~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Detention was in the library. Someone must
have thought that people in detention would naturally be quieter in a library.
But that’s where we were stuck, in the library with dumb old books that nobody
every really checked out.
There were like four other kids in detention.
And guess who one of them was- Verge. We just nodded our heads at each other.
He must have thought that I was there to get a book out of the library or
something. But then when I checked in with the teacher who was there to baby
sit us for the next hour, I kind of glanced around at the other guys, and I saw
that Verge was a little surprised.
I sat down by myself. Fact is, the baby
sitter told me to find a seat at one of the study tables, but not next to
anyone else. We were allowed to pick books off a shelf if we wanted to, but
there was no talking allowed, and only one person at a time could get a book. I
didn’t really want to read a book, so I just sat there for the whole hour doing
not much of anything.
Actually, I remember doing one thing. I would
stare at the clock on the wall and see how long I could hold my breath. The
first couple of times I would do it for just a minute. But then the tricky part
was letting the air out without making this big stupid noise and get everybody
looking at me. Then I’d rest and do some quiet heavy breathing for a little
bit, and then I’d do it all over again. I’d try to hold my breath just a little
longer each time. Dude, I got up to a minute and a half! I’m not even joking. A
minute and a half. Stink.
Finally detention was over and the baby
sitter said we could all go. Fact is, he let us out ten minutes early. I don’t
think he was being cool to us at all. He was just as sick of being stuck in the
library as we were. He just wanted to get back to his stupid life and go home
and watch TV or go to a bar or some other stupid thing like that. I didn’t
care. I just got off ten minutes early.
On my way out the door Verge was right behind
me. He knew I was a preacher’s kid and all. He had known me ever since he moved
from Florida for stink’s sake. He just had to know what the preacher’s kid had
done to land in detention.
“Hey, Randy. Why were you here today?”
I didn’t really want to get into it, but I
told him anyway.
“I call the math teacher ‘Einstein’.”
“Why?”
“Because he is a total idiot.” Then I kind of
gave him a run down of what had happened. I even told him how I was already
kind of mad about how Wiggle Butt had made me late.
Verge lived in the general direction of my
house so we kept waking together off the school campus together.
“Dude. I totally know who threw the gum at
him.” Verge was all excited about this. “It was a friend of mine, Jack. Jack
Fricker. You know him, right?”
I knew Jack. He was a goofy guy that kind of
knew to school. I think he had been expelled from his old school, and our
school took him in. And he was in my math class.
“I totally dared him to throw his gum at
Johnson!” Verge said while he started to laugh. “It was so classic! You couldn’t
have done a better shot if you were Michael Jordon. We were around the corner,
and Jack stepped into the hall and just hucked at Johnson. Then, splat! Right
on the back of the head.”
“Well, he thought I was the one that did it,”
I said.
Then Verge tells me how they had jumped out
of sight and peeked around the corner and saw him talking to me. Then he says
how he thought that I was the one that got blamed for it and that was why I was
in detention.
He thought it was totally hilarious. Fact is, I kind
of thought it was pretty funny too. I mean, who goes around throwing gum at the
vice principles that dress up in stupid bow ties? It was pretty funny.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
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