Chapter Five
Graffiti
Priscilla's next move is obvious to all. When Brian arrives Friday morning, he sees the front sidewalk is spray painted with the words "The Breakfast Club." Andy, looking as pissed as Brian's ever seen him, marches by Brian's locker before homeroom and says, "Courtyard. Now."
When Brian reaches the courtyard, the whole club is assembled, plus Beatrice.
"What do we do?" asks Claire. She mainly seems to be addressing Andy.
"There's not much we can do," Andy says. "We can't all have air tight alibis from the end of school yesterday and the beginning of school today. Any one of us could have snuck out in the middle of the night and done it. We can't defend ourselves. Priscilla really got us."
"What's one detention more or less?" Bender asks with disinterest.
"Andy and I want scholarships. We can't have a bad record," Brian answers immediately.
"You do realize we could all be suspended over this?" Andy wants to know. "I'll be happy if we get off with just a detention."
The bell for homeroom rings and they disperse. Brian is not surprised when his name is called over the loudspeaker to report to the principal's office. He joins the rest of the group in the outer reception area of Principal Gaffney's office. There is a bench for wrong-doers awaiting discipline and they all sit, except Bender, who puts a foot up so he can readjust one of the bandanas around his boot.
Finally Principal Gaffney comes out with Vernon close behind.
"I understand you all belong to a clandestine group named 'The Breakfast Club.' Is this true?" Gaffney looks up and down the line.
"Sir, we don't belong to a group, we just eat lunch together," Brian speaks up after a beat of silence.
"Why is this essay signed 'The Breakfast Club'?" Gaffney is holding up Brian's communal essay.
"That's what all the kids call Saturday detention, sir," Andy says in their defense. And it is true, since their day in detention it has become the common term.
Vernon speaks for the first time. "No one used that term until you did. This group set the trend."
"Sir, I'd like to point out that Beatrice was not there. She was not part of the group that served detention together." Brian fervently hopes this gets Bea off the hook.
"Is this true, Vernon?"
He nods.
"You're excused, Miss Snyder."
Beatrice reluctantly leaves.
"You are the group known as 'The Breakfast Club'. Mr. Vernon has informed me of your various activities. If I had conclusive evidence that linked any of you to this incident, you'd all be expelled. As it is, you will all report for detention on Saturday." Gaffney looks up and down the line. "You are dismissed."
"That was so unfair!" bursts out Brian.
"Shut it, Brian," Andy mutters. "We can talk at lunch. Let's meet in the courtyard instead of the cafeteria."
They go to their separate classes.
Brian is not looking forward to telling his mother he has yet another detention. The day drags and lunch brings no relief.
"We can sit here feeling sorry for ourselves and complaining, or we can figure out how to put a stop to Priscilla," Andy says.
But no one has any ideas.
"Claire? Any news about Jennifer?"
"No. I'll try to catch her during P.E."
There's nothing for it but to get it over with. Brian decides dinner is as good a time as any. His father will at least be there too.
"I have to serve detention this Saturday." He's focusing on his green beans, lining them up so they all face in one direction.
"What's wrong with you?" his mother asks. "Listening to that music, back-talking, an F in shop, and now another detention.?" The venom in her voice carves into him.
"Son, what did you do this time?" his father asks. He sounds more tired than anything.
"I didn't do anything. I was falsely accused of doing graffiti I had nothing to do with."
"It's better to tell the truth, Brian," his father says.
Stabbing the green beans, he says, "Oh great, my own father doesn't believe me. I didn't do it."
"Don't talk to your father like that," his mother snaps.
Brian glares at his mother.
"There's no way you'll get a scholarship to a good school if you keep getting detentions. Don't you want to go to a good university?" his mother asks.
Her question is rhetorical, but he answers, "No. No, I don't want to go to a good university. I don't care, mom. You care. These are all your plans, not mine."
"Do you want to be stuck in a dead-end job like your father?"
Suddenly all his father's normal apathy is gone. "I give you a good life, Helen, and you think my job is a dead-end? I work hard so you can stay home with the kids and have a good home in a good neighborhood." His father raises his voice. "This dead-end job supports you."
"I want Brian to have a better life."
"Mom, you don't care. If you wanted me to have a good life, you would have asked me what I wanted. You never consulted me. Do you know why I had that flare gun in my locker? I was going to off myself for making an F in shop. But you know what? I don't care about shop or good universities or your expectations anymore."
