After School Confinement

[ZombiexCreame†]

((Fiona Sparki continued from We've Got Spirit, Yes We Do))

(Note: This is a private thread between TheLeakyFaucet and me. ))

Fiona Sparki emerged from the main office with a yellowed piece of paper clutched in her left hand. It was an admittance note that basically reminded her that she had detention after school today with Mr. Warkau. Just lovely. Why today of all days? Not only was she supposed to babysit today, but she also had cheerleading practice, and now detention?! "How forgetful can I get?" she muttered to herself, slinking down the hall. Luckily, detention would only last an hour so if everything went smoothly, she could probably make it back to cheerleading practice with a few extra minutes to spare. That would be okay, right?

Sighing to herself, Fiona walked down the hall and took a left down the math wing. Dozens of math related classes spanned out before her and a feeling of dread entered the pit of her stomach. This feeling told her to turn around and run far, far away. Whenever math was involved, Fiona felt as if she were being drowned; every little formula or equation matted together into one confusing ocean and proceeded to drown the girl until there was nothing left of her... It always happened and that was why she had a very meager D in her Algebra II class.

Her terrible grade partially fed into the real reason that Fiona had a detention on this particular day. Because Fiona never understood anything, she would stop paying attention. And once she stopped paying attention, she would start to text her friends. And once she started to text her friends, she became careless. And once she became careless... It was all over. Mr. Warkau would strike like a ravenous tiger and his prey was Fiona's cute little pink cell phone. Having had the last straw after catching Fiona with her phone out five times, he gave her an after school detention to make up for it.

"Damn. How unfair. This never happens to anyone else. Mr. Warkau just hates me 'cause I'm pretty. Hee-hee, just kidding.."

Turning into room 402, Fiona walked over to the skinny, balding man and handed him her yellowed note. He examined it with fleeting interest and then pointed to an empty desk in the center of the class. "One hour, Sparki. I'm expecting one more pupil to serve detention with you so absolutely no talking. Now, let's see... Since you were caught with your cell phone out five times, it should be sufficient that you write "I will not use my phone in class" fifty times."

Fiona let out a visible sigh as she eased down into her specified seat. Fifty? That was kid's stuff. She could do that easy!

"And another one-hundred and fifty because you haven't been paying attention in class. For that one, you will write, "I will pay attention in class. Understand? Have any questions?" He glared at the plump girl from behind his coke-bottle glasses.

"Er... no," Fiona muttered, pulling out a sheet of loose leaf paper and a mechanical pencil. This would be a very torturous hour...

[TheLeakyFaucet†]

((Chad Klitou continued from Camcorders and Hot Cocoa))

Detention.....

Chad Klitou walked down the math wing with his hands stuffed into the pouch of his baggy sweatshirt. The camera bag that was belted to his waist beat against his side as he walked. It would have been uncomfortable, but after carrying the thing around for roughly three years, Chad had gotten used to it to the point where he hardly even noticed. The hall was silent for the most part, and the sound of the camera bag beating against his legs almost seemed eerie.

He didn't want to go to detention. Up until he got called down to the office last period, the week had been going pretty well too. He'd gotten some decent shots for his new film at the ice rink on Saturday, he'd kept his grades up and he'd pooled enough money from his part-time job at the coffee shop to afford a quick run to McDonalds after school. Things had been going good; they never really went great for him, so going good was definitely saying something.

And then the intercom had come on right when he'd been at his locker. "Chad Klitou, please report to the main office immediately".

After nights of working on art pieces and bizarre films, Chad regularly fell asleep when the sun was rising. It was commonplace for him to fall asleep around first or second period and then just doze off until the bell rang. Maybe that was why the perpetually pissed off principal had yelled at him to, "get his head out of the clouds", and handed him a slip down to the math wing for a fun-filled hour of after school confinement. The principal had said that there weren't any other teachers available so he had to be bumped in with Mr.Warkau. Perfect. Just perfect...

He reached a doorway and looked into the classroom he'd been assigned to go to. Peering through the door's glass window, he took a quick gaze around and saw the man of the hour. Mr.Warkau, a teacher who nobody really seemed to like that much, was sitting at his desk. Minus him though, most of the desks were empty besides the single one in the center of the room. Chad took a look at the girl sitting there and recognized her from school. Her name was Fiona or something; she was on the cheerleading team but what really made her stand out around school were her neon-colored dreadlocks. Wonder what's she doing here. Oh well. Tommorow never knows, right?

