A/N: Hello and welcome back to "The Gossip Around Shermer"! As always, I'm Bambi and I'm very happy that you're here. I hope you all are doing well and staying safe. I'm doing just fine. As always, I do not/have not/nor, will I ever own the rights to "The Breakfast Club" or any of its characters and themes. Those belong to the estate of John Hughes and Universal Pictures. However, Xia Hart is 100% mine. Now, onto the chapter!
Ch. 5 Shhh
Everyone in the room is perfectly still as they anxiously wait to see if Vernon would come walking through the door. When Vernon turns the corner to go to the teacher lounge, relief spreads through the kids. Bender, who was seated near Claire and Andy, was the first to get up. He's inching closer to the double doors as the others watch with curiosity. "There's not supposed to be any monkey business." Johnson warned. Within mere seconds of Johson's warning Bender spun around on the balls of his feet, He pointed an accusatory finger at Johson. "Young man, have you finished your paper?" Bender questions in a fake stern voice.
"What are you gonna do?" Claire asked Bender nervously. "Drop dead I hope." Andy retorts. Bender's full attention is right on those double doors. "Bender, that door is school property. It doesn't belong to us. It shouldn't be toyed with." Johnson tried to reason but it's futile. Bender is far too determined. His hand reaches out to touch the black metal dividing bar between the two doors. It looked like he plucked something out of it. But what DID he pull? Their answer came in the form of a loud bang as the doors slammed shut. Now Vernon was definitely going to come in here. "Way to go, Bender." Xia groaned.
Andy, Claire, and Johnson start going back and forth with Bender, demanding he fix the door. Here was another good part of Xia's story. "BENDER STOLE A SCREW." Xia quickly scribbles in her notebook.
"Everybody just shut up." Bender screams at them before Vernon comes jetting into the room. He looks ready to blow a gasket. Very quietly, Xia shuffles her notebook underneath her bag. Knowing that if Vernon saw it, he would take it. Then it would just be her giving the right information to the wrong person. No way Xia was gonna let that happen. "Why is that door closed?" Vernon yells. When nobody gives him his desired answer, he begins to go around the room asking the six.
He approaches Claire first. "Why is that door closed?" He asked. Horrible idea on Vernon's part, Claire is great at covering stuff up. "We were just sitting here." Claire assured him innocently. Vernon moves onto Bender. Another bad move. No way in hell was Bender gonna rat himself out. "I think a screw fell out." Bender suggests as he looks down at the table. Vernon's eyes travel straight to Xia. A disgusting satisfied grin, as if he just found what he was looking for had appeared on his face. "Hart, I know you know who closed that door. You probably can't wait to tell me. Come on, big mouth. Tell me." Vernon eggs her on.
All eyes turned to her with bated breath, waiting to see what she was gonna do. If she tells the truth, nobody is gonna trust her enough to tell her anything then her story goes up in flames. On the other hand, she has no loyalty to the others or Vernon. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Xia makes her move. She stares up at Vernon confused. "Sir, the door's is closed? I had no idea. I was working on my essay." Xia lies tapping her pen against the sheet of loose-leaf paper she had been given. Vernon looks unimpressed and mad as he turns to the quiet girl. "Who?" He shouted at her. In response, the girl squeaks and slams her on her tabletop.
"She doesn't talk, sir." Vernon broadcasted. "Give me that screw. You want me to yank you out of that seat and shake it out of you?" Vernon threatened Bender. The vice principal threatening a student? That's grounds for firing. Xia had to put this part in her story. Vernon stalks up to the front, headed for the double doors. He grabs a chair and tries to wedge it between the door and the center pole. The chair is far too light to hold the weight of the door back so it goes flying down the hallway.
A frustrated Vernon reenters the library and points at Andy. "Andrew Clark. Get up here. Come on, front and center." Vernon waved Andy up. "How come Andrew gets to get up? If he gets up, we'll all get up. It'll be anarchy!" Bender cried out in fake outrage. Xia worriedly watches on as Vernon has Andy moving some metal magazine rack that looks very heavy. Did Vernon even have the power to demand something like this? Sure sometimes teachers asked students for help with moving stuff but that was chairs and desks. This rack looked dangerous.
This could get Andy hurt. "What if there's a fire? I think blocking fire exits and endangering the lives of children would be unwise at this juncture in your career sir." Bender pointed out. Vernon looks up as if he's actually taking Bender's words into account. He turns back to Andy annoyed. "What are you doing? Get this up! Get this outta here." Vernon commanded. As he was moving it, poor Andy trips between the rack and the door before moving the rack to its original place.
"Back to your seat. I expected a little bit more from a varsity letterman." Vernon snapped as Xia bites down hard on her lip. She expected a little bit more from an assistant principal. As Andy is walking back to his seat, he and Xia make eye contact. "Are you okay?" She mouthed. Andy shrugged in response before sitting down. "You're not fooling anybody, Bender. The next screw that falls out is gonna be you." Vernon warned. Yeah, this was definitely going in the column. "Eat my shorts." Bender mumbled. Vernon, who was about to leave, turned around on his heel to confront the mumbling. "What was that?" Vernon asked. "Eat. My. Shorts." Bender repeated.
"You just bought yourself another Saturday, mister." Vernon pointed out. "Christ." Bender replied in fake hurt. "That's another Saturday." Vernon tacked on. This continues for a few minutes. Claire and Johnson even butt in every now and again to tell Bender to stop and cut it out and to correct Vernon on how many detentions he's given to Bender. Xia was practically foaming at the mouth to get Vernon out of here so she can write this exchange down in her notebook. This was about to go from a gossip story to a hit piece. It could be groundbreaking. Vernon could lose his job. "What can I say? I'm thrilled." Bender replied arrogantly.
"Oh I'm sure that's exactly what you want these people to believe. You know, Bender. Maybe if you spent less time trying to impress people, you'd be better off. As for the rest of you, my office is right behind those doors. Next time I have to come in here I'm cracking skulls." Vernon threatened as he walked away. As soon as he's out of the room Bender yells at the top of his lungs, "Fuck you!" When the coast is clear, Xia yanks her notebook from underneath her bag and begins to write down everything she just witnessed.
After she's done writing everything, Xia starts watching people again. The first person she watches is quiet girl who was diligently working on a lovely art piece of a cozy winter cabin. Might as well add some fluff to this story. "THOUGH SHE DOESN'T TALK MUCH, QUIET GIRL IS A VERY GIFTED ARTIST". Xia moves onto Bender, who makes her jump at the sight of his brown leather boot sole on fire. Her eyes move to Johnson and Claire but she can't really see what they're up to. So, she moves. Andy was playing paper football by himself.
He had just made a field goal and was cheering silently to himself. This earned him a giggle from Xia. Upon hearing the giggle, Andy looks back and makes eyes with its culprit. He smiled small at Xia which caused her to get this old familiar feeling. Butterflies. She always used to get them when Andy would smile at her, kiss her, hold her hand, or dance with her. To Xia it felt so weird to get them now yet here she was. After a while, the six wind up falling asleep. Only to be interrupted a few minutes later by Vernon. "Who has to go to the lavatory?" He asks. All six hands shoot up in the air. "That's ten minutes."
A/N: And that's all folks! Thank you so much for reading. I really hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you next time! Have a great weekend guys! Bye!
