[i]Beep beep, beep beep, beep beep![/i]

Once Silas’s phone had struck 8:30am, the terribly annoying alarm sound rang out next to his bed like a damn foghorn. No matter how scholarly Silas was, he despised waking up early, especially on the weekends. It was wasn’t his thing. He groaned loudly from his sheets and picked up his phone, squinting against its bright light.

“I’ve got a couple minutes…” he muttered before hitting the snooze button and dropping his head immediately back down.

Unfortunately, not five minutes later, the alarm blared again.

“Shut the fuck up!”

Resisting the very strong urge to hurl the device across the room, Silas picked up his phone again and finally turned the alarm off. He sat up tiredly in his bed with his head hung and remained there for a few seconds. Of course, his perception of time was totally warped, and he suddenly snapped back into reality, thinking he had fallen back asleep. He quickly snatched up his phone and saw the time was still 8:36. With a half-sigh half-groan, he got up from his bed. 

Silas’s room was a rather messy one. It wasn’t too big but held enough space for his bed, a desk, a decent-sized closet, a dresser, and two windows. The rest of the space was filled up by scattered papers, various articles of clothing, empty water and Gatorade bottles, pens, lacrosse gear, and electrical wires, which he always had to be careful not to trip on.

Rubbing his eyes, he shuffled into the bathroom and took a speedy shower, quickly got dressed, and came downstairs. He wondered if he needed to bring anything to detention. Probably nothing, but he decided to bring his backpack and a copy of [i]Brave New World[/i] to keep him from getting too bored.

“Good morning, sweetie.”

Silas looked up to see his mom sitting at the kitchen table, looking down at him.

“Are you going somewhere?”

Silas stood up and shouldered his backpack. He quickly checked the time and looked back to is mom with a smile.

“Yeah, I’m going to a friend’s house to do some homework.”

“Oh, is it one of your lacrosse friends?”

Silas laughed at that thought.

“No, it’s a new student. Her name is Terra. She’s from North Carolina too.” Silas felt a tug in his stomach when he mentioned her name.

“That’s very nice of you to hang out with the new girl,” Cheyenne Slater replied with a quaint smile. “How is she doing adjusting to the new school and everything?”

Silas looked away from a moment and remember how quickly Terra managed to cram over 200 kids into her house for a party.

“She’s doing pretty good,” Silas answered honestly, but with a smirk. “Where’s dad?”

“At the firm, as usual. You just missed him. I’m about to get ready for work too.”

Silas nodded and went to the refrigerator.

“Want me to make you something?” she asked.

“No, I’m in a hurry,” Silas said, quickly grabbing two apples that had been chilling in a drawer. He stuck one inside his backpack and held the other in his mouth while he got the rest of his things ready and went to the door.

“Don’t wait up!” he shouted before running out.

Silas was thankful now more than ever that he lived so close to the high school. It was just a short, 5-minute walk away, give or take. His clock just struck 9:00 when he opened the door to room 202, inside which sat only Ms. Fierro.

“Umm, hi,” he said awkwardly to get her attention. She was sitting at the desk, reading a magazine and looked up to regard him.

“Hello Mr. Slater,” she said emotionlessly. “Please take a seat while we wait for someone who I can only assume is running fashionably late.”

Silas double-checked to make sure Terra wasn’t there, and sat down uncomfortably in one of the first-row desks, looking down silently.

Her very first Saturday morning detention. Terra was a bit impressed with the whole idea, and angry. Not that she didn’t deserve it, she knew she did. Even if she made good points to Katrina, she also knew that there were some things someone just should not do while in school. Almost having sex was one of them. 

Terra didn’t doubt that her father would find out somehow. She knew Katrina had to end up calling him up and letting him know. Sure enough, she did. It was a return to a bunch of yelling and arguing the moment she had gotten back home from school. True to form, she ignored him the best she could and returned his yells. There was never a time Terra ever let Landon scream just by himself. But, when she did, she did it to purposefully to annoy him. 

