I don't own the Breakfast Club

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Study hall was supposed to be a relaxing hour for Claire. She had opened her books and laid them in front of her. She stared at her unfinished algebra homework. Just by looking at those numbers and letters, gave her a headache. Whoever thought of putting numbers and letters in an equation was not thinking straight, but it worked out somehow. However these equations were solved, an answer came to an end. Claire couldn't help but connect that analogy to the new group. They were multiple variables, but in the end some seemed to make it work. Only she was the outlier.

Claire tapped her pencil against her notebook as she stared at the equation. She could try and attempt some of the equations. Keeping her eyes on the paper, she rewrote the equations in her notebook and began to solve the ones that were the easiest. Her algebra teacher was very tough in grading, especially when it came to homework. No work, no credit.

She suddenly looked up at the clock and saw that it was moving quickly than she expected. At least she had a couple more equations to finish. Just the hard ones Claire thought. She was confident that the answers that she solved for the other problems were correct, but she would rather get full credit than nothing.

Come on focus Claire scolded herself for having her mind wander to other topics other than math. How was she able to relate this topics to these equations? It just didn't make any sense anymore. She twirled her pencil in her hand, agitated that she couldn't use her mind on these equations. How do all those honor and AP students do it? Why was it so easy for some and difficult for others? Just then, her pencil flew out of her hand and landed to a table that was next to her. Claire looked up to see the table and was shocked to see the other person sitting there, looking confused at where that random pencil flew from.

The two of them hadn't talked much when she joined the group at lunch after she had broken it off with her old group. Claire slowly got up from her table and approached the table where Brian was sitting in. "Sorry," Claire apologized as she took her pencil back.

"You normally throw pencils at study hall?" Brian asked her.

Claire noticed that subtle smirk hiding upon his lips. "No," she shook her head, "just a bit of a nervous tick I guess. I had these equations that I needed to solve and left the hard ones last. I still don't understand how I'm supposed to solve them."

Brian looked down at the table. All of the work that he had to do, he was done with it. He looked over at Claire's table and saw all those books and notebooks splayed out. "You're really going at it, huh?" Brian asked her.

Claire felt as if a weight was lifted off her shoulders. Even though they sat together at lunch, Claire had felt that disconnect between them. "Yeah," Claire answered, "I got stuck with a tough algebra teacher. Anyway, I better get to it. I'd rather do well in this class."

Brian watched as she turned on her heel and walked back to her table. The moment she took her seat, she kept her head down at her math books. It was interesting how these things worked out. She used to be surrounded by people, but now she looked like a lonely flower that no one was interesting in, no matter how beautiful it looked. Ever since Saturday detention, Brian had made a promise to himself that he wasn't going to do other people's homework out of goodwill. Ever since his encounter with Jodie, he was about to fall into the same better, until John stepped in.

Giving into his kindness, Brian grabbed the strap of his backpack and gathered his books in his arms. He approached Claire's table and she immediately looked up when Brian's shadow took over the table. "If you want, I can help you with the ones that you're having trouble with."

Claire looked up at Brian upon his proposition. Her eyes changed from surprise to being grateful. "After everything I said to you, you're willing to help me?" she asked him.

Brian shrugged his shoulders. He had not appreciated Claire's comment about not being friends with any of them. When he saw her sitting at lunch, even though she was surrounded by people, there was that lost look in her face as if she was contemplating if she had done the right or the wrong thing. "I can't abandon a friend in need," Brian answered as he sat next to her. "Which ones are you having trouble with?"

A small smile made its way over to Claire's lips. Without hesitation, she placed her algebra book between them. "It's these ones," she pointed to the unfinished problems with a perfectly manicured finger. "I tried to solve them but I keep getting a coefficient with a variable. It's supposed to cancel out right?" Claire asked him.

Brian had looked at the other problems that she had solved. He had to admit, he was surprised to see that Claire had solved those and had gotten the correct answer. In this school, beauty and brains didn't mix but Claire challenged that stereotype. "You have a good strategy here," Brian said, "when you solve the easy ones, you can use the same method as you did for the hard ones."

