Chapter Text
It was all Troy’s fault.
Mike Wheeler was sitting in after school detention all because of Troy.
Since probably fifth grade, Troy had been picking on Mike and his friends. Pushing them in the hallways, calling them names, knocking their lunch trays out of their hands ( didn’t he have anything better to do? ), and basically making he and his friend’s life a living hell.
And today, Mike had snapped.
They’d been in gym class, definitely not Mike’s favorite class, when it’d happened. The teacher, Coach Johnson, made the class run laps in the gym. Mike and his friend Will were jogging around, when Troy had run up behind them, muttered “Oops!” and shoved into Will, making him fall on his face.
Mike had sworn up and down that Troy did it on purpose, but Coach Johnson had just sent Will to the nurse.
In the locker room, when the boys were changing, Troy had walked past Mike and said “Tell your little friend to be careful next time, Frog Face.”
And Mike had turned around, and shoved Troy hard into the lockers behind him.
There weren’t any fists thrown, just a lot of pushing and shoving for all of thirty seconds until Coach Johnson came in and separated them, giving both boys detention.
So that’s why Mike sat, at 3:30, in room 23C with a class of delinquents.
There was Troy, the reason he was here in the first place.
A boy he didn’t recognize, probably in one of the upper grades, who was using his textbook as a shield to hide the fact he was dozing.
A girl, Andrea, who he recognized from his lit class.
And then there was Mike.
He was glad they hadn’t called his mom. With any luck, he could tell her he had A/V Club after school, if she asked anything. Now all he had to do was ride out this hour.
For the first five minutes he just sat, not knowing what to do. Were they going to be given an assignment or something? He’d never had detention, and didn’t know how it worked. After nothing happened, he decided he should at least do something. So he opened his backpack, and took out his notebook where he wrote his D & D campaigns. He’d just zipped his bag shut when he glanced up, seeing another student enter the room.
It was a girl that everyone in the school knew, El Hopper. Everyone knew her because her dad was the town’s chief of police. What was she doing here? he wondered.
*
El was almost certain her dad was going to kill her.
She had never had detention before, or anything close to it. She was “the good girl.” Still, thanks to her friend Max and a misunderstanding, she was here in room 23C. The teacher (Mr. Bauman?) at the desk seemed bored, as he graded papers. El walked to his desk, and he eventually looked up.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” she said. “I went to the wrong room.”
He didn’t really seem to care, looking back at the papers before him and waving a hand as he said, “Take a seat.”
She looked at the few students scattered around the room. An older student who appeared to be sleeping, his head against the wall. A brown haired boy sat a few seats in front of the sleeper. A blonde girl sat on the other side of the room, drawing. And then there was a dark haired boy who sat almost in the middle of the room. Their eyes met, and she looked away, going to sit a row over and a seat behind him.
She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do; homework? Write an essay about why they were here? Part of her wanted to ask, but the teacher (she was almost certain it was Mr. Bauman, the Latin teacher) didn’t look like he wanted to be bothered.
Besides the sleeping boy and the girl drawing, the other two boys appeared to be just sitting, waiting out the time.
Sighing, she reached into her backpack and took out The Outsiders , the book she’d been assigned in her AP English class. She tried to concentrate on the story, but her mind kept wandering to what’d gotten her here in the first place. It’d happened in science, where they’d had a test today. She was sitting next to her best friend, Max. During the test Max had whispered to her, asking which question she was on, which got both of them a stern warning from Mrs. Thomas. But then Robert, a boy who sat two chairs down, was trying to pass a note to the girl on the other side of Max. The note had landed on El’s desk, and before she could pass it or get rid of it, Mrs. Thomas had noticed it, and had sentenced El to detention.
Even after her explaining, Mrs. Thomas wouldn’t budge. So here she sat.
*
Mike glanced over at El, seeing the worried look on her face as she looked at the book she was holding. Probably sensing he was watching her, she glanced up and their eyes met for a second time before he looked away.
