Just an hour [Nora]

[Marley Rose]

Another day, another detention for Marley Rose. For how often adults tried to tell her she wasn't a bad kid, she sure as hell ended up in the high school jail equivalent more often than not. By now she knew exactly what teachers ran dentition on which day. She knew that she'd rather have Tuesday detention than Wednesday, and to avoid Friday at all cost. She supposed the teacher who ran that one was always the crankiest since the kids were cutting into their weekend.

It was Thursday, though. Which was ok. Sometimes the teacher left the room, which was nice. It meant Marley could draw or something instead of just idly staring at the wall like they were expected to do. She trudged into the classroom her pink slip told her to report to after classes that day. She tossed her backpack next to a chair near the window, and slouched into her seat.

She leaned her chin into her palm and let her hair fall into her face, staring at the clock - a little bit disgusted that she had been a whole 2 minutes early. 2 minutes more her butt had to endure contact with the small, hard, uncomfortable desk chair that Marley was sure they only invented so kinds in detention left the room walking funny. She handed the teacher her pink slip as he walked back, then sighed audibly. "Just an hour," she mumbled to herself as if it would make the time she was confined seem less horrible. Then maybe she'd still have time to go paint before she lost sunlight.

[Nora Graves]

"You're late," the teacher declared when Nora strolled through the door, half of a pop-tart in her mouth, obviously not amused by the teacher's comment.

"Two minutes late," she added, mouth full of pop-tart before she handed over her pink slip and moved past her with a roll of her eyes. She plopped down in one of the desks, sinking down in the chair. She dropped her backpack at her feet and continued to munch on her pop-tart, irritated that she could be in the culinary lab, making something that wasn't packaged. Of course, maybe she should have thought about that before standing up on a table in class and yelling at another student when they cracked jokes about her being small.

There weren't many students in detention and her eyes landed on a brunette, looking exactly how Nora felt. "Kill me," she muttered to herself.

[Marley Rose]

Marley's attention diverted itself away from the window as a short girl with wild hair and heavy makeup walked through the door with enough confidence to sass the teacher about her tardiness. Any other day it may have landed her another detention, but the teacher just rolled his eyes and accepted her slip.

Marley rolled her eyes, a little annoyed that she got away with it. Mostly because she was still mad about being early. If she had known she could have gotten away with being two minutes late, she would have been. She probably would have even pushed for 5 minutes.

The girl sat down a seat behind Marley in the next row over, and even though Marley couldn't see her, she could feel her looking her way as she muttered 'kill me', just audibly enough for Marley to hear. "Buy me the gun and I'll take care of us both," Marley muttered back, equally hushed. Her eyes found themselves staring out the window again, slightly glazed over. She wasn't looking at anything in particularly really. It was just nicer seeing sky and trees than cinder blocks and delinquents.

[Nora Graves]

A smirk formed on Nora's lips at the girl's response to her comment. She wished that the teacher would leave the room so that she didn't have to just stare at the white wall, or one of the many motivating posters on the room to help improve your behavior or your outlook on life. She wanted to take out her headphones and blast music.

Besides, she didn't know this teacher. She'd had detention plenty of times since her arrival, but never with this woman. So she didn't know how she worked. Although she hadn't given her another detention for being late, so Nora would take it. Finishing off her poptart, she slouched further in her seat.

[Marley Rose]

Marley continued to stare out the window for a while, listening intently to the ticking of the clock. Marley counted to 346 seconds before the teacher stood and annoucned that she was going to make copies and file some paperwork and she would be back in ten minutes. A small smile formed on Marleys lips as she ignored the suggestion to stay seated and silent and she expected them to be awake when she returned.

Marley wasn't worried about falling asleep, although the two boys toward the front of the room already seemed to be. She wasn't worried about the silence part either. Why the hell would she want to talk to any of these losers? However, she had no plan on staying seated.

As soon as the teacher walked out of the room, Marley was up and walking toward the newly cleaned chalkboard at the front of the room. She had noticed on her way in that there was a brand new box of colored chalk sitting on the ledge beneath the blackboard, and she had been hoping that she'd get the opportunity to ruin the perfectly clean slate.

She picked out a couple sticks of green and blue chalk, and began to sketch a basic outline of a dragon. She knew she had to be quick. The teacher had said 10 minutes, which meant she'd be back anywhere between 7 and 15 minutes. So she didn't question the picture she had in her head and just went for it.