This morning, Terra knew she had to get up by herself. No help from Landon. She took a shower, ate breakfast and put on a sweater and a pair of short shorts. Grabbing her signature flat brim and sunglasses, she went upstairs to brush her teeth.

Once that was all settled, she was ready to leave. But, to get a little revenge, although it wasn’t really revenge. It was more like her way of playing daughter pranks on her father. Terra went into Landon’s room and changed his alarm from 12:30 to 9:10AM. Clicking the buttons to set it didn’t take long. It was seconds later that she was out the door and headed to the school.

She skateboarded all the way there, listening to her music. Not caring about rules, Terra continued to skate down the hallway to detention, knowing Katrina would hear her loud ruckus. Once she finally made it to the door, Terra kicked her board up. She opened the door and had her iPod on such full blast that she couldn’t hear Katrina, or Silas. But, they could hear her music. 

Terra smirked when she looked at Ms. Fierro. Her eyes went from her to the clock, and once it turned to 9:01, then she stepped in. Walking to her seat, popping her earbuds out and then sitting down at last.

Katrina and Silas collectively stared at Terra as she stood in the doorway, although Katrina more glared at her. Finally she walked in, and demonstrated to everyone that she was, indeed, one minute late.

“Good morning, Terra,” Katrina said calmly, with her hands now folded on top of her desk.

“Yeah, whatever.” Terra flipped her hair over her shoulder with extreme attitude. Looking at the clock. She did her best to act apathetic about the whole thing.

Katrina frowned and checked her watch.

“All right, you’re both free to go at 11am, okay? Until then, just… don’t cause me a headache.”

Silas glanced over to Terra anxiously but looked away again.

“Um… Hi, Terra,” Silas said quietly, still looking away.

Terra smiled at his shy boy struggles. 

“You need to relax, Silas. Are you afraid of me or something?”

Silas shook his head with a laugh.

“What, no? Well, maybe a little, I guess. I mean, not to say that you’re scary or anything,” he laughed nervously and Katrina looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. “It’s just, you know, I don’t know.” He laughed again and realized he had just rambled complete nonsense. He stopped laughing and looked down.

“Uhh… Yeah.”

Terra watched him ramble on and on, laughing nervously. She cocked her head to the side inquisitively. Even catching Katrina’s raised eyebrow. Either she wanted them to shut up, or they both were enjoying Silas’ lack of experience with girls. Still, Terra thought it was one of the most charming and cute things she’d seen in a while. 

She smiled. “Thanks for that, Silas. I think. Uhh, yeah.” Terra mocked him playfully, exaggerating her head movements to look down and twiddle her thumbs before breaking out into a light laugh.

“You’re cute, ya know that? And sweet. And handsome…” She leaned over a little bit.

“And a great kisser…” Terra whispered.

Katrina dropped her magazine on the desk.

“Hey, watch it over there, Miss Attraction,” she said, staring at Terra with a scowl. “I can hear everything you’re saying. I don’t want to have to give you detention again. Or worse. Seriously guys, c’mon. I don’t want to be here either. As soon as it’s 11, you two can go… make out behind a dumpster or whatever it is you teens do now.”

Silas looked over at Terra, surprised she had said that about him. Was she serious? He got that uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach again, and he quickly diverted his attention by reaching into his backpack and pulling out [i]Brave New World[/i] and his second apple.

Terra stuck her tongue out at Katrina. Despite being a senior in high school, she intended to be a complete child at the moment. She folded her arms and let out a loud “Hmph.” Turning her head to the side in defiance, with a noticeable smirk.

Soon, the silence built up in the room. Terra turned her head back up to the front to look at Ms. Fierro. “So, Kat-... Miss Fieeeerrroooo,” She said, exaggerating her name for fun, “How much do you still love my dad?”

Katrina opened her mouth in shock.

