Shit, shit, shit! Victoria hissed to herself as she ran down the empty hallway, dropping several loose sheets of paper as she went. Ugh, no stopping today, she thought as she whizzed past her locker. Rounding the corner, she nearly stumbled to a halt outside the closed door to her algebra class. Closed. Which means one must knock to be allowed in. Victoria had already been late twice this week; apparently Mr. Hallford was teaching two lessons this morning. Taking a moment to catch her breath and rearrange her disheveled stack of books and papers, she lowered her head and raised her arm to knock.

Thunk...thunk...thunk...she rapped lightly. The muffled speaking behind the heavy wood door ceased, replaced with slow, deliberate footsteps. The door opened slowly to reveal a classroom of gawking and giggling peers, and an unsurprised and slightly annoyed Mr. Hallford.

"Good morning, Miss Ross, how nice of you to join us! Welcome to the Tardy Party! Car troubles again? So sorry to hear it." His question was laced with feigned concern as he practically beamed with sarcasm, standing aside and sweeping his arm as if inviting an honored guest into his home. Eugene Hallford wasn't a particularly intimidating man by physical definition. No more than five foot ten at best, receeding dishwater blonde hair, kept shaggy but respectably so, and an only slightly above average physique. But he had a knack, or maybe just a bad habit, for wielding sarcasm and passive-aggression like weapons. He was easy enough to get along with for the most part, but sometimes it was hard to tell if he was or wasn't kidding.

Fix my car if it annoys you so much. "No, Mr. Hallford, just late." Victoria replied, flushing with embarrassment at the attention her tardiness had drawn. This wasn't her first "tardy party", and she could swear her desk got further away each time. She crossed the room quickly and took her seat by the windows.

"If it's alright with you Miss Ross, I would like to continue my lesson. May I?" Mr. Hallford asked. One could almost detect a ring of condescension in his question.

"Yes, Mr. Hallford." Victoria replied sheepishly, feeling the color rise in her cheeks.

Pivoting on his heel, Mr. Hallford strode back to the whiteboard to resume his explanation of quadratic equations and their relevance in everyday life as if he hadn't just been disrupted.

Jeez, who spit in your coffee this morning? It's not like I missed the whole class. She looked quickly at the clock on the wall. She'd missed nearly half the class. Ok, well, I'm still here, aren't I? I could've just skipped today and stayed home and tried to get my stupid car worked on. But no! I chose to prioritize my education and power-pedaled a crappy hand-me-down bicycle that's missing two gears almost five miles just to be here so that I could fulfill my lifelong dream of knowing how two x squared minus nine x plus thirty-five equals zero! Victoria blinked at her own internal outburst. Jeez, Victoria, who spit in your coffee? Just chill out and shut up for the next 25 minutes. Following her own orders, she shuffled her math book from the stack and followed along for the remainder of the class.

At 8:45 a.m. the old firehouse-style bell rang, signaling the end of first period. Everyone stood to leave, and Victoria hastily gathered her things, hoping to get lost in the group leaving the room. She didn't care to give Mr. Hallford the chance for one more jab before the weekend. To her dismay, she wasn't that lucky.

“Miss Ross, please see me before you leave.” Almost as if sensing her thoughts, Mr. Hallford's voice carried over the herd of students trying to scurry from the room. Crap. Victoria finished arranging her papers and proceeded to the front of the room. As she approached her teacher's desk, he didn't even raise his head from the paper he was grading to hand her a pink slip of paper. “Take this to Vice Principal Simmons' office, please.” Dismissal woven into the last word, she plucked the paper from his fingers and left the now deserted classroom.

Rerouting herself in the direction of the school office, Victoria looked down at the little pink note. Suggested Disciplinary Action: Detention. Reason for Action: 23 minutes late, 3rd tardy this week.

“Awesome.” She huffed to herself, just as she was assailed by a blonde whirl, and her best friend, Heather Alcomb appeared by her side.

“What happened to you this morning? It's normal for you to be late, but not that late.” Her friend said with a look that conveyed both concern and anticipation.

“My car's junk, that's what happened.” Victoria replied flatly. “We can talk at lunch, I have to go see Mr. Simmons.” She said, turning away and waving the pink slip.

Continuing on, she entered the main office and approached the secretary, “I'm supposed to see Mr. Simmons.” she said, handing the paper to the elderly woman. The woman's crabbed fingers took the note delicately, giving it a quick scan through the thick bifocals perched on the end of her nose.

“Have a seat please.” She rose from her desk and shuffled through the open doorway that lead to the back half of the main office, disappearing around the corner.

Victoria trudged to the row of chairs set along the wall next to the doorway, and just as she plopped into one, the bell rang.

Wonderful, late for two classes in a row. I better not get another detention for this one.

