FicWad

What did they do wrong?

He had an essay to write. At first, all he thought about was the drugs in his locker. That was what he had done wrong. He wasn't sure why Vernon wanted him to spout off about his little 'problem', because, frankly, he didn't think that the older man really cared. All he did was look down on them for what they were - a bunch of confused, hormone driven teenagers - and thought that they deserved everything that came to them. Brian thought that Vernon probably just assumed they were 'bad' just to make his lonely life a living hell.

But Brian wasn't a bad kid, and more than that, he didn't want to be a bad kid. He knew that he was slipping - really bad - but he started to realize earlier that day that that wasn't who he was. His life had been spinning out of control for the better part of a year, and he needed that control back. He needed to get out of the rut that he was in and start focusing on school again. He needed to get off of the weed and start a friendly relationship with his parents again; he wasn't going to be around home next year, so it was only safe that he started now.

Even though they had their bad days with him, he had felt absolutely horrible for the way that he had treated them, and scared them. Sure they pushed him and wanted a little too much from him at times, but in the end, he was just as bad to them as they were to him. That was something else he had learned. The breakfast club had spent their entire time saying how bad their parents treated them...well, what if they were being a just a little misunderstanding themselves?

He had known from the minute that he offered Bender money he was doing something wrong. He knew from the day he stole the flare gun. He knew the second that his name was called over the announce system that he was in trouble. He didn't need to write an essay about that. He had made mistakes and he had known better.

On the other hand, that wasn't the only thing he had done wrong. The whole thing with the breakfast club last year, and his reaction to it all, was also wrong. He did to them exactly what his parents did to him; he expected too much from them. He expected things to be happy all over, and he expected them to stand tall in unification against everyone. He thought a little more of their breakthrough than he should have.

Was he wrong to think of them as his friends? No, not necessarily, he just went about it the wrong way. He had forgotten that they had felt a bit too much pressure as well. He should have taken their feelings and situations into consideration before he had placed himself into their lives.

He didn't think, however, that it was wrong for him to be disappointed with them. They did lack some effort on that Monday last year. Claire spoke to no one; she just went about her days as if nothing ever happened - the same thing happened with John. Andy and Allison, well, he figured that there was more going on than he had known about, and he might have jumped to conclusions.

But in the end of it all, what they did wrong most was they had overestimated each other. They still judged each other when they walked into detention the second time. They still thought of each other as their pinned on labels; they still over analyzed things with each other. He wasn't too sure if they really had in fact learned their lesson the first detention. True, they found out a little more about themselves than they had walked into the library initially knowing. But, did they really learn their lessons? No, he didn't think so anyways.

The next time around though, was an entirely different story. They realized the error of their ways. They understood a little better just what they had done wrong.

It was a major lack of communication.

He found it completely ironic that the first time they were brought together they had no problems spilling their guts. When it all came down to it on Monday, they were too afraid to talk to each other. He had a funny feeling that they were brought together again on purpose; that there was more to it, behind it all, than a lowly Saturday detention. They really were there to suffer the consequences of their actions.

And hopefully this time they would take proper action - together.

He stared at the white piece of lined paper ahead of him and tucked his pen cap between his lips. He was going to tell Vernon exactly what it was that they had done wrong. Vernon didn't need to know what crimes they had committed to land themselves in detention; he already knew that. But for the sake of the breakfast club he was going to tell their story.

He pulled the paper closer to him and began to move his pen down the lines. He knew exactly how he wanted to say it.

He knew exactly how he wanted to fix things this time around.

... ... ...

Bender looked over to the boy sitting next to him and almost let out a laugh. Just eight hours earlier the same boy had screamed at him and fought him over cigarette smoke. John had blown it in his face, and it eventually led to a screaming war.

Now he was sitting next to him on the library railing splitting a cigarette with him.

"Easy on the nerves, huh?" Bender cast him a look from the corner of his eye.

Andy nodded easily. "Yeah. Fuck it, its not like it's going to slow me down now."

Bender cocked an eyebrow at him and let out a snort. "In the long run it will. You should see my old man try to climb the stairs."

Andy laughed and passed him the cigarette back. "My dad's the same way."

