I don't own the Breakfast Club

Enjoy!

After her last class of the day, Claire stood by her lockers and collected the textbooks that she needed for her homework over the weekend. Just thinking about the weekend was enough to fill her with dread. Before, she would keep herself busy with her social circle where they would go shopping, stop at the café, and go over to Jennifer's house to lounge about before going home for the night. Now, her schedule was empty. She thought about Andrew's proposition to join them at the diner on Saturday. It would probably be just the three of them, but it was better than spending the weekend alone.

She shut the locker door and jumped in place when she saw Jennifer, Jodie, and Katie grouped around her. "Well, well, well," Jennifer said as she looked at Claire up and down. "How the mighty have fallen."

Claire sighed. "What do you want Jennifer?" she asked her. Claire was hoping to have avoided her for the remainder of the week…and the remainder of her time at Shermer High.

Jennifer looked at Jodie and Katie, as if they had discussed something with each other. "It's a shame that you decided to abandon us at this time before prom. However, I've been feeling a little generous. I discussed with the girls and we thought it was best to give you a second chance to join our group."

Katie cleared her throat when Jennifer said that.

"And apologize to Katie for your attitude towards her," Jennifer added. "We've been friends since freshman year, Claire. Seeing you sitting at the table with the rest of those losers seemed pathetic. You don't want to be a loser do you?"

Claire felt her jaw clench. A part of her wanted to rejoin the group so badly. What would she give to spend the weekends at the mall, gossip with her friends about their classmates; and this time, Claire had a lot of things to gossip about. However, another part of her thought about how quick they were to drop her just because she scolded Katie, and how quick they would drop her again. Would they treat her the same way before she had decided to leave or would Claire be treated as a servant, satisfying Jennifer's needs until she climbed up the social group ladder? Claire shivered at the thought. Jennifer was a difficult girl to please and she had belittled every single girl in the group until they met her needs. Claire was glad she didn't suffer that fate but she had received some hurtful comments before.

"Claire," Jennifer grabbed Claire's attention, "I'm talking to you. What do you say? We want to go back to the good old days."

They weren't good old days. The number of girls that they had offended and that many of them had cried and the school didn't do anything about it, Claire was surprised that they were able to get away with it. "Forget it Jennifer," Claire shook her head at her, "I don't want to be a part of it anymore." She walked around the group and headed down the hallway.

Jennifer's jaw dropped as she saw Claire walking away from them. No one left the group like this and got away with it. After they shunned Christina from the group, the girl never showed her face in the school ever again; and she wasn't going to let go of Claire so easily. "Yeah Claire!" Jennifer shouted after her, "run away from your problems. Go cry to mommy and daddy! Oh wait, they're getting a divorce!"

Claire halted, clutching tightly onto the books against her chest. Looking up at her classmates, she saw was some of them stared at her while others whispered amongst themselves. Claire knew that they were talking about her. She had the urge to march over at Jennifer and slap her across the face. The thought of doing that and the sound echoing throughout the hallway would be satisfying…and she would be the one getting a detention for it.

So they had been talking behind her back, just like Allison had assumed. Claire felt like she had been a fool for not believing Allison. Just keep your head up and walk away Claire thought as she tried to push away Jennifer's taunts, but even that was difficult to do.

Claire gasped when she held a hand on her shoulder and she turned to see Allison standing beside her. "Let's get out of here," Allison gently said to Claire and let her away from the others.

"Oh look," Jennifer cooed, "Claire has got herself a savior. The Psycho herself."

Allison rolled her eyes and shook her head at those words. Did these girls have any other new insults that they could say to her or were they too thick to think of anything? Same old, same old Allison thought as she and Claire made their way to an empty hallway and away from prying eyes. Once they were in a secluded area, Allison looked at Claire. "You okay?" she asked her.

Claire could feel the hot tears falling down her face. She wished she could say that she was okay, but Allison would see through her lie. She thought that all of John's insults were enough to hurt her, this one truly hurt the most. The amount of humiliation that she felt exceeded the one from detention. "For everything that I ever said to you," Claire said to Allison, "I'm so sorry." She didn't know what else to do. If it wasn't for Allison, she would still be stuck in the hallway.

