"Hey, Casey!" Eduardo yelled at her as she and Lunella walked down the school hallway. "Your scrunchie looks like a wad of chewed-up gum! You're gonna need to cut your hair off!"

Casey was boiling.

"Oh, what? You're angry?" he teased her. "Oh, dear, I don't think that scrunchie could handle it! It must be bursting at the seams!"

Before either of them knew it, Casey, blinded by rage, threw a mighty punch at Eduardo's face. He was thrown into the lockers and collapsed onto the floor.

Everyone else in the hallway froze at the sight.

Coach Hrbek cleared his throat. Casey snapped out of it and turned to face him.

"Um…" she said as Lunella slowly backed away from her, "…I didn't know I had it in me?"

Detention sucked.

Being thrown into a classroom full of delinquents and rascals was an absolute embarrassment for her. She was absolutely out of her depth. She was lucky that no one tried to do anything to her…probably because they were all surprised that a girl like that would end up here in the first place.

One kid asked how she got there. "I punched a guy for making fun of my scrunchie," she said. That caused everyone else to back away.

It was like The Breakfast Club but without the hijinks. Or the camaraderie.

After about two hours of awkward silence, her dads arrived, and they scolded her for punching Eduardo…and expressed surprise that she could even punch anyone at all…and over a scrunchie, too. They told her that she should ignore the guy. After all, it was just a scrunchie.

The next day, she was back in school. This time she was alone; Lunella went ahead of her today.

"Hey, Casey!" Eduardo (sporting a bruised face) yelled at her as she walked down the school hallway. "You still wearing that scrunchie? It doesn't look like a wad of gum stuck to your hair…it looks like you actually used it! Gum? As a thing to tie your hair? Oh, if that isn't crazy, I don't know what is."

Casey stared at him with a sly look and a twinkle in her eye. She had the perfect response for him.

"So?" she said deliberately. "You're entitled to your opinion."

He looked at her, puzzled.

"And thank you for noticing my bomb scrunchie!" she added before turning around and began shrugging her shoulders off in a pretty silly but feel-good dance. That showed him.

Eduardo stared at her as she grooved down the hallway. "Whatever," he scoffed to himself. He had other things on his mind today.