Chad grimaced. High school was kind of like a big mixing bowl. A bunch of ingredients went in, all different but blending together into a single, working pot of society. That was there whole problem lay though. There were different groups. The cheerleaders. The punks. The nerds. The preps. There was really no ingredient that Chad fit under though – he wasn't welcome in the mixing pot and he knew it.

He was out with the jocks because he was uncoordinated, scrawny, and couldn't even play badminton in gym without tripping over his feet on the waxed floors. He was out with the nerds because his grades were mediocre when it came down to it and he didn't have a knack for anything like forensics or robotics. Oddly enough, he was even out with the druggies. They seemed to view getting high as a social kind of thing and seemed bewildered with the idea of somebody who preferred smoking alone.

He wasn't lonely though. No, not at all. He had his art, he had a few casual faces to eat lunch with, and best of all, he had his camcorder. It was specifically a Sony DCR-DVD650 DVD Handycam® Camcorder and he carried it everywhere; the same way a toddler would drag a teddy bear around with him. There was such a thing called spontaneity, and if something happened on the spur of the moment like that, it only seemed right to preserve it onto film.

Turn off your mind, man. Relax. Float downstream. Just write a few words and you're done...

Chad sighed and pushed his way through the door. He walked over to the desk and got the usual detention drill. No talking. Write a bunch of sentences. Think about what you did and don't do it again. Yadda yadda yadda. Nodding and only half-understanding what the guy had told him, Chad walked down the aisles of desk. He was in one of those honors classrooms; he could tell by the lack of colorful projects on the wall and cold, almost intellectual feeling of the room. Way to remind you how you hate math...

He plopped down in the desk across from Fiona. He looked at her for a second and then turned back to the lined paper he'd laid out on his desk. He tried to remember what Mr.Warkau had wanted him to write. It was something about falling asleep. 'I will not dose off in class', maybe. Was that it?

Pressing his pencil for the paper and beginning to write his name on the header in untidy scrawl, he looked over at Fiona again. His lips pursed together, preparing to say something, but then he looked back at his paper. His escapade at the food court with one Patrick Fischer had gone horribly and he wasn't sure how well he'd handle another conversation. Even a casual one where they shared the common concept of detention Especially with a girl for that matter. Unless...

He glanced back up at the teacher behind the desk. Three scenarios popped into his head. If Warkau left, Fiona and him would probably end up talking. Also if he left, there was the awkward idea that they would sit next to eachother in grim silence for an hour. And then there was the idea that Mr.Warkau might not leave at all. Decisions, decisions, decisions....

Chad pressed his pencil to his lips and tried to remember what he had to write.

[ZombiexCreame†]

Fiona had been copying sentences for a short while now. At least five minutes.. Her hand was already cramping and her handwriting was getting increasingly more erratic. She couldn't take this! She was going insane! Groaning inwardly, she leaned back in her chair and let her head rest over the side. "I've only wrote ten sentences and I'm already wiped.. What in the world did I do to deserve this?!" Straightening up a bit, Fiona wrote a few more sentences and then froze. There was something moving from the corner of her eye. Looking over her shoulder, she spotted a familiar boy peeking through the window on the door. Was he the other student that Mr. Warkau mentioned? With her pencil gripped loosely in her hand, Fiona watched the boy with interest as he entered the room and listened to Mr. Warkau's little lecture on detention etiquette.

As the boy sat down in the desk across from her, Fiona took a peek at the boy and smiled slightly from the corner of her mouth. She was almost trying to convey a mutual feeling of dread and aggravation. Vaguely, she wondered what this boy was in for. Perhaps he punched someone in the face? Probably not, he didn't seem like the type. Did he set fire to his desk in class or skip class to go drink booze behind the school? Maybe. This kid was kind of hard to read as far as appearances go and Fiona didn't know much about him. She didn't know his name, although she had seen him around school a few times. "I think he makes movies or something... Yeah, like artistic ones. And I think he's a druggie."

