Detention.

Nick sighed as he constantly listens to Jade's tapping on her desk. "Jade, stop it." But the girl ignored him. He sighed and puts his head down his desk in surrender. This is agony.

Kevin Richardson shakes his head as he silently watched the two sophomores. He knows that Jade was so bored, and so does every one of them. They did nothing but sit inside the detention room. It's almost five in the afternoon. He's never been in detention before. He doesn't know what to do. And it seems like the other five students here were first-timers too. He looked at them one by one.

Jade Archer is the wonder kid he's been hearing about. She may only be a sophomore but she's already in the girls' basketball varsity team. Another amazing thing there is that she's also an honor student in her class. Probably the reason why she's wary of being in detention because there is varsity practices after school and she wasn't able to be there. It was her fault anyway. He heard about the lab disaster earlier. Her classmate, Nick, was her lab partner. Nick Carter, on the other hand, admitted his fault as well. He's a contributing writer in the school paper and due to the demands of his extra-curricular activity, he wasn't able to prepare for the laboratory class with Jade the next day. Just like Jade, he's also a struggling student who wanted to maintain his good grades and his extra school work. But he wasn't able to manage it today.

Jade stomped towards the board and wrote a chemical equation. Nick groaned in embarrassment. "I know that if I put zinc, it will create an unusual chemical reaction to the compound and it will explode."

"Why did you do it anyway?" Brian Littrell asked her.

Jade continued to glare at Nick. "Because this fucking gay forgets what he had to do in our lab class. He knows that I'm also busy with basketball as he is with the school paper, but he forgot this responsibility and let me did all the work." She frowned. "Nick, I'm tired too. I got home late but that's not an excuse to forget what I have to prepare for today's lab class. Don't use a lame excuse on me. You know me."

"I said sorry." Nick tried again. And yes, he's more in touched with his feminine side but does she really have to say it? "It's my fault."

Jade glared at him again then turned to Samantha Griffin, one of the seniors in that room. Only she and Nick are the sophomores. The other four were senior students and classmates. "What are you doing here, Sam?"

"I distributed flyers in Keats' class." Samantha replied, referring to her continuous campaign to save sea animals.

"In Keats' class? Did you know how stupid it is to do that? And of all people, in Keats' class?" Jade raised an eyebrow. "You should do better than that. Give me some of your flyers and I'll help you, but not in Keats' class." The notorious teacher, Helga Keats, is famous for giving students a sample of a life in hell inside her classroom.

Kevin just silently sits at the back of the classroom. He noticed Brian taking a quick glance to Leighanne Wallace. He knew his best friend secretly admires their beautiful classmate and that has made him present today in detention.

Brian looked away. Samantha turned to him. "You know, Brian, my uncle got a part-time job offer for you. Will you just accept it so that you won't be always late for school? And just ask Leigh out, for Pete's sake!" she rolled her eyes.

Brian didn't say anything. He's the silent-type and many feared him because no one knows what really goes on in his mind. But being his best friend, Kevin knows that Brian just had a lot of things in his mind. His friend came from a poor family where his parents struggled to get him to school. Brian has three younger siblings after him and he chose to work after school to help his parents. He's good-looking and a lot of girls like him a lot but he has no time for it. According to him, he can't afford to take a girl out when the money he earns is just enough to help his parents to have something to eat everyday. That's the reason why he couldn't make a move on Leighanne no matter how much he wanted to. He got used to be contented on just looking at Leighanne from afar.

"Why don't you ask him out instead?" Samantha turned to Leighanne. The other one blushed. Leighanne Wallace is every essence of a prom queen that anyone could imagine. She's beautiful and smart. And that's what also brought her into detention today. She's a part-time model and decided to cut classes. While on her way to school, she met guys on the way who doesn't want to leave her alone. Brian happened to be late in school too because of his early part-time job and saw what's going on. He found himself in a fight with them and tried to protect Leighanne from them. They got to school afterwards but unfortunately, the vice principal caught them and send them to detention.

When Leighanne only blushed, Samantha sighed. She can't make a couple out of these two. They're both shy although obviously, they liked each other. She turned to Kevin, who's been silent all along. "You know, if you don't have homework, you can always ask me, Kev."

Kevin rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Sam."

"Have you ever thought about it? Senior class president was put in detention because he has no homework." Samantha continued.

"I can make an article for this," Nick excitedly clapped his hands at the sudden idea. When his best friend, Jade, glared at him, he stopped. They're quite the opposite. "You know, Jade. God got it wrong about us. I should be the girl and you should be the boy, and that will save us a whole lot of a problem."

"You know, Nick. You're so cute and it's a waste that you're gay."

"I'm beautiful." Nick corrected his friend.

Brian rolled his eyes. It's really a waste that this boy is gay. He heard that Nick's father couldn't accept his son's preference and freaked out. He began to think that the bruises he saw once in this boy's body were given by his father. Poor guy. It wasn't his fault if he's more in touched with his feminine side.

Everyone went silent. The only noise they can hear is the agonizing ticking of the clock. They all turned in surprise when the door suddenly opened and revealed Miss Helga Keats. Samantha silently groaned upon seeing the teacher again. They flinched when the door slam shut. "Get a piece of paper." Helga told the six as she walked towards the teacher's table. She tried not to smile upon seeing the diversity of the participants in detention today: the senior class president, the social rebel, the class loner, the prom queen and a couple of identity-confused kids. She watched as they quickly get something she asked them to. She actually liked these kids and they may disappoint her sometimes, she had strong belief of what the good future holds for them.

"I want all of you to make an essay with the topic about what you wanted to be in your life." She looked at them one by one. Nick Carter is the only one who is enthusiastic. This is going to be interesting. She's looking forward to their finished essay later.