Mr. Killian’s eyes seemed to pierce Josephine as he walked her and Alcott to the principal’s office. He had light brown eyes that seemed to shine a golden hue, but they couldn’t be more harsher. Out of all the teachers in the school, Mr. Killian was the teacher that scared her the most, despite being almost sickly pale.

Josephine was worried about what Mr. Killian heard. He didn’t reveal much, which was either a good thing or a bad thing. She was silently praying that it was the former.

After a long walk to the principal’s office, they arrived at the doors. Mr. Killian glared at them. “Wait, Ms. Lucinda is probably busy right now. I’ll inform her of your wrongdoings before you enter.” He then walked in and closed the door.

“I really hope he didn’t hear anything crazy,” Alcott asked.

“Same,” Josephine said. “Also, I heard about how intimidating he could be to other students, and I never thought we would be on the receiving end of that, in this manner.”

“Next time, we must exercise extreme caution,” Alcott said.

“If there is a next time,” Josephine quivered.

Mr. Killian opened the door. “Come in.”

As soon as Josephine laid eyes on the principal, she was surprised. She expected the principal to look like a mean old hag. But that couldn’t be further than the truth. Ms. Lucinda was breathtakingly beautiful. Her emerald green eyes twinkled, and she had long red hair tied in one long braid that fell down to her waist. Notably, she also had pale skin.

“Hello children,” Ms. Lucinda took one glance at them before looking down at her papers on her desk. “You are Josephine Sheffield and Alcott Harrison, right?”

“Yes,” Josephine and Alcott said in unison.

“How did you get yourselves in trouble?” Ms. Lucinda asked. “I’ve heard nothing but acclaim about you from your teachers. You two have excellent grades and school participation. In fact, you two will likely end up competing with each other for the title of class valedictorian before graduation.”

Josephine blushed a little with the compliments Ms. Lucinda gave. She saw Alcott looking away, presumably doing the same.

“But,” Ms. Lucinda said sternly. “Just because you two have been doing good deeds, doesn’t mean I’ll allow this one to slide. You both will get detention tonight for four hours.”

“What?” Josephine cried. “No! I have to be home.”

“This will serve as your current punishment for getting too comfy and getting out of line,” Ms. Lucinda said. “After this, you will never sneak out of class again, yes?”

“But this punishment is too harsh,” Josephine argued. “At worst, I see kids having two hour detentions. And those are for the worst students too.”

“My decision is final,” Ms.Lucinda said. “If your parents have a problem, they can meet me here and discuss this.”

No! What if she reveals some stuff to them? Josephine panicked. No. They won’t know unless I tell them, which I won’t.

“Fine,” Josephine sighed. “I’ll willingly accept this punishment.”

“Same,” Alcott said.

“Very well. Mr. Killian will take you to the detention room.”

∞

A Few Minutes Later in the Detention Room

Josephine and Alcott situated themselves in the detention room, a place that once held a huge air of mystique for the both of them. It was a dimly lit room with rows of desks and chairs that all had some manner of drawing or writing scratched onto them (mainly slurs and degenerate drawings). The whole room lost its mysteriousness and became almost suffocating for Josephine, as she knew she didn’t belong here at all.

“Nobody, including me, wants to babysit you children for 4 hours,” Mr. Killian suddenly said. “So the teacher rotation will switch every half an hour,” Mr. Killian said. “The good thing is, we are getting paid for overtime.”

As soon as he said that, Josephine had an idea. As Mr. Killian switched to the next teacher, she could escape! But, that idea had a lot of holes. For example, if both teachers entered the room before Mr. Killian left, she wouldn’t have an opening. Also, this was an old building, and the windows were stiff and dusty, so she and Alcott would struggle to open the windows.

“What about the bathroom?” Josephine asked.

“A teacher will have to walk you to the bathroom, and wait for you until you leave,” he said. “Common sense. But it makes sense that a formerly goody-two-shoes student like you wouldn’t know that.”

Josephine sighed. I thought detention was just a study hall.

As time passed, Josephine began to feel more anxious. She needed to know what was going on in her house.

“What happens if I choose to leave?” Josephine asked. “What if I don’t abide by this detention at all.”

“You’ll get suspended,” Mr. Killian said. “For two weeks.”

“So,” Josephine said. “I’ll leave right now.”

She got up from her seat and walked toward the door. But Mr. Killian blocked her and locked the door.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you leave,” he said. “What is the point of detention if any kid could just up and leave?”

“But I know people left detention and got suspended,” Josephine said.

“Those kids are the exception,” he said. “And besides, this is a lesson you need to learn. Patience is incredibly important. It can even save your life sometimes.”

Looks like I’m not getting out.

Josephine felt sweat forming on her forehead. She wasn’t doing anything sitting still in a room for hours. As she walked back to her seat, her eyes darted around the room, looking at angles she didn’t see at her desk.

But there was nothing. The only way she could escape was via the door and window. She wasn’t going to be able to open either until Mr. Killian switched with another teacher. Since ten minutes passed, she would have to wait twenty more minutes.