Clyde locked his car with his keys and walked up to Canterlot High’s main doors. With a yawn, he quickly brushed a hand through his dark hair and wiped off breakfast crumbs that were still on his gray jacket. He pulled out his phone from his jacket pocket and took a quick glance at the time and some sport updates. After scrolling through the sports feed he turned the phone on silent and returned it to his jacket’s pocket.
“7:20 on a Saturday morning and I’m stuck here?” he said out loud to himself in slight anger. He quickly opened the doors and there waiting for him in the lobby were the two principals of the school, Celestia and her younger sister, Luna.
“Hello,” said Principal Celestia in a calm, gentle voice. “What is your name?” Clyde looked at her and noticed she had a small clipboard in her hands.
“Clyde,” he replied.
“Clyde?” asked Vice President Luna with a tint of curiosity. “That’s a strange name.”
“It’s a nickname that I decided to go with since I was younger,” said Clyde. “My brother had no problems with it and he even calls me by that too.”
“Brother?” asked Celestia, “how about your parents?”
Clyde looked at her with distaste then returned to a normal state. “I live with my brother. He’s my guardian.”
“Oh. Well, alright then.” Celestia wrote some notes down on her clipboard while Luna looked Clyde up and down. Clyde was a little nervous of what she was doing, but remained calm.
“Tell me Clyde, aren’t you new here?” asked Luna.
Clyde nodded. “Yeah, my brother and I moved here the past summer for his new job site.”
“What would that job be?”
“He is part of the Guard.”
Luna nodded at his answer and looked back at her sister. Celestia finished writing on her clipboard and looked back at Clyde. “I guess we should get down to business.” Celestia gave Luna her clipboard and left the small lobby. She turned around and motioned for Clyde to follow. He nodded and quickly walked past Luna to obey the order. As they walked through the hallways, Celestia spoke up. “How did you manage to get into Saturday detention on the first week of school?” she asked. Her voice was still calm, which surprised Clyde.
Clyde laughed. “I think it was Tuesday, but I guess sleeping in the back of the library while listening to music is frowned upon in this school.”
Celestia gave a small laugh too. “Yeah, our librarian Cheerilee doesn’t like when people talk or sleeps in her library. That shouldn’t be a problem today though.”
Clyde looked at her. “What do you mean?”
Celestia smiled. “Today you are spending detention in the library with all of the other students who received detention today. Normally, we would just have you sit in a small classroom, but with so many students having detention today, the library is the best spot. After all of you check in, I will return to watch over you all.”
They soon reached the library and stopped in front of it. Celestia opened the door and Clyde walked inside. He looked around for an empty seat, which there were plenty of, and pulled out a chair towards the back of the room. There were other dudes sitting in the room too, but he ignored them, leaned back on his chair, and stared at the ceiling, waiting for the time to quickly pass.
After the last boy walked into the library at approximately 7:35am, Celestia returned to the library. She walked over to the library front desk as Clyde and the other boys watched her. She placed her clipboard on the desk and looked at them all. “Good morning,” she said in her normal, calm voice. “Seems like we have a big crowd, even though it’s the first week of school!”
The library filled with the boys remained silent.
“Ah, a quiet bunch.” Celestia smiled and looked down at her clipboard. “Instead of me just standing here watching you for an hour, let’s do something more interesting.” Some of the boys shifted in their seats, but still remained silent. “You are all new students to this school, right?”
They all looked at each other and nodded.
“So, I’m assuming you don’t have many new friends yet, if at all?”
They boys nodded again.
“Great, maybe fate brought you all here today then. When I say your name, tell us why you are here and the others say ‘hello’ to him and then discuss.”
One of the boys in the back of the room raised his hand. After a Celestia approval, he spoke up. “So, is this like an intervention now?”
Celestia smiled. “No, but it’s similar. I want you to take this as a new type of social meeting.” She lifted the clipboard to her face and studied the list of names. “First up is Poncho.”
A boy jolted from his seat surprised as the other boys in the room looked at him. Some laughed under their breath while the rest rolled their eyes. He nervously looked around and stood up from his lounged position. He zipped up his hoodie and put his two arms in the pocket at the bottom of it. “Um, my name is Poncho–”
“Hey Poncho...” said the room in unison. Celestia laughed at the horrible and gloomy synched reply.
