Disclaimer: Don't own The Breakfast Club, so don't you dare sue me.
To the reviewers: Thank you guys! I'm so sorry this took so long, my parents are on holiday and I have to look after our dogs and cats and the house...argh. Hopefully you all haven't given up on this.
So here it is, chapter five, enjoy.
CHAPTER 5- Monday
Looking around in her wardrobe before school, Claire decides it's time for a change. 'Who cares if I have the latest fashionable clothes, it doesn't make a difference.' She reaches for a long sleeved white t-shirt and a mid length brown skirt and changes quickly.
She puts on a minimal amount of makeup and while pulling on her brown boots she hears her dad shouting from downstairs.
"Claire, we need to go now if you want me to take you to school."
She grabs her bag off the floor before running outside and getting into her dad's car.
Arriving at the school, Claire steps out of her dad's car and he drives away hurriedly without so much as a goodbye. She sighs and moves towards the front of the school before sitting herself on the stairs. From here she will be able to spot the rest of the breakfast club when they arrive. Claire opens up her bag, intent on finding a specific something. She digs around for a few minutes before finding what she was looking for. She smiles, triumphant, and places the single earring in her left ear. 'Hopefully John will get the message', she thinks. She glances at her watch realising that she there is fifteen minutes before school, so she goes back to looking out for the rest of the club. She isn't worried about her 'friends' as they wouldn't be caught dead arriving at school early. 'Who cares about them anyway, they're a total drag', she thinks.
The first to arrive is Brian and she spots him at the bottom of the stairs, looking extremely nervous. As he makes his way up the steps she calls out to him and he looks shocked for a moment, almost tripping up on his feet, before he smiles genuinely and makes his way over to Claire.
"Hey Brian, how was your weekend?"
"Uhm, Hi. It was good…I mean there was uh detention, but you were there", he smiles nervously. "And uh I had this project to do for the physics club on Sunday and it was really fun. It was about aerodynamics so um we were designing these kinda like paper airplanes but they had to be really aerodynamic so that they were fast and uh…it was fun." He sheepishly runs his hand through his hair before looking up at Claire, nervous that she will make fun of him or something.
"That sounds really cool Brian, it'd be fun to see them and see how they fly sometime," says Claire.
"Uh, yeah, that would be pretty cool…so have you seen anyone else since, Sat…Saturday?" He stutters out.
Claire hesitates, wondering if she should tell him that she saw John on Saturday, but decides to anyway.
"I saw John after detention on Saturday night, we just kinda talked for a while."
"Oh, so…thanks for not being shitty today, after y'know."
"It's nothing Bri, I wanted to talk to you. We're friends, right?" she asks.
Brian smiles, "oh, um yeah, I guess we are." She smiles back and he sits next to her on the stairs.
A minute or so of comfortable silence passes before Brian nudges Claire, pointing out Allison getting out of a car. She has done her makeup like Claire showed her and her clothes are more neutral. Allison sees them sitting together and meets them on the stairs.
"Hi Brian, Claire." Brian and Claire reply before inviting Allison to sit with them.
"So, I never thought I'd see you go through with it," Allison states, looking pointedly at Claire.
Her reply is slow, her voice soft, "Well, people can change."
Brian and Allison nod and Claire sees Andy sneaking up behind Allison. He motions for her to be quiet and she smiles.
Allison sees Claire do so, "What are you smiling about?" But before Claire can reply Andy covers Allison's eyes with his hands and she jumps, yelping.
"Guess who?" says Andy in a playful voice.
"Andrew?" He takes his hands off her eyes and she turns around, and hugs him before they announce that they are going into school. Brian nods saying, "Me too, I don't wanna be late for class." Claire, assuring them she is happy to be left alone, remains on the stairs hoping that John will turn up. The absurdity of that makes her laugh, 'as if John Bender will be on time for school' she thinks. Claire waits until the bill rings, but there is no sign of him so she heads off to class, thinking about him and the events of Saturday.
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'Stupid goddamn school, Vernon will have a good laugh when he sees my face', thinks John. He can still hear the venom in Vernon's voice, from Saturday and can still feel the fear that Vernon's words produced. "And you're wrapped up in your own pathetic life…I'm gonna be there. That's right, and I'm gonna kick the living shit out of you!"
John shakes his head, willing the thoughts away. He instead concentrates on getting to school.
As John enters the school campus, he looks at the scratched watch on his wrist through his sunglasses. He hopes the glasses will spare him any questions about the painful bruise half-hidden beneath them. He is almost and hour late for school, not that anyone would expect him to be on time. He wanders up to the doors at the front of the school and warily walks in, cautious because he doesn't really want another detention. Seeing that the halls are clear he makes his way to his locker. 'Damn-it, my lock is missing', he thinks, 'not that anyone would go into my locker anyway…' He opens it up and pulls out a tattered copy of 'Macbeth', intending on going to English next. He closes his graffiti-covered locker and slowly walks towards the English department, knowing that the bell will ring in a few minutes for next period. He likes English, people may not believe it, but he does. Sure, he ripped up a bunch of books on Saturday, but those were richie books and it was justified by the extreme boredom he experienced.
Suddenly the bell rings and hundreds of students rush in to and out of classrooms, so quickly that if you blinked you'd miss it. John enters the classroom and heads straight for his assumed seat at the back of the room, the farthest from the front. No one looks up as he passes them and he slumps into his seat, making no move to take off his sunglasses. He looks around the class and spots Brian sat at the very front of the room. 'Huh, never noticed him there before', he thinks. During the period, he decides that he will try to find Claire during lunch.
For one of the first times in his life John Bender is hopeful.
So there you have it, Chapter five. I know it was a bit slow but it seemed important to show how they all interact together and that they did change on Monday. I promise super-fluffiness between John and Claire next chapter. So look forward to it. Should be up by Tuesday at the latest.
---Musicalwonder.