Dumb Luck

1

✧𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚛𝚢✧

You know what movie I could never really get into? The Breakfast Club. It always seemed so...improbable to me.

The movie is basically about five different kids who end up in detention together. They're all from the five classic options that you can fall into in the society of high schoolers. There's the jock, the loner, the brain, the princess, and the bully. Now, obviously, these people probably wouldn't get along great normally.

But—because they're locked in the same room—instead of keeping quiet and being bored on their own like any normal kids, they decide to actually speak to each other. When they do, they start doing these funny but weird things together. And by the end of the movie, they're for some reason best friends.

That is, until they leave school. At which point, I personally think they fall back into their own circles and probably never speak to each other again for the rest of the year.

As nice as it is to think they stayed besties for the rest of their lives, it's unlikely. Which is why the movie isn't one of my favorites. It's almost a little sad to me the way things probably ended. And the way things began in the first place isn't very likely. I've been in a room alone with kids from different groups but still from the same high school.

You know what we all did? We didn't talk, that's what.

We sat quietly and either worked on what we were supposed to or did literally anything else but work. I think the most noise that came out of that room for about an hour and a half was one kid sneezed like a fucking freight train. No one even said bless you.

Bottom line is, connecting kids who have nothing to do with each other really only ends with uncomfortable silence. And/or bullying. Which is why I do what I can to stay in my own lane at school. Sometimes conflict is inevitable, but ultimately if you stay in your own lane, things are bound to be all right. At least remotely.

Staying in my own lane is relatively easy when it comes to walking with my head down. By now, I'm sort of an expert at navigating my way through the halls in between each period. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm great at swerving around that one group of girls who seem to just forget how to walk in the middle of the goddamn hallway.

Only occasionally will my swerve not be so...graceful. It's a rarity. And that happens to everyone—even if they are masters at their craft.

Unfortunately for me, today is my rarity. My blue moon. When I swerve around the girls, I nearly bump my face right into someone's chest. Luckily, my reflexes are cat like and I manage to move just enough so my shoulder is the only thing that gets bumped.

I like to keep to myself, but I'm not disrespectful. I look over my shoulder at the kid I bump into and shout a quick "Sorry!" before I turn to continue on. He replies with a simple "Watch where you're going." as I rush off.

The half second delay does nothing to my time when arriving to my next class before lunch. I'm just in time to blend into the group of kids squeezing into the doorway just before the strictest teacher on campus slams the door shut. She doesn't like kids who are tardy. Even by a few seconds.

The art of fitting in is completed by the time I drop into my normal seat in the middle of the classroom. Not too far up front where the smart kids sit and not too far to the back where the kids who don't want to pay attention simply don't pay attention. The middle is the perfect spot.

__________

"Shit, Mallory. No one's going to take them from you."

I quickly look up from my math book that I practically drape half my body over on the lunch table. "Debatable." I grumble, not daring to look over my shoulder where I know a group of kids are lingering.