watch to fix Taggish with a glare. “And one. Find a seat.”
Taggish, who’d skidded into the room, breathless and flushed from sprinting, slipped into the first open seat. I wanted to watch him to see if he would look my way, but Mr. Gentry started talking again, this time about his expectations and the rules of detention. I couldn’t miss that.
Mr. Gentry was a cool guy for a vice-principal, but I still didn’t want to get on his bad side, especially not after earning my first detention ever.
“There will be no talking. No phones. No devices of any kind. No passes to the bathroom—I hope you took care of that already, or you’re out of luck. There will also be no early dismissal. Each of you owes me sixty minutes of your time, which you may use to contemplate your poor decisions and how to do better moving forward. You may also work on homework. Those are your choices, friends. Choose wisely.” With that, Mr. Gentry sat back down behind the desk and opened the top file from the stack he’d brought with him.
How humiliating!
How did people stand it? I knew from looking around the room, most of the people in here had been here before. Why? Why would anyone want to repeat this process? I knew I would never, ever have another detention.
I lifted my eyes to glare at the person responsible for my current situation.
He held his brown gaze steady on me.
I would never forgive him for this.
Never.
4
Taggish
Mara was out the door before I could even stand up. I packed up my stuff, prepared to race after her, but got held up by Miller.
“Dude, what are you doing in here?” I could tell by the tone of his voice; it wasn’t a surprise that made him ask, just curiosity.
I forced my mouth into a carefree grin. “PDA. Same as you.”
Miller put his arm around Kate. The two were joined at the hip these days. “How did you hear about that?” he asked as the three of us walked out into the hall.
I lifted my bag onto my shoulder. I had resolved myself to talking to Mara after running laps for Coach Samms. He hadn’t been at all pleased when I told him I had detention after school. In fact, he was the reason I’d almost been late.
“I was there when it happened. What were you thinking? You should have stopped outside Ms. Drake’s room. She’s more romantic.” Ms. Drake taught Language Arts.
Miller snorted, and Kate grinned. “Anyone would be more romantic than Mr. Klaton,” she said, glancing up at Miller before saying, “But it wasn’t like we planned it. We were celebrating.”
I raised my brows. “Celebrating?”
A look passed between them. After a small nod from Kate, Miller turned to me. “Celebrating two things. One, Kate agreed to go to prom with me. And two, we got accepted to the same school. We’ll be heading east together next fall.”
“Wow,” I said, not knowing how else to react. These two definitely had their acts together more than I did. I didn’t have a single plan for next fall, let alone one that included school and a girl. “Congratulations. To both of you.”
“Thanks,” Kate said for both of them.
We’d reached the double doors leading to the student lot. I still had to run laps on the baseball field. “I’ll see you guys later.” I waved and had started down the hall when Miller called out.
“You didn’t tell us. You got in trouble for PDA, but who was your partner in crime?”
I opened my mouth to answer but changed my mind. I’d done enough to make Mara’s life miserable. I wouldn’t throw her under the bus again.
Grinning at Miller, I shook my head and walked backward. “I won’t kiss and tell.” If he found out, it wouldn’t be from me. “Have a good one!” I called over my shoulder.
I ran my laps. It sucked, and by the time I got home, I was ready to collapse. Instead, I took a shower before heading back downstairs to warm up leftovers for dinner. I stood at the kitchen counter in front of an open window and scarfed down a small mountain of spaghetti.
I’d demolished half of my food when Dad walked in to find me standing perfectly still and listening at the window.
“What are we looking at?” he asked, pulling a plate down from the cabinet.
“She’s crying.”
Dad stilled, holding his plate midair. “Who’s crying?”
“Mara.” She’d been breaking my heart for the last ten minutes.
“Neighbor