A.N.: Hi, everyone :D Welcome to the second episode of Breakfast Club: After Detention :D I am so excited for this. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited. I almost wanted to cry when I saw them; I never expected this kind of response. So thank you, thank you, thank you :D Enough chatter from me; enjoy the episode :D

Previously on Breakfast Club: After Detention-

Mrs. Reynolds: Alisha, get your feet off the table right now!
Allison: She forgot my name.
Claire: Oh, Allie. 'I just have to figure something out.'

Andrew: Oh, God, Larry...
Coach Schmidt: Clark, wait for me outside.
Andrew: I was just taping up my knees and I was thinking about my family, my dad, and I just so angry. I didn't have a beef with Larry, I just wasn't thinking.
Coach Schmidt: If he talks to you like that all the time, then it's perfectly natural for you to have some anger issues. But you got to get help for them, son. They aren't healthy for you and they sure as hell aren't healthy for anyone around you.

Matthew: Andrew's never liked me, but that back there wasn't dislike; that was nervousness. First your story about Claire and the loser in the bathroom, and now Andrew's jumpy enough to run the other way the second he notices me. I know they both had detention on Saturday. Put two and two together, Cecil; what do you get?
Cecil: Four?
Matthew: I didn't mean literally! I meant, put the pieces together. Claire and Andrew both had detention on Saturday and now they're both acting strange. Something happened in detention and we need to find out what.

Episode 2: Retaliation:

Claire had had a frustrating morning; she had been excited for school, for once, and her parents had gotten nosey. They couldn't find out about Bender and the others; they just wouldn't tolerate her having friends with anyone other than her fellow cheerleaders and the children of her father's business buddies. They were too afraid that anybody else befriending their daughter would hurt their reputation.

She had been surprised by Cecil with a ride to school. Normally Claire didn't like making the walk to school but she wanted to put some distance between herself and most of the other cheerleaders. She would still hang out with Teresa but she had wanted a way to be rid of the others for so long.

The Thursday when she had received her detention punishment, she talked to her brother. Normally her brother didn't give two shits about her but he must have heard the desperation in her voice over the phone. He had reminded her that he went through the same stuff she was going through before he left for college; he hadn't wanted to be alone either, so he had put on a mask for the populars just like Claire was doing now. She just needed to have faith that everything would work out in time. That Saturday, she had found people who didn't condemn others for being themselves- hell, they encouraged it- and they were willing to accept her despite how she had been acting since middle school. They were nothing short of an answered prayer.

Now that Claire knew leaving the cheerleaders wouldn't leave her all alone, she wanted nothing to do with them outside of cheerleading. But Cecil and Teresa seemed determined to be her shadows for the day and, out of habit, Claire kept a smile plastered on her face, hiding her annoyance. They flanked her wherever she went, never questioning why she was taking this seemingly random path through the school; they were probably too busy chatting to care. Teresa finally noticed that Claire seemed to be looking for someone but she didn't have a chance to question Claire before Cecil found some poor soul to torment. Claire, not in the mood to watch the Queen Bitch in action, claimed that she needed to go to the bathroom. The other two had decided to follow her; Claire ended up finding Allison.

They had to head in different directions when the bell rang but Claire walked to her first period with a sense of purpose. She knew for a fact that she shared her first class with Bender and the teacher, Mrs. Runse, was the kind of teacher to never hand out assigned seats. As this was the only class that she and one of her friends had without Allison, it was the perfect place to ask for advice as to how to help her. Claire couldn't go to Allison with this; the girl was so used to being on her own that she wouldn't even be comfortable getting help for homework, let alone something this serious.

Mrs. Runse took more interest in her classes than most of the other teachers in the school. As you walk into her classroom, you're greeted by posters explaining everything from the periodic table to the organ systems for her science classes. For her sports health classes, she had posters explaining the use of different muscles. To keep up work ethic and make laughs, she had inspirational posters and comedic Garfield posters hanging everywhere. This was by far Claire's favorite class of the day as Mrs. Runse was the only teacher she had who tried to make class fun.

