Sudden Superhero

19. I Have Something Important To Do, But I'm Thinking of Memes

ON FRIDAY DURING LUNCH, I stood in front of a mirror in the boy's bathroom. This morning, I had asked Mom if she could use some of her makeup to cover up the bruise on my neck, and although it had worked throughout the morning, the makeup was starting to rub off. I rubbed my fingers on the bruise; it was small, on the lower end of my neck, and mostly covered up by the collar of my shirt, but I still didn't want people asking any questions, so I pulled up the collar a little higher.

"I'm just surprised you're not banned from the dance," Ben said, washing his hands next to me.

"Me too," I replied. I had detention today, as expected, but I hadn't been banned from the dance. I guessed it was because I'd helped set it up, and because, before now, I had never skipped school or done anything wrong.

Ben set his backpack down on the ground, and I heard the sound of metal jostling around. Then he abruptly took out a spray paint can and aimed it at the mirror.

I grabbed it from him, and when he tried to take it from me, I backed up a step and held it close to me. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Getting detention," he said simply, and he grabbed another can from his backpack.

I took that can, too, and his backpack. "Why?"

"Because I don't want you to be alone, and besides, it's not like I have anything better to do after school."

He made another grab for the cans, and I twisted away from him. "You have Boston to deal with!" I exclaimed. "You can't get detention now!"

Ben paused, his arms in mid-air, and he let them drop. "The Academic Convention will happen again next year."

I shoved the cans into his backpack and zipped it up. "Thank you for the sentiment," I said, holding it out to him, "but I don't want you to get in trouble right now."

He stared at me for a few seconds, but I made it clear that I meant what I said, so he sighed and put his backpack back on. Just as we were about to leave, a toilet flushed, and Kevin came out of a stall and turned on a faucet.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear any of that," he said, glancing at Ben's backpack.

I laughed. He must have been in there for at least five minutes, waiting for us to leave so that he wouldn't look like he was eavesdropping. "No problem Kevin," I said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Now, would you happen to have any cookies?"

☆

I had only one word to describe detention: boring. Mind-numbing boring. Even worse than math in the morning, and that was saying a lot.

I wasn't allowed to do anything: no homework, no reading, no doodling. I just put my head down on the desk and turned to the side, one half of my face against the cold desk. I figured that I would alternate the sides of my faces so I could have a different view every once in a while. (That's how bored I was.)

Besides me, there were only two other people in detention. There was Robert Milligan, who was known for damaging school property and for talking back to teachers, and then there was Daisy Meadows. I know what you're thinking: what can a girl named Daisy Meadows possibly do to land herself in detention? Well, names can be deceiving: Daisy was one of the meanest people I'd ever met. While Dana had a personal hatred for me and left most other people alone, Daisy was a bully to everyone, and that made her less likeable than Dana.

Right now, Robert was dozing off, and Daisy was staring at the whiteboard so angrily that I expected her eyeballs to shoot lasers. She noticed me watching her, and I quickly turned my head to the other side.