I don't own the Breakfast Club

Enjoy!

It wasn't until after third period where Claire's group called her over. Claire had just gotten out of Math class and heard Jennifer's voice calling her over. Claire stopped in her tracks when she heard Jennifer's voice, but finally mustered up a smile and headed over to the group.

"Come on girl," Jennifer smirked at the redhead as she approached them, "we've been waiting all day to heat about your detention."

Claire looked from one girl to the other. "What's there to know about?" she asked them, "it was just sitting at the library for eight hours with nothing to do. Vernon made is write an essay."

"'Us?'" Jodie echoed and popped her bubblegum, "you mean you weren't the only one in detention?"

Katie leaned against a set of lockers and looked at Claire. "Tony heard it from Angelo that Andrew was in detention with you."

Claire fought the urge to roll her eyes. If Tony heard it from Angelo, then the whole school was going to hear it from him. It wasn't going to be too long until her friends found out what happened in there. "It was good to have someone there to spend the day with." When Claire said that she noticed Katie giving her a hard look. Of course, Katie had to be suspicious about everything that involved Andrew. Claire ignored that look and looked to the group of people that passed them.

It was just like Claire had expected. Other groups steered clear from them. Other got out of the way when they passed the hallways. Claire's eyes suddenly fell onto Brian as he got outside a classroom. Her eyes slightly widened at his presence and she motioned to move forward, but quickly caught herself before doing so.

Jodie let out a puff of breath at the sight of Brian as she loudly chewed her gum. "I gotta find some way to ask that wimp to do my physics homework again."

Katie rolled her eyes over to Jodie. "Your grades are slipping again?" she asked her. "Isn't this the fifth time you've asked him to do it? Why hasn't he?"

Jodie shrugged her shoulders and took out a tube of lip gloss from her bag. "He's got his head far up his clubs," Jodie scoffed as she dabbed the lip gloss on her lips. "But I'm sure he won't resist this." With a smirk upon her lips, she approached Brian.

Claire visibly flinched at Jodie's attempts at flirting with Brian. It seemed so pathetic to her at what Jodie was trying to do. She watched as Jodie leaned against the set of lockers and batted her eyes lashes at Brian.

Brian was too engaged at getting his books out of his locker that he jumped when he saw Jodie the moment he closed the locker's door.

"Did I scare you?" Jodie asked as she beheld a coquette smile upon her lips. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to," she placed a hand over head and slid it down where she twirled a strand of her hair around her finger.

Brian looked at her up and down. Dressed to perfection, makeup on point…yes, she was one of those popular preps and one that he had worked with before. Get lost nerd was what she had said to him after he had completed her homework. "It's…fine," Brian said good-naturedly. As he was about leave, he felt Jodie grabbing him by arm.

"Wait," Jodie said as Brian staggered to a halt, "I wanted to ask you something. I have some physics homework that I can't seem to solve. Would you please help me with it? You're the one with the highest grade in whole class and it would mean so much to me," she asked as she looked him through her eyelashes.

Before, Brian had been flattered that a girl like her would ask him for help…only to get that response from her. What if he was to get it again? It would be embarrassing! "Sorry Jodie, I don't think so."

However, Jodie was not finished with him. "But Brian," she said as she grabbed him by the arm again and turned him around, "what's the matter? You don't want to help me as I'm struggling in the class. I thought that's what you knights in shining armors do," she pouted playfully.

"I…I think you'd be fine on your own, J-Jodie," Brian told her. He could feel himself getting nervous and he flinched once more when she didn't let go of his arm. "I gotta get to class."

"Not until you help me out," Jodie told him, her patience starting to wear thin. She reached into her backpack and pulled out the homework that she had been 'struggling' on. "I need this by fifth period."

Brian looked at the blank sheet of paper where she hadn't attempted at solving any of the problems. "You haven't written anything on it," he told her.

"That's because you will," Jodie told him with a satisfied smile on her lips.

"Dream on Princess," a voice came from behind her as Jodie whipped around and came face to face with none other than John Bender.

Brian looked up from the paper and he was just as shocked to see John leaning nonchalantly on the lockers.

Jodie blinked at the sight of John. She had made sure to keep herself as distant from him as possible, unlike Jennifer who always wanted to get into a fight with him. She took a step back from him but found the courage to say, "this isn't any of your business Bender."

John pushed himself away from the locker and fully faced her. "When I see wannabes like you swarming around unwanted territory, I make it my business." He could feel how intimidated she was by his presence, which was a plus for him. "The man said he needed to get to class. Take your homework and buzz off."

Jodie didn't need to be told twice. She grabbed her homework from Brian and scurried away from them.

John watched as she joined her circle of friend, that was until his eyes fell upon Claire who was looking at him. He then turned his attention to Brian who was flushed with relief. "I don't know what to say, Bender," he told him, "but thank you."

"Don't mention it homeboy," John gave him a nod of his head, "wouldn't want anyone coming between you and Suzie Q."