When Claire got to her first class, she was not surprised to find Bender sitting in the back corner with his feet propped up on the table, his sunglasses on, and his head tilted toward the ceiling. Claire went to sit next to him, smiling all the while.

"Asleep already; class hasn't even started yet," she chuckled after moving his sunglasses down to his forehead.

"Claire, for all that is good and sacred in this world, please put back my sunglasses," he moaned.

"First period hasn't even started yet," she laughed.

"It's almost eight in the morning; that is way too early. It should be illegal," Bender continued to moan.

Claire's only response was bend down pepper his face with kisses. Bender merely smiled. "Now that's a wake-up call. Alright, I'm up," he told her. Neither was paying any attention to their classmates, most of whom were staring at the couple as though they were an alien species.

"I need to talk to you," she told him as she sat down and he sat up.

Before Bender could respond, Mrs. Runse started the class. Despite how tired he was, Bender wasn't going to fall asleep on Mrs. Runse; that's why Claire had caught him dozing before the final bell. She was one of the only teachers in this school who didn't think he was a delinquent. He tried to listen, he truly did, but no matter how often Mrs. Runse cracked jokes, biology just bored Bender out of his mind.

The class carried on as normal. They finished the chapter on cell structure and were assigned to make a plant or animal cell out of the materials Mrs. Runse had brought with her to class. They would be given a test on the material next week. Since neither Claire nor Bender were amazing in Biology, it took them most of class to get their cells done.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked her once the bell rang.

"It's Allison's parents. They forgot her name; Bender, she's devastated," Claire told him, her nut brown eyes pleading with him. He would have given her anything just to get that helpless look off her face but he wasn't sure what she wanted or what he could do.

"What kind of asshole forgets their own kid's name? My old man uses me as a punching bag but even he can be bothered to remember my name," he replied. He truly felt bad for Allison; being treated as if you're not even there your entire life is bound to screw with your head. "But we'll all be eighteen in a few years; it sucks, but she'll just have to ride it out."

"We have to help her somehow!" Claire snapped at him in disbelief.

"What the hell do you want me to do, Claire?!" he snapped back. Then he forced himself to take a deep breath in an attempt to calm down. Claire was trying to be a good friend and he shouldn't let his temper get the best of him just because his girlfriend didn't know how the system works. "Cherry, I know you want to help her, we all do, but you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. You have no idea how these things work."

"What's so complicated about it? We make a couple calls, tell whoever we talk to how horrible her parents are, and then she can leave their place without being called a runaway. And she could stay with one of us without our folks being labeled as kidnappers in case her parents try anything,"

Bender just shook his head as she finished. Her parents being who they were, she probably knew enough to run her own business but she was clueless about the social part of government affairs.

"Here's how it really works, Cherry: we call Child Protective Services, they send a social worker to check things out. If they believe us, they remove Allison from her home, and then they'll ship her off to some foster family. Which means that she could be shipped across the country where we would never see her and there wouldn't be a damn thing any of us would be able to do about it. And that's even if they sent anyone; they normally don't care unless a minor is in 'imminent danger'."

"So just because her parents don't use her as a punching bag like yours do she has to live with them treating her like shit? That's not right," Claire told him, looking lost as to what to do now.

"Yeah. And even when the cases they take on are that restricted, they're still overrun," he replied.

They were quiet as they continued to walk their next classes. Claire looked as though she were giving something some serious thought; Bender just assumed she was trying to come up with another plan to help Allison.

"You sounded like you already had this all figured out, Cherry. What did you need to talk to me for?" he asked out of curiosity. It wasn't like Claire to ask for advice when she was so sure about something; that much was clear from the level of stubbornness she showed on Saturday.

