"You will go up one by one and solve the problems on the board. I want you to move quickly and pass the pen to the next person going up. Amy, you're up first." Mr. Towner handed the pen to the first person in the farthest left desk of the room.

Amy got up and walked to the front of the class where the screen was. Using the electric pen, she stared solving the first problem. The classroom was silent, most of the students not paying attention as they drew in their notebooks or used their phones hidden in their laps. Teddy sat lazily in his seat, his arms over his chest and his eyes forward as he watched Amy walk back to her seat and pass the pen to the next person sat behind her.

Since Teddy was in Amy's row, he waited patiently until the pen finally reached the last desk. He took it and walked up to the front of the class. Solving the math problem on the screen was easy so it only took Teddy a couple seconds. He then placed the pen on the first desk of the second row and sauntered back to his seat in the back. Mr. Towner remained silent, observing his students and studying who struggled and who had no problem.

Letting his eyes drift around the classroom, Teddy's eyes naturally found the blonde sat perfectly upright in her seat. That was something Teddy discovered recently. Zoe sat with her spine locked in an upright position at all times, whether she was writing stating off into space. She couldn't even sit normally. She had to sit like a perfect pony. It was just another thing Teddy added to his Zoe's secretly an alien trying to blend in with humans list.

Zoe seemed like a perfect angel trying her best to sit with perfect posture, until you looked at her feet. Because she always wore heels to school, everyday without fail, she took her heels off whenever she could. It was usually because her feet were sweaty, not because they hurt. After walking in heels for so many years already, her feet were used to them. And, in school, she only walked in them for a couple minutes before she sat down for an hour at a time. It wasn't all that bad.

Teddy watched Zoe tap the tile floor with her painted toes and then scratch the back of her leg with the top of her foot. Her toes were small and square shaped. They didn't look gross since her toenails were painted and her skin was perfectly moisturized from head to toe. Literally. Her toes would sometimes try to grab the bar of the seat in front of her that connected the chair legs. The metal was cold so every time she did it, she'd visibly shiver.

Teddy internally snickered and shook his head. Zoe's attention remained glued to her notebook. She hadn't written many notes because she was so sidetracked with her flower drawings. Teddy watched her switch from her blue glitter gel pen to her purple and her pink and then back to blue. She obviously thought she was creating a masterpiece because she was so focused that she didn't even notice the person in front of her waving a pen in her face.

"Ms. Yang." Zoe looked up at Mr. Towner before her attention was dragged to her classmate holding up the pen Mr. Towner always used. "It's your turn Ms. Yang."

"Oh!" Zoe grabbed the pen from her classmate so they could return to their seat.

She started fumbling with her heels to get the strap around her foot but she didn't manage before Mr. Towner rushed her.

"Quickly, Ms. Yang!" Mr. Towner warned from his desk.

Zoe ditched her shoes in a panic and hopped out of her seat. Stepping as lightly as possible to keep off the cold tile floor, Zoe made her way to the front of the class. Teddy grinned as he watched the shrimp stand on her toes to reach the problem at the top corner of the screen. She wrote a couple numbers and paused to land flat on her feet and think. Zoe had been up there for all of a minute before someone's phone started vibrating in their bag.

"Phones off, please.." Mr. Towner growled as he scanned the class.

Everyone looked around, confused as to whose phone it was and why they hadn't turned it off yet.

Zoe suddenly stopped writing as she remembered something. "Oh! That's me!"

Zoe's feet pitter-patted against the floor as she rushed to her seat. She hurried to dig her phone out of her bag and didn't hesitate to answer it, shocking both Mr. Towner and her classmates. As Zoe greeted a man named Mr. Graham, she placed the pen on the desk behind her and rushed out of the classroom. Mr. Towner called after her but she didn't falter for even a moment as she stepped out of the classroom and closed the door behind her.

The classroom started to fill with murmurs but Mr. Towner shushed them as he searched for his detention slips. He wrote one out and hushed his class once more, demanding the next student go up and continue solving her problem that she wasn't even doing correctly in the first place. Mr. Towner stuck his foot in the door once he was outside, making eye contact with the blonde on her phone.

"Yes.. One second, Mr. Graham.." Zoe cringed as she stared at her very unimpressed but patient math teacher. "No. I won't even put you on hold, it will only take a second."