Quietly, his father says, "Brian, Sam, go to your rooms while your mother and I talk." He has his voice under scary control now, as if holding back something huge.
His parents never fight. He never defies his mother. He never tells the truth about the pressure.
Flopping on his bed, he tries to block out the raised voices, but he can't help hearing snatches.
"… putting pressure…"
"… not good enough …."
"... achieve…"
"… suicide…"
Suicide. Why did he mention that? Now they'll think he's crazy. But part of him is just fine with that, if it means a reduction in his mother's hostility and pressure. It's weird to look at something from two different ways at once, like one of those paintings of stairs that go up and down at the same time. One way, he's seeing how seriously wigged out he was in acquiring the flare gun and how close he came to using it. The other way, he's seeing how quickly the desperation receded. Serious as hell but also insignificant. That seems like so long ago too, another lifetime. The lifetime before the breakfast club. Having friends, a girlfriend, fun, freedom feels normal now.
They have quieted down now. Someone taps on his door. He sits up in bed and says, "Come in."
It's his father. He doesn't think his father has been in his room in years, since Brian was young enough to want bedtime stories. That was nice, now that he thinks about it. He always felt good when his father would read to him. Jesus, why is he thinking about being a little kid?
His father sits on the chair by his desk, looking very serious.
"Brian, I want you to know I care about you."
Wow, that's a weird start; no one expresses affection in this house. He seems to mean it though.
"Your happiness is important to me. Tell me, son, what's wrong?"
"I'm okay now," he rushes to say. "I just felt like that for a little bit. I'm fine."
His father looks so sad and concerned. All these feelings, it's too weird. His family doesn't do feelings.
"No, really, I'm better."
"I didn't realize how serious the pressure had gotten. Failing a class is okay, it's not the end of the world. I still love you."
He can't believe what he's hearing. He can't remember hearing his father say he loves him since… since he used to read books to him.
"It's okay dad, I stopped caring about it after detention. Things are fine now."
"I'll take your word for that. If you ever need to talk, I'm here."
This is getting surreal.
Since things are so strange, he finds himself volunteering, "I quit physics club and math club. I quit them a few weeks ago. I've been going over to my girlfriend's house instead."
"That's fine with me son. Clubs are for fun. If they're not fun, don't go."
"I really like my Latin club."
"That's good. And you have a girlfriend now? I thought there must be a girl behind your new clothes."
"Yeah. My friend Claire helped me go shopping."
"That's your girlfriend's name, Claire?"
"No, her name is Beatrice. I met Claire in detention." He nervously talks on. "That's why she was in detention, shopping. She cut class to go to the mall."
"There are more heinous crimes. What's happening with this new detention?"
"Priscilla Rogers is out to get us, Dad. She made it look like we painted some graffiti, but I swear to you, we didn't. And Principal Gaffney, he has no proof, he's just giving us detention because Vernon hates Bender."
"Whoa, who are Priscilla and Bender and Vernon?"
Brian describes all the events leading up to the new detention. He skips over exactly how Bender pissed off Priscilla, but otherwise tells the story straight up.
"You must serve your detention tomorrow; there's nothing I can do before then. But I'll speak to Gaffney on Monday."
In a completely different tone, his father goes on, "Your mother really does care and wants what's best for you. We both do. Less pressure from now on, I promise. Good night."
And that is the end of the strange, unexpected conversation.
"Beatrice, what are you doing here?" Brian asks when the breakfast club is assembled in the library for detention.
"I'm pulling an Allison. What's Vernon going to do? Give me detention?"
"She's an honorary member," says Allison.
Both girls are sitting at the back table Allison occupied last time. He resolves himself to the idea that Allison and Beatrice cannot be stopped when they join forces. He takes a seat between them. Bender and Andy seem to be waiting for Claire. She finally comes rushing in, late, and before Andy or Bender can say anything, Vernon enters.
"Well, well, look what we have here. The breakfast club is back." Vernon rocks back on his heels and looks smugly at them. "It is now seven oh four. You have eight hours and fifty six minutes to think about what you've done. There will be no talking, no moving, and no missing screws. Bender, that means you." He glares at Bender, who belches unconcernedly.
"I hear a peep out of any of you, that's instant suspension. You are all," he looks around, "in a world of trouble already. It would give me pleasure to suspend any one of you. Don't mess with the bull, you'll get the horns." He makes his stupid hand gesture and strides out.
Claire is sitting between Andy and Bender and they are whispering, evidently getting a report from Claire.
