Detention

The bright afternoon sun lit up the sky. It shone through the windows of the room where I was being held against my will. I surveyed the person who was standing between me and my freedom, searching for a moment of weakness. Seconds later, I found one. Her eyes were closed and she was rubbing her temples vigorously, looking like the 'before' person on an ad for stress treatment. It was time for me to make my move.

Hesitantly, I rose my hand into the air and waited impatiently for her to open her eyes. When she did so, her eyes rested on me for a brief second before sweeping through the rest of the room, probably hoping for an excuse to delay our interaction. Feeling slightly offended, I thrust my hand higher into the air. She sighed.
"Yes?" she said in a bored voice.

"I feel sick," I said, putting on a croaky voice and the best brave face I could manage.

"Again?" she asked incredulously. "You can go when you're finished your lines. You must be nearly finished at this stage."

My jaw dropped. How did she expect me to be finished? I had only been there for an hour. To my astonishment a small crowd rose from their seats and presented their work to the teacher. Within a minute, I was one of three left in the room.

With little else to take up my attention, I focused on the clock on the wall. I stared hard at the minute hand, trying to notice it move but even though I stared so hard my vision started to blur, the hand somehow managed to move to its next destination without me ever catching it mid-journey.

"Oi! You!"

"You" could only have referred to me as I was the only one left in the room. I tore my eyes from the clock, wisely coming to the conclusion that it was a magical clock.

"Something wrong?" I asked innocently.
"Aren't you finished yet?" the teacher snapped. "It's only a hundred lines."
"Um, almost," I replied.
"Have you done eighty yet?"
"In or around that," I lied.
She sighed. "How many? Be honest."
"Six," I mumbled.
"Sorry, speak up. I can't hear you. For a minute there, I thought you said six." She chuckled to herself.
"That's what I said," I said, looking at my feet.

Her eyebrows rose so high that they disappeared into her hair. Well, almost.

"What are you waiting for?" she shrieked. "Hurry up, I want to get home by next week if possible."

I felt a faint stab of hope. "Miss, why don't you let me do these at home and then you can go home? It's a win-win situation. Well, maybe a draw-win situation because I'd rather not do the lines at all. But it's not a lose-win situation because that would be if I had to stay here. But that would be a lose-lose situation because you'd have to stay here too."

The teacher cut across my babbling. "If I can't even expect you to do your homework how can I expect you to do this?"

"I told you," I said impatiently, "my dog ate it."
"You don't have a dog."
"How do you know?"
"I rang your mother the last time you used that excuse."
"Oh...well, we only got him on Friday."
"You didn't do your homework on Thursday."
"Did I say Friday? I meant Wednesday."
"What's his name?"
"Erm...Spot."

Silence followed. She was glaring at me, and when she finally spoke she emphasised every syllable.

"You...don't...have...a...dog."
"OK," I croaked and put my head down.

There was silence for a half hour. The teacher was tidying up at last. I looked up hopefully.

"How many?" she asked.
"Twenty," I said proudly.
She sighed exasperatedly. "Why are you so difficult?"
"I'm not difficult," I said indignantly. "I'm misunderstood."
"You threw a rubber at a sub teacher."
"It slipped."
"You set off the fire alarm next week."
"My elbow slipped. Miss, do you think I could go -?"
"No," she snapped before I could finish.
"Why can't I go? Everybody else is allowed," I said.
"Everybody else did a hundred lines," she explained. "Now come on, I'm in no hurry to get home so I'm not letting you off early."

I bit back a witty retort about how she didn't have a life and returned to my punishment work.
Ten minutes and twice as many glances at the clock later she finally gave in.

"Fine, go. But I want them first thing in the morning."
"Oh well you see that might be a problem. Spot is really into chewing things these days. I think he's teething or something but I'm sure he'll grow out of it soon. You know, they grow up so fast these days."
"OUT!"

But I could swear she almost smiled. I obeyed her command and hurried towards my freedom.