“Terra,” she gasped. “What on earth made you think of such a question? I mean, I still love your father. I really do care about him, of course.”

“Oh come on, Miss F. Don’t talk around the question like you don’t know I have a reason to talk about it or ask you about it. Be honest. I mean, looking at you. Thinking about you when you were in college. The sex must have been pretty great. Right?”

Katrina stood up from her desk suddenly.

“What is with you and always having your mind on sex?” she exclaimed. 

“I’m a seventeen year old girl about ready to head to college. There’s these things called hormones for us ‘crazy teenagers’ that you adults like to talk about. I’m pretty sure you were just like me in a lot of ways.” Terra shrugged at Katrina’s comments.

Katrina smirked, sitting back down in her chair with a tired sigh.

“Not as much as your mother was,” she said flatly.

Silas looked up from his book when he heard this, glancing to Katrina then to Terra, somewhat confused. But he decided not to say anything.

“I guess you’re right though,” Katrina supposed. “But even your mother had… some self control.”

“I’ve never even had sex yet… Miss Fierro…”

Katrina shook her head and held up her hand to her.

“Enough about sex!” she said quickly. “You’re starting to give me that headache I warned you about earlier. Just… do something quietly or change the subject. I’m your counselor, but I [i]really[/i] don’t need to know your entire sex life unless it was horribly traumatic.”

She shrugged. “Well, you said self-control. I was just trying to prove a point that my mom was probably more wild than me. She was, because I would know.” Terra stated flatly. But, she continued on. “In that case… how about a fun counseling question. Were you jealous of her?”

Katrina inhaled deeply and looked upwards as if toward Kaelyn’s spirit. She flipped her hair a little bit and ran her fingers in it.

“I can’t say I wasn’t jealous at all,” Katrina admitted, still looking upwards. “But as you would know, your father and her were a picture-perfect couple, and not in a cheesy way. I sometimes think they were simply made for each other.”

Terra nodded. She hoped to get under her skin, but Katrina was well put together. Probably why she was a counselor after all. So, she decided to give her a break. 

“What kind of counseling advice do you give to kids whose mothers died in car crashes on their own birthday. With alcoholic fathers who forget that they’re fathers?” She asked her extremely specific question.

“We already discussed this,” she said in a quieter voice, looking at Silas. Thankfully, he looked too engrossed in the book to care.

“You said your father was going to some classes, right?”

“Yes. I’d rather someone just lock him in a room and force him to go cold turkey for a week.”

Katrina shook her head.

“He’d crave it more than ever after an experience like that. Someone like him… has to be eased off it. After all, it’s not like he’s an abusive father; or a terrible one at that.”

“Not abusive, sure. Terrible? Well what do you mean? He certainly hasn’t been a ‘present’ dad for most of the past year. And, I’d tell you stories about him asking for beers rather than listening or giving me advice about things that were affecting me. But, you’d just be too busy taking his side. Because, he’s an adult. He knows everything…” Terra spat out, sarcastically. Clearly getting incensed just thinking about it.

“I am [i]not[/i] taking his side,” Katrina replied. “I’m just pointing out that he could be so much worse. He could be abusing worse substances. The trauma of losing his wife could have literally driven him insane. He could’ve just abandoned you if he wanted to.”

“I know that, but it’s easy for you to say that. You don’t have your father telling you that he doesn’t want to look at you! Yes, he was so drunk one night that he couldn’t even look at me. I don’t care if I look like my mother, it’s not a fucking excuse…”

“Well, he has a problem,” Katrina stated simply. “A problem that can be solved, too. Besides, Terra, that isn’t how he really is. Think about him before the accident. I’m sure you two were much closer then.”

“We were. And I think he would like it that way, but he isn’t going to get a ‘good’ daughter until he actually shows some desire to change.”

Katrina looked at Terra closely for a moment, reading her.

“So you’re only acting crazy to get back at him for having an addiction?”

