Jailbird

c h a p t e r XLIV

SAPPHIRE WAS PLAYING WITH her pencil as she often did with her knife, making it spin and twirl between her fingers as she waited for the teacher to arrive in the empty classroom. Their afternoon had been unusually uneventful at the exception for the few fights that occurred between the rival students and now here she was, in detention.

She rose from her seat fluidly and took a look at the teacher's desk in quest to find paper sheets when Amaya entered the class.

"Amaya? You got detention too?" Sapphire asked as she took out a sheet from a drawer.

Amaya sighed and took a seat, "Yeah, I don't understand, all I did was practice my talents as a hairdresser."

Sapphire sat beside her and started bending the sheet, "Whose hair did you cut?"

"Some bitchy girl's from Hayward."

"What did you give her?" Sapphire laughed.

Amaya frowned, "Well I planned on a bob cut, which by the way would've been beautiful, but then she moved and I had to improvise, so it's a mix between a mohawk and a pixie."

Sapphire threw the paper plane she had been making while laughing at Amaya's answer and just as it was going to fly out the door, it crashed into some boy's face or more precisely his glasses.

The boy grabbed the angrily plane before it whirled to the ground and aggressively crushed it between his hands.

Sapphire gasped, "You monster, how dare you?!"

He readjusted the glasses that were falling on his nose and walked inside, ignoring Sapphire's comment, and sat towards the front, followed by two other boys that were eyeing the girls in disdain.

Aviva then arrived in the classroom beaming and took a seat near the girls, resting her feet on the desk as her gaze absent-mindedly drifted over the classroom.

"What's got you in such a mood?" Sapphire asked, smirking, "Could it be a certain Italian boy?"

Amaya gasped and put a hand over her mouth, "He asked you, didn't he?"

Aviva nodded while Sapphire eyed them in confusion.

"Would you girls fucking keep it down?!" One of the boys on the other side yelled.

"Do you smell that?" Aviva asked as she looked over the classroom, "Smells like rotten eggs and Hayward students."

The three boys snapped their heads in her direction, glares and scowls painting their features.

"Well at least we're not stupid criminals," one of the boys sneered.

Amaya smiled, "So you admit you stink."

"Filthy richness is the only thing I'll admit stinking," the one on his right said with a smirk.

"Well I didn't-"

"Hello criminals... and Hayward students?" Mr. Olsen said, confused as he walked in. "Students from Hayward are not supposed to get in detention."

The boy in the middle adjusted his glasses again, "We proved teachers wrong and they weren't happy to have students smarter than them."

"Or they weren't happy to have students even more annoying than them," Aviva whispered.

"What did you just say?!" The boy with glasses sneered as he got up from his chair to look threatening.

Aviva took her feet down from the desk, one at a time, and leaned her chin on her palm with a smirk, "Are you trying to scare me?"

The boy scowled and took a step towards her, but before he could get any closer, Mr. Olsen stopped him with his hand.

"Mister?"

"Ford." He completed.

"Mr. Ford," Mr. Olsen said, "take back your seat and stop trying to threaten Miss Rossi, I don't feel like picking up teeth any time soon."

Ford took back his seat, glaring at Aviva the whole way.

"Now, I was supposed to supervise this detention while you get some homework done, but instead you will help me organize the storage room in the gymnasium. I've already started so it shouldn't take you more than an hour," Mr. Olsen said.

"Gingey, I feel like you're taking advantage of us right now, I didn't realize this friendship was going to be toxic," Sapphire said in mock sadness with a frown.

Mr. Olsen opened his mouth to say something, but one look at Sapphire told him it was better not to say anything, and instead he left the classroom gesturing at the kids to follow him.

They walked in multiple hallways, turning so much Sapphire was asking herself if Mr. Olsen was doing it on purpose to ditch them, before finally they arrived in the gymnasium.

"LEPRECHAUN!!!" Sapphire suddenly yelled startling everyone except Amaya and Aviva who expected such a thing from her.

"What the hell?!" One of Ford's friends shouted at her.

"Huh, there is more echo here than in my hallway," she said with her eyebrows raised.

"Oh my god," Mr. Olsen mumbled while walking towards two big doors with 'Storage' written on them.

He opened them letting the group walk in and placed a door stopper on the ground to keep it open.

"I have footballs on the right which are mixed with the soccer balls and volleyballs, so that needs to be organized," Mr Olsen said before pointing at a stack of boxes, "These are badminton polls and I need you to but them in the racks there and once that's done the gymnasium's floor needs mopping."

"And what are you going to do in the meantime?" One of the boys said, raising an eyebrow.

"Watch your tone gentleman, I'm going to get the new equipment we received with a few guards," Mr. Olsen said while walking out.

Amaya looked at the sports paraphernalia and sighed.

"Well, let's get to work."