CHAPTER FOURTEEN
DETENTION

Unluckily for Kimberley, she had managed to sleep through her alarm the following morning. Successfully making herself just over forty minutes late for her first class, leading her to be caught by a teacher with a sharply furrowed expression whom she did not recognise.

In Kimmy's defence, she had been walking to her first class as she was caught out, though the older woman wasn't buying into any of her bribes or white lies.

So, because the young girls alarm clock had failed to wake her, she was now sat in a near empty classroom, the seats occupied around her filled with students notoriously known for their distruptions and obnoxious behaviour.

Kimmy felt herself still as she lowered herself into her chosen seat, choosing to ignore the lingering eyes on her.

However, the second the girl was sat, those whom had been watching the girl had shifted their gaze elsewhere.

Kimmy clasped her hands together, looking dead ahead at the classroom clock as she watched the minutes tick by in almost slow motion. As if to mock her.

Truth be told, the girl had most likely fallen into such a deep sleep due to the time of night the girl had finally closed her eyes. Kimmy had fallen asleep while reading a book which she had found while rummaging around her empty house the night prior. It must have been around two or three in the morning when she had drifted off.

She awoke this morning to find her parents still nowhere to be found. This didn't trouble Kimmy, they'd turn up at some point- this wasn't unusual.

She actually preferred when the two were away.

Despite being warned against this, Kimmy was the only child sat in the room where detention was held who wasn't talking to someone else at that moment. The man who was supposably looking over the group asleep against his desk.

Though Kimmy could tell the others were talking, she couldn't tell what they were saying, however it was enough for the noise to fill the air within the classroom.

However, just as Kimmy decided she would close her eyes and rest her cheek against her desk to catch up with some much needed sleep before attending her next class, a loud voice from the hall caused her to flinch and sit up straight in her seat.

"Please don't give me detention, please." The boyish voice pleaded, droning on as his voice continued to crack with nerves. "Please, don't you know what you are doing? This will go on my record. My permanent record!"

A female voice sighed, presumably the same woman who had issued Kimmy her own detention slip. "I am well aware of what a detention entails, Mr Harrington-"

Mr Harrington?

Aaron.

Kimmy was completely puzzled at what Aaron could have possibly done to earn himself a detention, the boy seemed to be terrified of trouble.

"So you are knowingly jeopardising my future and you don't care?" Aaron retaliated very much dramatically before taking a loud shaky breath and continuing in a much calmer voice. "Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. But please, can't you just let it slide this one time? I never do anything wrong. Check my record if you don't believe me-"

"Mr Harrington," the woman began in a tired voice, already sick of his antics. "You can either walk in that class right now, or I can issue you a detention slip for everyday for the following week."

There was a brief silence, followed by a spurge of disapproving rambles. "This is crazy! All because I was late to class? People are late all the time and they don't get detention. You know why? Because it's Mr Smith as hall monitor - who I should say is a much better hall monitor than you!" Aaron burst, before the shuffling of feet could be heard. "What- you can't push me, my dad-"

"I am well aware of who your parents are, Mr Harrington." The woman snapped, silencing the boy abruptly. "And I am heading to call them this instant."

Another, longer pause of silence could be heard.

Moments passed before Aaron could be heard sighing and making his way into the class, grumbling under his breath as he did so.

Kimmy watched as his eyes widened a fraction upon meeting her stare, surprise written all over his features.

After what had felt much longer than it actually had been, Aaron shifted his dark green eyes from her navy ones, visibly stilling in discomfort as he looked around the class.

By now, the students had picked up their previous conversations, now uninterested in the newest addition to the group.

Aaron tightened his grip on the straps of his backpack, forcing himself to move one foot in front of the other as his cheeks went pink.

Kimmy watched as he pulled out the seat to her right and sat down in it, placing his bag on the floor and taking out his French textbook and notebook without as much as looking at her. From which Kimmy suspected was because of the continuously deepening color of his cheeks and the embarrassed look which filled his features which he was desperately trying to hide.

"Are you okay?" Kimmy whispered, nudging his arm with her shoulder as she looked to him.

Aaron darted his head up from the textbook he was reading and snapped his eyes over to her face. Looking anything but okay.

"No I am not okay, Kimberley." Aaron blurted in a whisper, sounding as equally stressed as he looked. "I've missed my first class, I've gotten a detention, and my parents have been called and will kill me when they next see me." The boy huffed, turning away from her and looking back to his French textbook before slamming it closed and turning back to her. "And to top it all off, I'm failing French."

