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I woke up early that morning thinking of the nightmare I had and then remembered it had actually happened. I was angry and depressed while I blankly trudged into the kitchen. I looked into the pantry for something to eat because I seriously was not in the pop-tart mood, I did not find anything that I was in the mood for.
Then, I looked into the refrigerator with blandness, I completely found nothing, and started to get frustrated. I opened the freezer hoping to find some waffles or even microwavable sausages. All I could find was strawberry ice cream.
I decided to settle for that. So, I got up on the counter to look in the cabinet and found a bowl, then jumped down. I struggled to scoop my ice cream with my little plastic spoon. I did not want to get the ice cream scoop out because I would be dirtying more dishes than necessary. Also, I knew that I would be the one to do the dishes.
I sat down with my ice cream and started to depressingly eat it. I ate the ice cream very slowly, most of it was melted by the time I was done. It sort of felt like one of those scenes after a breakup, eating my heart away.
“What are you eating?” Jackie asked as she walked into the kitchen with huge black bags under her eyes.
“Ice cream,” I hardly got out of my mouth. I sat there looking as sad as I possibly could.
“Oh, well chop, chop, pumpkin! I have to take you to school so, meet me in the car in about ten minutes.” Jackie wasn’t even dressed yet so why was she yelling at me?
I looked at the clock and was shocked by how late it already was. I am usually out the door by now. Anyway, I got up and trudged back to my room, the same way that I came out of it this morning; depressed.
I got dressed, taking my precious princess time, and grabbed my backpack which did not have anything done in it, homework-wise. I noticed that it was time for me to leave and I did not even bother to brush my teeth, but Jackie’s honking motivated me to go out to the car with a roll of my pretty green eyes.
Jackie sighed as I entered the car, “Lilian, I love you baby and I know that you don’t want to go to school but you have to and I’m going to be late because of you. So, get in the car.” Jackie never had a temper with me. Her temper kind of scared me.
“I know and I’m sorry,” I said wearily. Well, actually I was freaking out. I am new to tempers, just recently. That shows you how spoiled I am.
Jackie sighed again and began to drive. Silence filled the car and I looked out the window as I dreaded going to the horrifying building that caught my sight when Jackie pulled into the parking lot. Jackie parked the car and shut it off, she looked at me and I looked back at her, “Lilian, I know that you didn’t do what you’re in trouble for but please don’t let it ruin your day. Make the best of it, also put a smile on that beautiful face.”
I shyly smiled at her and walked into the jail-like building, Jackie followed and signed me into the suspension. The lady handed my aunt a clipboard and Jackie signed my name. Then began to exit.
“Bye Auntie!” I said trying to add flavor to my voice.
“Wait she is your aunt, she cannot check you in,” the lady in the office said.
Jackie rolled her eyes and left the room; she was sick and tired of the school’s dumb rules. I was too, they are punishing me, Lilian Collison, who has not even killed a fly! Well, except for when I was five and Jason gave me a fly swatter and told me to kill the annoying bug. I did kill it and I cried and cried because it had died, he was my best friend at the time, I guess. His name was Jerry, I begged and begged Jackie and Jason to take me to jail and arrest me because I killed my best friend.
“Fine then,” the lady replied, in her old, muggy, ratty, voice. “Oh, you’re probably wondering where to go. Well open that door and head down those stairs.” Stairs? I did not even know there was a basement in our school I made that up when I said that earlier.
The door screeched open, and I walked down the creepy stairs that creaked each step. I was even kind of expecting a jump scare like one from a horror movie as I walked to the old, dry, terrifying, suspension room. In the huge suspension room, there were some eighth graders, one seventh grader, and me—the innocent girl who would forever have to hold her sentence in peace. A few minutes later, a familiar face came in— Hayden. He sat right next to me.
I looked at him with a confused face.
“Hello Lilian,” Hayden said.
“Hi,” I replied staring at him trying not to think anything of it but then I had to ask, “Wait why you in here?”
“To keep you company,” he smiled at me, I playfully rolled my eyes. That didn’t surprise me.
“Interesting, and what did you do to get the invitation to come in here? Did you lie or something like that? Or are you innocent?” I put my hand dramatically to my forehead like I was going to faint.
“Nope I did not lie, but I may or may not have punched our wonderful principal because he was being dumb. So, how long are you going to be in here?”
“The rest of the week,” then I gave him one of those guilty smiles.
“Me too,” he sighed, “It’s the first week of school and we—the best kids in our class—end up in trouble.”
“The best kids? More like the delinquents that finally got caught.”
“You’re not a delinquent you’re a goody-goody. You would never hurt a fly,” he got a sly smirk on his face. “Remember Jerry?”
I slapped him on the shoulder, “Your mean, you deserve so well to be in here.” I joked. “Wait, weren’t you going to run for the student council?”
“Well, voting is in a couple of weeks. I want to be but isn’t there that rule if you get in big trouble, you cannot be on it. Student council is something you would enjoy, only the goody two shoes are on it and you plan stuff. Well, goody two shoes and Natalie.”
“Nobody likes me, I wouldn’t get voted in. But, not to change the subject or anything, what do you mean big trouble?”
