“Good afternoon Monsieur LeBlanc.” Avery begins. At Fogmeadow High School we must call all French teachers Monsieur or Madame. Mr. LeBlanc looks up from the papers he’s in the middle of marking. “Sorry to bother you," Avery continues "But we were hoping to get a note to go to the library so we can do some research for a project we have.”
During free periods, ninth and tenth graders (form four and form five students) are required to be in the prep room for supervised study. The vice-principal and teachers believe that if we’re left alone, we’d use our free periods to fool around and they’d much rather have us be productive, hence supervised study.
“The four of you?” the French teacher wonders aloud.
I knew this wouldn’t work. Well, at least we tried. My friends, Robert, Avery, Shawn and I were complaining amongst ourselves that we didn't feel like studying. This prompted Avery's idea that we get a note to go hang out in the library. That's something the four of us usually did before supervised study became mandatory.
I don’t mind the supervised study. If I can finish my homework here, I’ll have more free time at home. Avery, on the other hand, finds it difficult to focus for more than two hours, so she prefers to chill outside of class time unless she’s preparing for a same-day test. My best friend Robert prefers to study at home on his own, so he’d rather enjoy his free time in school with his friends. Shawn is a people person so he’d rather talk to his friends than quietly read a textbook. Even when preparing for a test Shawn would much rather discuss the subject with us than rereading the same text.
“Yes.” Avery confirms smiling.
“Well I’m not supposed to let anyone leave but if you promise me that you’ll be going straight to the library then I don’t see why not.” Mr. LeBlanc explains.
Wow, Avery’s crazy plan is working. I guess I didn’t give her enough credit. Or maybe Mr. LeBlanc is very laid back.
“Of course, sir.” Avery smiles, “You might not know us but I’m a very serious student.” She points to herself. No, she’s not. She only wants to go to the library so she can sit on a comfy sofa. “And all my friends are quite trustworthy.” She gestures around at Shawn, Robert and me. We flash our best smiles.
Mr. LeBlanc rummages through the papers on his desk. “Well if you have a piece of paper, I can write you all a note. It seems I only have my students’ assignments here.”
Shawn gently pulls a page out of his brown paper wrapped notebook. We’re supposed to wrap all the textbooks the school lends us in brown paper to preserve them, Shawn goes the extra mile to wrap his notebooks too. He hands the lined paper to Mr. LeBlanc. With his red pen, Mr. LeBlanc drafts a letter to the librarian explaining why the four of us need to use the library. We thank the teacher again and head out.
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that worked!” Shawn exclaims as soon as we're down the hall from the prep room. “We should do this every week. Then the free period will be just like in form four.”
“Guys look at the letter Mr. LeBlanc wrote!” Avery laughs. “His handwriting is so bad ‘Dear’ looks like ‘Bear’.” She shows us the note. “Please permit these four students to use the library and its resources so they may conduct a research on the dictionary.” We all burst out laughing.
We make our way up the stairs to the library. We leave our bags outside. Each of us holds a notebook and enters the information centre. We greet the librarian at the front desk and show him the note. He reads it murmuring in acknowledgement.
“Ok, I hope you guys will be focusing solely on your project.” We all nod. “Alright if you need any help locating any reference books let me know.”
We thank him and walk toward the reference section. When the librarian bows his head to read his newspaper, we sneak over to the fiction corner. Robert and I search for books we want to read. I see Shawn grab a Dan Brown book he thinks sounds interesting. He joins Avery at the sofa section, where she's already made herself comfortable. I don’t even know why Shawn bothers picking a book. He and Avery just chill and chat amongst themselves.
I scour the bookshelves in hopes of finding the book I’ve wanted to read for a while. I sigh in relief when I spot it. I pull out I Know What You Did Last Wednesday by Anthony Horowitz and settle down on the couch next to Robert. I notice that we are the only students in the reading area. We begin reading.
After I finish a chapter from my book I notice a shadow disrupting the light from behind us. I face Robert who also has a puzzled look on his face. We turn around to see our vice-principal, Mr. Anderson-Mount, towering over the comic books rack next to him. "What do you form five's think you're doing here?" He booms. Robert and I glance at each other and gulp.
How did he know we were here? It's not like our vice-principal stops by the prep room to take attendance. And if he did come by the prep room I doubt he would've noticed the four of us missing amongst the crowd of students. Perhaps Mr. LeBlanc ratted us out in fear of getting on Mr. Anderson-Mount's bad side. I mean I know students fear our strict vice-principal but do teachers cower in his presence too?
