Proceed With Caution

Chapter 2

"One month of detentions. Every day after school."

The principal stated. That was my punishment.
"I spoke to Mrs. Duvall, and she said you were standing up for Ivy."

Who was Ivy?

"The tiny new girl," I read from his mind.

"That's the only reason you aren't being suspended. You should have gone to your teacher, but you weren't unprovoked. As for you, Brinley, you will be suspended for a week."

"What?! That's not fair!!! She was- "

"Brinley, your punishment has already been decided. You also have a record, and Ria doesn't. You attacked two students. Ria, you can leave. Don't forget about your detention." The principal said.

I got up, opened the door, and left. I guess that wasn't that bad, I was expecting to get suspended.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

"I can't believe Brinley did that to you!" My best friend Nicki said.

"What's her problem anyway?" My other friend Harper said.

"I don't know, she's just crazy I guess." I said.

We were sitting around the circular lunch table, picking through the somewhat-edible parts of the school lunches.

"And you got a month of detentions for it? That's insane. You shouldn't even be getting punished. You were defending yourself!"

I considered this, but there was nothing I could do. I wasn't going to ditch. You don't really even have to do anything in detention.

"Look over there! It's Red!" Harper exclaimed. Red was Nicki's ex boyfriend.

"It's ok, we won't move, we just have to stay put. He can go do whatever the hell he wants, as long as he stays out of our way." Nicki said.

They were together for a year until last week. They had kind of a bad breakup.. He cheated on her, and then Nicki set all of his clothes on fire. That's pretty much it.

We watched him sit with his friends, him casually stretching his arms around two girls.

"Ugh. Gross." I said.

"I wonder if he still loves me," I heard Nicki think.

"I'm so lonely without him..."

"Let's go," I say firmly. We can't torture Nicki like this. I grab both my friend's arms and drag them outside into the courtyard. I looked back at Nicki and she had a single tear running down her face.

"Oh Nicki...." I said as Harper and I both engulfed her in a group hug. Red would pay for this. Nicki has never cried easily, only when she is the most hurt.

"W-why does he e-even go by that stupid nickname anyway?" Nicki sniffled. She was crying more now, she had a steady stream of tears running down her cheeks. Red's real name was Robert, but I guess he thought that sounded dumb.

"He just wants to look cooler," Harper said.

That was all anybody cared about these days. But I knew things others didn't, because of my... Talent. Turns out, being popular didn't actually seem so great once you actually see how they are judged by every single one of their peers, and the pressure that put on them to seem perfect.

I wasn't popular, that would probably be bad because then someone could discover what I can do. Nicki and Harper were sort of popular. They still don't know that I can read minds, but I was going to tell them soon. I couldn't keep it from them forever, and we have never hid a secret from eachother. I knew I could trust them.
It was just how and when to tell them that I don't know. If they ever told anybody, I would be screwed. Something like that could get around a small town like this in a day or less.

But I would tell them tomorrow.