“Where are we?” Hayden asked sarcastically.
“We are in suspension— that is in a room in our school that I didn’t even know existed. I mean when I opened that closet door my mind was blown!”
“I walked down those stairs too, hey since I’m not going to be in student council do you think Natalie will be president?”
“Probably,” I paused terrifyingly pondering the thought of Natalie being president, “wow we are going to die!”
“Stupid Natalie, first she gets you in here and now she is slowly going to ruin our lives.”
“Yeah, I agree! Can you help me, this problem is hard,” I rolled my eyes and showed my math book to Hayden? I am really good at multi-tasking.
Then Hayden secretively popped his phone out of his pocket and asked, “Hey Siri, what is the square root of 1,628,473,097?”
“Hayden we are going to get caught!” I guess I am a goody-two-shoes.
“No, we aren’t you see that thing on the teacher’s ear?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Well, that is a hearing aid, and it is not glowing, so it is turned off.”
“Well, no, duh I’m not stupid!” I said with my little giggle.
“Hey, you lovebirds, principal coming,” one of the punky eighth graders was sitting behind us fiddling with his pencil, pretending to do his work.
I looked up and saw Mr. Sweetie plod through the desks to whisper into the teacher’s ear, she had to quickly turn on her hearing aid first though. I know I should not have laughed but I did.
Hayden put his phone away immediately when he saw Mr. Sweetie, and Hayden and I pretended to work on our worksheets. For the rest of the morning, we worked with a passion to get our assignments done. We hardly talked because Mr. Sweetie stayed in the ancient detention cellar intensively staring at all of us with all of his two eyes. We finished all of our schoolwork and were looking for extra things to do. We both ended up starting on our assignments for Thursday—the next day.
My stomach began to growl like a roaring lion when I shot my eyes to the clock in the corner of the room and noticed that it was almost one o’clock. I was starting to worry that we were not allowed to eat as part of the punishment. I glanced at the teacher and saw her mouth open. I could hear the teacher’s faint snoring. Then, I leaned over to whisper in Hayden’s ear, “Are we ever going to eat anything?”
“I’m not sure but I so darn hope so, I didn’t have breakfast,” Hayden replied to me in a whisper.
“Hey, she is sleeping, and her hearing aid is turned off, do you just want to talk in our normal voices?”
“Honestly yes,” he said breaking his whisper, “Lilian?”
“Yes?”
“Well, you know how we were talking about Natalie and how I shouldn’t be dating her?”
“Yeah, oh Hayden,” I cooed, “You listened to me and you got out of that ugly relationship. You know the only cute one in that relationship was you.”
“I’m not done with my story,” he took a deep breath before he continued, “what I was beginning to say was, I was thinking long and hard about you last night. I mean I have always loved you more than everybody else and I thought it was just because we have known each other for such a long time. But what if it is something more?”
“You are so good at talking, and I love you.” I do not know if I meant it in a friendly way or the dating way.
“So, want to date me?” He smiled so happily.
“Yes, but we are friends, why now and not some other time like a long time from now?”
“Because I’ve always liked you, but I didn’t think you liked me because I bug you twenty-four seven.”
“Get your work done you two!” the sleeping teacher abruptly woke up and started yelling at Hayden and me even though she still had her hearing-aids turned off.
Hayden gave me the look as ‘did she really just yell at us?’ I just gave him a cute, little smirk. Then I took out a notebook from my backpack to write notes back and forth with Hayden.
Then the teacher began to speak, “Guys, it’s almost two o’clock I think we should go upstairs and get food, what do you think about that?” I think we were all too annoyed to answer her with hype.
The teacher got her keys and walked slowly as she led the children up the steep stairs. We both grabbed trays then headed back to the office where we sat next to each other and ate.
“So,” Hayden began to speak, “what is your answer?”
“My answer to what?” I asked abruptly, then I realized that he was talking about— the question he asked earlier. “Oh, I thought I answered that. My answer was yes.”
“I’m not single,” Hayden lifted his eyebrows in a flirtatious way.
“I’m not single either,” I tried to do the same thing Hayden did with his eyebrows, but I just could not manage to do it. “Will you dump my tray?” I asked Hayden and he got sassy with me.
“Dump your own tray.” He sounded irritated.
“Last time I checked the boyfriend dumped the tray.” I gave one of those ‘sorry not sorry’ smiles and Hayden rolled his eyes. He grabbed my tray and dumped it.
He sat down again next to me, “So, your still my best friend—” I cut him off he probably was trying to be serious, but I had different priorities, as his best friend.
“Ok, whatever. So, where did you get your phone?” I asked.
“Umm... a dumpster.”
“Really?!” I giggled.
“No, I got it for my birthday. You’re so gullible.”
“Then why haven’t I seen it?” Lilian asked, “Your birthday is in June and it is September, so it has been a while, plus we had the same party.”
“If I tell people, they will want to hold it or touch it and I’m not comfortable with that. So, I just did not tell anybody. Not even my mom.”
“Why would you not tell your mom?”
“I don’t know. Dad told me not to. It’s probably because they didn’t agree on getting me one.”