With an excited look on her face, Fiona turned towards the boy and opened her mouth to say something. She summoned some air into her lungs and then... Mr. Warkau cleared his throat loudly. Defeated, the girl turned back to her mostly-empty paper. Shot down by the big man...lovely. "Oh right. No talking... But how else will I survive? There's a person sitting right beside me and I can't even say hello? This is torture!" Sighing loudly in annoyance, Fiona scribbled down a few more sentences; irritation knitted her brows together tightly.

The second hand on the clock was slowly ticking away.

Slowly.

Slower.

The second hand wasn't moving at all.

Fiona stared up at the clock, her lips pinched together. The clock stopped working? Seriously? How else would she pass the time! The clock was her only form of entertainment! It seemed as if everything was working against her today... "Even if I get in trouble, I should at least try to communicate with the boy. There isn't anything better to do... If I get in trouble, I get in trouble. That's that. Nothing I can do about it.. So here it goes." Picking up her pencil, Fiona scribbled down the sentence, 'What are you in for? =)' She also added a small smiley face; the smiley face was absolutely positively essential. Before showing the paper to Chad, she glanced over at Mr. Warkau who was absorbed in a book. "Right-o. Here it goes." Fiona inched the paper to the edge of her desk and coughed loudly. To make her point clear, she began to poke her finger in the direction of the last sentence that she had written for Chad. "Heey," she whispered, her eyes locked onto the boy. There was a devilish grin on her face, almost as if she reveled in this minute act of rebellion.

[TheLeakyFaucet†]

Heey...

Chad turned to face the girl. He'd just started writing his sentences, but due to his short attention span and knack for being able to feel bored from pretty much anything, he'd stopped after three lines of, "I will not dose off in class", and just started doodling on his paper. Not really paying attention, he scribbled what looked like a deformed dinosaur munching on an airplane. Bored, bored, bored....

But then he heard her voice. A little confused for a second, Chad quickly understood when he saw her paper edging toward the corner of her desk. Near the corner of it by the pink-linked margin, she'd written a single sentence.

"What are you in for? :)"

Her intentions were good - well, at least he hoped they were. She'd scribbled down a little smiley face at least. She definitley wasn't one of the bad ones. Conversation had never really been his strong suit, and for once, things actually seemed to be working in his favor. Writing's a lot easier than talking, isn't it? It was kind of pathetic, but in the grand scheme of things, it was just how he lived and he didn't want to change it. There wasn't anything that infuriated Chad more than those mind-numbing reality shows where they gave teenagers makeovers so they could fit in. The glamorized teenagers would say at the end that they were now perpetually happy because they could finally, "be themselves". It was stupid, but sadly, it was how a lot of people thought. Chad didn't really like who he was, but he really didn't have any intention of changing it either.

Taking a stealthy glance up at Mr.Warkau, Chad quickly scribbled down a line on his own paper.

"Fell asleep in class to much. u?"[

He thought he'd made a few grammar errors and shortened a few words (English really wasn't his strong suit either) but he didn't care. He was just about to edge the paper over to the corner of his desk, but then, probably on the spur of the moment, he decided that it was commonplace to give an introduction. He pulled the paper back and quickly wrote in his untidy scrawl:

"I'm Chad Klitou".

Then he nudged the paper toward her.

[ZombiexCreame†]

"Score! He heard me!" Fiona thought to herself, stealing a peek in Mr. Warkau's direction. It would have been deadly if this boy hadn't heard Fiona. Or worse... What if he had heard Fiona and just decided to ignore her? That would have been utterly awkward and embarrassing. Thankfully, everything had gone good. Chad had heard Fiona, he was reading her message, and Mr. Warkau was none the wiser. Excellent.

Watching the boy out of the corner of her eye, she watched as he wrote a sentence, paused, and then wrote another short sentence. Fiona tapped her stubby fingernails on the desk in an impatient sort of way as she waited for the boy to place the paper in her line of view. In a way, Fiona was excited. Ignoring the fact that Fiona was always excited about some little thing or another, she really felt excited at this very moment. She was writing notes to another person! Secretly! It was such a rebellious thing to do, or so Fiona thought.

