"I got a detention?! W-What? But why? Mrs. Blossom, I..." Maddy stuttered, panting as if she was out of breath. She had broken into a sprint to reach the school building in time for her first class, but, instead, she had bumped into the headmistress in the hallway. And her mind was still trying to process the woman's last words that echoed in the empty corridor.

"I said: DETENTION." Mrs. Blossom's squeaky, extremely irritating voice sounded strict and high-pitched enough to make Maddy's ears bleed. "You were late. And your appearance today is absolutely disrespectful, young lady! Now head to your class. Immediately." As she pronounced those words, the headmistress' glaring eyes shot daggers at Maddy from behind that awful pair of spectacles she had balanced on her hooked nose. She turned around in an extremely pompous twirl and walked her way across the corridor, her pencil skirt remaining immovable on her wide hips and her high heels making the floorboards creak underneath her tottering feet.

And thus Maddy was left hanging in the corridor, with her jaw having dropped to the floor. Her expression went blank, eyes fixed on her feet, looking at her untied shoelaces without really seeing anything.

Holy. Shit. I just got a detention. Maddy panicked at the thought. This was her first detention ever. Mum is going to kill me. Hell, I'm screwed. What am I...?

The loud ringing of the school bell interrupted her thoughts, snapping her out of her trance. She jumped at the deafening sound which drilled her eardrums, blinked a couple of times and looked around cautiously, like a lost puppy.

It's okay... It's just a detention. Ain't that big of a deal.

Maddy swallowed thickly as she made her way towards her locker in big strides. The corridors were already starting to get crammed with students coming out of their classrooms, students whose voices and giggles mingled with the metallic sound of lockers being shut somewhere in the near distance.

Maddy was wishing she could dig her hands deep inside the pockets of her favorite ripped jeans, those same jeans that she was forbidden to wear at school. Instead, she was wearing that stupid pleated skirt that her mother had meticulously ironed from the previous day, only for the rain to bedraggle it.

"Maddy!" her best friend's voice calling her name from a few steps away.

Maddy lifted her eyes on the girl who was waiting for her in front of their adjacent lockers. Clarke's slim figure was a few meters in front of her, balancing on one foot. Her caramel hair was dead straight, styled in a long bob with bangs that were softly falling in front of her almondish honey-colored eyes. She looked truly ethereal.

Unlike Maddy.

When their glances met, Clarke covered her mouth with one hand, clearly struggling to keep a straight face, the other one holding a half-full carton cup of coffee.

"Girl, what happened to you?" Clarke's eyes scanned Maddy from head to toe, overflowing with a teasing humour. She was barely holding back her bell-like laughter. "You look like a drenched cat," she informed her bluntly, and then burst into giggles.

"Thanks." Maddy rolled her eyes at her best friend, although she knew Clarke was right.

"What happened?"

"Late night study. Missed the bus. Forgot my umbrella." Maddy shrugged. She reached for the hem of her sweater and peeled it up her body, then threw it inside her locker with hatred.

"You? Missed the bus? Well, that was unexpected. Did you do the essay at least? Actually, that was a stupid question. Of course you did. The question is: What did you write?"

A moment of silence for Maddy who opened her locker to throw her books in it as if the paper suddenly caught fire and burned her fingers.

"I didn't do it," she eventually admitted and slammed the locker shut, a resentful sigh escaping her split lips.

Clarke stared at her. "Ok, I'm starting to think an alien has taken over your body or something."

"Yeah, me too."

"Don't worry, Mrs. McDonnell likes nerds like you," teased Clarke.

"Hey!" Maddy elbowed her best friend, a spontaneous laughter making her chest vibrate. "Well, at least she likes me, unlike you." She stuck her tongue out at Clarke.

"Oh, shut up! That was mean! And here I was considering treating you to your favorite vanilla ice cream at the park after school, but after you hurt my feelings so cold-heartedly..."

Oh, god, here comes the dramatic act...

"Umm... Actually... I can't today."

"Why not? Oh, come on, I don't wanna go home right after class!" whined Clarke.

"Well, I-"

"Don't tell me you have to study because that excuse is starting to get old. And annoying."

"Actually, I-"

"Shit, is it a boy? Are you dating someone?" Clarke screeched, carried away by her enthusiasm.

"Shushhhh! No, I just-"

"Oh, it's okay, got it. You have to help your mom with the chores and-"

"No, I just got a detention," Maddy raised her voice in the beginning of her sentence to make Clarke shut up and listen to her, but, by the end of it, it faded away into a low whisper.