Kimmy simply blinked at him, allowing her eyes to fall on the open books in front of him. A big marked B on the latest test stuck in his textbook pocket.

It certainly didn't look like he was failing French.

But then, it was Aaron Harrington. He was top of all his classes and was very set on achieving to his fullest when studies were involved. When she thought about it, Kimmy had never seen him with anything other than an A on either his homework's nor his tests.

"You're not failing," Kimmy pointed out carefully, gesturing to his marked test paper. "You're sitting at a B."

She watched as the boys eyes widened and his brows furrowed, shaking his head as he spoke up in a whisper. "Yes I am. I don't know how your parents feel about your test scores, but a B will not pass in my house. And now Mrs Morales has went and called my parents, I'll bet she's found a way to bring this up."

Kimmg tilted her head as her brows furrowed. How was it that Aaron was pushed to ace all his classes by his parents while Steve was allowed to cruise by? It was no secret Aaron's older brother wasn't all that bright. It was a well known fact that he'd almost been held back the previous year.

"I'm sure she won't mention it." Kimmy attempted to comfort, sending him a small smile as she shrugged. "And I wouldn't call a B a fail, Aaron. You're acing all your other classes, how are you supposed to keep up? I'm hardly passing anything."

Aaron forced a smile back, though it was very much halfhearted. The boy shrugged before looking back down at his textbook and placing a finger at his place.

"I don't know," he mumbled, biting the inside of his cheek while scrunching his face together. "I just- I don't know, doesn't matter anyway. I can't get my head around it, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Everytime I think I've got my average up, it goes down. I study more for that class than any of my others."

Kimmy didn't know what to say. She thought he was incredibly smart, which he was. However she suspected this was not what he needed to hear seeing how distressed he was at the moment.

Despite this, she told him anyway.

"I think you're smart." Kimmy shrugged, watching as he stilled and grew visibly uncomfortable, tearing his gaze from hers and moving to close his books. "A lot smarter than anyone I know, don't tell the others but I'd say you're the smartest out of the whole year, definitely the smartest out of the party."

"Do you take French?" Aaron changed the topic quickly, talking almost the instant Kimmy's voice had come to a quiet.

It was fairly evident Aaron didn't know how to take complements. He looked more uncomfortable than Kimmy'd ever seen him.

"No I don't." She replied simply, watching the boy as he packed his things away. Though she could tell he hadn't wanted to, he simply needed something to keep himself busy regarding the sudden change of subject. "But I don't think I could help you anyway, my highest grade this year is a C."

She watched as Aaron smiled teasingly and raised his brows at her, thinking she was joking around to make him feel better.

Kimmy wasn't lying.

"Do you think my parents will find out about this?" He asked abruptly, the smile vanished from his lips as he looked to her with a serious expression. "About my detention?"

His parents would most definitely find out and Kimmy knew this, the school always called the parents.

"No." She replied instead, choosing to lie in hope to benefit the boys rising concerns on the matter. "You'll be fine, no need to worry."

Kimmy watched Aaron let out a sigh of relief, clasping his hands together. "Oh thank God," he breathed out, looking much more relieved than he should have been.

Kimmy watched with a perplexed expression, slightly concerned for the boy now as to what he would expect when he went home.

Kimmy didn't need to worry. Yes, the school would call her parents, but they either weren't home or wouldn't answer.

"Why did you get a detention?" Aaron asked, still speaking in a whisper. Both his arms were resting on the desk in which the two were sat at, but one of his hands were reached over to his other as he began messing around with the watch on his wrist again.

Kimmy was momentarily distracted by this, he hasn't messed around with his watch in a while. Not that she had picked up upon anyway.

"Walking around during class time I think." Kimmy replied unsurely, now she thought about it, she wasn't sure what exactly had gotten her a detention. The fact she was late or the fact she was wondering the halls without an out of class permission slip. "To be fair, I was  on my way to class. I slept in."

Aaron nodded, his eyes wondering slightly as he thought up a response. "I slept in too. If Mrs Morales could have just let me go to my class I'm sure I would have been able to catch up, clearly not."

Kimmy smiled and let out a slight laugh, Aaron smiled back briefly before suddenly reaching down and grabbing his French stuff back out of his backpack.