"I figured you would have known who to call to make it happen faster. I already knew it would have been complicated- what isn't with the government? -but I figured we would have had a chance once they heard about how they treat her," she answered, her voice dripping with disappointment.

"Why haven't you reported your parents?" she asked suddenly, taking Bender by surprise.

"What?"

"You sound like you know the system pretty well. Why haven't you called in your parents?"

"It was either my parents or foster care, Cherry. In foster care, you never know what you're going to get; you could end up with worse than what you had," he explained. "At least with my parents I know what I'm in for. Not to mention, if a social worker didn't remove me from the house, my father would skin me alive."

Now Claire just felt terrible; two people she cared about were in horrible situations and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it. 'Well, I refuse to accept that. The one thing Mother was always right about, with the right amount of determination and resources, anything is possible.' Now she just needed a new game plan. 'Maybe I can help Andrew out, too. He could use a break from his dad.'

"What class do you have next?" her boyfriend asked, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"Nothing much; just cheerleading practice," she muttered quite unenthusiastically. She had considered quitting the team before but it wasn't worth the drama with her parents. "What about you?"

"A free; I'll come watch you," Bender replied with a smirk. "That's what boyfriends do, right?"

When they arrived at the football field, all of the other cheerleaders had already arrived. Just as in Biology, they all ceased their conversations to stare at the couple. Not being caught up in each other this time, the couple paused in their walk when they realized they were being stared at.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," Bender snapped at them. The crowd ignored him.

"Claire," Cecil growled as she emerged from the crowd. "What are you doing with him?"

Claire was quiet for a moment. She knew that Cecil knew who Bender was; everyone, except for the newest students, knew who Bender was. The only people who liked him, before last Saturday, were the people he shared his dope with. If Cecil found out that she was Bender's girlfriend, well it wouldn't be pretty. She, like Andrew, had been trying to put this off for as long as possible.

'Well, here goes nothing,' Claire thought. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed Bender's hand and looked Cecil right in the eyes. She didn't miss the way those eyes seemed to catch fire when they landed on hers and Bender's joined hands. "He's my boyfriend," Claire said, keeping her voice as steady as she could. She didn't miss the way Cecil seemed to almost growl at that bit of news.

"Since when?" Cecil asked in a slightly high pitched voice; it was the voice she used to express her anger without alerting the teacher that something was up. 'Brilliant,' Claire thought. 'She's pissed.'

"Well?" Cecil asked, her voice going higher still.

"Since Saturday," Claire finally replied, wincing when she noticed the slight waver in her voice. She was grateful that Bender was staying quiet; Bender was brutally and painfully honest, for the most part. The last thing the situation needed was for Bender to shoot his mouth off and anger Cecil even more.

"'Since Saturday'? Well, h-how exactly did this come about?" Cecil asked as she crossed her arms. The lower eyelid of her left eye was beginning to twitch.

"None of your damn business," Bender told her with a glare. He knew how Cecil worked; hell he practically lived with the adult versions of her and her boyfriend. He'd be damned before he let her intimidation tricks work on him. 'We just have to show her we're not scared of her is all,' he thought as he and Cecil continued to stare each other down. But no matter how much Bender understood her tactics, he could not deny that there was something, some insane glint in Cecil's sapphire eyes that made Bender want to take a step back.

"Girls, what are you doing? You're usually practicing by now; is everything okay?" Mrs. Darvison asked in concern when, five minutes later, the staring contest had yet to end. Even with the students being completely silent, she could pick up on the tension; it was thick enough to be cut with a knife.

"Peachy," Cecil replied without taking her eyes off Bender. Her voice had returned to normal but only a fool would think she had calmed. "Bender was just leaving," she continued.

"Actually, Mrs. Darvison, I was hoping that he could stay. We started dating on Saturday and he wants to watch me practice," Claire told her.

"Bender? John Bender, grade 10?" Mrs. Darvison asked, staring intently at him.