When Mr. Graham agreed, Zoe held her phone to her chest and nibbled on her bottom lip. Mr. Towner gestured the pink detention slip towards Zoe. "I understand you have important work outside of class but I trust you'll schedule important calls from now on. For now, you have an hour of attention after class, Ms. Yang."

"Sorry, Mr. Towner." Zoe looked down at her detention slip and frowned.

Zoe was relieved Mr. Towner was being nice and understanding but she wasn't very proud of herself for getting an hour of detention. She had never been given detention before. Zoe pouted as she accepted the pink slip. Mr. Towner pushes the door back open with his foot and walked back into class. Zoe returned to her call, apologizing to Mr. Graham and continuing to discuss their own schedule regarding his next event. This was a call she had been anticipating for nearly two weeks so she couldn't rush not taking it, despite being in the middle of class and standing barefoot on cold tile floor.

~~~

Zoe waved goodbye to her friends at the entrance to the school and then turned around to waltz towards the consequences of her decisions. It wasn't really like it was her fault. It was Mr. Graham that decided to call at ten a.m even though he knew she was still in school. But, to be fair, a lot of people her age and in the world of riches did online schooling to adhere to their busy lifestyle. But Zoe had to take the call! If she missed it, she would've missed out on a job.

Anyways, Zoe still got detention for it either way. According to what Mr. Towner explained to her after class, detention usually took place in the study hall classroom. It was a classroom that was usually unoccupied unless a teacher had to relocate or they had a special class for a day. It was basically just a spare room. And when Zoe finally found it, tucked away by the second auditorium and science rooms, she understood it's character nearly instantly.

Not all of the lights worked as they occasionally flickered. There were only a couple of desks, some not even facing the front of the classroom. There was two stacks of chairs in the back corner of the classroom, along with extra textbooks stacked on the back counter and other surplus supplies. The board on the front wall of he class wasn't a screen like the other classrooms had. It was just half a white board and the other half was a black board. This was definitely a misfit classroom.

"Zoe, right?" The sound of a foreign voice made Zoe slightly jump.

Zoe turned to her left to see a boy stood beside her, the same dark complexion as Teddy. But they did have the same short hair and faded sides. Despite that, he was holding an ice pack wrapped in a paper towel over his left eye. Even his lip was slightly swollen, which was extra worrying considering he had his lip piercings. He even had a piercing through his eyebrow, small black gages, and others littering his ears. Zoe hadn't met anyone in this school with that many piercing yet.

"You looking for someone?" The boy asked as he peeked inside the classroom. There was nobody inside. "Or.. Did you somehow get detention?"

"Detention.." Zoe forced a sad smile as she flashed her pink slip.

The boy did the same with his and mimicked her sad smile. "Samsies."

With a long stride, the boy stepped into the classroom and took his place at one of the front desks actually facing forward. Zoe, not knowing how this worked exactly, followed his lead. She took the seat beside him and set her backpack beside her chair like she did in every class. Zoe watched the boy beside her as he pulled the ice pack back from his face, flipped it around, and pressed it against his eye again. He winced but took a deep breath and relaxed.

A moment later, two other students filtered into class. Zoe watched them take their seats in slanted desks and continue carrying on a conversation. The two boys looked like freshman. A moment later, a female student walked in, followed by a teacher. The girl slumped into a seat as she rolled her eyes, the teacher walking into class obviously just as annoyed. But when they spotted Zoe sat in the front of the classroom, the teachers face softened and contorted slightly in confusion.

"Zoe Yang? Are you here for detention?" The teacher asked as she grabbed the pink slip the boys beside Zoe was holding out.

"Uh.. Yeah." Zoe picked up that she was suppose to hand over her slip and did just that.

The teacher grabbed the slip and walked towards the two freshman boys to collect theirs as well, her eyes glued to Zoe's the whole time. "You answered a phone call during class? Barefoot?"

The boy beside Zoe snorted a laugh. Zoe shifted uncomfortably and nodded. "Yeah. I couldn't really ignore it and I had my shoes off because my feet get sweaty."

"Alright.." The teacher put the pink slips on her desk and grabbed the thermos instead. "I'm going to grab some coffee. You may complete homework or draw but no phones or talking. Understood?"

"Yeah.." The boy beside Zoe and the grumpy girl muttered with a bored tone. Zoe simply nodded as the teacher walked off.

