Chapter One: I Don't Like Mondays

Monday Morning, March 01

Brian looked nervously at Shermer High School. Bravely, he boarded the steps and walked inside. Time to start a new day of school, he thought dryly to himself. All weekend he had thought about "The Breakfast Club", all the new friends he had met and how they would react at school on Monday. Today was the day to see.

Brian purposely walked past Bender's locker, knowing full well that he would most likely be late to school anyway. He walked up the hallway and spotted Allison standing by herself at what Brain took to be her locker. Slowly he walked up to her and leaned on the locker beside her.

"Allison?" He questioned, not needing an answer, just insurance that she would still be willing to talk to him.

She looked over at him and game him a miserable sort of smile. "Hi,Brian,"

"Good. You are still talking to me. I was nervous maybe Claire had gotten to you, you know with what she said about me being unpopular and all." He should have realized that, although Allison was the oddest of the bunch, she still appeared to be the most level-headed in many ways.

Allison's smile warmed up a little, "How was your weekend?"

"You know. I got home and my parents yelled at me for a while. So I was basically forced to stay in my room all Sunday and study. It was actually a relief to get here to school. When I walked in I was nervous that none of you guys would want to talk to me and when I past Bender's locker I saw he wasn't here, but I honestly didn't expect him to get to school before noon."

Widening her eyes, Allison grabbed her fully pack backpack and tossed it over her shoulder. She turned away from Brian and started walking.

Brian shook his head and hurried to keep up with her. He was talking too much like he often did when he was nervous.

"Bye, Brian," Without waiting for an answer she hurried her pace, leaving him alone.

Brian shook his head slowly and started for homeroom.

John walked down the halls of Shermer High, his black trench coat flowing behind him as he stepped up to his locker. He was late, then again he was always late. It had been two days since the most memorable detention in his life and he still couldn't get Claire out of his head. She wasn't the type of girl that would even give him the time of day, but in those few hours she had given him so much more.

Looking at his locker he noticed the lock missing. He dug through his pockets, looked on top of the lockers, but it was nowhere to be found. "Shit!" He said loudly and delivered a kick to the locker, denting it in the process. It looked like he would be getting a new one after school today. He shoved his coat in the locker and walked off to second period. Shop. The only class besides lunch that was worth going to.

Andy laid his head down on his desk and sighed. Only four hours left until he could go home. He rested his chin on his folded arms and watched the teacher lecture as if anyone in the class actually cared what she had to say. She wrote something down about animal mating habits on the board that made him think about Allison. She was, in a weird way, one of the most beautiful girls he had met. It wasn't the type of beauty that just knocked a guy out, but it was there in the way she smiled and talked. In just one day he seemed to have connected with her so much.

The sound of the bell knocked him out of his thoughts and sent him hurrying to grab his bags and rush out of the classroom. A hand gripped his shoulder. It was his friend Trevor.

"Hey Trev," He said, smiling at a muscular guy who looked like he was trying out to play the role of the Incredible Hulk.

"Do I ever have the girl for you!"

Andy rolled his eyes a little. Trevor had been trying to hook him up with girls ever since his break up with Brenda. She had been his first real girlfriend. They dated for three years, from ninth grade to the end of eleventh grade where they had broken up because she said he was suffocating her.

"I'm not interested," Andy said. He was really only interested in one girl right now. Allison.

For as confused as he was, he knew the rest of the school would be even less understanding.

Allison walked home alone like usual. She carried her books tightly in front of her with her backpack slung over her shoulder. Her baggy black pants, which looked like hand-me-downs, were hung in shreds at her feet and her black sweatshirt looked like a men's extra large. She hadn't stuck with Claire's makeover. One, it wasn't her style and, two, she didn't have the clothes or makeup to maintain a look like that. She owned black eyeliner and gray eye shadow and that was the extent of her makeup unless cherry flavored chapstick counted.

Allison looked miserably down the road. She had a mile to walk. She preferred walking alone to the noisy bus any day. She'd walk three miles to get home if need be instead of taking the bus with its immature high school students who, last time she took the bus, tossed gum in her hair.

She glanced at her watch. It was nearly three-thirty. She took off in a sprint, hoping she could get home and then to work by four.

"Bye, Sandra!" Claire called back to her friend who drove away in her red sports car she had gotten for her birthday.

It had been a long day at school. For some reason she could hardly tolerate her friends all day. Their "oh my gods" and "did you hear that," seemed to annoy her for no apparent reason. She actually paid attention in class today for a reason to ignore them and get her mind off of John.

It was so unreal to be attracted to someone as rude, sarcastic and horrible as him. He had showed her so much more than that though. Underneath the bitter exterior he wasn't a bad guy. It was too bad they wouldn't have a chance to talk again. She shook her head as she entered her house. High school was horrible. She couldn't hang out with the people she wanted to hang out with for fear of ruining a reputation she didn't want anymore.

Claire looked into the living room, seeing her youngest sister with her head already in the school books. Stephanie was only 13, but she still had more promise than Claire did at nearly 17. Her sister's brown eyes locked on Claire for a moment. She often had a piteous look for Claire as if she knew Claire's superficial ways would just bring her pain.

"There is a sink of dishes with your name on it, Claire," Her mother said suddenly as she slid past Claire from the kitchen and walked up the stairs.

"Hello to you too, mother," Claire said sarcastically, making her mom stop in her tracks and turn around to meet her face to face.

"I told you the consequences of your detention," Her hands gripped the railing so hard that her knuckles turned white. "I told you, you would be severely punished for misbehaving like you did!"

"Why are you yelling at me?" Claire asked. She dropped her book bag at the door and walked towards the kitchen. "We all know your real problem. It's dad. You both are taking it out on me!"

She listened to her mother's footsteps go up the stairs. Why didn't her mother ever talk to her about what was happening between her and her father? She wanted to know. She needed to know what to expect. Would it be a divorce?

Looking at the dishes, Claire frowned. The pile looked as high as the ceiling even though it was nothing but a few plates, two cups and some buried silverware that she couldn't see. She stepped up to the sink, grabbed a bottle of dish soap and squirted about half a bottle into the sink before turning on hot water. She watched as the bubbles rose. They were almost overflowing before the sink was even filled a quarter of the way with water.

She had never done this before. Suzy, the maid usually did at night before she went home. Suzy will have it really easy for the next few days Claire thought bitterly