Bender shot him an incredulous look. "Your old man smokes?"

"Cigars," Andy replied quietly. Bender noticed how parallel they really were. If it wasn't for the fact that Andy was a jock, and Bender was a stoner, he could have sworn they would have made easy friends in the first place. Of course, John Bender wasn't about to get down on his hands and knees and beg forgiveness. Quarrelling came all too natural to the two boys.

Andy folded his arms over his chest. "So you really think Vernon is going to let you off for the rest of the year?"

Bender took a long drag from the smoke and passed it to his right. "Yeah I think he will. Sadly, I really do think he wants to part ways."

Andy let out a short chuckle. "You do know he isn't going to have anything better to do now; he'll have to find somebody else to pick on."

Bender realized the fact. It was going to be strange for him to go through the rest of his school year without pissing off good old Dick. No matter how vile and despicable of a human being he was, Bender was pretty sure he was going to miss him in a fucked up and demented way. He really was looking forward to breaking his older brother's detention record; hell, he was counting on it.

He would have to find something to do on the weekends.

He shrugged. "I guess I could always wait 'til next year..."

Andy shot him an amused look. "You are really going to come back here next year, Bender?"

He shrugged, smirked, and brought his smoke to his lips. "I do need four more credits still..."

Andy hesitated, almost as if he was considering it. "At least you'll have something to do..."

Bender nodded. "This is true." He threw the butt to the carpet and watched it burn for a few seconds before Andy jumped down and stepped on it. "...but then again, I could always say 'fuck it' and skip town."

"Where would you go?" Andy asked him curiously.

Bender shrugged and shook his hair from his eyes. "It doesn't matter, just the fuck outta here."

"I think you would make a good drifter..." Andy laughed.

Bender rolled his eyes. "At least I won't be sittin' in Shermer wonderin' where everyone went. I don't know about you, but I would rather not keep the parental units company." The thought of that made him want to gauge his eyeballs out with a plastic fork.

Andy nodded and dropped his head so that he was staring at the floor. "Yeah, it's going to suck total dick."

Bender nodded. "Yeah, welcome to the real world, sporto."

Andy shrugged. "I ain't no sporto anymore; just a regular bum like you."

Bender cocked an eyebrow and placed a hand on Andy's shoulder. "Don't worry, Andrew, you'll always feel the love of rolling around with other men; feel the need to grab balls, and lobotomies cannot be reversed." He gave him a smug grin. "...You'll always be you, don't worry."

Andy snorted and playfully smacked John's hand from his shoulder. "You know, you really aren't all that bad when you aren't being an ass kissing, cock smoking, prick."

Bender laughed right back. "Yeah and you really aren't that bad when you aren't choking me with your body odor, and being a pussy ass bitch."

Andy just shook his head and then started to laugh. "Fuck you."

Bender smiled and passed him another cigarette. "And fuck you right back, bud."

Bender hadn't lied; Andrew really wasn't all that bad once his macho mask came off. He really wasn't like all those other jocks who gave him problems everyday. Bender understood now that Andy was just dealing with stuff, almost the same kind of stuff that he himself had to deal with. Bender would be the first to admit (not out loud, of course) that he dealt with his anger in the same way as Andy did; they both took it out on other people. Of course, Bender always did it verbally and very rarely did he actually raise his fist to someone. Either way, he learned they both were two smug pricks who had problems controlling their anger, and they were both really good at making people feel like shit.

Maybe they both really did deserve to sit back in Shermer and rot. Wasn't that how things usually ended? He knew that the nice, good kids always sped off to become successful and happy people. Nice guys didn't always finish last.

At least he had another asshole around who could sit back and watch the world go by as well. Knowing that someone else had to put up with same shit made the idea a little easier to handle.

The door to the foreign languages department crept open and Allison squeezed out. The girls had been sitting in there for awhile, doing god knows what. She had unzipped her frumpy sweater and had her hair tucked behind her ears. She gave Andy a shy smile and watched him.

Bender raised his eyebrows in expectation at Andy - who in turn just sat there staring at her. John rolled his eyes and pushed him off of the railing. "The pussy is there...go to the pussy, Andrew...go to the...ow! Fucker!"