Allison stared back at Claire. The girl, once perfectly polished, looked disheveled from what she had gone through. The things that Claire and her friends had said about her prior to detention, Allison had not listened. Just like she was ignored by others, she ignored their words. "Forget about it," Allison simply said to her, "and forget them."

Claire took a deep breath and let it out in a shudder. "How do you even do it Allison?" she asked her, "how do you just ignore it?"

"Life experience I guess," Allison said to her, "you just get used to it after a while."

If only Claire could do that. She felt herself being treated as an object. An object between her parents' fights and an object to humiliate in school. Maybe ignoring those comments was a way of removing herself from being an object. If they were ignored, no one would pay attention to her, but the only the people that counted.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps came down the hallway and stopped in front of Allison and Claire. "What the hell is going on here?" John asked as both Claire and Allison looked over at him. He held onto the canvas that he painted with Susan in one hand. In his other arm, he carried his trench coat. "Am I interrupting something?" he asked.

Claire wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and tried to pull herself together. "Nothing is wrong," she said to John, even though her voice was enough to give away that she was still feeling uneasy after what had happened.

John didn't believe her. He could see the red smudges around her eyes, evident that she had been crying. With Allison being there, she was the one that offered comfort and John wasn't going to start doing that with her. "Buck up, Princess," John told her, "there's worse things in life than this crap happening around here."

"John," Allison said with a stern voice, "she doesn't have to go through this."

"That's life for you," John said as he looked from Allison and then at Claire, "you've had it easy this whole time. It's not fun when life slaps you in the face, is it?"

Claire took a deep breath. Frustration was bubbling over her. "I don't need to hear this," she said as she walked away from her with her heels clacking against the floor.

"You can't run away from it!" John yelled after her and before he could continue, he felt a hand on his arm.

Allison was right next to him and she looked at him with a cold stare. "Enough," she said to him. "Don't make it harder than it already is."

It wasn't John's mission to make it hard for Claire. He wanted her to see the reality of things. What did she expect when she walked away from her group of friends? That they were going to leave her alone without any consequences. "She needs to realize she ain't that special. It's gonna take a long time for anyone to gain her trust. After what she said on Saturday about not being friends with us, you really think you can trust her?"

Was he directly asking her this question? "I'm giving her a chance," Allison said. "We all are. Why can't you?" With those words, Allison clung onto the strap of her bag and walked away from John. She hoped that with that question, it would allow him to think about how much it affected Claire. Him speaking to Claire that way may have served as her karma but wasn't that enough on Saturday?

She doesn't know what she's talking about John thought and he proceeded to walk outside of the school. Once he got outside, he met up with Axel and Damien. "Where's the other stooge?" John inquired but before anyone could answer him, John looked over at the parking lot and saw Jennifer talking with Mitch. What the hell? John thought as he tried to see what they were talking about, but he was too far away.

He then saw as Mitch pulled away from Jennifer and then joined the group. "Hey," John said, "what did Cleopatra want?" John asked Mitch.

"Just my number," Mitch smirked as he held up a piece of paper with a number written on it. "Fellas, you're looking at my potential new girlfriend." He high fived with Axel and Damien and then held up his hand towards John.

"And you have lost your freaking mind," John commented. "What's the matter with you? Since when you like that chick?"

"I ain't getting any younger Bender," Mitch said as he sat on the stair rail and lit up a cigarette, "a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do." He then looked at Axel and Damien. "I can hook you up with the other two…unless John here is looking for one."

John scoffed, "not interested."

"Hey," Axel motioned to the canvas, "since when are you into artwork, John?"

"Since no one asked you," John glared at Axel. "Any of you got a problem with that?" The glare that he gave the group caused them to immediately shake their heads 'no.' "Good." He threw his trench coat over his shoulders and went on his way home. Hopefully, it was going to be one of those silent nights.