The secretary reappeared from the back room, “He'll be just another minute, dear.” The old woman said sweetly, returning to her secretarial tasks.

Victoria didn't have long to contemplate her situation as about exactly one minute later Mr. Simmons appeared in the doorway—the Vice Principal and Disciplinary Coordinator was near to a purist when it came to punctuality. While normally a praised quality, it didn't exactly benefit Victoria, given why she was there in the first place.

“Good morning, Miss Ross, come on back.” He said curtly.

She stood quickly and proceeded through the doorway and around the corner to Mr. Simmons' office. Unfortunately, she wasn't new to this either. She sat her things down on the empty table by the door and carefully took a seat opposite the Vice Principal's desk—he hated when people flopped into his chairs.

“Three times this week, Victoria. That's a lot, even for you. Is everything ok?” Though strict, Greg Simmons was a genuinely good person and was always willing to listen in case a student's discipline issues stemmed from something deeper. Of course, he wasn't so lenient if you were just repeatedly late.

“Yes, Mr. Simmons,” Victoria answered honestly. “I just couldn't get my car to start, and I had to ride my bike.”

Mr. Simmons considered her for a moment before replying, “Ah, well, I am sorry to hear that. But, plans should always be in place for such situations.” He said, moving to take his seat behind the desk. “I'll keep this brief so you can get to class. You know our librarian, Mrs. Guthrie.” He paused, Victoria nodded. “Earlier this week, she brought it to my attention that there are several unused offices in the basement that could use a good clean-out. You are to report to her promptly after last period. She will give your instructions from there.” The finality of his statement signaled the end of their meeting as he turned to scribble his signature on a blue slip of paper. “You may go now, please give this to your teacher.” He said, handing the paper to Victoria. Quickly gathering her things, she left the Vice Principal's office, exiting through the doorway and front office and out into the hallway.

Well, sweeping a few floors is better than two detentions, she thought, examining the blue tardy pass. Not wanting to waste any more time, she quickened her pace. It wasn't even 9 a.m. and she just wanted to get the rest of this day over with.

* * *

Victoria made her way through the lunch line, grabbing her usual portion of french fries and a bottle of sweet tea, and trudged to the door that lead to the outdoor annex; Heather was already there waiting for her. She made her way to the table and plopped down on the bench seat opposite her friend.

“Everything ok?” Heather asked.

“Yeah, it's my damn car again, I think it's the starter this time.” Victoria replied before popping a french fry in her mouth and taking a long drink of her tea. “My parents had already left, so I had to ride that junky old bike my dad found during clean-up weekend. Then the strap on my bag decides that halfway to school was the perfect time to rip itself off; because why not?”

“Jeez girl, you need to just cut your losses and scrap that thing. Then you can buy yourself a new bike.” Heather teased. “But seriously, that car has given you nothing but problems since you got it, and it's going to nickel-and-dime you to death.

“UGH!” Victoria threw her head back in exasperation. “Can we please not talk about my stupid car? It's enough of a headache without the detention it got me this morning.”

“It's just sitting at a desk doing homework for two hours, it's not that bad.” Heather rolled her eyes dramatically.

“Oh! But Mr. Simmons has added 'janitorial assistant' to the detention itinerary, and I get to be the first one to test it out.” Victoria said with feigned enthusiasm. “I guess Miss Lilly found some old offices in the basement that lucky little ol' me gets to clean.”

“I didn't even know this school had a basement.” Heather said, half to herself. “Well, I'm sure it won't be that bad, I mean, it is Miss Lilly we're talking about now. For all you know, what Simmons thinks is an old office, could be Miss Lilly's personal hangout and who knows what kind of cool stuff she'd have hidden down there?”

Victoria munched her fries while she pondered the prospect, when she was interrupted by Heather.

“So is your mom mad?”

Victoria went to take her phone from her purse only to realize that she didn't even have her purse with her. She'd forgotten both in her locker and hadn't given either item a second thought until now, and sighed again.

“Guess I'll find out later.” She said.

“I hope she's still going to let you come tonight.

They had made plans with Heather's boyfriend from the next town over to meet up at the movie theater in town later tonight, and he was supposed to be bringing his very attractive best friend Jared with him. They had all hung out together a few times, and Heather and her boyfriend seemed to be secretly trying to set them up. Always finding an excuse to leave the two of them alone, despite the fact that so far nothing had come of it; much to Victoria's disappointment.

“I'm not worried about it too much, not like I have any control over what parts are going to stop working when.” Victoria replied nonchalantly, turning the topic of conversation, “So Jared is for sure coming?”

The girls finished their lunch hour discussing far more important things than cars and detention. Victoria was determined, despite its lousy start, to not let a measly two hours ruin her anticipation for later.

* * *