Breaking Down the Unbreakable

Detention: A forced or punitive delay. That's what it says on dictionary.com. But I don't think Dictionary.com has writers from Robinson High School writing the definitions, since detention was nothing like that.
It was, dare I say it. Fun. I'm serious! Freddy, the "detention guard" as Ali told me everyone calls him, was the coolest guy I've ever met. He had to be in his late 60's but man the guy was fun.
Most detentions consist of silence, homework, staring at the wall, and basic utter boredom.
Not with Freddy.
I didn't even have to sit in a desk if I didn't want to. I sat on the desk, talking to Ali for an hour. She'd gotten Price to let her have detention 6th during her aide period. I was grateful, since I didn't know anyone in the room. But seeing as I wasn't worried about a boring hour of detention as punishment, I'm thinking I won't think twice about kicking someone in the crotch again.
"So where do you live?" I asked as Ali and I played Uno on a desk between us.
"Oh, it's this gated community about 10 minutes away by car. It's called The Fairways, but I honestly think it looks like a rich person's prison. There are security guards! No joke!"
"That sucks! I would say I know where that is, but I honestly don't know." We laughed and she put down her last card beating me for the 3rd time in a row.
"Understandable, I mean you've only been around for a week." She shuffled and dealt out again. "Where do you live, since we're on the subject."
"Oh, some condo place. It's this 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo. The street's some flower name."
"You live in the flower condos?"
"I'm guessing you know them?"
"Oh for sure. Chase lives there, and so does-" suddenly she stopped mid-deal and looked up at me.
"Who?" I grabbed the card out of her hand and picked up the rest of my stack, looking at them.
"Oh, no one. Never mind."
"Ali! Are you serious? Just tell me."
"No, I don't think I will."
I would have questioned her longer, but the bell rang for the end of 6th, and therefore the end of school. And as fate would have it, I forgot to ask her as we walked out the door.
We walked to the front of the school soon gathering the other 4 from the choir group and headed out of the school.
"Hey Ali, we're going to Pep's, you guys coming?" Ethan came between us warping an arm around each of us
"You want to go?" Ali looked at me.
"What's Pep's?"
"Oh it's the local pizza parlor. Best pizza around." Evangeline stated matter-of-factly. Ali had told me earlier, if I wanted to know anything about the people or places in town, Evan was the girl to know. Just don't ask her about most academic subjects.
"Oh, sounds like fun, but I should probably get home."
"Really? Home? That's so lame." Chase cropped the skateboard he'd been carrying and started scooting next to me on it.
"Yeah, I still have a whole bunch of stuff to unpack, plus it's Thursday."
"Yeah, which means what?" I guess no one else would know.
"Thursday is Italian night with my Grandpa. It's the one night we spend together no matter what and we eat Italian, and my dad decided this was the night he'd call every week." We came to the stop light at the end of the block where I started heading off to the right and they'd be crossing to the left.
"Oh, ok, well then promise you'll come to the party tomorrow at least!" Ali grabbed my wrist to make sure I gave her an answer before we parted ways.
"Party? I told you, I don't speak Ali yet."
"It's this huge party that Evan throws every year. Every person in our class comes. Even the dorky ones. You have to come!"
"Okay, I'll come."
She gave a little squeak, that most people wouldn't expect to come out of her, and grabbed me in a hug before they got the green light and we walked away from each other.
I had my IPod out and one ear bud in before I'd take 2 full steps. Listening to Simple Plan sing I got into a rhythm and a zone that I often fell into when I was focused on something. Like walking. I mean what if there was an earthquake or something? Walking takes a lot out of me. I'm pretty clumsy.
I may be able to floor a guy twice my size, but walking in a straight line is difficult!
I knew how to get back to the house simply by the turns and stoplights my grandpa had taken this morning. I have a pretty good memory. But I didn't know how long it was supposed to take. It'd take 15, no 10, no 15 minutes to get to school, so that's like a half hour or 45 minutes to get back, right? Who knows?
I was arguing with myself when I started noticing a car I'd seen drive by at least twice already drive by again. It was a red car. I don't know what kind and I don't really care, but either this car was stalking me, or the person driving it had a seriously troubled sense of direction.
I looked up as it drove by the 3rd time, trying to see who was driving it, but I didn't have to work too hard, since a second later it pulled up next to me.
Now if you haven't noticed yet, I don't make a lot of sense. I've been in self-defense since I could reasonably be there, but I've also seen enough movies to know that when a car pulls up next to you and you're alone, and the street doesn't have a whole lot of extra traffic, it's not a good sign.
I kept my eyes straight ahead and tried to ignore the car inching next to me with its hazard lights on. But I couldn't ignore it long, since about a minute later, the passenger window was rolled down and a voice grabbed my attention I'd had fixed on the sidewalk.
"You know, the ground isn't going anywhere."
I snapped my head in the direction of the voice. I mean I wasn't expecting it and he was insulting the way I walk.
But, like I said earlier, I'm not exactly what anyone would call graceful, so as soon as I took my focus off putting one foot in front of another, a crack appeared in the cement and I fell.
Flat on my face.
Right in front of none other than, Seth Rider.
Does my life get any better?