"Babysitting Service"

Ironically, detention is held in the cafeteria. A tiny Asian woman named Mary reads a newspaper. It is her job to make sure that all eight of us derelicts remain seated and silent. Three overweight boys blow spitballs through straws across their table and two tables over a girl with a spiked choker paints her nails black. The rest of the students are either snoozing or scribbling in notebooks. Detention is nothing more than a glorified babysitting service. I can see why some kids break so many boundaries. It’s because there aren’t any. There’s only little Mary wanting to read her paper in peace. She is just another Bea Krantz.



Meeka walks down the stairs and smiles at Mary. Her eyes blink all the way up at Meeka. “Don’t you smile at me. You late. Extra five minute detention for you. You sit down,” Mary says and returns to her paper. I like Mary.


Meeka sucks in her teeth and walks over to my table. “Hello, Cowgirl,” she says in a whisper.


“Whatever, Jamaican freak,” I fume.


“You, blond girl, you quiet, no talking,” Mary chops out. Meeka smiles triumphantly and opens a book.


There’s only one upside to this day: I get to ride home without my mother. It is the one bright speck in the darkness that is my life. G-d knows what mother I was coming home to tonight.