Allison is already drawing, but Brian can't make out what it is. Something angular.
"What happened with your parents?" Beatrice asks, whispering also.
Brian, not up to whispering the entire story, gets out his notebook and writes
Parents had a fight.
They know I quit physics and math club.
They know about you and the other guys.
My dad believes me not doing graffiti.
He's going to talk to Gaffney on Mon.
She reads this and writes back
Big fight?
Are you okay?
Brian responds
Huge fight, she called my dad's job a dead end
He got pissed, then I said why I had the flare gun
I'm okay, they're going to get off my case so much
He pauses, then continues
No physics and math clubs anymore,
No big deal about detention
Dad doesn't care about F in shop class
It's better now
Dad's cool
Beatrice makes a smiley face.
Brian smiles at her, feeling the huge relief all over again of knowing his mother is off his case. She scoots her chair right next to his and leans her head on his shoulder. He puts his arm round her and feels an incredible lightness. He doesn't have to hide her anymore; he doesn't have to lie about going to her house anymore. There's a lot he doesn't have to do anymore.
With Beatrice warm against his side, he finds himself getting sleepy.
"Wake up!"
Brian is startled out of sleep. He gets his bearings then surreptitiously wipes away a bit of spittle.
"Johnson, get your hands off her."
He whips his arm from around Beatrice. She murmurs a complaint. He nudges her with his knee and she wakes. Everyone else seems to be waking too.
After their group visits to the bathroom, the six of them gather around one table for lunch.
"Brian's dad is going to talk to Gaffney on Monday," Beatrice announces. "Claire and Andy, your fathers should too. He punished you guys with no evidence at all." They all know it's pointless to try to interest Allison's parents, and positively dangerous to attract the attention of Mr. Bender.
"Claire was telling us about Jennifer," Andy says. "Claire, explain to them what she said."
Claire lays down the knife with which she was serving pâté. "She said she would keep her ears open for us. She heard Stubby and Priscilla laughing about the graffiti in the morning, but there was nothing she could do after the fact."
"Do you think she would tell Gaffney what she overheard them saying?" Brian asks.
"If she could do it secretly, without any students knowing, she said yes she would."
"We need to make that happen. Claire, could your father ask Gaffney to call her to the principal's office?" Andy asks.
"I think so."
Brian is relieved. Hearing that Mr. Standish and Mr. Clark will be joining forces with his father on Monday cheers him up. Mr. Standish is an important lawyer and Andy is a star athlete, so they will pull more weight than his own father, and with the three combined, it would be strange if they didn't get all mention of this detention erased from their records.
After lunch, Andy joins Brian, Allison and Beatrice at their table. Beatrice introduces a game called Exquisite Corpse, wherein a piece of paper is passed around, each person inventing a line of poetry and then folding it so the next person cannot see what was written before. They come up with some pretty silly combinations. This is followed by hangman, and then Pictionary. Another nap and detention is over.
On Sunday, to test the new conditions prevailing in the Johnson household, Brian asks over breakfast if he may visit Beatrice that afternoon.
His father asks, "Have you finished your homework?"
"I just need to complete my essay on electricity. It's almost done."
"Finish that up and you may go."
Brian involuntarily looks in his mother's direction. She looks like she's swallowing something very large and dry, but nods.
"Thanks, Mom, Dad."
When he arrives, Beatrice is still laboring on her own science essay about animal testing (she's passionately against it), so Brian leans against her legs and teases her cat with a bit of string while she works. Without the weight of constant study and arid social isolation, Brian finds the lightness that started yesterday is continuing. Maybe feeling light is normal? Whatever it is, it's a relief.
Mr. Standish called Brian's father Sunday night and they made an appointment to see Gaffney on Monday morning, along with Mr. Clark.
On his way to homeroom he witnesses Priscilla's jeering greeting to Claire.
"How was detention, Standish? Your boyfriend expelled yet?"
Claire ignores her, a bored look on her face. Priscilla's friends all laugh, but Priscilla looks angry at getting no reaction from Claire. Brian fights the urge to say something. Silence and boredom hurt Priscilla far more than any response he might make.
Claire is late to lunch because she stopped to call her father, but brings the good news that the detention has been eradicated from their records. Even if Claire hadn't brought the news, they would have known because Vernon makes a special visit to their lunch table.
"You got off this time, but next time I'm going to nail you all. One toe out of line and I'll be there."