“Um,” began Poncho as he nervously looked around the room, “I was brought into detention today because I never turned in my Chemistry project that was due yesterday.”
The others looked at him. One of the boys near the window raised his hand. Poncho called on him as the boy laughed. “Who assigns a project on the first week of school?”
Poncho shrugged. “I don’t know man.”
“I guess I’m not taking that class then,” said the boy laughing some more. Poncho looked around at the others to await any questions but no one cared to raise their hand. The likeliest reason was probably that it was still super early on a Saturday morning. Poncho sat down slowly and pulled out a bag of chips from his hoodie pocket to eat. The boys in the room shot glares at him as they heard the crunch of the chips. Before anyone could say anything, Celestia spoke up.
“Alright, next is Clyde.”
Clyde anchored the chair he was leaning back on and stood up. He looked around the room and yawned. “My name is Clyde–”
“Hey Clyde...”
Clyde pointed to the back of the library that had a single desk in the corner and some bookshelves. “I was sent here today because Ms. Cheerilee caught me sleeping in the back corner over there while I was listening some tunes.”
The same boy from the window raised his hand. “Was it a good song dawg?”
“I mean, I guess since it’s on my phone.”
“That’s cool. Was it rap? I love rap.”
Clyde laughed. “No, I’m not a die hard rap fan. It’s fine sometimes, but I was listening to some nice classic rock that my brother introduced me to a long time ago.”
“That’s awesome.” The boy sat down as Clyde looked around the room again. Like Poncho, no one else bothered to ask any questions so Clyde sat back down. He crossed his arms as he leaned back in his chair. It was a few seconds of pause until the next name was read aloud.
“Tyrone? That’s also an unique name,” said Celestia from the desk.
The boy from the window shouted in happiness as he quickly stood up and sat on the library table he sat near. He was decked out in all black everything, including his hat, shades, sleeveless hoodie, jeans, and shoes.
“Aight. My name is Tyrone. I don’t know why I have such a lame name, but you can call me "T" too. I guess my mom wanted my name to be "simple and normal" so I can show up any kid who thinks I'm a pushover. It's also easy to remember my name when I beat you on the court.”
“Hey Tyrone...”
Tyrone laughed. “Sup dawgs. Anyway, I’m a baller and I came to this school to ball.”
Clyde looked up at Tyrone who caught his attention. “So you can ball, huh?”
Tyrone smiled at him. “Yeah dawg. People call me the next big thing.” Tyrone lowered his shades to look at Clyde with his dark eyes. “Why? Can you ball too?”
“I know a thing or two. Maybe we can play sometime.”
“Yeah dawg, that would be cool.” Tyrone and Clyde exchanged a nod while Tyrone scanned the room for some new questions.
A new hand shot into the air from the crowd. “Why are you here in detention though? Did you dribble the basketball through the hallway?”
Tyrone burst out laughing as the room looked at each other in confusion. “Nah mayne. I’ll tell you what I did. It’s pretty hardcore.” Tyrone looked around the room to act like someone was watching him from a hidden spot.
“Okay,” said a boy near the computers. His face was angry. “Get on with it.”
“Chill dawg, anyways, it was yesterday afternoon after I just got done with my weight lifting class that is also on some days a wellness class. After I changed from my dirty clothes to my sweet gang outfit, I walked out of the locker room and out of the backdoor of the school. Once I walked outside, my fellow gang members threw me a can of spray paint and I tagged the door with our gang initials, DTF.” The room kept quiet for a few seconds then bust out laughing. Tyrone smiled as everyone in the room, except Celestia who was reading a magazine of some sorts, laughed.
The boy near the computers stopped laughing to lift up a hand. “Please don’t tell me what that means. It’s way too funny if it means what I think it does.”
“Oh, it’s the same dawg. I’m “down” every breathing second. Unfortunately, since I got caught I had to clean the door so I left the gang in anger. I was only a member for a few hours.” The boys laughed some more then quickly stopped. Tyrone sat back down in his chair and kept the grin.
