"Mr. Welles, you're late ... again," Tom's first-period teacher said. "I know you don't think much of authority, but if you don't shape up soon, I'll have to give you detention."
Detention? Tom thought. I've never had detention.
It wasn't totally his fault that he was late. Okay, maybe it was. He was so distraught over the fact that Jon had turned Danny Foster into a Goth that he literally couldn't move ... until he heard the school bell ring. Then he rushed to class. He really didn't want a tardy on his record, but that's what people get when they're late. But now Tom is finding out that this sort of thing happens a lot. Was he really supposed to have this much of a disregard for authority?
He sat down in his usual seat, at the back of the class. Across the aisle and one desk chair up was a girl. She wasn't part of the popular crowd, but he still knew her name, which was Felicia Harrington. She was a nice enough girl, one that gave most people the benefit of the doubt. But would she give someone like Tom a chance?
He looked around the room and even looked out the window, as much as he could. Jon was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps this was his best chance to get some help.
"Psst," Tom whispered. "Felicia."
The girl turned around and displayed a look of disgust. This wasn't going as well as he wanted. "What do you want?" she whispered back.
"I have to tell you something," Tom continued whispering. "I know you probably won't believe this, but I'm not really a Goth. A guy named Jon turned me into one and I need your help to ..." Tom stopped when he watched the image of Felicia start to shimmer. "Felicia?" he whispered, this time almost inaudible.
Her blond hair turned black, then it was dyed with blue highlights. Her skin turned pale white, as her make-up turned black. Piercings appeared on her face and a spiked collar appeared on her neck. Her yellow T-shirt turned into a black heavy metal band T-shirt, her denim miniskirt turned into a black leather miniskirt, fishnet stockings appeared on her legs, and her shoes turned into black knee-high buckled boots with three-inch stacks. She was a Goth girl.
Tom's eyes went wide as he frantically searched for Jon. But he didn't see him anywhere, not like he had the last time. He started to get paranoid, thinking that maybe Jon made a wish that implemented Tom's punishment, even when Jon wasn't around! (What he didn't know was that he was right. After the incident with Danny Foster, Jon saw that he couldn't trust Tom to keep to the agreement.)
"Ms. Harrington," the teacher said, taking a break from his teaching. "No talking, please."
She stuck up her middle finger and said "Fuck you."
"That's it," the teacher said. "I've had it. You two are getting detention."
"Two?" Tom said.
"That's right, Mr. Welles. I was going to give you a break, but seeing as though you two want to talk during my class, I have no choice." He wrote something down on two slips of pink paper, then he walked over to their desks and gave the slips to them. "Maybe you'll think twice next time, when you think about interrupting my class." As he walked back to the front of the class, Felicia gave him the finger again.
What had Tom done? He had turned a sweet girl into a hate-filled troublemaker. And all just because he tried to get someone to help him stop Jon. At this point, the only people he could talk to were ... Goths. They wouldn't change, obviously, because they were already Goths. But what kind of reaction would they have if they found out that he was really supposed to be a jock, a kind of person that they despised?
Tom figured that he had no choice. He had to at least try.
He looked down at the slip of pink paper. It said that he had to report to detention after school that day.