"You think so?" Claire asked, "I thought that there was a whole other way to solve them."

"Give it a try," Brian suggested. "I'll let you know when you're not in the right steps."

Claire tapped the eraser end of her pencil on the table. She looked back at the previously solved equations. If she was able to do those, then she could do these as well. "Okay," she agreed and began to write down the steps that she had previously done. She waited for Brian to make a comment, but so far he said nothing. At least she was on the right track…she hoped.

"Okay, stop," Brian suddenly said when Claire was in the middle of the third math question. "I can see where you went wrong. Look at the division over there. Does that look right to you?"

Claire looked at the spot where Brian had pointed. "Awh," she said and gently shook her head at her mistake. "It was my division…go figure," she chuckled and erased her mistake before trying again.

"You know that we offer tutoring services for math, right?" Brian asked her.

Claire smiled at his offer. "I'm not bad at math. I have a decent grade in the class. There's too many symbols in some equations that I get lost." She then turned her eyes towards Brian, "sometimes we need a second pair to see where we went wrong."

Brian appreciated her kind words, making him subtly blush.

Claire finished scribbling on her paper the last set of problems and then tucked it inside her math textbook. "Finally that's over," Claire said as she looked up at the clock and noticed that she had three minutes to spare before the class. "Thanks for your help Brian," she thanked him, "I don't know where this leaves us but…I appreciate the help."

If Brian held every single comment that people made at him, he would have lost his mind a second time. "You're not as conceited as you look," Brian said.

"Which I'm not," Claire emphasized.

"A lot of girls would have given it to me to do it for them or be too proud of themselves and not ask for help and then blame others for not helping them," Brian pointed out to her.

When it came to coursework, Claire tried to keep her grades up to par. Even though she considered her social group to be important at that time, deep down she knew the importance of her grades. With her studies, she never confided in her friends how good or bad she was doing, fearing that she would be labeled as a 'dork.' However, Claire took her studies seriously. Getting into a good college and away from her was one of her goals, where she hoped that she could study abroad to France.

"Then I'm not like other girls," Claire answered Brian. She glanced at the clock and then back at Brian. "Do you feel like…this whole thing with us is weird. I mean us bunched together in this group."

It would be an adjustment period for some of them, but to Brian he had considered them as his friends during their detention together. "I don't know," Brian answered her, "but I think we've gotten off on the right start." Except for you and John he wanted to say but he kept that comment to himself. "Just give it some time Claire, it will get better."

Claire glanced at the ground and then looked up at Brian. "You really think so?" she asked him, "what have your friends said to you?"

"Other than being shocked about me being in Saturday detention?" Brian chuckled, "basically nothing. They don't really care about who's dating who. They're mostly worried about doing well in their classes and getting to a good college. It has turned into a whole competition between us."

"Really?" Claire asked him.

"Yeah," Brian nodded his head to her, "and sometimes it can be brutal. A guy in one of my AP classes got accused of cheating on his exam."

"And was he?" Claire asked.

"No!" Brian answered and shook his head, "one of his friends accused him because he didn't want him to get a high grade."

Being accused of cheating at this school was like a death sentence. It was immediate expulsion and afterwards, you were left to fend on your own. Brian didn't know what happened to that student, but he knew that he never saw him again. After that incident, Brian had done his best to keep his grades and accomplishments for himself. Not everyone wanted the best for anybody.

As for Claire, she thought that jealousy mostly ran in a group of girls. They were the ones that tried to outdo each other, from the experiences that she had. It was shocking to discover that this emotion ran into more groups than she originally assumed. "I hope that doesn't happen to us," Claire said to Brian.

"I think we opened ourselves too much at detention to have any jealousy," Brian told her.

Claire wished that was true. You got everything, and I got nothing! John's accusatory words came into her mind. His expression on that was evident of being jealous of her well-being. "We can only hope so," Claire said as she gathered her books in her arms and gave Brian a nod of her head. "See you around Brian."

Brian bid his goodbyes to Claire. A wound that was finally patched between them and he hoped the start of a good friendship.