Kenneth

"I don't suppose you know any good designs for paper airplanes, do you?" Percy asked in response to Kenneth's query.

Kenneth looked around to find two paper airplanes littering his desk, and wondered what he'd missed. He was about to respond when the library door crashed open. Percy was in his seat again in a flash, but Richard Vernon had seen him.

"Scott! What the hell were you doing out of your seat? Didn't I tell you to do nothing but sit there?" The vice principal shouted.

"Uh, I don't know what you're talking about, sir." Percy shrugged. "I haven't gotten up from this chair since I got here."

"Don't play coy with me, boy." Vernon scowled. "I saw you as clear as day. Now, are you gonna tell the truth, or do I have to give you another detention?"

"He has been shifting around a lot sir, but he hasn't gotten up from his seat." Kenneth spoke up, and Vernon rounded on him.

"Did I ask for your input, Ford?" The vice principal scowled. "I don't know why you suddenly feel the need to stick up for him, but you ought to worry about yourself, you understand?" He turned to the rest of the teenagers. "Does anyone else have anything to add? Jackson? Williams?"

"I didn't see nothing." Ben held up his hands. "I've just been sitting here like you told me to."

"I wasn't paying attention to- to whatever was happening behind me." Janet held her breath as Vernon turned his stern gaze upon her, as if considering whether or not to call out her obvious lie. After a long moment however, he snorted and turned away.

"Whatever." Vernon muttered under his breath. "You, and you." He pointed at Kenneth and the girl with hazel eyes in the back row. "Go get drinks from the vending machine. Eat your lunch and behave yourselves, you hear me?" The vice principal turned on his heel and strode out of the library, the door slamming shut behind him.

Kenneth breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't entirely sure why he'd spoken up in defense of Percy, who was pretty much an asshole. Still, the guy had lent him his taped-up pencils, even if it had ultimately been for nothing. For that matter, even Ben and Janet, who Percy had been actively antagonizing, hadn't ratted him out. Maybe it was just that they all wanted to stick it to Vernon.

"So what do you guys want to drink?" Kenneth turned to the other teenagers.

"Got any alcohol?" Percy raised his hand, and the girl in the leather jacket snorted with laughter, to the surprise of everyone else. Kenneth sighed. Why had he stuck up for this guy again?

Alice

The last Coke can fell to the bottom of the vending machine with a dull THUNK. Alice wondered if there wasn't a better way of vending the cans so that the soda inside wouldn't fizz up when they were opened. She grabbed the can out of the dispensing slot, and turned to her companion, the boy who'd been sitting in front of her. The strange boy with aviator sunglasses and Janet the student council girl had called him Kenneth.

Kenneth nodded to her and the two of them went back to the library, cans of soda in hand. Three Cokes, two Sprites, a Dr. Pepper, and a Fanta orange. The cold aluminum was starting to numb Alice's fingers; her hands got cold easily.

"So what're you in here for?" The question startled Alice, and she looked at Kenneth with surprise.

"Why do you want to know?" She winced; she hadn't meant it to sound rude, but he'd caught her off guard and the question had come automatically.

"Just curious." Kenneth shrugged. He didn't seem to have noticed. Or perhaps he just didn't care.

"I overslept and came to class late." Alice said after a slight pause. Perhaps it was because the silence was awkward, but she felt like talking all of a sudden.

"That's it?" Kenneth looked at her in surprise. "Your teacher must be an asshole, giving you detention for just being tardy."

"It was the fifteenth time." Alice mumbled, feeling her ears grow warm.

"Oh." Kenneth looked like he wasn't sure whether to laugh or not. "That's... yeah, fifteen is pretty bad."

"What about you?" Alice asked. "Why're you in detention?"

"I uh... hacked into one of the library computers." Kenneth laughed nervously.

Alice stared at him. "Don't they expel people for that?"

"Apparently not." Kenneth shrugged. "I think the sign is just there for show."

"Why'd you do it?" Alice pressed on, intrigued. From the way Kenneth dressed, he was clearly one of the preppy kids. Unlike the really popular kids, they usually didn't do anything to get into trouble.

"Looking up football game scores." Kenneth grinned sheepishly. "I wanted to see if the Lions had beaten the Buccaneers, I wasn't able to watch the game because my dad dragged me along on a fishing trip the day of."

Alice held back a snort of laughter. Leave it to a boy to be so obsessed with football that he would hack into a library computer to look up the scores. She and Kenneth had arrived at the library however, so she didn't reply. She kicked the door twice; both her and Kenneth's hands were full with the soda cans. A few seconds later, the boy with aviators opened the door, plucked the Fanta out of Kenneth's hands, and let it shut again.

"Hey!" Kenneth exclaimed. "What the heck, Percy?"

Almost immediately, the door opened again, and Percy held it open this time, grinning like a madman. "Relax Kenny, I'm just messing with ya."

Kenneth rolled his eyes as he strode into the library, and Alice followed behind him. The two left the cans of soda on the football player's desk, taking their own drinks, and returned to their seats. Alice opened her backpack to pull out her lunch, but found that it was empty. Her heart sank. She must have forgotten to pack it before heading out; she'd woken up so early that she hadn't been fully awake until she arrived at school. Alice looked at the clock; almost five hours remained before detention would be over and she could get something to eat.

"Sup?"

Alice turned around to see Percy sitting next to her again. When the hell had he sat down? She hadn't even noticed! The boy held out a sandwich to her. "My mom packed me too much food, feel like helping a guy out?"

Alice looked at the sandwich suspiciously, wondering if he was just messing with her like he had earlier, acting all friendly. "I don't want-" She started to say before her stomach rebelled, grumbling loudly. Alice flushed as Percy raised an eyebrow.

"It's just PB and J, if you were wondering." He smiled. "And detention'll go a lot slower if you're starving."

Her resolve crumbled, and Alice took the sandwich. "Thanks."