After a minute of silence waiting for the next name, Celestia noticed the silence in the room and looked up. “Oh! Sorry. I was busy reading an article. Next up is Patel.”
The boy beside the computers grinned and remained sitting in his seat. “I’m not standing. My name is Patel.”
“Hey Patel...”
Patel sighed and looked at the computer screen. “Well, my reason on why I’m here is simple. I had a math test yesterday. I hate math. I hate math so much, I decided to not take the test seriously so I drew pictures on it."
Poncho and the others stared at him. They looked around and some even scratched their heads. “Um,” began Poncho. “What were the pictures?"
Patel rolled his eyes. “I don’t think they're "school appropriate" to talk about.”
Poncho lifted a finger for a rebuttal, but decided not to and dropped the finger to his side. Clyde, Tyrone, and the others looked away from Patel and back to Celestia, awaiting the next name so they can hurry and get out of here.
“Cannon Schultz, you’re up,” said Celestia.
A boy from the middle of the room stood up and walked up to the middle of the library where everyone could see him perfectly. “You don’t have to do the “Hey...” thing anymore, but my name is Cannon Schultz.”
“Hey–”
“No! I told you to stop that!” Cannon grabbed the edges of his jacket and threw it up to give a dramatic and cool introduction. “Anyways, the reason why I’m here is because I haven’t shown up to school since the first day on Monday.”
Tyrone laughed. “Why’s that? Classes too hard or something?”
Cannon shook his head. “No, it’s just... I don’t like school. I want to join the Guard so I don’t really care about this pointless school stuff.”
Clyde from the back of the room spoke up. “My brother is in the Guard. I don’t really see him too much anymore, only on major holidays, and that’s if I’m lucky. Are you sure you want to be busy like that all the time?”
Cannon nodded. “All of my relatives from the other side of the world were Guards in our old country. When I moved here, I promised I would start the family Guard branch in this country.”
Clyde nodded as Cannon returned his nod. Cannon looked at Celestia with a lack of interest. “Hey Principal? Can we leave yet?”
Celestia smiled and shook her head. “Not quite. There’s still a few more of you to speak.”
Cannon gave a loud sigh and slowly walked back to his chair. “Hurry up dudes. I need to go to work.”
“Where do you work?” asked a boy close to him.
“Some restaurant in downtown,” replied Cannon. “Say, you look familiar, do I know you from somewhere?”
The boy gasped. “Cannon, it’s me, Jeb! I work there with you!”
Cannon scratched his head. “Eh...”
“I’m the busboy!” yelled Jeb.
Cannon shrugged. “Can’t say that I remember you.”
“Oh,” said Jeb sadly. “Nobody really does...”
“Why are you in here then?” asked Cannon. “You don’t seem to be the “rebel” or “thug” type of person to get into here.”
Jeb frowned. “I don’t know why I’m here. They just said to go here.” Cannon began laughing at him while Jeb looked away in shame.
The boy sitting to the table to the right of Cannon yawned and struggled to stand up. He rubbed his eyes and yawned again. Tyrone, who was the closest one to him saw that his eyes were red. “I’m Wahlburn,” said the boy, “I’ll make this pretty quick as I’m pretty burnt and tired, but I was caught smoking some weed in the bathroom.”
Cannon turned to his right to look at him. “Well aren’t you hardcore?”
“Don’t get smart with me!” yelled Wahlburn. “I have my needs and I don’t care where they take place! Who are you to judge me?”
Cannon raised his hands beside his face to signal him to stop. Wahlburn angrily glared at him as he sat back down. He continued to stare at Cannon until the last two boys in the room stood up simultaneously. One was decked out in a light blue shirt while the other one was wearing a navy blue colored shirt. They remained silent while glaring only at each other. Tyrone waved at them to initiate speech, but they both ignored him.
“Boys,” said Celestia, “care to tell us why you are here? You are the last two after all.”
The boy in the light blue shirt raised his hand over his head. “My name is Sticky.”
The navy blue shirt wearer raised his hand too. “I’m Rivs. We are in here because we started a fight against each other in the hallway.”