Her worried look got him thinking what she could’ve possibly done to get in here. El Hopper was known as the quiet teacher’s pet type kid. Then again, people had similar thoughts about him, and look where he was…
Turning his attention back to his D & D notebook, he’d jotted down a few notes when all of a sudden something hit the side of his head. He looked up, just as a wad of paper was falling to the floor. A muffled snort of laughter told him it was Troy.
Mike glanced at the teacher, who was grading papers, then back at Troy, giving him a Really? look. Troy responded by giving him the finger.
He went back to his notebook, when a second later, another wadded up piece of paper fell onto his desk.
“Mr. Bauman,” Mike said, trying to get the teacher’s attention. “Troy’s…”
“There’s no talking in detention,” the teacher said, not looking up.
“But he’s throwing stuff at me!”
Mr. Bauman finally looked up, and over at Troy. He then looked to Mike, and saw the balled up papers on his desk and on the floor. Looking back at Troy, he asked, “Mr. Miller?”
“It’s not me!” Troy said, feigning ignorance.
“Bull,” Mike said quietly.
“He’s lying,” said Andrea from the back of the room. Mike turned to look at her, as did Troy and the teacher.
“Him,” Andrea continued, pointing her pencil at Troy. “He’s lying. He’s been throwing stuff.”
Mr. Bauman sighed, then said “Keep it up, Mr. Miller, and you’ll be here next week too, okay?”
“Fine,” Troy huffed.
When Mr. Bauman went back to his grading, Troy gave both Mike and Andrea a mean look.
With a small grin, Mike went back to his notebook. It was quiet for a few minutes until there was a knock at the door. All eyes looked up as they saw another teacher, Mr. Holland, standing in the doorway.
“Murray?” he asked. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
Mr. Bauman sighed and stood up, giving a look to the students before he stepped out into the hallway. From where Mike sat he could see Mr. Bauman’s right shoulder as he talked to Mr. Holland just outside his view.
“You’re dead Wheeler,” Troy hissed from the wall.
“Try it and you’ll be back here next week,” Mike retorted, not bothering to look up from his notebook.
“Just because your fairy friend fell down…”
“Don’t call him that,” Mike said, finally looking up.
“Whatever, Frog Face,” Troy said back with a grin.
“And don’t call me that,” Mike said in return.
“Or what? What’re you gonna do, Frog? Hop around?” he chuckled, looking for someone to join in with his laughter, but no one did.
“Actually, frogs are kind of cute,” came a voice from behind Mike. He and Troy turned to see El Hopper looking up from her book. Seeing she had their attention, she continued, saying “The Lemur leaf frog, for example, is really cute. And the Harlequin frog? Adorable.”
Troy made a face; Mike began to grin.
“Whatever,” Troy eventually said, turning back around. Mike smiled at El, who gave him a small smile back before she returned to her book.
A moment later Mr. Bauman came back, letting out a groan as he sat in his chair, with a quick glance at his watch.
*
El smiled to herself. She hadn’t had any intention of getting involved with whatever was going on with the two boys-Troy and... Wheeler? -but Troy had seemed like such an idiot she felt compelled to help the other boy out.
She’d seen both boys around school before, but had never talked with either of them. From what she’d heard, Troy was a bit of a jerk, while this other guy...Max would know his name...was kind of quiet (much like Jane herself).
She didn’t know why Troy called him a frog, he didn’t look like one. He was kind of cute, to be honest.
At that thought she immediately felt heat come to her cheeks, and she looked down, trying to wish it away. You only met the guy, El. Don’t go getting crazy thoughts in your head .
Returning to her book as she felt her face go back to it’s ordinary hue, she began to wonder how long detention was supposed to last. An hour? She’d only been in here for about ten minutes, maybe fifteen. Was she going to be able to make it a whole hour?
“Thanks,” she heard a quiet voice say to her. She looked up, and saw that the boy she’d just been daydreaming about was whispering to her.
“Don’t mention it,” she responded.
The rest of the hour passed, and soon the assembled students were packing up their things. Mike left the room, more than happy to be done sharing a room with Troy. He went to his locker to grab a few last minute items, and in his head reran the story he was going to tell his mother. Once he had what he needed, he turned to go out, and nearly bumped into El.
