I walked towards school for my first Saturday detention of the term. I had my bag over my shoulder and my coat was buttoned up. I saw the others getting out the cars and walked inside. We were directed towards the library to which I rolled my eyes. The library was in front of the teacher's office so the only chance I'll have of being free, is if the door was closed. I sat down on the front right, claiming the table for myself. The rest placed themselves in seats, letting out immediate deep sighs. Mr Vernon came in with crossed arms.

"Well, well. Here we are. I want to congratulate you for being on time." He sighed and uncrossed his arms, looking around at us all.

A girl put her hand up with a puzzled look on her face. "Excuse me, sir. I think there's been a mistake. I know it's detention, but I don't think I belong in here."

He looked at her with disappointment and checked his watch. "It is now 7:06. You have exactly eight hours and 54 minutes to think about why you're here, to ponder the error of your ways." A guy with a red scarf spat in the air and caught it in his mouth, causing me to look at him in disgust and shake my head. He looked at me with a fake smile and I rolled my eyes.

"You may not talk. You will not move from these seats. And you..." Mr Vernon walked over to the boy, moving the chair he was resting his legs on. "...will not sleep. We're going to try something a little different today." He started handing out paper and pencils. "We are going to write an essay of no less than 1,000 words describing to me who you think you are."

"Is this a test?" The boy with the red scarf asked, giving him a dirty look and placing his feet onto the table.

"When I say essay, I mean essay. I do not mean a single word repeated 1,000 times. Is that clear Mr. Bender?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Crystal." He replied. So that must be his last name. Bender.

"Good. Maybe you'll learn a little something about yourself. Maybe you'll even decide whether or not you care to return." A grin appeared on his face and I raised my hand.

"We actually have Saturday detentions until the end of the term, sir. You can thank Bender for that one." I scoffed. Bender had pressured the head teacher about banning Saturday detentions but instead, whenever you get a Saturday detention, it'll last to the end of term. Mr Vernon squinted his eyes at me and looked away.

"My office is right across that hall. Any monkey business is ill-advised. Any questions?" He looked around at us again but no one raised their hand. I leant back on my chair and sighed. He nodded and was about to leave when Bender spoke up.

"Yeah. I got a question. Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?" A serious expression was on his face and a small laugh escaped my mouth.

"I'll give you the answer to that question, Mr. Bender, next Saturday. Don't mess with the bull, young man. You'll get the horns." He turned around and left.

"That man is a brownie hound." Bender pointed, expecting us all to react. The silence became deafening. There was a clicking from behind and we all turned around. The girl at the back was biting at her nail, made eye contact with us, and then continued. "You keep eatin' your hand, you won't be hungry for lunch." He nodded slowly. The girl spat her nail out at him in reply. "I've seen you before, you know." A smile appeared on his face and he slouched down into his chair. I turned back around and shrugged.

"Who I think I am.." The boy behind me whispered. He kept repeating the question. "I am a walrus." He laughed to himself. I rolled my paper into a ball and flicked it off my desk, leaning forwards to see Mr Vernon still sat in his office. I sat back and groaned. Bender started singing a tune and dancing whilst sat down.

"I can't believe this is happening." The other girl complained.

"Oh, shit!" Bender whispered loudly. I turned around, waiting for an explanation. "What are we supposed to do if we have to take a piss? If you got to go, you got to go." He unzipped his pants and I immediately turned around.

"You disgust me on so many levels." I told him, leaning on my hand.

"You're not urinating in here, man." Andrew groaned.

"Don't talk, it makes it crawl back up." Bender grinned.

"Whip it out and you're dead before the first drop hits the floor."

"Yeah because a fight is exactly what we need." I rolled my eyes. Bender looked at Andy then at me.

"You're both pretty sexy when you get angry." He winked, letting out a low growl. We both turned away to the front, disgusted. "Hey, home boy, why don't you go close that door? We'll get the prom queen impregnated." He continued. She slammed the table and turned around.

"Hey. Hey!" Andy shouted, staring at him in anger.

"What?" He shouted back at him,

"If I lose my temper, you're totaled, man." Andrew never took his eyes off him.

"Totally?"

"Totally."

"Why don't you just shut up? Nobody here is interested." The girl scoffed, squinting her eyes.

"Really. Butt face." Andy nodded and turned around, playing with his pencil.

"Hey, Sporto, what did you do to get in here? Forget to wash your jock?" Bender grinned once again.

"Excuse me, fellas. We should just write our papers." The kid behind me spoke.

"Just because you're living doesn't give you the right to be a pain in the ass. So knock it off!!" Andy shouted at Bender, ignoring the kid behind me.

"It's a free country." Bender nodded and sighed. I looked down and a smile appeared on my face. I had to admit, he had some pretty good responses.

"He's just doing it to get a rise out of you. Just ignore him." She gave Bender a slight death stare before staring at Andy and reassuring him.

"Sweets?" He grinned, causing her to turn around with an annoyed expression. "You couldn't ignore me if you tried." She squinted her eyes and faced the front, trying her hardest not to prove his point. "So... So...! Are you guys like boyfriend-girlfriend?" He made fake 'gooey' eyes as he waited for their response. "Steady dates? Lovers? Come on, Sporto. Level with me." It seemed like he was getting annoyed with the silence and wanted to rile someone up. "Do you slip her the hot-beef injection?" He kept a straight face. Andy and the girl both spun around, immediately yelling at him.

"Hey! What's going on in there?" Mr Vernon shouted from his office. I turned around to face the others and sighed.

"He's interested in your status because he's never had a relationship of his own." I smiled whilst the other two nodded. It seemed like I had managed to annoy Bender. He hid it well and dropped his jaw, jokingly.

"Scumbag." Andy whispered as we all turned back around. I saw Bender get up in the corner of my eye and sit on the railing by the girl.

