The Necklace of Harmonia

3. Mr. One-Eyed Profeta

“Finally.”

The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Students rush from their classes, eager to meet their friends or loved ones or just got home. Ennis was in room 710RM, Mrs. Peterson’s senior English class. She’d told Jason, Alfonso, and Nico during lunch about her after-school detention. They, apart from Nico, were pretty taken aback.

“What?” Alfonso had said. “What did you do? Excessively smile today or were nice to too many people?”

“Ha. Ha.”

“No, I’m serious.” He leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table. “You’re probably the most innocent and nice person I’ve ever met, who also doesn’t give a shit about what others say.”

Ennis shrugged. “It was from Brunch, when Frankie thought I dropped the F-bomb on her.”

“Really?” Jason inquired, looking dismayed. “Seems like a load of bullshit. Aye, Nico. Glad you could make it.”

Alfonso gave a small two-fingered salute towards Nico, who nodded in return. He sat down besides Ennis, a fair space between the two of them, and settled his backpack in his lap. He was holding a McDonald’s bag and put it on the table.

"When did you go to McD’s?” Alfonso asked.

“My sister dropped it off.”

Ennis raised an eyebrow. “You have a sister?”

“Yeah.”

“Legit.”

Joey and David joined the Misfit Table halfway through lunch, saying that they were late because Ms. Daly, the eleventh grade choir teacher, made them stay after class for talking during a student presentation.

“She’s a monster,” David said. He took out his lunch, which consisted of a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a can of Coca-Cola. “Yesterday, she gave Joey and me a detention for no good reason! We weren’t even doing anything.”

“She probably had a good reason,” Ennis said. She took a bite of her cheese pizza. “You and Joey aren’t the brightest flashlights in the drawer when it comes to obedience.”

“Hey!”

“She is,” Nico said. His voice was so quiet, no one was quite sure if he even said anything, but his lips moved.

“She is?” Jason inquired. “Who’s ‘she’?”

“Ms. Daly.”

“See!” Joey exclaimed and gestured towards Nico. “He gets it. Thank you, Nico.”

Ennis pursed her lips. Nico’s expression had been grave and nearly emotionless when he agreed Ms. Daly was a monster. Maybe he disliked her, because she was a difficult teacher? She had a reputation of assigning tough assignments to her students, but she wasn’t that bad, was she?