shampoo and he’d never ridden a motorcycle in his life. Zoe sat behind him in history. His hands were always impeccably clean.
Then came Cece.
How many other kids were coming to torture her today? If she knew, she would have skipped Saturday detention altogether this week. She glanced at the office where Mr. Curtis had his back to them. Why hadn’t Mr. Curtis prepared her for this? It would have been nice to receive a warning.
Cece straightened the hem of her fuzzy light blue sweater—which most likely cost more than Zoe’s entire wardrobe—while simultaneously typing on her phone with her free hand. Even for a Saturday, not a hair was out of place in her short pin-straight bob.
Teddy James stumbled into the room, balancing three textbooks in his hands. His backpack was bursting at the seams. Zoe had a feeling Teddy would roll into the auditorium in a wheelchair for his valedictorian speech if he kept up with lugging around his ridiculously heavy backpack. His brunette hair stuck out at all angles as if he’d rolled out of bed and into the library.
She squirmed a little in her seat as their eyes met for a brief moment. She was the first to turn away.
And the last was Holly Pickard. She’d arrived at PHHS several months ago. She didn’t waste any time getting to know everyone in Zoe’s class, mostly the boys. Zoe guessed it was the long blonde hair and big blue eyes that pulled the guys in. At least that was the starting point. Holly didn’t seem to have any trouble finding a place to sit in the cafeteria. She made more of an impact with Zoe’s classmates than Zoe did throughout all the years in school.
These were five kids Zoe never saw in the same room together unless it was a school assembly. And even then, they were in completely separate groups. Other than Q, none of them seemed the type to get into enough trouble to earn a detention. So why were they all there?
The others gave Zoe a once over as she did them, but no one greeted her. At least that part of their relationship hadn’t changed.
Less than a minute later, Mr. Curtis came into the room and glanced at Zoe. She wouldn’t get the privacy she wanted this Saturday. And that sucked, but it was better than revealing the real reason for being there.
Instead, she focused on the decorated box resting in her teacher’s hands.
What’s he doing with that? Zoe wondered.
‘Take your seats around the table,’ Mr. Curtis said, plopping the box in the middle of one of the long six-foot tables usually reserved for group projects.
Zoe got up from her seat at one of the smaller tables and shouldered her bag, sticking to the back of the group. She waited until everyone else took their seat before choosing the last empty one between Teddy and Holly.
Holly twirled a chunk of her blonde hair around her finger while staring at Mr. Curtis. The neon-pink fingernail polish was striking against the golden strands.
Teddy offered Zoe a small smile. It was the most interaction they had had in about a year. Zoe passed it off as just a circumstance of their current predicament.
Q turned his chair around before sitting.
‘Please sit the correct way, Quentin,’ Mr. Curtis said.
‘It’s Q,’ Q said, not moving from his seat. Q gave every teacher a hard time which he thought was hilarious but most of the time was disruptive and made class go by so much slower than necessary.
‘My apologies,’ Mr. Curtis said, smiling. ‘As you are well aware we’re all here for four hours. As one of the newer teachers in school, Principal Killian selected me to run Saturday detentions for this semester.’ He looked at each of the kids as he gave his introduction. Everyone except Zoe, who’d heard it before.
‘Our same principal requested that I put you all to work this weekend since there are more of you than usual,’ Mr. Curtis continued. ‘If you recall, we held the underage-drinking chain event this week.’
He ceremoniously lifted the box and hundreds of white strips of paper piled on the desk in front of them. He leaned toward the next table, grabbing six staplers and two full boxes of staples and placed those in front of them too.
All last week, during lunch, students were encouraged by the student council to pledge not to drink. Three years ago, two of the more popular seniors died in a drunk driving car accident. Sure, Zoe felt sorry for their families, but she didn’t drink. And every day she was bombarded by the peppy Student Council members to sign a promise to continue with the same lifestyle she already chose. The Student Council wanted to beat the length of the chain from the previous year which meant they were extra aggressive with promises.
‘Your task for today is to create the chain from the promises,’ Mr. Curtis said. ‘It will be strung up in the cafeteria on Monday, so you all need to finish this by the end of the day.’
‘You can’t be serious,’ Jackie said.
‘Who did you expect to do this, Ms. King?’ Mr. Curtis asked. ‘Weren’t you on the committee?’
‘Yeah, but the freshmen were supposed to do the stapling.’
‘Well, now you can take part in the rest of the project,’ he said. ‘Unless that’s a problem?’
Jackie huffed loudly but said nothing else.
‘Listen, guys,’ he said, squatting next to the table, dropping down to their level as if they were members of his team. ‘Principal Killian needs this done today. On any other Saturday I’d let it slide, but if you help me out here, I’ll help you out.’
‘Can we get out earlier if we finish quickly?’ Teddy asked.
Mr. Curtis considered that. ‘Maybe.’ He stood up and clapped his hands together. ‘So, if there are no other questions, you can get started,’ he added with a smirk.
Zoe squirmed in her seat as Mr. Curtis rested his eyes on Jackie as if waiting for her to talk back.
‘What if I have to go to the bathroom?’ Cece asked, dropping her giant purse next to her chair.
‘Why? Do you have your period?’ Q asked.
Jackie pulled a face.
‘Ew!’ Cece whined.
And Holly groaned.
Zoe cringed on the inside. Q knew how to cross a line.
Q sat back, grinning at the rest of them.
‘You’re each allowed one five-minute bathroom break,’ Mr. Curtis said, ignoring Q’s crude comment. ‘Let’s not make this harder than it needs to be, okay?’
Cece let out an exasperated groan.
‘And one more thing,’ Mr. Curtis said, placing the now-empty box in front of them. ‘Cell phones. Put them in the box.’
‘No friggin’ way,’ Jackie said.
‘What if there’s an emergency?’ Teddy asked.
‘Your parents are aware you’re here. They can call the