Kimmy furrowed her brows in confusion, but ultimately made no comment on the behaviour.

...

Kimmy was taken by surprise to find that Aaron was already sat by her spot outside at lunch waiting for her. Wiping the step with the sleeve of his jacket before placing it down and sitting on the fabric. His paper bag which contained his homemade lunch clutched in his hold.

Carefully, the boy opened the top of the bag and took out his sandwich, adjusting the jacket he sat on so he could place the bag safely onto it aswell as he ate.

The bell had gone about twenty minutes ago, so Kimmy didn't really have much time left in her lunch break, though this didn't stop the girl from walking over to the saddened looking boy.

"Aaron?" Kimmy called in a puzzled voice as she approached him, the boy shifting to glance at her with a very much upset expression on his face. "Where are your friends?"

Aaron huffed as she sat down next to him, his sandwich still very much tightly held in his hands. "In the cafeteria, I didn't really feel like going in there today. Too stressed." She watched Aaron pick up the paper bag and put his sandwich back in, looking on the verge of tears. "Mrs Morales told my parents about my detention by the way."

Kimmy stilled and hesitated before sitting down next to him, scratching the back of her neck as she frantically thought of what she could say.

"How do you know she called your parents?" Kimmy blurted out the question, cringing slightly at her choice of words seeing how torn up Aaron appeared to be about the matter.

"She called them in for a meeting next Friday because I refused to go to detention." He mumbled in a low voice. Kimmy noticed that he didn't sound angry, he sounded upset, scared even. "I did speak to her like a bit of an ass, but I went into detention eventually didn't I?"

Kimmy send him the best smile she could muster and nodded, unsure why the boy was taking this so hard. His brother was always in trouble- he still was. Surely his parents were used to it?

Evidently not, because Aaron was scared shitless for Friday. It was clear as day.

"My parents are going to kill me." Aaron sighed, dropping his face into his palm as he stared at the dirty steps below him.

"I'm sure your parents won't kill you, Aaron." Kimmy reassured carefully, eyes widening when Aaron put his face in his hands and shook his head.

"They'll hate me." He droned on, voice muffled slightly against his hands. "I never get in trouble and I'm definitely not supposed to get in trouble with the school. Especially when it's because of how I spoke to a teacher after I got detention."

Kimmy had no idea how she was supposed to comfort her friend. Comforting others was not her strong point.

"Maybe you can go find Mrs Morales and change her mind about the meeting?" Kimmy suggested, hesitantly placing a hand on his shoulder, ignoring the way he tensed and flinched under her touch.

"There's no point," Aaron huffed quietly, "I'm a dead man."

Kimmy moved her hand, dropping it back down to her side as she shifted and straightened her back, scratching her neck anxiously as she thought over his previous words.

"Well, the meeting isn't until next Friday, right?" Kimmy began cautiously, wincing as her words only caused Aaron to groan.  "You could go home and tell your parents tonight, then they won't have to find out in the meeting-"

"I can't." Aaron shut down quickly, lifting his head from his hands as he rested it against the door behind him. "Mom and dad aren't home, they're away for business and aren't supposed to be back for three weeks. They will never speak to me again when they realise why they had to come home early."

Kimmy wasn't exactly sure what to say to that. His parents were seemingly never home, just as her's weren't. However Aaron appeared to care a lot more about that fact than Kimmy did.

"Aaron," she sighed desperately. "Your parents will speak to you again. And I promise they won't hate you."

Aaron scrunched his face up, though Kimmy wasn't sure if this was to keep himself from crying or simply from anger. "I'm so fucked-"

The end of lunch bell cut him off, leaving the boy shooting up as he grabbed his belongings, making sure not to put back on his jacket which had been on the dirty steps despite the cold weather. 

"I've got to go. Don't want another detention." He announced sourly while placing his lunch back into his bag. "Meet at the front gate after school, the party has to tell you about what went down at Mike's yesterday."

Kimmy nodded as she watched him walk off, his shoulders slightly more tense than usual due to the added stress toppled onto them.

Truth be told Kimmy had almost forgotten about what the party had done yesterday after she had left for home. She was more concerned with the amount of stress the sandy haired boy was putting himself under.

...

Poor Aaron lol.
Please comment if you have any critisms on my writting etc trying to make it better.

TYSM FOR 4K READS!!!

-AJ :)