Fiona Sparki wasn't exactly a goody-goody, but she rarely got in trouble. It just wasn't her style. She could remember times of the past when she had gotten in trouble with parents or her teacher, but it was never anything major. Perhaps she had forgotten to walk the dog, or perhaps she had cheated on a very small quiz. But this? This was major stuff! Note writing! The whole school would be abuzz with this news. "I exaggerate too much. Maybe I should just read his paper and respond, instead of sitting here like an idiot."

Scanning the boy's paper, Fiona's eyes lit up with excitement. His name was Chad, he falls asleep in class, and he draws. She was examining his drawn dinosaur with much interest until she turned away and began to scribble down her response.

"Using my phone in class. Mr. Warkau just hates technology, I think. Name's Fiona Sparki."

Before she scooted the paper to the edge of her desk, she tapped her pencil onto the desk surface a few times in thought. She had never seen this Chad boy around before... Then again, she led a rather sheltered life around the school. Cheerleading was her only after school activity, and she wasn't in many clubs. Maybe they had been in some classes together years ago? She honestly couldn't remember, but that made this moment better. She would be able to make a new friend! And for Fiona, that was quite a feat.

"Are you a senior too?" she added.

Glancing over at Mr. Warkau, she scooted the paper towards him and watched Chad expectantly.

[TheLeakyFaucet†]

Chad scanned the words quickly and scribbled down the first words that came to mind:

"yep Im a senior. Hah, warkau's an asshole. Seen u round school. Ur in cheerleading, rite?"

He grimaced at his sentence; it was pretty much the equivalent of taking a piss on the English language. He'd never been good with grammar and it was hard to not let a few shortened words pop in here and there. Hopefully Fiona wouldn't think he was stupid – or better yet, he hoped Fiona wouldn't think he was weird. That would mean the world to him.

His head was starting to hurt – that meant he was having one of them again; a strain-ache. It made no sense in the long run, and it probably would have made people think he was crazy if word got out, but it was his own secret, magical world for the feelings of anxiety he got around other people. Your whole body tensed up, your face felt warm, you were expected to do everything right with not an awkward step in between, and in the back of your mind, there was that craving to go open the shoebox under his bed at home. Shut up. Weed's not even addictive – there's nothing wrong with it at all! Nobody's ever died from doing pot, Chad! Besides, you're just over-analyzing things again. It's just a conversation. Keep it going and don't get so pissy about it....

Feeling like the world clouded over for a second, Chad shook himself back to reality. He knew for a fact that she was a cheerleader but it seemed like good ground to keep their conversation going. Besides, instead of becoming another Patrick-Fischer-do-you-want-to-get-high-with-me incident, there was the chance he would end up not offending Fiona at all. Maybe he could even get her to like him some weird way or another. Maybe.

Chad slid the paper over toward Fiona. He looked up and saw Mr.Warkau still wasn't looking; for once, things were going his way.

[ZombiexCreame†]

Fiona carefully looked up at Mr. Warkau to make sure that he wasn't looking and then glanced over at the edge of Chad's paper. A smile tugged on her lips as she thought of an appropriate response. This was actually kinda fun! Although, as much as she hated to admit it, her sentences weren't going to write themselves... But who cared about that? Writing notes to strangers were fun! Nibbling on the tip of her pencil, she stared down at her paper and tried to think of something interesting to say. Something exciting and and unique. Fiona always strived to be unique in everything that she did, so why not try to express it through writing?

But she didn't want to be too unique... Fiona was never one to attract too much attention to herself. Sure, she was known as the cheerleader with the dreadlocks, but that was about it in terms of individuality. She was never really loud or in-your-face about anything. "I'm thinking too hard about this simple response. Just write what comes naturally. It's not like you're proving a point or anything..."

But Fiona couldn't help but fret. She didn't want Chad to judge her... He knew that she was a cheerleader, so he was probably supposing all sorts of things about her! He probably thought that she was just like all the other cheerleaders: gossiping airheads who couldn't tell the difference between the north pole and Alaska. "..Then again, neither can I," she thought to herself with a wry smile. Maybe she was just like all the other cheerleaders, and this depressed her a little. It wasn't that the other cheerleaders were bad people, Fiona usually got along well with them, but it was just... Fiona didn't really want to be lumped with them. She was different, and that was quite obvious. "I'm so conflicting. I want to be an individual but at the same time, I don't want to stick out too much... Maybe I should just forget this train of thought and write my response..." she thought to herself. Pressing her pencil down to the paper, she wrote:

"Yeah I don't like Warkau either. Wish he would get fired for something, but I guess wishes don't always come true. Yes I'm in cheerleading. I just came from practice actually. Didn't get much done today, though."