"What do you say we close that door? We can't have a party with Vernon checking on us every few seconds." He sighed as I looked over to him. I'll give it to him: why be in detention and not have any fun? A small smile appeared on my face.

"The door's supposed to stay open." The kid behind me spoke. By the few sentences he's said, I can tell he's a teachers pet.

"So what?" Bender grinned.

"So why don't you just shut up? There's five other people in here, you know." Andy replied, unamused. His voice was raised slightly and I didn't understand what his problem was.

"You can count! I knew you had to be smart to be a wrestler." He nodded slowly, pretending to be proud of him.

"Who are you to judge anybody anyway? You know, Bender, you don't even count. If you disappear forever, it wouldn't make any difference. You may as well not even exist at this school." His face had a serious expression and my eyebrows furrowed.

"That was too far." I told him. Bender shook his head.

"No, no. It's fine, Shields. I'll just run right out and join the wrestling team." He shrugged. The girl and Andy chuckled to themselves. "Maybe the prep club too. Student council."

"No. They wouldn't take you." He glared at him and I sat upright, intrigued in this new conversation.

"I'm hurtin'." Bender's face was blank, not phased by Andy's words.

"You know why guys like you knock everything?" The girl spoke up. I expected some type of speech that would amuse us all.

"Oh, this should be stunning." Bender made eye contact with me as we both broke into a smirk, holding in our chuckle.

"Because you're afraid." She continued. Her voice was monotone and serious but there's no way she wasn't joking.

"You richies are so smart. That's exactly why I'm not heavy into activities." He spoke sarcastically.

"You're a big coward..." Her tone of voice stayed the same as I placed my head in my hands, trying to contain my laughter.

"I'm in a math club." The kid behind me said. I turned around to see him grinning slightly and shook my head at him.

"You're afraid you don't belong, so you have to dump all over it." She cleared her throat. The laugh escaped my mouther and she turned around to face me. "The same goes with you." My jaw dropped as I shook my head, acting hurt.

"It wouldn't have anything to do with you activities people being assholes... now, would it?" He shrugged. He had a point. Not once have I interacted with an activity person and had a good conversation with them.

"You wouldn't know. You don't know any of us." Her head shook. Andy nodded beside her.

"I don't know any lepers either. But I'm not gonna run out and join one of their fucking clubs." He made a disgusted face to the two.

"Watch the mouth, huh?" Andrew scolded him, crossing his arms.

"I'm in physics club, too." The kid mumbled once again.

"Excuse me a sec." He looked over at the boy behind me. "What are you babbling about?"

"What I said was, I'm in math club, latin club, and physics club." He counted with his fingers and nodded.

"Hey... Cherry. Do you belong to the physics club?" Bender asked the girl.

"That's an academic club." She scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"So?" He shrugged, not understanding her point.

"So academic clubs aren't the same as other kinda of clubs." She explained. He nodded slowly and sat upright, pointing to the boy.

"Ah, but to dorks like him, they are. What do you guys do in your club?" He asked him.

"In physics, well, we talk about physics. Properties of physics." The kid took a minute to think before responding. I yawned and shook my head.

"So it's sort of social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Bender grinned at his response, obviously proud of himself.

"Well, I guess you could consider it a social situation. Um, I mean, there are other children in my club. And, uh, at the end of the year we have a big banquet at the Hilton." His face seemed to light up when talking about his clubs.

"You load up. You party." Bender nodded, liking the sound of this but his appreciation was quickly shut down.

"No. We get dressed up, but we don't get high." The kid behind me shook his head.

"Only burners like you two get high." The girl looked at Bender and me. I rolled my eyes and pretended to throw my pencil at her.

"I didn't have any shoes so I had to borrow my dad's. I only did because my mom doesn't like me to wear other people's shoes. Then, uh, my cousin Kendall, from Indiana, got high once. And, you know, he started eating really weird foods. Then he felt like he didn't belong anywhere. You know, kind of like Twilight zone, kind of." He rambled. I looked at him with a confused face but he just looked away. For someone so quiet, he talks a lot.

"Why are you still speaking?" I asked, placing my hand on his paper and moving it closer to him. He cleared his throat and grabbed his pencil.

"You keep up your talking and Vernon's gonna come right in here. I got a meet next Sunday. I'm not gonna miss it on account of you boneheads trying to extend the detentions." Andy scowled and turned back around, focusing on his paper.

"Wouldn't that be a bite? Missing a whole wrestling meet?" Bender growled, jokingly, clenching his fists.

"You wouldn't know anything about it, Bender. You never competed in your whole life." I got a glance at his face. He had the same serious expression as the girl. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself.

"You're right... I feel all empty inside because of it. I have such a deep admiration for guys who roll around on the floor with other guys." Bender wiped away a fake tear.

"You'd never miss it. You don't have any goals." He scoffed, rolling his eyes and leaning back on his chair.

"Oh, but I do. I want to be just like you. I figure all I need is a lobotomy and some tights." He grinned and clenched his fist, thrusting it into the air.

"You wear tights?" I laughed. Andy turned to look at me and shook his head.

"No, I don't wear tights. I wear the required uniform." He scoffed and crossed his arms.

"Yeah... tights. Get a skirt on top of that." I smiled as his eyes stared holes through me.

"Shut up." He sighed loudly and faced away from me. The girl at the back started scribbling on her paper and ai turned around, annoying by the constant noise. Some bangs were made from Mr Vernon's office and I sat upright, pushing my paper to one side. Bender ran and sat between Andy and the girl, placing his hands on the table and clearing his throat. Vernon walked away from his office and down the corridor. I got up from my seat and walked towards the door.

"It's like you read my mind." I heard Bender say. I turned around and smiled, before unscrewing the door hinge.