The teacher hadn't left the room for all of ten seconds before the girl spoke up.

"You answered a call during class?" Zoe craned her neck slightly to look at the girl. She looked older. Maybe she was a senior. "Was it Dior asking if you needed more pictures to post all over the school?" The girl spoke in a sour tone, her face contorted in anger and annoyance.

"Uhh..." Zoe gulped and shifted in her seat once more. "I didn't know they were going to put those up. Sorry if it bothered you. I wasn't trying to show off or anything."

The girl scoffed and slumped into her seat. "God, I heard you were a perfect angel. Sickening.."

Zoe pulled her lips into a thin line and faced forward again. No wonder people hated detention. There was a rude senior ready to chew her up and spit her out, two freshman boys flicking paper balls at each other, and a boy who obviously got in a fight earlier. And she had to sit here for an hour? Without her phone or friends? That alone was Zoe's own, personal hell. She despised silence and she hated feeling bored even more.

Zoe decided she would just draw to pass the time since that was one of her options. She pulled out a notebook and her box of glitter gel pens. The boy beside her watched as she picked through her pens and decided on pink, like usual. She began in the middle of her paper and drew a tiny, twisted blob. From there, she continued outwards with different bubbles underlapping the other. She looked focused yet her posture was straight and stiff.

After awhile, Zoe noticed a pair of eyes on her. She looked out of the corner of her eyes to the boy sat beside her with the ice pack still held to his face. He gave a lazy wave and a grim smirk. Zoe smiled. He seemed like an interesting character.

"What's your name?" Zoe whispered.

"Howl." He answered simply.

Zoe nodded and looked him over. "Were you in a fight, Howl?"

"No, I tripped." Howl flashed a goofy grin, causing Zoe's to broaden. He had a sense of humor. That was nice. "You know Brett Evans?" Zoe frowned at the mention of his name. "Exactly."

"He hit you?" Zoe pouted. Howl nodded. "For what?"

"I made a joke about his fragile masculinity when he refused to do stretches with me during gym and he proved me right by attacking me."

"Why did he refuse?"

"Because I'm gay and he's intimidated by it." Howl answered simply, catching Zoe by surprise. "He's a homophobe."

"So why are you in detention and he's not?"

"He said he refused to be in the same room as me so I guess he just decided to skip out."

Zoe let out a heavy sigh, shook her head, and continued drawing. "I can't say I'm surprised. My own experience with him was pretty awful, I can't imagine what you've been through."

"From what I've noticed, you don't gravitate towards the nicest people, princess." Howl stated.

Zoe was confused by his statement, studying his dark eyes to find a clue of what he meant. "Wh-what does that mean? My friends are very nice."

"I heard you ditched your friends to talk to Teddy in the street the other day." Howl's grim smirk broadened. "You have a thing for Teddy?"

Zoe awkwardly shifted in her seat and continued to doodle. It took her moment to answer as she tried to control her facial expression. Howl grew more and more amused. "I don't have a thing for him. He's just... Nice."

"Nice?" Howl snorted a harsh laugh. Zoe looked around the room to see the girl and the two freshman were staring at them. Her eyes landed on Howl as he relaxed in his seat, his legs dramatically spread out into the aisle. "Teddy would pop a lung laughing if I told him you said that."

"Are you... friends with Teddy?"

Looking him over again, Zoe could definitely imagine Teddy being friends with a guy like this. They had a similar attitude. Howl dropped his ice pack on to his desk and shrugged. "I wouldn't say we're friends but out of everyone in this miniature hell, I'd say I get along with him the best. He'd probably say the same thing."

"So you know Teddy well?"

"No." Howl answered bluntly. "Nobody knows Teddy. He's a closed book."

Zoe frowned and looked at the flower she was in the middle of doodling. She added a couple pedals and sighed. "I bet I could get to know him."

"That's a pretty bold claim, princess."

"You sound just like him." Zoe shot Howl a sideways, playful glare.

"So you do know Teddy?" Howl smirked.

Zoe felt proud of herself that he would even ask as she cheekily shrugged. "I'm getting there."

"Yeah, good luck with that." Howl snorted a bitter laugh.

Right on cue, the teacher watching the kids in detention came back with her thermos to her lips. Zoe averted her attention from Howl to her drawing. Howl grabbed his ice pack, flipped it over, and placed it on his black eye again. The room was silent all over again. Howl and Zoe stole glances at each other, both smirking when they caught the other. Howl found it amusing that a girl like Zoe would want anything to do with Teddy. Zoe simply liked Howl. He seemed like a cool friend.

Zoe never imagined she'd find someone she enjoyed talking to in detention.