”I want to make it clear, this is your fault. If a reporter one day in the future decides on writing down my biography, I want them to write that it was Brandon’s fault I got detention.” Reina moped.

“What are you talking about? That was totally your fault!” Brandon exclaimed.

“Who was the one to fail at making our project? How are you so bad at science anyway? You follow the instructions and put stuff into a bottle. It’s not that hard.” Reina griped.

“I’m telling you, one of the ingredients was missing!” Brandon repeated for the hundredth time.

“Riiight.” Reina drawled out. “Welp, we’re stuck in here and I am going to lose my mind if we stay any longer. Detention shouldn’t last this long!”

“What are you, a kid? It’s been 10 minutes, show a little restraint.” Brandon reprimanded her. Reina rolled her eyes at the hypocrisy of the statement.

“You’re one to talk, yelling all the time and messing up simple tasks.” Reina retorted.

“Will you let the potion thing go already?!” Brandon demanded to know. Reina smiled smugly.

“No. And it’s not a potion.” Reina reminded him.

“I don’t care if it’s a walrus, I’m not going to keep on listening to you talk about it.” Brandon declared.

“Then get some earmuffs,” Reina suggested. “Or stick your disgusting fingers into your ears.”

Brandon groaned. “I am not going to do any of that.”

“Then stop complaining,” she advised. “Before I start to get mad and body parts begin to fly.”

Brandon blanched but maintained his composure. “You’re not going to do that,” he stated, acting far more confident than he felt. Reina could sense these kinds of things, his face was a semi-open book.

“Are you sure about that?” She tapped her nose and Brandon reactively touched his. “That still looks a bit twisted, I wouldn’t want to have another repeat of the same thing.”

“You’re crazy.” Brandon snarled.

“Thank you!” Reina chirped. They fell into an uncomfortable silence before Reina slammed her head onto her desk.

“What’s with you?” Brandon asked.

“It’s so boring! Isn’t the monitor supposed to be here by now? What’s taking them so long?!” The moment the last word left her mouth, the dejection door opened to admit Athena.

Reina whimpered. “I change my mind.”

Athena headed over to the front desk and stared imperiously down at them. “So, you got in detention. Brandon, this is your 5th detention so far. As such, you will be filling out my taxes.”

Reina did a double-take. “Say what now?” Brandon didn’t look shocked at all and merely nodded sullenly.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Athena adopted a smug expression. “Wonderful! As for you, Reina-“

“Woah, woah, woah! Can you even do that? Isn’t it considered a misuse of power or something like that?” Reina fumbled. She didn’t want to do her taxes, she didn’t understand the first thing about them!

“You’re not doing taxes. Since this is your first time, you are allowed to sit there and wait until Brandon is over. If you wish, you can aid him to make your stay here shorter.”

Reina leaned back in her chair. “There’s no way I’m going to help that guy. I’ll wait it out, no matter how long it takes!”

Athena smirked. “We’ll see.”

Reina stuck her tongue out at the teacher and she propped down in her seat, taking out a book. Reina was scandalized. Was she ignored in favor of a paperback cover?

After glaring at the book for some time and neither the book combusting in a glorious bonfire nor Athena glancing up, Reina quit on her. How intriguing could a book be anyway?

With Athena out of the way, she turned to the only other organism in the room. Brandon shifted away as Reina got closer and she grinned devilishly.

“Brandon?” she whispered.

“What? I’m trying to work here, unlike somebody else.” Brandon told her.

Reina rolled her shoulders. “It’s not my fault you were making too much trouble. If anything, I’m helping you.”

“And just how does your deluded mind think you’re helping me?” Brandon mocked, not taking his eyes off the envelopes.

“I’ll hurt you until you’re in so much pain, every time you think of making trouble, you’ll remember the pain instead!” Reina leered.

Brandon backed away from her. “You’re not sane,” he said. Reina rolled her eyes.

“You keep saying that,” she noted.

“Because it’s always true,” Brandon replied. Reina groaned and smushed her face against the wood of her desk.

“SO BORED! BORED BORED BORED!” Reina shouted at the top of her lungs. Brandon groaned and dropped his pencil.

“What do you need?” he asked.

“You’re talking to me now?” Reina asked cautiously.

“Yes. What can I do to make you shut your mouth for once?” Brandon asked.

Reina sniffled. “For starters, you can be more respectful.”

His forehead twitched. “Respectful? You look like a kid!”

“I am not a KID! I am a fully grown and developed 14-year-old, get that through your thick skull!” Reina shouted. Brandon grunted.

“Whatever. You look like a kid and act like a kid, so you’re a kid to me. Anyway, kid, what do you need other than that?”

Reina was still pretty ticked off from his earlier remark but was able to let it slide. This had a lot of potential and Reina wasn’t stupid enough to miss such a wonderful deal.

“How about we say you owe me a favor?” Reina asked.

“No way. Who knows what you’ll ask me to do.” Brandon responded immediately l.

