The Mendacity of Winnie Hart

Chapter Four

"I'm not going."

Wren gave me a flat look. "Of course you are. Now shoo!" She pointed to the door we were facing. It had a piece of printer paper duct tapped onto it with the word 'detention' written haphazardly. You'd think they could've at least printed it out rather than use a purple Crayola marker.

"I don't want to be associated with the future serial killers and drug dealers of America."

"You are the most dramatic person I've ever met. Unless you're a future serial killer or drug dealer, your logic doesn't follow."

"This will turn me into one! How am I going to get home?" Usually Wren gave me rides to and from school, but she'd mentioned she had work today, and couldn't wait around for an hour. If she wasn't able to give me a ride, I knew I'd just have to end up walking. At this point I was just buying time.

"You use your two fully-functioning legs and walk home." Wren rolled her eyes and checked the time on her phone. "I've got to get to work. If I have to sit here and listen to any more of your whining I'll be late."

"Fine," I grumbled. Wren gave me an emphatic wave before skipping off, leaving me to my own devices.

Shuffling my feet around, I finally opened up the door. There were only a couple of people inside, but I was here a couple of minutes before it started. I gripped the little blue piece of paper that denoted my doom, noting as someone walked up to the teacher at the desk to hand it over. I followed suit, and was surprised and slightly annoyed to find it was Mr. Davey, my study hall teacher.

"Didn't expect to see you here Winnie," he said, raising his eyebrows as I dropped the paper right under his nose. It was his stupid fault I was even here in the first place.

"Do you actually teach anything in this school?" I asked in my frustration, never having seen him in any classes where actual learning took place.

"Poetry," he grinned, swiping the pass and tucking it into a little folder.

"Huh," I said to myself, not even knowing we had a poetry class. I turned around to find an open desk to spend the next hour. There were several to choose from, so I chose one in the back, like I did for all my classes during the school day. I didn't know the ins and outs of detention, but I figured I'd just do some of my homework. Maybe I could get all of my weekend work done, and be free to sit in my room and do nothing.

I took out my chemistry work but looked up when I heard loud laughing. Ashkii Gold and Noah West came barreling in, Ash being the one who was laughing. Noah wasn't chortling like his friend, but he looked faintly entertained. Mr. Davey glanced at them, and said something I couldn't hear from my distance. Noah pulled a crumpled pass out of his pocket and put it on the desk before heading towards the back.

I tried to avoid eye contact with him or Ash as he came and sat in the same row as me, but kept one empty desk between us. However, I couldn't stop my eyes from trailing over to the two of them. I shouldn't be surprised that Noah was in detention, it was definitely a suitable place for people like him.

Ash noticed me looking and did a double take. "Hey, you're Wren's friend, right?"

Ash had never talked to me before besides a small 'hello' when I happened to be around him and Wren. I looked behind me to see if he was talking to someone else, but there was no one there. When I nodded, his face broke out into a grin.

"Can you give me her phone number?"

Before answering, I paused, and thought about the ramifications of doing this. For one, Wren probably wouldn't be too happy to have him blowing up her phone with texts. She may even murder me. On the other hand, it would be pretty funny. She could always block him, after all.