Bender finally broke his gaze with Cecil to look at the teacher. Mrs. Darvison's gaze was starting to make him anxious. She wasn't looking at him with any form of malice but rather with excitement. Why, though? From Bender's experience, malice, anger, excitement, it never mattered; it all meant something bad for him. But lying would do him no good here.

"Yeah, that's me."

"Girls, go ahead and practice. John-," Mrs. Darvison started with a gleeful smile.

"Call me Bender," he interrupted.

"Bender," she repeated with a nod, her smile still in place. "Why don't we talk over by the bleachers?"

Once at the bleachers, Mrs. Darvison still had her smile in place. No Bender was just annoyed; why did she keep smiling? She was probably just going to tell him to leave anyway.

"Anytime you want to watch Claire practice, just sit right up here. Just make sure not to distract her or any of the others. But hopefully you won't be watching her for long."

'Here it comes; she's going to tell me to stay away from Claire and the other cheerleaders. Not that that's unexpected but does she have to look so damn happy about it?' Bender thought.

"Anyway, I've heard that you're quite the troublemaker. You're nothing short of a small legend in the staff room. I saw you get in trouble once; it was at the end of your freshman year. Vernon, the rat, was trying to catch you but you outran him by a mile." Mrs. Darvison seemed to get more excited as she talked.

"Now, if you agree to what I'm going to offer, you need to clean up your act. You'll need to behave in school and keep up your grades, but I think you would be a star on the field," she finished.

"Not that I want to get sent to the office but can you just spit it out?" Bender snapped.

"Yeah, sorry. I babble sometimes. Anyway, you're fast; really fast. My husband, the track coach, is still looking to fill a few spots on his team. You can head down now to see about getting a spot."

"You want me to try out for the track team? You're not going to tell me to get lost and leave the cheerleaders alone?" he asked in confusion. It couldn't be true… An adult couldn't be happy to see him; it just wasn't possible.

"Why would I tell you that? Sure, you're a bit of a wild child but so was when I was your age. Most people go through a wild child phase; you'll grow out of it. But if you do try out for the team, you'll need to keep that wild child attitude off school grounds," the tan blonde told him in understanding.

Bender thought about it. It would be fun to show up those jocks at their own game and it would give him an excuse to be away from home more often; two huge plusses. Also, he had been hearing rumors that a lot of jobs were starting to look for college degrees in their applicants. At the rate he was going, he wasn't getting into college any time soon; being a track star would help fix that. But there was still one problem:

"Don't I need a parent's permission?" he asked, slightly crestfallen.

"Yes, you do," the coach replied. She finally lost her smile; she could tell by Bender's tone that his parents wouldn't be very supportive. "Talk to them about it; in the meantime, stay on the bleachers," she told him.

Bender didn't waste any time; he didn't want to deal with the confusing woman and the disappointment that came with not having a chance at being on the track team. Finding a good spot on the bleachers, he sat down and noticed after a moment that he wasn't alone. Just a few feet down from him, hiding between the seats and peeking out at the ongoing practice, was a small girl. Her tiny build was framed by shoulder-length white blonde hair and work out clothes. She was tensed as though she expected the team to leap into the bleachers and attack her.

"Hey, who are you?" Bender called to her. She turned to him, revealing familiar emerald green eyes. 'Where have I seen those eyes before?' Bender wondered.

"My name's Kim," she responded in such a quiet, timid voice that Bender barely heard her.

"Why are you hiding?" he asked with a little laugh. However, Kim wasn't laughing; if anything she looked like she wanted to cry.

"Today is the last day to try out," she explained. "My brother wants me to but I really don't want to. He says I have to help him look good by being on the team instead of hanging out in the science labs like I did in middle school," she explained.

Bender scowled; who the hell was her brother? If the guy was that desperate to be with the populars, why didn't he try out for something himself? "Just tell your brother to fuck off; you can't let people push you around like that," he advised.

Kim gave a short, humorless laugh. "My brother pushes everyone around," she didn't elaborate any more than that before standing and clearly forcing herself to walk onto the field.