[Nora Graves]

She finally left, just when Nora thought there was no chance of it happening. Stay seated, don't speak and don't fall asleep? Those were all of the typical things kids in detention disobeyed when the teacher left. "She must be new around here," Nora muttered when the woman finally left the room. Boys in the front row were already dozing and the girl she'd somewhat communicated with upon entering the room had stood up and headed towards the chalkboard. Nora rolled her eyes at her actions, already thinking what she was bound to do. Write some rude remark, most likely cursing at the teacher, drawing an offensive picture, a penis wouldn't be too out of the question. People were so predictable in detention.

But that was when she noticed that it wasn't any of those things and that the girl was actually seemingly drawing a dragon, just for the pure fun of it. "Let me guess, you're one of those types who goes out and puts graffiti on everything and then claims it's art?"

[Marley Rose]

Marley didn't even turn around when the girl talked to her. She knew exactly who it was. The only other girl in the room. The one who asked Marley to kill her. Marley laughed at the comment she made, actually. Honestly, she had hit the nail on the head, but Marley wasn't about to let her know that. Her pride wouldn't let her just let it go either. "It's not art... just something to do," Marley said without turning around, adding scale detail to the dragon, using her fingers to blend some blue and green chalk, creating various shades and gradients.

"Because how else am I supposed to entertain myself in the shit hole that Pilot Ridge, Vermont?" Marley asked. Vermont wasn't exactly an exciting place. It was mostly trees and mountains. So unless you were into winter sports or somehow got off on chopping down trees, then you had to be creative in how you spent your free time.

[Nora Graves]

"Right. If most people want something to do in detention, they draw offensive things on the chalkboard, usually about the teacher and erase it before they come back. This isn't just something to do. You're drawing a fucking dragon." And it wasn't some simple, shitty outline of Puff the Magic Dragon or some shit. She was shading with chalk and making it look life-like. Man, this girl was in denial.

"I don't know? Get drunk? Isn't that what most people do? They don't draw some crazy artsy-fartsy Dragon on a chalkboard in detention."

[Marley Rose]

Marley finally turned to look the girl in the face. It was the term 'artsy-fartsy' that really managed to piss her off. The lights surged, and Marley looked up, quickly settling herself. The last thing she needed was a longer 'sentance'. "I like dragons," Marley said cooly. She wasn't about to let some short punk girl tell her what she should and shouldn't draw on the chalkboard.

"And sweetheart you do NOT want to see me drunk," Marley added, turning back to her drawing, blending the colors with her fingers, adding dimension and realism that wasn't there before. "When I'm sober and you piss me off I'll probably kill you," Marley added with some degree of truth. It was a fair enough statement at a school like Hammel. Nobody really knew another's power until told. Not entirely anyway. It was hard to hide the fact that you can turn into pandas when you can't control it... But who knows. Maybe that kid could turn into all sorts of bears. Or all sorts of Asain stuff. Abilities were weird like that.

[Nora Graves]

"Alright, whatever. At least make it breathe fire or some shit, jeez." She sat back further in her desk chair, slouching. the lights had flickered around them, but Nora didn't really care to think about why. Ugh, she hated when people used pet names. Even worse, when they used them in some ironic way to mean exactly the opposite of it. "You might as well have called me a bitch by the way." This chick wasn't fooling anybody, at least not Nora, but maybe that's because she had way too much practice picking people apart.

"Sounds like you should be in juvie instead of Hammel if you have thoughts about killing people, but I guess Hammel just needs barred windows and we can call it jail."

[Marley Rose]

"I'll call you whatever the hell I want," Marley stated with a dry laugh, a weird sort of happiness flooding over her from the internal victory of getting the girl with the 'sweetheart' comment. It was funny how people would rather actually be called a bitch. Marley got a weird sense of pride when she managed to do even more damage while avoiding dirty talk. It made her feel like she was above her opponent. "And I don't take requests," she noted, deciding then and there that this dragon would not be breathing fire.

She turned back to the board however, and continued to shade in the beast that she was creating bit by bit. "I don't think about killing people. It's just an inevitability," Marley explained coolly. Hell, if it ever happened Marley would probably need to be institutionalize. But for now she acted like it wasn't even a big deal. Getting upset over it would only make the feared outcome more likely. She didn't comment on the girl's comment about jail, though. Frankly, Marley couldn't agree more. She felt trapped in the cinder block building - like the government saw her as a dangerous animal that had to be caged up with all the other monstrosities.