The Desired

I’m late... I’m late! I realize in thought that I quickly finish getting dressed and I brush my teeth and hair, running downstairs. I grab some toast.

I ran towards the door, opening it.“Bye, mom!” I yell. I hear a faint “Goodbye” from my mother before the door slams shut.

I grab my car keys from my pocket and I go towards my car, I get inside and turn it on. I go in reverse and when I’m completely out of the driveway I speed off to school.

When I arrive at school I park as quickly and safely as I can. I get out and lock my car before I run into school, the halls are empty and I realize I’m ten minutes late for class.

I walk into class, Mrs. Carson pauses her teaching and everyone looks at me. No, I’m not embarrassed, I’m annoyed.

“You’re late.” Mrs. Carson says, stating the obvious.

“Yes. I’m aware of that,” I reply calmly.

“Detention.” Wait, what?!

“You heard Miss Anderson, detention. Go. Now.” Mrs. Carson commands firmly.

I exhale and walk out of class. It was only ten minutes- TEN Minutes!!

When I walk into the detention room I am shocked to see Nerdy Eddy and Pretty-boy Kaison here too. “Well, well, well- Ain’t it Nerdy Eddy and Pretty-boy Kaison in detention,” I tease.

At least now I won’t be bored here.

Eddy rolled his eyes and Kaison just gave me a “really?” look. “It’s all a misunderstanding,” Kaison says.

“How so?” I ask, intrigued.

“We were trying to stop Josh and Jack from fighting but it turned out to look like we were helping them,” Eddy explains, exhaling deeply before slacking down on his chair.

“And now we’re stuck here- See, this is why you don’t try to stop fights!” Kaison explains, throwing his hands up in the air before placing them on either leg.

I sigh and sit down. We talked for the rest of our detention and I realized that once I got to know them better they aren’t as boring or as bad as I had originally thought of them.

I also started realizing during my time with them that some things I didn’t want they wanted or had always dreamed about.

After detention I head to my other classes, and so do Kaison and Eddy. I’m still thinking about the fact that maybe others want what another may not want.

I started to view things and everyone differently.

The boys helped me see that maybe I shouldn’t be so judgy of people before even getting to know them. That I should try and get their point of view first hand.

To be honest, I started feeling bad. All those nerds I made fun of and the jocks I deliberately called stupid or immature, maybe some were but I didn’t consider their feelings.

The next day I end up seeing Kaison sitting alone on the roof eating his snack. I walk over to him and I sit next to him. “Hey,” I say.

He looks up at me and smiles, giving me a small wave. “Hey. What are you doing up here?” He asks me since I don’t normally come up here to eat my snack.

“I saw you coming up here and I decided to hang out with you. Why are you all alone though?” I respond and then asked in return.

He sighs. “I normally come up alone to get away from all the girls,” He explains. Wait- He doesn’t like the attention?

“You don’t like the attention?”

“No, not really- It gets very exhausting at times,” He answers, taking a bite from his sandwich.

I always thought he liked the attention, but I guess I was wrong. He’s right too, attention can get very exhausting at times if it’s not the attention you want.

“It’s like I’m the stereotypical rich pretty boy that you see in movies. But I’m much better than them and I do have a more complex IQ than most of them do.” Kaison says, chuckling at his joke I chuckle too.

I look at him with sympathy. He probably feels like he has to live to that stereotype and those girls or people, in general, will only like him if he lives up to it.

I put my hand on his back and gave him a slightly awkward but friendly pat. You can see I don’t normally comfort people.

“Hey. Don’t feel like you need to live up to their expectations, as long as you feel happy with who you truly are is what matters.” I tell him, giving him a hearty smile.

That’s the problem for me, I don’t feel happy being the stereotypical mean girl, everyone just assumes I am.

In the distance, the bell rings and we look at each other. “Do we have the same classes?” Kaison asks, getting up.

“Uh, I have Math, you?” I answer standing up as well.

“Nice, so do I,” He replies enthusiastically putting everything away, I do the same.

I smile at him. “Then let’s walk together. I normally take Lani with me but she didn’t come today,” I explain, sighing. Man Lani, the one day I want to encourage you to come instead of taking a break and you don’t come.

Kaison nodded, but his face spelled confused. “Wait- Don’t you have Harley and Bella?” Yep, he’s confused.

“Not really. They’re only acquaintances and they are way too nosy,” I explain, he still looked confused on why I didn’t try being friends with them but he didn’t pry.

“Well ok, let’s go or we’ll be late,” He says quickly before grabbing my wrist and almost dragging me to class. Man, does he do this to Eddy too, his wrists must be sore. Poor Eddy.

When we were past halfway to class he realized he was dragging me and let’s go. “Sorry. I normally do that to Eddy, he doesn’t mind but I think his wrists must be sore.” He explains with a sheepish smile.

I smile back and nod in agreement.

“R.I.P. Eddy’s wrists.” We both say in unison, we look at each other for a moment before laughing.

Wait, I forgot about class. “We’re gonna be late for class!” I exclaim, looking at the clock. Five minutes left-

We look at each other with wide eyes before we start running down the halls to class.

We thankfully made it to class in time, we sat together for the rest of class. Afterward, it was English, yes English passed but because I missed that class, I had to take it during break and that’s where things started to heat up a bit…when I wasn’t there.

Posted 8:57 AM 5/05/2022