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Crescent City Institute - Detention
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Detention
Characters: Abernathy Ford, Adelaide Legaux, and NPC Leonard Fortis
Setting: The last day of the girls’ detention sentence
Rating: SFW. A little language.
Summary: Detention. ‘Nuf said.


The first four days of detention had been exactly as horrible as Abernathy thought they would be. It was tedious, repetitive work. Fortis glared at her if she had to ask what potion she was labeling, as if she should know already being a third year student. She was good at potions, but some things got lost over the course of the summer.

He made her rewrite a few labels because her handwriting was so unique. She didn’t mind this so much. She half suspected it was going to happen and worked extra hard to make sure the rest of the labels were intelligible.

During the course of the previous four days AB did everything she could to avoid Adelaide. She didn’t look at her and she certainly did speak to her, not even as they were leaving Fortis’ office. Today however, she snuck one glace in her archenemy’s direction. She was pleased to find that Adelaide looked about as miserable as she felt.

S-K-E-L-E-~-G-R-O. They weren’t even labeling good potions. Not that Fortis would let them get more than a few inches from their seats with anything concealed, but wouldn’t it have been so much more interesting to be handling Polyjuice or Amortentia and not... first aid potions or Quodpot Solution.

Adelaide held up the vial and inspected the label. Perfectly readable, if not a tiny bit smudged at the beginning. She glanced at Abernathy out of the corner of her eye, and for just a moment wondered if it would be worth getting expelled, just to get her into a headlock and make her drink some to see what happened. It wasn’t, of course. She set the potion aside with a grimace.

She wiped her inky fingertips on her cloak. “Professor, I’m out of labels.”

Leonard Fortis was used to holding detention sessions, he often dealt out a fair share of those detentions but no matter. It gave him time to grade papers while the students wrote out the labels for potions. He sipped on his tea while reading until Adelaide spoke up.

“Of course,” he got up, keeping his eyes on both girls while moving to the supply closet and reached for the labels. “Miss Ford, Miss Legaux, you would be well advised to keep your eyes to yourselves,” he said as his back was turned. He laid the labels on Adelaide’s desk and smiled. “Excellent work,” he took several bottles and placed them where they belonged. He looked over to Abernathy and smiled. “Better,” he said collecting the bottles she had finished with.

AB could feel Adelaide glowing over that compliment. Leave to her to be pleased with herself over legible handwriting. A better was more than good enough for her. She continued on with the next couple of bottles using her best penmanship. It was a miracle she hadn’t developed a cramp from all the writing. She had something to look forward to after this detention. It was just enough to distract her from the mind-numbing task at hand and just enough to keep her from starting something with Adelaide. She didn’t want to write her own ticket home over that close minded, bigoted bitch. Even if it might be worth it to have her kicked out as well.

Adelaide slid the new labels towards her, and dipped her quill back into the ink. Honestly, she didn’t know how AB lived with such disgusting writing. Wasn’t it like, a sign of brain retardation or something? P-E-P-P-E-R... Was Pepper-up two words or one? She wasn’t game to ask; Fortis had that special kind of glare that burned away pieces of your soul. She glanced around her to see if there were any already-labeled ones she could copy off.

Leonard did noticed Abernathy’s more legible hand writing and smiled at that, he also noticed Adelaide’s wondering eye. “Was there something you needed Miss Legaux?” he asked leaning back in his chair.

Abernathy let her eyes slide over to Adelaide expectantly when Professor Fortis asked. No matter how many bottles she had left to write up, she wasn’t going to miss whatever this was about.

She turned a slight shade of red-- and she wasn’t even in trouble yet. “I can’t remember if Pepper-up is two words or one,” she muttered, refusing to look over AB’s way.

Leonard smiled, not unkindly. “It’s one word Miss Legaux,” he said and looked over to make sure Abernathy was at work. He gave her the teacher eye when he saw that she wasn’t at work on her labels. “Keep up the speedy work ladies, it’s Saturday afternoon. I’d like to catch a few hours of sunlight.”

Abernathy’s head had never whipped around so fast in her life. She blushed a furious shade of red and worked twice as fast as she’d been all afternoon. Fortis was the most intimidating man on the staff. She didn’t want to see that hairy eyeball ever again. You can get through this. Just another fifty labels... And then three months of bullshit probation. Oh god. Fuck me. She had smudged the entire label before even placing it on the bottle. She took a fresh one, re-wrote the label and carefully placed it. Forty-nine.

“Thank you,” she said contritely, and finished her label, pressing it carefully across the face of the first aid bottle. Just five more of these and then.. oh god what was that unholy stink? The new batch of bottles he’d placed in front of her, though sealed, were distinctly smelly. She gagged.