"Shut the hell up, Bender!"

... ... ...

Andy approached Allison slowly; she had her hands folded in front of her and looked a bit nervous. She gave him a small smile.

"Hey," He started, pretty lamely in his opinion.

"Hey..." She replied. She pursed her lips together in a fine line and looked back up at him.

"I just wanted to say sorry..." They both blurted out at the same time. She brought a hand to the side of her face in embarrassment, and he laughed. They had been doing so well earlier, and he cursed for being so awkward this time. He had a pretty good idea what she wanted to say, but sometimes the words were hard to find.

"You go first..." She pushed.

He shrugged. "Well, I'm sorry, obviously." He scratched the back of his head. "I didn't think I was pushing you so hard. I really did think that you wanted to make something out of us last year."

She shrugged. "I did. I just..."

He raised his eyebrows expectantly. "You what?"

She looked to the ground as a blush crept up her face. "I didn't give you enough credit."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

She folded her arms and began rubbing her elbows nervously. "I just...thought you," she bit her lip and quickly said the words. "I thought you had bad intentions. I didn't want you to hurt me."

Andy nodded slowly and met her gaze. "I told you that I wouldn't. I told you that you didn't have to be alone anymore..."

She began to look self conscious and wrapped her arms around herself. "I know...I just..."

"I really did like you, you know. I wanted things to work."

She met his eyes again. "I was scared," She blurted. She chewed on her lower lip and avoided his gaze. He reached up to touch her; and when she didn't object, he pulled her into a tight hug against his chest.

"You never had to be scared."

He felt her nod against his chest and wrap her own arms around his waist. "Andy?"

He raked his fingers through her hair and rested his chin on the top of her head. "Yeah?"

"I missed you."

He smiled and pulled away so that he could see her face. "I missed you too."

She smiled and stood up on her tip toes so that she could reach his lips with hers.

... ... ...

Bender watched as Claire made her way over as well. She gave him a small nod and sat next to him on the railing. She had a smug grin on her face, as if she just did the world a favor. "What the hell you smiling for?"

She cocked a sculpted eyebrow in his direction. "I'm just glad they worked things out."

He looked towards Andy and Allison and then back at Claire; his mouth was twisted. "Makes me want to puke if you ask me."

She laughed lightly at him. "Oh come on now John...just admit it. You feel better after today."

He snorted. "I do feel better that I got to play tonsil hockey on the library floor."

"I was really surprised when you kissed me..." She smiled at him.

He rolled his eyes and pretended to gag. "Don't you be getting all sentimental on me now too, princess."

She hit him lightly on the arm. "Come on John," She licked her lips. "Look me in the eye and tell me that you didn't enjoy it."

He grinned at her playfulness and shrugged. "Maybe I did...maybe I didn't."

She jumped off of the railing and stood in front of him. She tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear. He felt a wave of affection for her wash over him at that moment. She smiled. "Where do we go from here?"

He snorted. "I ain't too good with plannin' this kinda shit out..."

Her eyes went downcast and she swallowed. "Will I ever talk to you again?"

He felt his chest tighten. He wasn't very good at the emotional stuff. He straightened up a bit. "You give me that earring back, and I'll see what I can do for you."

She bit back her smile and nodded. "I think I can do that. But seriously, I don't want to play games with you again."

He nodded and smirked. "Who said anything about playing games, huh?"

She smiled at him and grabbed him lightly by the collar of his shirt, pulling him down towards her. She gave him a soft kiss on his lips and pulled back. "No games?"

He pretended to go into deep thought and then shrugged. "You keep doin' that thing you do with your mouth, and there shouldn't be a problem."

She dropped her hands from his shirt and crossed her arms in a huff. "You and your smart ass comments."

He jumped down off of the railing and headed back to his seat to gather his stuff. "Hey, you know you love it..."

She shrugged her shoulders, following him, and shot him a seductive grin. "If that's what puts you to sleep at night..."

He laughed and shrugged into his jacket. "You don't wanna know what goes on with me at night where it concerns you."

She shook her head and quickly returned to her seat, gathering her own things at a lightening speed. She gave him an awkward look. "For once, I agree with you."

TBC