“Sure, if that’s how your psycho-analyst mind sees it. Go with that observation.”

Katrina shrugged.

“You pretty much just admitted to it,” she stated simply. “At any rate, I’m done having this discussion with you. There’s only so many Advil I can take at once.”

“I went behind my dad’s back and got Effexor from my doctor.” Terra stated. She unzipped her bag and pulled out the familiar black container of pills. Red label plastered around it. She put it on the desk for Katrina to see.

“I tried one. I felt numb. Uhh… Do you mind just taking them and I don’t know. They scare me and I don’t want my father to know…”

Silas looked up at her surprisedly, and Katrina had stifled a gasp with her hand over her mouth.

“Did you take that before or after I told you about your mother?” she breathed.

“I didn’t take them because you told me about how my mother took them, okay? I took them because I wanted to get a grip on myself… I just didn’t realize that they make you. I don’t know. Cold?”

Katrina stood up and grabbed the box of pills from Terra’s desk. She scrutinized the label with a look of nausea on her face before taking it back to her desk and putting it into her purse.

“Those aren’t meant for people to take,” Katrina sighed. “They’re way too potent.”
--------
After that heavy conversation, the rest of the detention was mainly quiet but not all that awkward. Finally, after what seemed like the longest two hours, the time was 11:00am. They were free to go.

Katrina checked her watched at this time and stood up.

“Well, you two, I hope you learned your lesson,” she said. “Which was…?” She looked mainly at Terra intently.

“Don’t almost have sex in a locker room.” Terra shrugged. Before finally being serious. “Okay, fine. Self-control. Don’t be a slave to our passions, blah blah.”

Katrina smiled. “Actually, I was just looking for the locker room answer, but now I know you maybe learned something after all. All right. You can go. I don’t want to catch you two like that a third time, okay?”

Silas shut his book with an exhale and packed it inside his backpack. He stood up and smiled to Katrina.

“Thanks again, Miss Fierro,” he said quietly.

Terra rolled her eyes and just gave Katrina a little wave before turning for the door. “Me and Silas will be underneath the bleachers this afternoon.” She teased and continued out of the library. Out into the hallway, waiting for Silas to catch up to her.

She knew he wanted to follow her.

Indeed he did. Silas came out of the room looking around and caught sight of Terra. With a smile he came up to her and walked beside her.

“So, um, my parents are at work right now, and I live like five minutes away…” he told her. “We can hang out there… I mean, if you’re not busy or anything. I might need some help on that chem lab.”

She wanted to facepalm that was probably the least subtle way anyone could ask a girl over to their house. He basically could have just asked her to make out. Terra just started to laugh and took off her sunglasses for the first time all day so he could see the soft glint in her eyes as she laughed.

“Sure, I’ll come over.”

Silas couldn’t help but grin stupidly at her when she accepted his offer. He was almost tempted to fist pump and go ‘Yeah!’, though he resisted. So, he lead her back to his house in the late morning sun and showed her into the kitchen where he walked over to the fridge.

“Want something for lunch?” he asked, staring inside and rummaging around.

Terra looked around Silas’ house. It was nice. Very homey feeling to it. She paused as he looked through the fridge. Like stalking her prey, she quietly walked up behind him and then jumped on his back trying to get a piggy back ride. Nibbling at his neck and kissing him.

Silas yelped in surprise when Terra snuck up on him and jumped on his back. Not wanting to topple backwards, he grabbed her legs and fell into her piggy back trap as she continued to nibble at and kiss his neck.

“So is that a no on lunch?” he asked, trying to keep his face clear from her lips.

Terra sucked on his neck with the intention of giving him a hickey. She laughed against his skin when he brought up lunch. Her hat had fallen off at this point. “Mm, I’m thinking this is lunch.” She said with a smirk.

Silas tried to get his neck away from her.

“Hey, I don’t want a big, black, ugly hickey for my parent’s and Katrina to see,” he said to her. “If you keep it up I will drop you off my back in a heartbeat.”