'Maybe Claire should talk to her...' Bender thought since the girls seemed to come from similar pushy families.

By the end of the period, the girl made the team even though anyone could clearly see she was nowhere near enthusiastic about it. Claire inquired as to what Mrs. Darvison wanted with him but Bender made up an excuse; the entire thing was too strange for him to talk about yet. They walked together as long as they could but they had to separate once they got back in the building since their classes were on different ends of the school. As Claire headed to Introduction to Business and Finance, Bender headed to Workshop.

Walking into the sawdust covered room, Bender noticed that he was the last one to arrive. Usually he was the first to arrive as he used his free period to sleep in the empty classroom. The only free workspace left was in between Brian and Matt. This was fine with Bender; he was able to work next to a friend for once and he had enough experience with people like Matt to know how to avoid pissing him off for an hour.

"Hey, Bender," Brian told him quietly as the other boy took his seat. Matt glanced at them out of the corner of his emerald eyes. Cecil had met up with him at the end of second period and told him about Shermer's local princess and criminal couple; it was something that needed to be closely watched.

"Hey, man," Bender responded. "How's it going?"

"Fine," Brian muttered as a blush dusted his cheeks.

Bender raised his eyebrows but decided to not push it, at least not yet. Lunch would be a better place for that discussion.

The teacher decided to go ahead and start class. "Alright, people; today we're starting group projects. In the workplace, you'll rarely ever do anything completely solo. So for this project, you and your partner will each have a different set of blueprints; each set will have a different idea for tables. The project is NOT to make an appealing table; the project is to take to opposite ideas and manage to make something functional out of them. To make a top grade, I need to see at least three elements from both blueprints," Mr. Carr told the class. That was more instruction than he usually gave the class.

Mr. Carr picked up a paper from his desk but the light was hitting it in such a way that Bender could see through it; the paper was blank. Nobody else seemed to have noticed. "The groups," the teacher called out, looking at the blank paper, "are… Bender and Young…" Bender didn't bother to listen after that; he just tilted his head back and quietly chuckled. He walked over to where Matt was picking up blueprints. Both of the boys wore cool expressionless masks.

"How much did your girlfriend pay the teacher to set this up?" Bender asked him.

"Not that it's any of your concern but he was easy to buy out," Matt responded while handing Bender a set of blueprints.

"Why, Matthew, if you wanted to talk to me that badly, all ya had to do was ask," Bender told him with a badly performed Southern Belle accent. Matt growled low in his throat.

"What happened on Saturday?" he growled at Bender.

"I have no clue what you're talking about," Bender lied; Matt wanted to know what all happened between those sentenced to detention last Saturday. Like hell Bender was going to tell him that; he wasn't exactly intimidated by Matt, at least not as much as others, but even so, Claire and Andrew were some of the highest status students here and Alison and himself were some of the lowest; Brian was down there with them. That combination wouldn't go well with this guy.

But Bender wasn't scared for himself or Andrew, the two of them could take care of themselves; it was the others he was scared for. Brian wasn't any good in a fight and Matt and the other jocks could easily outmuscle the girls. It was common knowledge that Matt wasn't afraid to hit a woman.

"I'm going to find out one way or another, you know," the jock told him in a disinterested voice while looking at his blueprints. "It would just save everyone time and energy if you tell me now," he told Bender in a matter-of-fact tone.

After making sure the teacher wasn't paying them any any attention, he hissed, "Go fuck yourself, asshole."

Matt didn't reply right away, so Bender got to work studying his blueprints. After a few silent minutes, Matt spoke up. "Claire is a beauty. An almost impossible catch considering who you are. It would be a shame if I had to… talk to her about this instead. I don't think that would go very well, do you?" He sounded completely calm the entire time.

Bender barely managed to keep any remnants of self-control. "You listen to me, you son-of-a-bitch!" Bender snarled while slamming his hand down on Matt's workspace.