Reina sighed. “Fine. I’ll only ask you to do things I will do or have done, how about that?” Reina asked.

Brandon took some time to mull it over but in the end, nodded slowly. “Fine.”

“Deal. Shake on it.” Reina stuck out her hand and after studying it, Brandon accepted it. “Seriously? It’s not like my hand is going to blow up. It hasn’t done that in a while.”

“It’s statements like these that make me not trust you.” Brandon glibbed.

“It’s a deal, now. Are you sure you don’t need a contract? Will you be a man and follow through on your words?” she asked.

“Please. Anything you can do, I can do but better.” Brandon stated cockily.

Reina hid her smirk behind a smile. “We’ll see about that.” she chuckled. “We’ll see about that.”

Satisfied with the results of this little incursion, Brandon continued his dull work of sorting and filing the taxes. This left Reina on her own again, robbed by herself of her most priceless entertainment. Now, where was she supposed to get some antidote to her boredness?

“Athena?” Reina asked.

“Yes?” Athena replied, her eyes still laser-focused on her book.

“I want a toy,” Reina begged. Athena rummaged through her desk and tossed something through the air. Reina eagerly caught it but her happy expression quickly dropped when she read the title.

That’s right, title. It was a book. A stinking book!

“How is this supposed to make me less bored?” she snapped. “If anything, reading this will make me fall asleep! Not that I need help.”

“I’m tired of your blabbering, either read or don’t,” Athena ordered with a note of finality in her voice and turned the page, her attention solely focused on her book once more.

“She’s way too obsessed with books for her good,” Reina muttered to herself. There was nothing else to do, so why not take a nap? Placing the book on the table and covering it with her arms, she laid her head, and slowly her eyes drifted down.

One thing about narcolepsy was that you never needed to worry about sleep. The opposite was true, but sleep was never a concern for her.

Before long, Reina had drifted off. She was experiencing a marvelous dream, in a land filled to the brim with many types of creatures, magical or normal.

Reina was giggling and playing with Leo when a dark shadow loomed over them. Reina turned around and spotted a large shadow, the size of a mountain.

“Run! Hurry!” Reina urged. Her friends left and she was quick to follow, but not fast enough. An enormous hand caught her and heaved her up. Reina squirmed as the monster pulled her closer and closer to his mouth.

“I will not die like this!” she roared. Where was her fire? The spark? The giant opened its maw, revealing large hideous teeth with thick tendrils of saliva stretched from one tooth to another.

“AH!” Reina yelled and her eyes snapped open.

Making out Brandon in front of her, Reina punched him in the throat and kneed him in the balls. Then, she took his outstretched arm and used it to judo flip him to the ground. Reina placed a foot on his chest and pressed down.

“We’ve really got to stop meeting like this,” Reina commented, digging her heel in innocently.

Brandon wheezed. “Not my fault! I was trying to help you!” he gasped.

“You’ve already recovered from the throat jab? Impressive.” Reina noted. “However, being impressive is not going to be enough to save you from getting punched in the face.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!” Brandon covered his face. “I’m here to liberate you!”

“You. Liberate me. From what?” Reina asked. What could Brandon possibly do?

“Look.” He pointed at the snoring figure of Athena, who had her precious book draped over her legs. “She’s asleep. This is our chance to escape and-and what are you doing?!”

Reina stared at him. “Taking a seat, why?”

He raked a hand through his hair. “Didn't I just explain? This is our chance! We can ditch detention right now and she won’t notice!”

“Right. Totally. And what happens when she “wakes up” and we’re not there?” Reina checked.

“Um, we’ll say one of the teachers asked us to come to help them!” Beacon frantically thought up a plan.

“And Athena will go around asking her colleagues whether or not your claim is true or false. When it becomes clear it is not true, you are dead meat.”

“Come on, Rei-“ Brandon pulled her up.

“Also, Athena’s awake.” Reina blurted out.

“What?” Brandon whirled around and Reina took the moment to sit back down. When he was confident Reina was lying, he glared at her. “Not funny, Reina.”

Reina smirked. So gullible.

“It is not funny indeed, Brandon, as Reina is correct. I’m awake.” Athena said from behind them.

The blood drained from his face. “Fudge.”

“Yep! Fudge indeed!” Reina agreed. She applauded herself. “I think I did a great job acting!”

“Brandon! For talking about deceiving me and leaving the detention before the designated class, you will have to also take care of the full student files.” Reina covered her mouth to hide the laughter bubbling up at his sour look.

“As for you, Reina!” Athena directed her attention to the smaller one and she got a sudden bad feeling in her tummy.

“Yes, Athena?”

“Do remember, you will have to stick here as long as it takes for him to finish. This includes the added work he earned himself.”

Reina’s jaw dropped and she adamantly refused to acknowledge the look on Brandon’s face.

“He’s going to take forever! He’s like the laziest human being on the planet!” Reina protested. Why him?

Athena was unflinching. “Then I suppose you should prepare yourself, shouldn’t you?” Athena sat back down in her seat and opened up her book.

This sucked big time.