The Breakfast Club [Norminah/Camren]

The Breakfast Club

WARNING: underage drinking is mentioned. there's explicit drug use and mentions of domestic violence (not exactly explicit but still evident). i tried to keep it light in that aspect.

-------

"And these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultations. They're quite aware of what they're going through..." – David Bowie

-------

saturday, march 24th, 2016

dear miss vernon,

we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. what we did was wrong, but we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are.

what do you care? you see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. you see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. correct?

that's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. we were brainwashed.

-------

"I can't believe you can't get me out of this." She contemplates the building and hopes her father will turn to her with crinkly eyes and announce that yes, he can, and no, she won't have to spend her Saturday with criminals. But he doesn't, and she huffs. "It's so ridiculous that I have to be here on a Saturday. It's not like I'm a defective or anything."

"I'll make it up to you, mija." If she didn't know better, Camila would believe him. "Skipping a class to go shopping doesn't make you a defective. Have a good day." He all but pushes her out of the car, leaving her with nothing else to do but to walk away without a second glance.

Unbelievable, she thinks. What is power worth if you don't even try to use it?

-------

A few metres away from the sleek car, another one pulls into place. "Is this the first or the last time we do this?"

She looks down at her lap and mutters the right answer.

"You get in there," her mother insists for the last time, "and use the time to your advantage."

"We're not supposed to study, mom. We're just supposed to sit there and do nothing." But Ally knows it's all in vain.

"Well, missy, you will have to figure out a way to study. Go!"

There it is. Ally scrambles out of her seat— the wind is warmer than the car.

-------

No one talks until her mother tries to. "Hey, I screwed around. We screw around: there's nothing wrong with that." She nods; it's too much kindness. "Except you got caught."

"Yeah, dad already talked to me, alright?"

Wrong answer.

"You wanna miss a race?" For some reason, it always comes down to that: missing races. Being less than the best. "You wanna blow your ride? No school's gonna give a scholarship to a discipline case."

'Discipline case'. We all screwed around until a few seconds ago. Now she's a 'discipline case'.

Normani looks at her one last time. One second and it's enough: maybe she'll forget her voice while she's inside.

-------

Inside the library, she sits near the front of the room, awkwardly joining Camila with a chair between them. A few seconds later a short girl sits on the desk behind her, before a tall blonde strolls in and motions at her to move. Not too long afterwards, a raven-haired girl scurries to sit at the very end of the last row of seats; she takes a seat sideways and doesn't make a move to look at anything but the wall.