Robert and I silently rise from our seats and return to the fiction section. I bow my head as I walk past our tall vice-principal. I feel his gaze of disappointment follow me. “Aidan I never expected you to be here out of all the students.”
I don’t know what to say so I keep walking to the bookshelf to return the book. Before becoming vice-principal Mr. Anderson-Mount was my history teacher in form one. He remembers me as the quietest and most well-behaved student in our year.
After I return Anthony Horowitz's book to its rightful place, Robert grabs my arm and pulls me behind a bookshelf. He puts a finger to his lips and I understand his plan. He wants us to hide here until Mr. Anderson-Mount leaves. Then I guess we'll sneak back down to the prep room thereby evading our possible punishment. And hopefully, with all his work and responsibilities, the assistant-principal is too busy to come after us and will eventually forget our part in this misbehaviour.
“Sir shh this is a library remember?” Avery giggles on her way past the vice-principal.
“Don’t be silly, young lady.” Mr. Anderson-Mount scolds. “Get to my office at once.” He points to the door, his hand trembling with rage. Avery scurries out. Next, Shawn attempts to size up the assistant-principal, which isn't too hard for him as Shawn is only a couple inches shorter than our vice-principal. Mr. Anderson-Mount claps Shawn on the back to hurry him along. “We don’t have all day.” He looks around the library then begins to follow Shawn out.
"That was some great quick thinking." I pat Robert on the back.
"What can I say?" Robert smirks, "I work great under pressure."
We turn to tiptoe around the bookshelf and towards the exit door. Just as we emerge from the maze of bookshelves a pair of hands grab us by our shirt collars and drag us in the direction of the retreating vice-principal.
"Mr. Anderson-Mount," calls the person ushering us toward him. I recognized the dull voice of our librarian. "I found these two form five boys hiding among the bookcases." He releases our shirt collars shoving us forward into Mr. Anderson-Mount's shadow.
"Excellent work Phillip." nods our vice-principal. I turn back to see the librarian smiling with pride. "As for you two," Mr. Anderson-Mount addresses Robert and me, "I thought it was clear that I wanted you in my office immediately."
"We got lost, sir." Robert tries to explain. "Those bookcases are quite a labyrinth."
"What do you mean?" The librarian questions. "There are only six rows of bookcases and you boys are taller than them." He's not wrong. The bookcases rise up to our shoulders, so we can see over them.
"That has to be the worst excuse I've heard in all my years at this school." Our assistant-principal sighs. "For kids who like to read you aren't that all creative." At least Robert tried to come up with something. "Let's go." Mr. Anderson-Mount says holding open the door.
When we reached Mr. Anderson-Mount's office, Avery and Shawn were already seated in the waiting area opposite his secretary's desk.
"Mr. Anderson-Mount the principal called for you." His secretary announces.
"Thank you, Betty." Mr. Anderson-Mount nods, "Please keep these four students here while I speak with her." He goes into his office and shuts the black, wooden door behind him.
For the next ten minutes, we entertain Ms. Betty with our story and why we feel the whole situation is unfair. Avery and Shawn even try persuading Ms. Betty to convince Mr. Anderson-Mount to let us go freely.
The door of Mr. Anderson-Mount's office opens and he emerges. We all stop speaking. He walks over to us. He scans us from left to right then back again. "I don't understand you kids." He says finally, "All you had to do was sit in the prep room and do your homework, then when you go home you have all the time to read whatever books you want." He purses his lips. "Instead you take advantage of our new French teacher Mr. LeBlanc. In fact, you all owe him an apology." He raises his left arm and glances at his wristwatch.
I look up at the wall clock above Ms. Betty's desk. The school day would be over in about thirty-five minutes or so. "Well to ensure this doesn't happen again," Mr. Anderson-Mount continues, "The four of you will redo the entire double period of supervised study as after school detention."
Shawn and Avery begin to object but are immediately shut down by the vice-principal. Robert appeals to Ms. Betty but she refuses to get involved in the matter. Mr. Anderson-Mount then marches the four of us back to the prep room.
Some of our classmates snicker as we settle into the front desks in the prep room. Mr. Anderson-Mount instructs Mr. LeBlanc not to let the four of us leave after the bell rings for the end of the school day. He even forbids Mr. LeBlanc to let us leave to use the washroom. I guess he doesn't want to take any chances.
Well, this is all Avery's fault. It seems she didn't take getting caught into account. Then again Avery has always been the type of person to act first and think later. On the bright side, this isn't that bad of a punishment I guess. Plus the best stories come from detention like The Breakfast Club.
“Back where we started.” Avery sighs.