Fiona wondered if her response was too boring. Maybe she should have said something more exciting? But what would be appropriate without sounding too random? Not wanting to be too critical over what she wrote, she slid the paper towards Chad and glanced over at the chalkboard. It was at this time that Mr. Warkau placed his book onto his desk and stood up; there was a stack of papers in his arms.

"I'm going to make copies of these papers. I'll be back in three minutes, okay? If I hear even a peep from this room, you'll both be in detention for a week! Got it?" Mr. Warkau gave the two teenagers a sour look and then vacated the room. The sound of his footsteps could be heard for a few seconds until they faded into the backdrop of the other school-related noises.

[TheLeakyFaucet†]

(Sorry for the craptacular late reply. D: )

Warkau left. Chad listened to him mumbling something about hearing a peep from them. He wasn't really able to put it together into a coherent thought. Hardly able to focus on anything besides his films, Chad had always wondered if he suffered from a mild case of some kind of attention disorder. It seemed likely - and the drug use probably only added to it like a septic tank - but he was in no mood to consider things.

"Well", Chad laughed weakly. "Guess we can talk now".

He'd always been a little uneasy around girls, especially cheerleaders, so he still couldn't help but feel and act slightly awkward around Fiona. He wondered if his body language was odd, but like the case of attention disorder, quickly dismissed the thought. It was an omnipresent reminder in life that things had the possiblity about getting bad every second. Whether it was an accidental click of a camera or a car crash that sent your cousin plummeting into the Canadian forest, things had a way of falling apart. Just hold your ground. Don't do anything wrong...

Forcing a smile, Chad did the only thing he could. Reaching to his camera bag belted to his waist, he unzipped it and pulled out the heavy camcorder. He flicked it on and pointed it at Fiona.

"Smile", Chad said with a grin. "You're on camera".

[ZombiexCreame†]

"Yeah," Fiona agreed with a smile. "Thank goodness... Mr. Warkau makes things seem so stressful. He can be such a meanie." She thought about this for a moment and nearly laughed. She could just imagine their malevolent math teacher walking back into the classroom and yelling at the two of them for conversing. Then it would be another two weeks of torturous detention... But it probably won't be so bad. They had each other, and he seemed to be a pleasant enough guy. Perhaps they could even become friends or moderately good acquaintances? But if she had detention, then she wouldn't be able to attend cheerleading practice... Mr. Warkau probably wouldn't make even a single exception for her. "And lord knows I need all the practice that I can get..." she thought to herself.

Fiona went silent for a moment and stared down at the floor. She was internally debating with herself on whether she should talk to Chad or stay quiet. Perhaps she should just suggest that they return to note writing? They could talk after detention or something. But they might not even see each other again after today... Fiona didn't have any classes with him, and she only saw him a few times a week. At most. That was just a guesstimate.

Before she could make up her mind, Chad pulled out his camera and pointed it at Fiona. The blonde stared at the camera for a moment, a dazed expression on her face. In the shock of the moment, she couldn't tell whether it was a camera or a camcorder. Thus, she did the only thing that she could think of: She paused and smiled. It took another fifteen seconds until she finally came to the conclusion that it wasn't a camera. It was a camcorder. "Oh, stupid!! Of course! I should have noticed that little red light. He probably thinks I'm an idiot now..."

"Oh. Ha ha.. A camcorder," she said awkwardly, pointing at the black machine. Her mind suddenly kicked into overdrive - What if Chad was in the newspaper or some other form of the school news? He was recording Fiona so he would have proof that cheerleaders were the root of all evil. She could see it now: CHEERLEADERS IN DETENTION: The Documentary. Everyone would point and laugh at her, the cheerleaders would snub her. All over texting in class with her cell phone...