As John walked away Brian, he stood there wondering who this Suzi Q was. The song by Creedence? he thought. After a moment's realization, Brian gently facepalmed and blushed profusely when he realized whom John had been referring to.

Claire watched the interaction happening between the trio. When she caught sight of John, she was shocked to see him standing up for Brian, when he didn't have any reason to do so. She saw Jodie fuming as she stomped towards the group.

"That freaking Bender!" she seethed and crumpled her physics homework in her hand, "he had to come and ruin everything."

Claire tried to keep her smile hidden upon Jodie's complaints. It seemed like John had knocked her down a peg or two and had her running away with her tail between her legs.

"Something funny Claire?" Jennifer asked her with an eyebrow raised.

Claire didn't think she had been smiling that much when Jennifer got her attention. Her breath caught in her throat when she noticed the look that Jennifer was giving her. "No," she finally managed to say and shook her head at her. "Anyway, I need to go to class." She took a deep breath and walked away from the group. Thankfully, she had a free class period but instead of going to going to study hall, she took a turn and headed outside of the building for some fresh air.

When she finally got outside, Claire felt that she was able to breathe. What was happening? She never felt this form of discomfort towards her friends before? She leaned against the wall and tried to breathe in through her nose a couple of times.

Slowly…in…and out she meditated. She found herself to be a professional at this after the number of times that her parents fought with one another. The amount of distress that it used to cause her, she had found a way to cope. If it was effective or not, she didn't know but at least it helped her control her breathing.

"You lost?" a familiar voice came to her ears as Claire turned her head to the source of the voice and saw John at the other end of the wall with a cigarette in his hand.

Claire turned and fully faced him. "I just needed some fresh air," she clarified, "it was getting too much in there."

John took a drag of his cigarette and let out a plume of smoke in the air surrounding them. "And you need fresh air for that?"

There was that attitude that would make Claire roll her eyes at him. Instead, she decided to comment on what she saw. "That was very nice of you saving Brian from Jodie. She can be a bit…too much."

"Don't get used to it," John said and flicked the cigarette to the ground before stomping on it. "Someone needed to save Brian before he got stung." He then looked at her up and down before his eyes fell on her face. "Funny. I'm surprised that you'd bother talking to me after what you said."

Even he was going to hold it against her. Claire gave him a slight shrug of her shoulder and didn't remove her eyes from him. "I can change my mind," she told him and with those words, she believed that she had left him speechless.

"And you'd be ready to tear yourself away from those losers?" he asked when he referred to her group of friends.

Claire didn't know how to feel about that yet. After what Allison had told her, it stood at the back of her mind. Better to get away from them as soon as possible one side of her mind side; but then the other side persisted and said, give them a chance. A week and see how it goes. Or you can forget about this whole thing and do what you heart tells you she argued.

John noticed that she was in a daze. "Yo," he snapped his fingers in front of her face, "princess." When she snapped back into reality, he smirked. "I thought I lost you there for a second. What's on your mind?"

"What would you do?" Claire asked him, "if you wanted to get away from a group of friends who are too judgmental of you?"

"None of my friends are like that," John said, "they don't give a damn about what goes on around here or who rules the school."

"But what if they were?" Claire asked.

If John thought about it, there was one guy in particular who was too quick to judge but after a wounded nose, he seemed to have learned his lesson. He smirked when he recalled that event that caused him to wind up like that. "Just punch 'em, and tell 'em to shut up and mind their own business. That's we handle that."

Direct to the point Claire thought and she gave John a nod of her head. Unlike the groups she knew. Then she thought of what John had said to her on Saturday of how she wouldn't condescend to talk to any of his friends. After what John had told her, she believed she had created a wrong picture of his group of friends. "So you don't think they'd say anything if they saw us walking down the halls together?" she asked him.

This time, John looked at her directly. "What are you implying Princess?" he asked her.

"Don't call me that," Claire said but she could see how unfazed John was at her command, "I don't want to ruin what we tried to have on Saturday."

John could care less about his friends said to him if they saw him with the Prom Queen. In fact, they'd cheer him on that he had been able to land a girl of high status from the school, but John wouldn't care for that either. However, John couldn't shake off the feeling that Claire would only use him to get back at her family and friends. What if she used him and then dumped in the moment she realized that her little perfect life wasn't so perfect anymore? John leaned towards Claire, his eyes darkening. "What we had on Saturday was nothing more than a moment," he told her. Let the truth come out. "You're going to use me for a while and then throw me away when you find out your status is not as great as it once was."

That's not true Claire wanted to argue. But she couldn't because she knew he was right. Through her high school years, she had made her status become part of her identity that she couldn't just pull away from.

John pulled away from her, his eyes never leaving hers. "When you decide to leave, then we'll see how committed you are."

Claire watched as he turned on his heel and left her there. Claire hadn't expected for their conversation to be this…cold. However, she still kept her hopes because from that conversation, she still saw that he kept her diamond earring.