In a second, Matt had grabbed the hand-held electric saw, turned it on, and slammed the spinning blade between Bender's widely spread fingers, barely avoiding cutting the skin between the fingers. "No, I don't listen to lowlifes like you. You will listen to me. This school is my place. Vernon may be principle but I run the show here. I run a tight ship and I will not tolerate any rebellion in my place. Get the picture, burnout?" he hissed at Bender, his emerald eyes flaming.

But Bender didn't respond. He wasn't going to say yes to this guy but he couldn't put his new friends in danger by saying no either. For the second time that day, Bender was locked in a staring contest. But he wasn't sure he would be able to win this one. Cecil just acted insane, this guy had the actions to back it up.

Brian, who was working a few tables away, overheard bits and pieces of the conversation and felt dread settle in his stomach. Matt was threatening his new friends. What should he do? Was there anything he could do? From what he had managed to catch, all Matt wanted was information. If he didn't get it, he would go after Claire. Was hanging on to this information really worth that?

He heard Matt's saw turn off and let out a breath of relief. His friends wouldn't like it, but Brian knew what he had to do.

Once the bell rang, Brian grabbed his things and made a beeline for the hallway. He saw Bender grab his book bag and look around the classroom, trying to find his friend. Bender ended up giving a huff and storming off towards the cafeteria. He didn't see Brain huddled by the lockers because the hallway was already swarming with people, student and teacher alike. Brian stayed where he was, keeping an eye out.

Matt took a few minutes to leave the classroom. Brian followed him from the other side of the hallway until the blonde reached his locker.

Some instinct in Brian made him walk as silently as possible as he approached Matt. Brian thought he was fairly quiet but Matt heard him anyway.

"I am having a very bad day so far, so you had better have a good fucking reason for bothering me," he growled without checking to see who he was talking to.

Brian felt his knees start to shake. But he couldn't stop now. He couldn't risk his friends being hurt because of this control freak.

"I-I-I-I… Well, you s-s-see," Brian stuttered. His fear was keeping from forming a coherent sentence.

Matt looked back at him, merely glancing over his shoulder. "Normally, I would make an example of you for wasting my time like this, but I don't have time today. I need to have a chat with a red head," he growled at Brian while shoving past him.

Brian watched him in horror. 'He's already going after Claire?!' he thought in panic.

"Wait!" he yelled after the tormentor, turning a few heads in the process. Matt ignored him and continued walking. "I was there on Saturday; I know what happened in detention!" Brian continued.

This got Matt's attention. He turned back toward Brian wearing a smirk and an ecstatic look in his eye. His expression was akin to that of a predator that just cornered it's next meal. "Really?" Matt asked as he slowly walked back to Brian.

Unnerved by the bleached blonde's expression, Brian took a few steps back. This caused Matt to rush forward. He gripped Brian's shoulder so hard that Brian didn't even think about trying to get away.

"Don't be so nervous, friend," Matt told him, now sounding perfectly friendly. "Just tell me what you know and I'll make sure that you're rewarded."

"You'll give me whatever I want for it?" Brian asked him, trying to summon his courage. Maybe by making this one deal he could protect everyone he cared about.

Matt just widened his smirk. "Sure I will." He pulled a pocket knife out of his pocket long enough to make sure Brian had seen it. "I'm pretty sure you want to keep all ten fingers so... yeah, you'll get what you want if you tell me what happened," he told Brian, still keeping his friendly tone, while tightening his grip on the smaller boy's shoulder.

Brian's eyes widened with fear. What had he gotten himself into?

A.N.: Brian, Brian, Brian... Why do I do this to you? :D How did you guys like this episode? It took me over a month to write but now that I've posted the story, this story will be at the top of my to do list in my free time :D That being said, I have a lot of free time lately so hopefully it won't take me that long but we all have to keep in mind that this chapter was almost done when I posted the story. See you all next time :)