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“No. But my mom is.”
Piper entered the room with a flurry of censored expletives. Which is to say, it was obvious which swears she was deliberately omitting.
“Stupid mother effing idiot sh-face.” She stopped when she saw Dave and Sabine. She ended on a growl and flopped her backpack on the table. “Sorry I’m late.”
Sabine eyed the eighth grader. “You okay?”
“No.” Piper tossed her glossy dark hair over her shoulder. “I had detention today.” She narrowed her eyes. “Me. Detention.”
“First time?” Dave asked casually.
Piper sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yes. I don’t get detention!” she yelled towards them but not reallyatthem. “I didn’t even do anything wrong!”
“Detention’s not the worst thing,” Dave said.
Both Sabine and Piper gave him the side-eye.
“What? I had detention all the time and look at me.” He held out his arms like they were supposed to see him revealing all his success.
Piper grimaced and scratched the side of her neck. “You don’t get it.”
He really didn’t get it.
But Sabine did.
Being blamed and held accountable for something you had no part in was… well, it was what she’d just been talking about.
“What happened?” Sabine asked, focusing on Piper.
“Some idiots were throwing clay in art class. And the rule is ‘don’t throw clay.’ I was just doing mystupidsculpture and Josh Szippl hit me square in the face with a hunk of clay. I was mad so I threw it back. And that was the moment Ms. Beck looked up. I was the only one who got caught!”
“Wait.” Dave blinked at Piper. “Say his name again.”
“Josh Szippl.”
“That’s his real name?”
Piper rolled her eyes. “Yes. And usually, he’s hilarious. Until he’s getting me detention.” She shoved her backpack aside and glowered at the table.
“Was Hannah pissed?” Dave asked, shooting Sabine a look.
If he knew Hannah the waysheknew Hannah, then yeah, she was going to be pissed.
Piper’s expression fell. “She doesn’t know yet,” she grumbled.
Big oof.
“How did your speech go?” Sabine asked, changing the subject. Nothing to be done about the detention now anyway.
Piper glanced up at her and some of the tension eased from her face. “Fine. I got an A.”
Sabine sighed and kept her smile small. Too much enthusiasm and teenagers became suspicious.
“Of course you did.” Sabine opened her binder and flipped to Piper’s next assignment. “Let’s go over your essay one more time, shall we? Then we can add another A to the pile.”
Piper groaned. “I hate school. I’m so bad at it!”
“You are not bad at it. You’d just rather be doing something else.”