Clarke's eyes widened, her mouth fell open. She blinked, then peered into Maddy's face goggle-eyed, drilling holes into her skin.

"Wait, what? A detention? You? You got a detention? You, as in... you?"

"Yeah. Me."

"For real? What- why?"

"Because I was late. And looking like... this." Maddy's gaze swept rapidly up and down her dirty, soaking wet uniform.

"Huh? Oh, come on, who gave you a detention for that?" Clarke frowned, a crease forming on her forehead in between her bangs.

"Mrs. Blossom," Maddy pouted childishly, like a 5-year-old coming home from the kindergarten to give her older brother the name of the kid that made her cry so he could beat that squirt up.

"That bitch! How can she give you a detention for that? I mean, you were just late, it's nothing."

"I know, right?"

"I bet she's on her period again."

Maddy's eyes widened at the cheeky comment, and the two girls burst into laughter. When their giggles eventually faded away, Maddy inhaled deeply and asked:

"Hey, can you back me up and tell my mom I'm at your house and my phone's dead or something? She'll freak out if she finds out I got a detention." The girl subconsciously made a grimace.

"Don't worry, I got your back." Clarke threw an arm around Maddy's shoulders and the two of them started walking across the corridor towards their next class: literature. "Wow, someone got their first detention," she added pointedly, muffling a smirk.

"Oh, shut up! I practically don't know where the detention class is," Maddy snorted, looking heavenward.

"I don't think you'll ever need it again anyways, so..."

"You bet I won't."

"Anyways, did you go to the infirmary to get the vaccine?"

"The what?" Maddy froze.

"Umm... you know. The vaccine? We were getting vaccinated today, remember? Girl, what's wrong with you today?"

"Right. The vaccine. Yeah, no, I... I totally remember..."

What the heck? We're getting vaccinated today?

OH. Right. THAT vaccine.

"...it's just I just came and... I didn't have time to go to the... umm... to the infirmary. Wait, aren't they supposed to gather us all there or something?"

"Well, they did. First thing in the morning I had the nurse shoving a needle in my veins. Hurts like hell. And looks nasty."

Clarke rolled up her sleeve to reveal a large band-aid covering the muscle of her upper arm. Her fingertips felt for its edge and pulled the sticky plaster off, leaving its end glued to her skin so that she could cover it up later again. And thus she showed Maddy the spot where she had gotten vaccinated.

The sight made Maddy release a sharp breath, one that lodged somewhere in her throat, making her choke. She coughed, her pupils dilated dangerously, she was sure her face had just got drained of every hint of colour.

The spot was bruised, broken vessels bleeding a blueish lake of whatever liquid was flowing inside Clarke's popping veins. Her veins... They looked a tad swollen, forming little streams of purple blood that were stretching all around her upper arm in every direction. Her veins... They looked a tad like cracks in the sky whenever a lightning strikes earth, or like eerie tree branches hovering above someone's head as they find themselves wandering alone in the dark woods after midnight. They looked a tad greenish, but more like purple, making a terrifying contrast with Clarke's pale skin on that very spot. Well, in short, they looked a tad scary. Just a tad bit. But for God's sake, how could Clarke's beautiful caramel complexion look so pallid now in the area of her arm? And the way those veins of hers were literally everywhere, looking as purple as the heather and ready to burst any moment and splash Maddy's face with whatever was rushing through them...

Maddy could feel her hair on the back of her neck stand on edge, as a terrified shiver ran down her spine and upset her stomach.

"Please don't faint," teased Clarke, who seemed fairly unbothered by her vaccinated arm and extremely amused by the terrified look in Maddy's glittering eyes. The girl covered her injected arm muscle with the band-aid, allowing Maddy to breathe in again. She hadn't even realised she was holding her breath.

"I told you it's nasty. I mean, that girl Monica started crying like a baby. Anyways, it's mandatory, and they were writing our names down, so I guess they'll eventually tie you up in a chair and vaccinate you too if you don't go to the infirmary on your own," said a dead-serious Clarke, but noticing the dreadful look in Maddy's eyes, she hasted to add: "I'm just kidding, dude."

"Oh." Maddy laughed nervously. "Well, anyways, I'll go on the next break then." And yet, underneath her shaky breath, she whispered a not-so-audible: "I guess."