“Oh really, that is surprising. You would think Summer would agree to something like that.”
“Well, I mean, she probably does know that I already have it. The only contacts that I have on this are Conner and Dad.”
“I only talk to Samantha and Allie in my free time so there is no need to have a phone.”
“Aren’t they rude to you?”
“No, they are awesome Natalie is the rude one.”
“Lilian, do we have to get signed out of here or can we just leave when the bell rings?”
“I don’t know, why you are asking me?”
“Because the bell is going to ring in three minutes.”
“Ok, bye, then,” I got up from my chair and finished packing up my bag. Then when the bell rang, I shot out of the room like a bullet. But when I got to the top of the stairs the door was locked, so I went back to the basement and saw Hayden.
“I’m guessing somebody has to sign us out?”
“I don’t know but the door upstairs is locked,” I said.
“Hey kids,” the teacher started, “when we get upstairs you can go home except for you sixth graders. You guys have to get signed out because that is the school rule.”
“That’s retarded,” Hayden said to me, “we should be allowed to just go home.”
“Yeah, I know. Now we have to wait for our people to get off work.”
When we walked up the stairs, Summer was standing in the office with her scrubs on and braided hair. Her sunglasses were on the top of her head and she had really red lipstick, I wished I looked like her she is so pretty. I mean we both have black hair; it must be a thing I get from my dad though because my mom is blonde.
When she saw us, she spoke, “Jackie and I are taking turns on picking you two up.”
“Ok, so that means I’m going with you?” I asked.
“I am supposed to take you home, yes.”
“Yeah,” I retorted, as I followed Summer to her car. I sat in the back of the car, and when the car began to move Summer asked me a question.
“Are you excited about the baby?”
“I am probably the most excited.”
“Well, that is good. When the twins were born, Hayden tried to get rid of them.”
Hayden rolled his eyes, “Only because they are annoying. They still cry all the time.”
I laughed as the car stopped moving at my house and I exited the car saying, “bye guys. See you later.”
While I was waiting for Jackie to get home, I watched Netflix and when I got bored of that I read my book. I read all the way until Jason came home. Then I bugged Jason by complaining that I was hungry.
All of a sudden Jackie walked in through the front door and the smell of taco pizza filled the room. I had a huge grin on my face as Jackie sat the pizza box down. I grabbed three plates and put them next to the pizza, then, put two slices of pizza on my plate then sat down.
“So, how was your day today, Lilian?”
“Absolutely horrible, don’t make me go back. The only thing that got me through the day was Hayden.”
“I knew that you would survive,” Jackie smiled at me.
“Oh, shut up! I could have died; did you know that the other kids who were in there with us did not have to have their parents sign them in? I don’t even have parents!”
“Lilian, you are barely ever angry. It wasn’t that bad, just go take your shower and go to bed.”
I opened my mouth to speak then I just rolled my eyes as I got up from the table to take my shower. I did not wait for the water to warm up, instead, I got in the shower and the cold water hit me like needles as I stood there frozen. Then the water got warmer, and I washed my hair and my body quickly. Then, I got out of the shower as soon as possible because the water never warmed up all the way. I do not know if it was because I was fast, or the water heater was broken again. Something is always broken.
Then I put my pajamas on and laid down in my bed. I fought back the tears but could not.
A couple of hours or so later, I woke up sweating from a nightmare and turned over and looked at the clock it was only four in the morning, and I decided to stay up until the time I usually woke up. I stayed up that morning reading the novel that I had been reading for a while.
Soon, I stopped reading because it started to rain, I looked at my clock with tired eyes and it was time to put the book away. It was around five and I did not want to be rushing again before school like I did the day before.
I started getting ready for school, even though I really did not want to go. This must be how it feels to be an adult and not want to do stuff.
Then, I walked into the kitchen opened the left-over pizza box, and got out three breadsticks, one for me, one for Jackie, and one for Jason. I was feeling generous.
Jason walked in and sat down, he ate the breadstick and was incredibly quiet. Jackie walked in and opened the freezer, she pulled out the strawberry ice cream and got out a spoon. She started eating the ice cream right out of the container. That is nasty if you ask me, but I’ll forgive her because she is pregnant.
“Why are you eating ice cream,” I asked smiling because I ate ice cream yesterday.
“It is one thing you will understand when you are older, I mean pregnant.” Jackie answered, “hopefully you won’t be pregnant for a while.”
“Which if you do get pregnant soon, we will probably cut the dude’s ding-dong off,” Jason added.
“Ok,” I said in a frightened voice. Then I laughed.
“Lilian, we are being serious. Don’t get pregnant!” Jackie said.
I did not know the full story about where babies come from, I had an idea but wasn’t sure, so I asked, “Where do babies come from?”
“How do you not know?”
“Nobody ever told me.”
“Lilian, when two people love each other very much they decide to hug a lot and kiss a lot.” Jackie started and Jason cut in.
“That is what they call, ‘fun’ in the adult world. Sometimes when they are lucky, they might get blessed and have a child.”
“We are one of the blessed,” Jackie finished smiling at her stomach.