May Angels Lead You In

For the whole of that day, I could not help but to dread about the detention with Miss Chaney. School was over, I've had my lunch and now, I was going to spend my time with two teenage boys who cannot seem to control their boy-fighting hormones.

By the time I got to the hall, I noticed that Gabriel was already there helping out by painting the props for the show.

I sighed out loud and walked towards Miss Chaney, waiting for her to give me some tasks.

"I suppose you can help out with the painting," Miss Chaney answered as she looked through a few sheets of music paper. She looked up at me and added, "That's the only thing I can have you do for today."

I glanced over at Gabriel, who quickly looked away from me to continue working on the show's prop.

"Isn't there anything else that I can do, Miss Chaney?" I half-begged.

"I have my reasons for asking you to do so, Miss Evans," the teacher shook her head before walking away from me.

I sighed once more and slowly made my way towards Gabriel, picking up the paint brush on my way.

I painted for a few minutes before Gabriel cleared his throat next to me but I decided to ignore him.

"So uh, how was your day?"

Gabriel was watching me but I couldn't help but to take a peek over my shoulders, in case he was talking to someone else. When I realized that there wasn't, I turned back to him and pointed to myself in bewilderment.

"Are you talking to me?"

"Well, who else could I be talking to? The freaking wall?" Gabriel snorted causing me to look away in anger.

"Late again, are we Mr Sullivan? This is detention - you are required to be here on time," Miss Chaney's high-pitched tone could be heard from the other end of the stage.

"Sure, next time," James's answer was monotone, walking past the teacher without looking at her. He dropped his bagpack down and walked over to our side of the stage.

I got another surprise when James stopped to face me. He was wearing a new pair of clothes - The Misfits black tee with black denims and black Converse sneakers.

I had to look up at him since he was a few inches taller than I was.

"Can we talk in private?" I noticed that he was cautiously looking over my shoulder - at Gabriel, perhaps.

"Oh no, don't let me stop you from making out," Gabriel spat as he threw his paint brush onto the table and walked away from us.

Once Gabriel was out of sight, James turned back at me and there was a few moments of awkward silence between us. He scratched his head with his eyes shut before sighing in defeat.

"I've been a jerk today," James had to literally coughed the words out.

I kept quiet and placed my hand on my hips, not knowing where this conversation was going.

"I had a bad day and you were kind of in the middle of these bottled-up feelings I was having- " he looked up at me and attempted to smile.

"It's okay," I answered and continued working on the prop.

I felt him standing there for moment before he took another brush by the table and started painting the prop. Gabriel returned and started painting again.

I didn't know if this is James wanting to be friends with me. I could totally be reading this whole vibe wrong. I let out a sigh and turned to him with my hands on my hip. "Let's start over. Hi, I'm Marchelle."

James stared at my extended hand before he took and shook it.

"Jimmy," he introduced himself.

"Gre-at," Gabriel was half-amused and half-sarcastic. "Bonding session. That's exactly what we need in this detention. Maybe we'll slow-dance under the misletoe if the feeling's there."

"You should hang out with me and my friends right after detention."

It didn't sound like a question to me so I let out a smile and nodded my head with eagerness.

"I would love that!"

I could hear Gabriel groan in annoyance but ignored him throughout detention.

+

We got into Jimmy's red Nissan Versa 1.6 and he drove us to a Walmart store which happened to be a few blocks away from school. We didn't speak much - Jimmy wasn't much of a talker, I guess.

But once he parked the car outside of Walmart, he said, "The guys are going to like you."

Guys?

We got out of the car and I saw four guys by the entrance of the store - some were with tattoos on their arms - waving for us to come over.

Jimmy walked ahead first and did a little handshake with his friends before introducing us to each other.

"The chick's hot," Johnny Seward, the shortest of the five with a nose ring, winked over at Jimmy.

"That is so not a cool thing to say to someone you just met, dude," Matt Sanders, the one with a few tattoos on his arms, muttered under his breath.

"It is too," Johnny retorted. "Chicks dig that."

"Ignore the short midget of the family," Brian Haner Jr., the one with black spiked hair waved Johnny off before greeting me with a warm smile. "Hello Marchelle."

Zacky Baker, the last guy in the group that had a couple of crazy colored hair, a septum and two snakebites on each side of his lips simply smiled over at me as he took a long drag from his cigarette. Out of the five, Jimmy and Brian were the only ones without a tattoo.

Was this really the people Jimmy is hanging out with? They look kind of - juvenile.

"We should go grab ourselves some 40's before heading to our spot," Matt suggested and the others agreed without hesitation.

"I'll wait out here with Marchelle," Jimmy added as the others went into Walmart.

"Your friends are -" I searched through my brains to find the right words trying not to insult my new-found friend. "- Nice."

"- Tattooed punks who contribute nothing but harm to society?" Jimmy and I said at the same time, though I was a little taken aback by his sudden outburst again.

"No, I had no such thoughts," I protested.

"I saw the way you look at them," Jimmy interrupted as we heard the voices of his friends approaching us. "Maybe if you hang out with them first without judging, you'd come to see that they're wonderful guys."

"But I -"

"Ready to leave?" Brian was the first to approach us but Jimmy shook his head.

"Marchelle just remembered she has something to do back home," Jimmy didn't look at me as he placed his hands into his front pocket and started walking away.

"Do you need me to drive you home?" Brian looked over at me with an apologetic look on his face.

I turned to Jimmy and then to Brian before looking back to the former again.

"Actually, I'm staying," I made my stand causing Jimmy to stop mid-way.

I grabbed one of the bags from Brian and started walking forward. If this was the only way for me to make friends, so be it.