Fiona realized that she was being paranoid and irrational. Why would anyone do something like that? He would at least ask permission first, right? There were all kinds of legalities involved... Right? She wasn't entirely sure of the details. Trying not to seem too suspicious, Fiona smiled and looked up at Chad. "Ooh, nice camera. Camcorder, I mean. Do you make videos?" she asked, trying to seem nonchalant. "You could make a video about how awesome detention is!"

"Or a documentary about evil cheerleaders. Hahahaha." Fiona kept this last irrational thought to herself. It was silly; Chad probably wasn't making a documentary on cheerleaders gone bad... As far as she could tell. She smiled at this.

[TheLeakyFaucet†]

"Ooh, nice camera. Camcorder, I mean. Do you make videos? "You could make a video about how awesome detention is!"

"Yeah, totally", Chad said with a chuckle. "I've always liked movies. I mean, sort of, but not the way everyone else sees them, y'know? I don't go for the Hollywood quick-buck kind of flicks with explosions and big-breasted girls running everywhere. My movies are really weird – sort of artsy, I guess. I think making movies for cash is sort of like selling your soul to the devil".

That was when he paused and realized that he'd stumbled into another one of his uncanny rants, and so if things were atypical as they always were – and unless they found a way to do a turnabout sometime soon – then that probably meant he'd probably said something weird. What did you say? Sell your soul to the devil? C'mon, man! At least she's trying to make an effort to get along with you! You could be friends! Don't creep her out and make her run away like the rest of them...

He sort of gulped for a second and faltered a smile, feeling more and more awkward every second. He gently placed the camera down onto the table, oblivious to the fact that he'd probably left it on record and would have to endure everything he'd said in the conversation later if he chose to play it back.

Chad sighed. Maybe he'd talked too much about himself. That was always an issue, especially when he stumbled into unsavory territory like his films. Say something, you idiot! Don't just sit there! C'mon!

"Anyway", Chad said quickly. "I, um, want to be an indie film maker when I get out of school. It's been my dream for awhile". He paused for a moment, his thoughts rambling and wandering for what to say next. Feeling like code red alarms were flashing in his head, he said the first thing he could think of:

"So, um, what kind of music are you into?"

((Chad Klitou continued in Stillwater Runs Deep))

[ZombiexCreame†]

Fiona listened to what Chad was saying, nodding her head occasionally. Making movies was cool. She thought it was creative, and it probably took a certain degree of patience. Fiona would never have the patience to create a whole film. She was the type of girl who would make about half a movie, grow frustrated with it, and impulsively delete the entire thing. Not good. "So you don't like regular movies? What a shame! There are some real great ones out there. Legally Blonde, Homeward Bound, Little Shop of Horrors... Chronicles of Narnia! You don't like any of those movies?" Fiona asked, a look of disbelief showing on her face.

Regardless, Chad interested her. He didn't think that movie-makers should sell their films for cash? How else would they bring in the daily bread? "So, if someone offered to give you money for one of your movies, you would just turn it down? No way! There must be something that you could spend that money on... Or at least put it away for college or something. If I made movies, I'd sell them in a heartbeat." Fiona paused and tapped the side of her head with her pointer-finger. "Then again, I guess that's why I don't make movies!" she said with a laugh.

Fiona wondered if she was offending Chad. Maybe she should keep her mouth shut or say something nice? "You should show me one of your movies sometime. I'd watch it. I watch pretty much everything.. I've even watched those crazy foreign Japanese films before. SO, I think I can handle it. I can't guarantee I'll understand it, but I'll try!"

When Chad explained that he wanted to be an indie film-maker, Fiona nodded enthusiastically. "Wow, a film maker... That would be so cool if you became really famous. Then I can grow up and tell my children, 'Do you see that guy? Chad? I knew him in high school!' I think that's a good goal." Fiona paused but couldn't think of anything to add. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do after school. There was endless possibilities.

Upon being asked what music she enjoyed, Fiona didn't even pause before answering, "Rock, hard rock, heavy metal, screamo.. That kind of thing." She smiled. "How about you? You seem like the guy who would listen to oldies or something calming."

--

((editing to move Fiona onward))

After awhile of sitting and chatting with Chad, the teacher returned, and the both of them went silent. The rest of detention went by silently until it was over. Collecting her things, Fiona bade farewell to both Chad and the teacher and left the classroom.

((Fiona Sparki continued in Biological Horror))