A/N: People were confused, so I'm just putting it out there that there is a (short) time skip between this chapter and the one prior. 

__________________________________________________

I woke up with a pounding headache. I immediately rolled over, turning away from the window. I threw the sheets over my head and shut my eyes as tight as possible to block out the light.

"Morning, Mads," Carson greeted as he invited himself into the room. I was in my own bed for once, which was a weird surprise. Then again, I can't even remember how I got to my bed. I slowly opened my eyes, peeking out of the sheets, hoping they'd adjust to the light. They didn't, but the pain was more bearable now.

Carson sat on the bed next to me. He had a glass of water in one hand and a bottle of Advil in the other.

"No, it's so early!"

He laughed, "It's 8:30. We're already late for school."

Last night, someone threw a random party to celebrate the end of the school year. Of course, partying the night before the last day of classes sounded a lot better theoretically. Now, I just wanted to vomit. Literally.

"How are you so not nauseous or icky?" I asked. 

"Because unlike your dumb asses, I didn't drink. Kind of the responsibility of designated driver."

I groaned, "You? You never take your turn as driver."

He shrugged. I took the pill bottle and glass from him. "Where is everyone else?" I asked.

"They're all in the other room. I gotta wake them up next."

He grabbed my hands and pulled me out of the bed.

"Can't we just ditch school?" I groaned.

Carson shook his head, "Come on, it's the last day. Turn that frown upside down!"

I groaned and gave him my best scowl, which of course, he found hysterical. 

"We're leaving for class in a half hour. You best be ready."

After assuring him multiple times that I was in fact okay on my own and would not go back to sleep, I finally got Carson out of my room so I could shower the smell of alcohol off of me and get dressed.

The shower helped my head, and I felt much better afterward. I didn't feel as sick, but the lights were still killing me. So, I threw on a pair of my darkest tinted sunglasses after getting dressed. 

A knock sounded at my door. Confused, I turned around to face the door.

"It's still open, Carson. And don't worry, I'm awake."

Instead of Carson, Jason shuffled into the room, awkwardly. 

"I've been sent to see if you're ready."

"Oh, um, yeah."

Weird. 

* * *

"Just be low profile," Dylan whispers. "Keep it casual. No one knows we weren't here."

We all burst through the school doors, hoping to catch passing time, so that the hallways would be too packed to notice that anyone new had showed up late.

Of course, we just couldn't be that lucky. The main hall was scarce with students, which meant that we had probably just missed passing time.

And even more unfortunate for us, the principal was standing right in the entry way. He was talking to the secretary. And he certainly noticed six students walk into school almost two and hours late.

He looked us all over with a stern look on his face. I'm sure he recognized most of us. The boys have always been in and out of his office, and he knew my parents personally (just like everyone else in this town). Let's just say, he was not thrilled to see us.

"In my office. Now."

* *

"So, anyone care to explain?" He said monotonously as he sat down in his desk chair. He folded his hands in front of him neatly. 

"Explain what?" Jason asked. 

"Why were all six of you late?"

"We were late?" Carson said all innocently. 

I slapped Carson's side. "You know, Principal Jefferson, it's really a funny story."

"Great," he sighed. "You can tell me all about it after you take off those sunglasses. You're inside. We have a dress code, which you already stray away from enough."

I rolled my eyes but took off the glasses. I winced at the light but tried to make it as unnoticeable as I could, smiling at the principal. 

"Okay," I started. "So it started earlier this morning. We were on our way to school."

I couldn't really think of any good excuse. I mean, we were over two hours late. 

"And there was this giant lion in the middle of the road!" Jason cut in. 

"Yeah," Dylan nodded his head in agreement. "It was huge and blocking like three lanes of traffic."

"And we wanted to make sure it was safe," Luna added in.

"So we did the responsible thing," Carson smirked. "We called the animal shelter."

"Yeah, but apparently they only take small cats," Zach said. "And we tried to reason with the guy that it was a relatively small lion, but I think we got disconnected or something."

"Anyways, then we called animal control," I explained, hating that this was the best we could come up with. "But apparently, a hippopotamus escaped the zoo earlier this morning, so we had to wait a bit."

"Finally they came, and they took Mr. Wigglesworth away," Dylan started. 

"What the hell is a Mr. Wigglesworth?"

"The lion, Paul. Try and keep up," Carson said, rolling his eyes. The principal stammered, but was cut off by Dylan.

"So now that the lion was gone, we tried to get back in the car, but we couldn't find the keys!" Dylan continued. 

"Yeah! So we thought that maybe when the lion tried to eat Carson's pants, it ate the keys," I added. 

"So, we had to call Triple A and wait for them to show up which took forever."

"Turns out, the keys were in my hand the whole time," Carson smiled, holding up the keys for everyone to see.

As we finished off the story, Jefferson looked over all of us. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

"In all my years, I have never heard such a stupid excuse," He rubbed his temple and shook his head. "I expect this out of you, boys. But Luna, Madeline, I am disappointed to see you stoop to their level."

Carson chuckled, "I mean, it's not that unbelievable. If you think this makes Madeline a bad girl, you should see her-"

I slapped Carson's side again. "Look, Mr. Jefferson, I understand that our story may have been somewhat exaggerated. However, we did nothing wrong."

"Really?" He said, incredulously. "You did nothing wrong? You don't think skipping three periods of class is wrong?"

I smiled at him, "Not when my parents gave you a friends and family discount on your liposuction. I'm sure that the rest of the school would love to hear about it." (A/N: Yes, I know patient confidentiality is a thing, but not in my world so deal with it.

Jefferson stared deeply at me, wincing. God, I love using blackmail to win. It's so fun.

He sighed, "One detention. Since it's the last day, and I can't exactly put you in summer school for being late, you will all serve one detention. Today. Now get out of my office."

* * *