a detention after school today", Mr. Smith said, finally loosing the scream as he shut the door with a snap.
I immediately stopped running. Detention? For something as little as being ten minutes late? What important bit of information could I possibly miss in that ten-minute absence? I mentally smacked myself for getting in trouble for something so stupid.
"Wait till Joey hears.." I mumbled to myself. He couldn't get mad; he gets detentions all the time.
I trudged all the way to my locker and banged my head on the door. Just my luck.. First it was the cafeteria... slip, and now its detention? I guess I'm being punished for being a low-abiding citizen for all these years, and the ONE time I mess up, I get caught. I mean, its TEN MINUTES. Sighing, I slammed open my locker, not wanting the teacher to yell at me even more. I couldn't stand that shrill voice screaming at me anymore. Getting my books I slammed my locker shut, and slogged my way to science class.
Don't you just love the sound of loud talking, lockers slamming shut and doors swinging open as a huge mass of teens stampede their way out of school? Yes, its that time of day again! Home time! But a few unlucky students don't get to share in that pleasure. Pour quoi you ask? Because of the stupid school system, the idiotic rules we have to follow, and the large amount of time teachers have to torture us students after school. As if it wasn't bad enough we have to see them five days a week for sevens hours a day... I'm starting to get on the negative side again, huh?
I said bye the gang, who all said good luck for the detention. Was it really that bad? Joey didn't get himself in trouble today, so he wouldn't be going to detention.
"I could throw a water balloon at the principal to go with you" Joey called.
I grinned at his concern. "That okay... but thanks anyway", I said as the gang gave me one last wave before heading out.
I turned back to the hallway, and slowly wandered over to the detention room. Slowly taking a deep breath, I opened the door and went into the Room of Doom.
A grumpy looking teacher grunted to me as acknowledgement as I quickly took my seat at a desk.
"Name?" she grumbled.
"Serenity Wheeler", I said, noticing that my voice got a bit higher.
The lady ticked my name off on a clipboard and continued to glare at anyone coming in.
Turning around in my seat, I surveyed the people in the room. There were three guys and another girl. They all seemed bored, or annoyed that they were here. Much like how I was feeling. Once another boy slouched into the room, the teacher got up and frowned at us all.
"You are all here today because you have misbehaved, broken the school rules, or you didn't show appropriate behavior towards your peers and fellow staff members", the lady reeled off, sounding like she knew this little speech by heart and she had said it countless time to other detentioners. Which was probably true. "Now, as penalty for your deeds, I shall punish you all according to what you did to get yourself here".
"I knocked on this door by mistake and the lady made me stay because I was being a 'disturbance' to her classroom", a redhead in the back mumbled, but I picked up what he said. "How do you punish someone for doing something by accident?" I turned around and saw him give me an encouraging smile before starring dully at the detention teacher.
The lady began assigning jobs to us, and I twiddled my thumbs, hoping mine would be something easy.
"Wheeler, and Kishi", the lady announced.
I quickly scrambled out of my seat, and headed to the front, along with the redhead.
"You both are going to mop the first floor", she declared, and pointed to the corner of the room where there were a few mops and a bucket.
Nodding our heads, we both got a mop each and he took the bucket. We both headed down to the first floor, talking about how we got into detention in the first place.
"Like I said before, I was looking for Mr. Smith, and I thought he'd be in the detention room. So I knocked and the lady slammed the door open and said that I was disturbing the peace in her classroom, and that I should join her. So now I can't find Mr. Smith to apologize for accidentally letting the frogs loose during class today. It looks like I'm being punished for that by the detention lady", he said. I laughed at the story.
"It sounds like you were having a bad day too", I said, remembering lunchtime and Mr. Smith's cruelness. "Mr. Smith gave me a detention because I was ten minutes late for class", I told him. "All because I slipped in the cafeteria." I muttered to myself, recalling what happened today.
"Mr. Smith can be unkind sometimes", the redhead agreed. "Mostly because he wants to be a model teacher in the principals eye", he said, and we both laughed.
We got to the first floor and he filled up the bucket. Maybe detention wasn't going to be so bad.. Seeing as my partner is such a nice guy. Too bad I don't know his name..
"I'm Serenity", I called over to him, as we waited for the bucket to be filled.
"I'm Aoshi", he said as the bucket filled up. He set it down in front of us, and we both dunked our mops in it and began swabbing.
Once we were finally finished moping the first floor, we dragged the bucket and mops back to the detention room. The lady nodded her head and gave us one last glare before letting us go. Apart from the fact that my arms were a bit sore from the mopping, and I finally knew how Snow White felt, I felt relieved that I could finally leave to go home. Waving goodbye to Aoshi, I pushed open the doors and breathed in the fresh scent of... rain.
I got a full blast of rain in my face, and it didn't look like it was going to let up any time soon. What a brilliant way to end the day..