“Is there something wrong Miss Legaux?” the professor looked up from his desk with a blank face. Over the years he had become slightly desensitized to certain smells, he barely realized that there was an odor at all.

AB didn’t dare look this time only wrote as quickly as possible. Forty-four, she counted in her head as the labels ticked by in a blur. She double checked them to make sure they were correct, but she was starting to get a little sloppy in her haste. Thirty-nine.

“It’s vile!” She cried, completely forgetting to mind her manners and just shut up and get the detention over with. “Oh god! I’m going to barf.”

Leonard got up from his desk and walked over to Adelaide’s desk. He looked at the bottle curiously, uncorked it, and took a whiff. He pulled his face back a little, wiggled his nose, and shrugged. “There’s nothing wrong with it,” he said simply. “The faster you write, the faster you get to leave,” he added with a genial smile before he walked back to his desk.

AB was fairly deep in the zone, but she still grinned from ear to ear as she wrote her next label. She could smell the stank from her desk, but it was nothing she hadn’t smelled before out in the middle of the country on ungodly hot, summer nights. Twenty-eight. Oh my god, we’re almost done.

Adelaide squinched her eyes closed and tried not to think about that awful, awful stink hanging in the air. It couldn’t possibly be as bad as AB’s morning breath, she told herself. She pulled the collar of her shirt up over her nose, and reached for the labels, hoping that her writing would still be readable even though she was looking at it through watering eyes. B-O-G-~-B-E-E-T-L-E-~-J-U-I-C-E. There were nine more to label. Nine! It might as well be nine hundred.

Leonard watched his students write their labels with a quiet sort of amusement. Adelaide’s faux gas mask was perhaps one of the more interesting tactics he had seen when a students was labeling bog beetle juice. He wasn’t sure if she would make it through the rest of the bottles although there were only a few left.

AB was writing furiously now. There was no way she was going to let Adelaide get out of detention faster than she did. Twenty-five. Twenty-four. They were moving right along now; she was only thankful Addy got the stinky potions, to match her disposition. If there was a god some of it would spill on Adelaide and she’d stink for the rest of the weekend.

Fuuuuuuuck! She’d smudged three labels beyond recognition, and her shirt was definitely not a good enough shield against the smell. She shrugged her whole head into her shirt for a moment, wiping her eyes clear and taking a deep breath. Self, deodorant, and a day running around campus was infinitely better than the air above the potions. One more deep breath, and she emerged like a turtle from its shell to scribble out the rest of the labels as fast as she could.

Leonard did not laugh aloud when he saw Adelaide’s turtle tactic but found it hysterical nonetheless. He stood from his seat and took the bottles away from her desk. “Nicely done Miss Legaux, I hope you’ve learned more than how to protect one’s nose from the potent smell of bog beetle juice,” he said tapping the desk in front of the senior. “You may go and for the love of stars stay out of trouble,” he crossed his arms and made his way back to the front of the room.

Shit! Abernathy still had ten labels left and Adelaide was finished. It had never been a competition, but she didn’t exactly want to be left alone in the room with the intimidating Professor Fortis. Nine. Eight. Seven. She was really starting to scramble now.

Adelaide didn’t look back, corking her inkwell and picking up her quill and fleeing from the classroom without a second thought. She was finally free!

Leonard waited until Abernathy was done frantically scribbling before he walked over to her desk and looked at her work. he could tell that the last few were done hurriedly. “Miss Ford,” he said her name with his booming voice. “You’ve been quite notorious in detention these past few years,” he said simply.

She didn’t know if she should answer. These sorts of conversations with teachers always felt like traps. She set down her quill thoughtfully and pushed the last of the bottles away. “Yes sir,” she answered.

“Hmm,” he said thoughtfully. “I would like to see you staying out of trouble Abernathy,” he said using her first name. “Perhaps it would be easier to avoid such trouble by staying an active participant in one of the school clubs,” he suggested. “I don’t want to see anyone getting expelled, especially students who are smarter than that. Just remember that words can solve any problem that fists can,” he walked back to his desk and leaned against it. “You are free to go Miss Ford.”

Abernathy didn’t know if she believed that bit about words and fists. Fists had always worked just fine for her. She wanted to take the compliment hidden in there just the same. She was trying to behave smart enough not to get expelled. “I’ll see you for dueling club next week,” she said, taking the hint about her extracurricular activities. “Thank you Professor Fortis.” She stood from her seat and made her way out of her last detention with as much comportment as one could manage in the presence of Leonard Fortis.

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