Seventh Grade
    I feel the eyes of the other students blazing through my back. Ms. Delaney is looming over me as a cat does to a mouse. I did do my science homework. It was the first thing I did when I got home yesterday. But alas, I come out of my backpack empty-handed. Ms. Delaney sniffs and sits down at her desk writing what I know is a detention slip. My eyes drift to the yellow and orange lava lamp at her desk. My bloodstream envies its steady and calm flow. Ms. Delaney stands back up and delivers the slip to me.

    “Well then, Mr. Trelloi will be seeing you during detention is his room today.” Ms. Delaney turned away, proceeding on about amphibians and other cold-blooded animals. I don’t hear. I can’t hear. I can’t even think straight. All I hear is one word, echoing throughout my mind and my whole skeleton: Detention.

    I’m in a sea of thick ranch dressing. It’s the same type that Mr. Trelloi uses on his salad during Social Studies. I can see Lucas Warde and his “goons” bellowing in laughter as they throw sandwiches at each other. One of them throws me one into my face and I taste it. It’s the same egg salad sandwich I shared with Lucas that day in second grade. That was the same day I got into serious trouble.

    The bell rings.

    Large glowing red lightning bolts shower down on the sea of dressing and I’m sitting back in the science classroom. I look at the clock. 11:30. Oh no.

    Lunch.

    I hesitantly open the door to Mr. Trelloi’s room. Fortunately, he’s the only person there. The Social Studies teacher looks up from eating his salad and almost jumps in his seat. I walk over and hand him the detention slip. He looks at the slip and then me. He shrugs and swallows the salad.

    “I see Ms. Delaney gave you this note. I can tell from the yellow paper,” Mr. Trelloi murmured as he wrote his signature on it with a ball-point pen.

Yellow. I gagged a bit in my mouth. I despise the color yellow. It makes me hear the laughter of Ms. Delaney when my rival, Kate Densal, tells a totally unfunny knock-knock joke. I see the movement of Ms. Delaney’s orange and yellow lava lamp that somehow reflects the mood she’s in. I feel the freezing cold water of the sink on my hands, I hear her say detention.

I take a seat in the back of the room and it’s not until three minutes later that Lucas Warde and his “goons” show up. Lucas gives Mr. Trelloi his slip and turns around. He looks either shocked or amused, I can’t tell.

“Well look who we have here,” Lucas says with a grin. “Mr. Teacher's pet!” His voice gives a taunting edge to the words “teacher” and “pet.” The words spray out of his mouth and into the room. The snorty chuckles of his friends consume the color from the atmosphere. I feel the tingling taste of soap in my mouth. And then I feel the water come down. Did they throw water on me? Where is it coming from?

More water.

I’m crying. I’m vulnerable. The chuckles become roars of laughter.
    “That will be enough from you four today!” Mr. Trelloi’s voice cleans the air and I feel cold fresh air hit my lungs. Mr. Trelloi says something about “office” and “after-school detention.”

“Hey, are you okay?” Mr. Trelloi asks me. I nod. “Okay. Well, don’t hesitate to tell me if they’re bothering you.” He turns and walks back to his desk. I just realize that it’s lunchtime so I grab my lunch and start eating. It was a lot calmer than most lunches that I’m used to. After I finish my lunch I realize I have ten minutes left, so I go into my backpack to search for a book. I open the front pocket of my backpack and reach in to grab my independent reading book.

Paper.

Paper? Why is there paper? All of the paper I have is in my binders or lockers! I take the paper out of my backpack and give a look for myself.

It’s my homework! But not just any homework, my science homework!

“Mr. Trelloi?” I ask. “May I give something to Ms. Delaney?” Mr. Trelloi nods and I run down the hall and knock on the door. I open it to see Ms. Delaney eating spaghetti at her desk. “Hello-” she’s about to greet me but I interrupt her. “I found my homework! I told you I did it!” I place it down on her desk. She picks it up and looks it over. “Thank you, Roy. I guess you can leave detention early.”

I see the sunshine gleaming through the window and the chirping of birds flutter my ears. I taste butterscotch-no wait-peppermint and I smell crisp, clean paper from a pack. It was the best feeling all day and I’m going to keep it.