“Sorry-”
“Excuse me-”
They righted themselves, then both smiled awkwardly. “Sorry,” he repeated. “I should’ve looked where I was going.”
“It’s okay,” she said. She gave him one more smile, then continued on her way-the same way he was going. Mike stayed a few paces behind her at first, then decided to say something.
“How’re you liking that book?”
She looked over her shoulder. “Excuse me?”
“The Outsiders. I, uh...I saw you reading it in there.”
“Oh.” She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s okay, I guess. I’ve only read the first two chapters.”
“It gets better,” he said, catching up.
“You read it?”
“No, but my, uh...my sister, she had to read it a few years ago, and she always said it was one of her favorite books.”
El nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
They arrived outside and Mike, knowing he had to go get his bike, decided to say goodbye. “Well...I’ll see you around,” he told her.
“Bye,” she said, giving him a small smile.
He gave her a nod, then walked to the side of the school to get his bike. Finding it, he suddenly remembered that he’d forgotten his D & D notebook inside. So he walked his bike to the front of the school and darted inside. He grabbed it from his locker and got back outside quickly, and started pedaling back home.
He’d biked a small distance away from the school when he saw a familiar green backpack walking down the side of the road: El Hopper.
“Hey!” he called out. She turned, and looked surprised to see him.
“Hi.”
“Hi. You walk home?”
“Sometimes,” she answered. “When my dad can’t get me, or I can’t catch the bus.”
“Oh.”
“It’s not that far,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s only about fifteen minutes away.”
“Oh. Well...okay. I’ll see you.”
“See you,” she said back.
He started to pedal away, but stopped himself after a moment. A few feet ahead of her, he turned and asked “Do you want a ride?”
“What?”
“You could hop on my bike,” he explained. “It’d be just a little bit faster than walking.”
She looked hesitant.
“Besides, I owe you after your help with Troy.”
She still looked reluctant, but seemed to have loosened up a little. Finally, she nodded her head. “Okay.”
Mike scooted up on his seat some, and El climbed on the back. When he sensed she was on, he pushed off, which elicited a yelp from El, causing Mike to stop. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I just...I almost fell off,” she said, blushing and gasping. “Maybe I should just walk.”
“No, it’s okay,” Mike said. “Just...hold onto my backpack so you won’t fall.”
El nodded, and hesitantly did so. Mike checked over his shoulder to make sure she was secure then pushed off again, sans yelp this time.
“Everything okay?” he asked after a minute.
“Yeah!” she answered. “It’s right on Curley.” Pausing for a moment, she then said “I never got your name.”
He nodded. “I’m Mike.”
Mike , she thought to herself. “I’m El.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Oh.”
Mike made the right, and El gave him the next set of directions. They rode silently for a few minutes until the two arrived on her street. El smiled, enjoying the ride, thanking the stars that this boy- Mike -had given her a ride home. Her dad would be mad if he found out she’d accepted a ride home from a boy she hardly knew, but for some reason she felt safe with this freckled boy.
“My house is at the end,” she said into his ear. Mike nodded, and a moment later they were in her driveway.
“Thanks,” she said when he came to a stop.
“You’re welcome,” he said as she climbed off.
“Um...well,” she said, nervously rubbing her arm. “I guess I’ll see you.”
“Okay. Oh, hey,” he said, causing her to pause before she turned to go.
“Yeah?”
“Can I ask...why were you in detention? You don’t seem like the kind to get it.”
“Oh. My teacher thought I was talking during a test. What about you?”
“That mouth-breather, Troy. He picked on a friend of mine.”
“What’d you do?”
“Nothing, really. I pushed him.”
“Oh. Well, your friend is lucky to have you.”
“Thanks. Um..I guess I’ll see you around, El.”
“See you around, Mike.”
They smiled once more at each other, then Mike turned his bike, and rode off down the street. El smiled as she watched him go, wondering if she’d see him again.