“Then why don’t you try and take control of the situation, shy boy?” Terra nibbled his ear, teasing him. Challenging him to do something.

Silas sighed.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

With that, he dropped her legs and pried the arms around him off.

Terra squealed in surprise. She didn’t fall by herself because she grabbed him by the back of his shirt as she fell. Causing them both to hit the ground. Silas’d end up on top of her when they fell to the floor. 

Silas yelled in surprise as well and before he knew it he was on top of her on the wooden floor, his face right over hers.

“Sorry,” he laughed embarrassedly. “Are you hurt?”

“Right here…” Terra pouted and pointed to her lips. “Can you help make it better?”

Silas furrowed his brows.

“You do realize kissing a wound won’t actually make it any better,” he said with a cunning smirk.

“It’s about the mental healing, babe. So, shut up and kiss me.” She smirked back at him.

Silas’s heart fluttered when she called him babe.

“I do actually need help on the chem lab, y’know,” he said before lowering his head to kiss her lightly on the lips.

Terra gripped his hair and kissed him hard on the lips. “I know…” She alternated one of his lips. “We’ll take care of it… when… we can…” She said, breathing for air whenever she could in the midst of their make-out session.

Silas kissed her back for a few more seconds before breaking away and getting off her to stand up.

“Well, if we’re going to procrastinate, we should at least do so on my bed or something,” he said, scratching his head, wondering if that was subtle enough.

She laughed at his words and got up after him. Slipping her hand into his and squeezing tight, she looked into his eyes. “Lead the way, sir.” Terra said with a smirk.

Silas grinned and lead her up the stairs into his bedroom, where he released her hand in horror, realizing how messy it was.

“Whoa, sorry… about… all this…” he said as he desperately tried to pick up a couple pairs of boxers and and lacrosse gear and throw them into his closet.

Terra quickly ran over behind Silas and grabbed him. She turned him around and passionately, as though she couldn’t control herself, made out with him.

“It’s about to get a lot messier in here…” She whispered, closing her eyes for another kiss.

Silas got another rush of adrenaline when she started to kiss him again, this time like never before. He could hardly keep up with her, but he loved every second of it. He reached down and grabbed her shirt again, knowing that this time it would stay off.

He pulled it off her gently and dropped it to the ground and continued to kiss her. He led her backwards with his body and finally pushed her onto his bed, where he was now on top again.

“I like your crazy bras,” he laughed between a kiss.

“Do you have a condom?” Terra asked between their kisses.

Silas stopped kissing her immediately.

“What?” he asked with a frown, looking down at her incredulously. “A condom? Are you kidding me?”

“Silas, you are this close to getting lucky. Don’t blow it.” Terra smiled and kissed him on the lips gently.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t exactly anticipating this,” he admitted, now feeling bad. “Besides… don’t you kinda want to… you know, take it slow? We’re both sorta new to this.” He looked at her and smiled softly, hoping he’d convinced her.

“Fuck, Silas… Why do you have to make me feel bad about it now? You probably think I’m a slut, now.” Terra frowned and pulled herself away from him.

“No, no, no...” Silas said, trying to keep her steady. “I don’t think you’re not a slut… I actually was about to ask you the same thing, in the heat of the moment.”

He reached down and pulled his shirt off before turning back to stare into her beautiful eyes.

“There’s no rush this time,” he whispered.

Terra relaxed and smiled. Gazing back into his eyes and taking a deep breath. She leaned up a little towards him to give him a light kiss before giving a little space. Her hands moved to her back, reaching for the clasp of her orange, revealing bra.

She gave him a light smirk and unclasped it…

Silas froze and his face turned into an expression of grief

“Wait. My mom comes home for lunch around this time,” he breathed, looking at the door. After a few seconds of waiting, he broke into laughter and turned back to her.

“I’m kidding. No one’s going to come in this time…”

*fade to black*