Tyrone laughed. “That’s legit dawgs. What were you fighting about?”
Sticky smiled. “I kept calling him out because his favorite collegiate basketball team lost in the tournament the other day, while my favorite team, who is their arch rival, won by a landslide.”
Rivs put his fist up to Sticky’s jaw. “We still beat you in the regular season, twice!”
Sticky grabbed his fist and pushed it away laughing. “Yeah, but you were a third seed! You lost to a fourteenth!”
“We always choke in the tournaments.”
“You also choke on something else if you know what I mean...” Rivs quickly sat down in anger as Sticky, Tyrone, and Cannon began laughing at the joke. Cannon wiped away his tears and looked at the clock.
“Well, are we done now Principal?”
Celestia looked over her clipboard and smiled. “Yes, we are done here.”
“Done? Like, for real?”
“Yes. I only wanted this “detention” a social meeting sort of thing. I know you are all new and that gave me a wonderful idea. You most likely wouldn’t have friends in the first week, so this is a perfect chance to make them. Of course, I’m not forcing you into a friendship, but I recommend it.” She grabbed her clipboard and walked towards the door. “Do what you will now, you can leave school. Have a wonderful weekend, and I'll see you all bright and early on Monday!” She opened the doors of the library and disappeared around the corner.
The group of boys sat there for a few seconds to wonder if this was some sort of test. Cannon quickly got up and ran towards the doors. “Sorry dudes, but I have to head to work! Let’s chat again sometime!” As he ran out, Jeb followed him requesting if he could drive him to work too.
Tyrone jumped out of his chair and looked at Clyde. “Hey dawg.”
“Yeah?”
“You want to head to the park with me? I want to see your skills and we can maybe find some other dudes to play us.”
Clyde smirked and stood up. “Yeah I’ll join you. I got nothing better to do anyway.” Clyde walked past the tables and looked back at Rivs and Sticky. “You guys like basketball too, right? You wanna play with us?”
Rivs nodded and quickly got up from the chair while Sticky slowly got up. Sticky passed Poncho and Patel and looked at them.
“Any of you want to come with me?” he asked. “My car can hold like ten people.”
Patel shook his head and pulled out his car keys. “Nah. I’m not into basketball, soccer is my thing though. I’ll join you at the park if we do that sometime.”
Sticky laughed. “Soccer is lame.”
“Well, guess I’m going home then. See you guys Monday or maybe never again?” Patel gave a wave and quickly left the library.
Sticky turned to Poncho next, who was digging into his hoodie pocket for some more snacks. “I’m guessing you don’t do sports either?”
“Wow Sticky,” said Rivs, “way to be a dick. Oh that’s right, your favorite team is super lame so that’s understandable.”
Sticky quickly pointed into his face. “Okay punk, I’m going to teach you a thing or two at the park.”
Rivs smiled. “Good. I’ll take you on.”
Tyrone sighed in the twos arrogance. “Yo dawgs, can we go now? I ain’t gonna be this fly forever. I'm in a basketball withdrawal right now.”
The four of them left the library as Poncho and a sleeping Wahlburn were all that remained. Poncho quietly walked up to Wahlburn and gave him a gentle shove. Wahlburn threw his head back and fell out of his chair. “What the hell brother? I’m trying to get some sleep!”
“Uh! I’m sorry!” replied Poncho. “I didn’t know you were going to do that!”
Wahlburn laughed and pushed off the ground to stand up. “It’s alright brother.” He looked around the room and saw the lack of people. “What happened?”
“The others left. We can leave now.”
Wahlburn smiled and quickly ran out of the room. Poncho stood in the library alone for a few seconds before chasing after him. As he ran through the empty halls of the school he was never able to find Wahlburn again. Poncho passed the main office, where Principal Celestia’s office and Vice Principal Luna’s office were, and rushed out of the main school doors.
As Poncho scanned the front of the school grounds and the adjacent parking lot, he saw Wahlburn in his car speed out of it and onto the main road. “Man that guy is fast,” he said as he sat on the school step. He took out his phone and called his father, who didn’t pick up. Instead of waiting, Poncho decided to walk to the closest store that was just down the road, the Sweet Shoppe.