I sank into my seat, exaggerating a sigh as I slumped over the table. Lila patted my shoulder to comfort me, but her hand felt like she had coated it in 'sarcasm'. Iden was scolding Kaira for kidnapping him this morning and forcing him to work; Iden's not used to scolding anyone, so he looked kind of awkward doing so. Kaira didn't look as if she was guilty of anything, and she just examined the cosplay outfit that she had dressed out of earlier. Cass was explaining to Tyler why her and I got detention. Drake was sitting in front of me, eating his food and occasionally glancing at Elliot out of concern. Elliot, whom nobody questioned, stood against a pillar. But what confused us was the fact that he was wearing gothic clothes.

Piercings that were fake, streaks in his hair which were probably temporary, white makeup with black on his lips, jawline, and eyes, necklaces upon necklaces, bracelets upon bracelets, ripped clothes here and there, and anything else you could find or think of. It was shocking that he did all of this in a matter of one day. No... it was shocking that he did all of this at all. Did he suddenly wake up in the morning and decide that he will completely change his entire image? Did he just happen to have all of these things just lying around?

I had just realized that yesterday, when he pestered me the entire day, he wore the clothes of a biker. Overnight, I guess, he morphed into a goth. But it still doesn't look right; I could hardly recognize him. At first, I was wondering why such a person was on the side, staring at us, but if you exclude all the makeup and accessories, you could tell that it was him. There are people who could pull it off, but trust me, Elliot's not one of them.

It's kind of like looking at a cocoon and wondering what kind of butterfly is inside... And then you realize that the butterfly is actually an Elliot-bug, making you wonder whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Considering the fact that it's still a cocoon, however, you decide to ignore it because the longer you stare at it, the more you start to contemplate how long this phase will last; and contemplating hurts your head, so you don't want to do that. Going by this logic, it's obvious that I ignored it; and so did everyone else.

"So..." Drake trailed off the beginning of his sentence while fixing his gaze on me instead. "What exactly happened this morning...?" he asked. "And how was detention related to it?"

"Kaira had us in an actual man-hunt. Cass and I wound up in the infirmary where the nurse caught us. Hence, immediate detention." Up to this point, I was still wondering how falling into an infirmary was means of a detention; it made no sense. Instead, she should be asking us if we needed medical help considering the fact that we fell.

I recalled what happened when I came to school this morning: I went searching for Iden, I entered the infirmary to see if he was there, the nurse asked me what I needed, and I left without replying. Obviously, this detention is payback for me ignoring her... I think. I'm not that smart, so that's the only explanation that I was able to come up with, but as long as it made sense to me, then it was enough. Too bad for Cass; I dragged her down with me.

While I thought all of this through, I was zoning-out and practically staring off into the distance. Instead of "the distance", however, I was staring right at Drake because he was sitting right across from me. I didn't notice until he placed the back of his hand onto my forehead, using the other one to feel his own. This caused me to blush like mad."Oh. Your temperature's gone up..." he mumbled. "Are you feeling okay, Odette?"

I hate how he notices every little thing...! Drake also knows that I'm probably hiding something if I don't look him straight in the eyes. "Y-y-yeah! I-I'm fine!" I said, darting my eyes to to left. Goddamit, me. Why...? Judging by him raising his eyebrow, he didn't buy it. Lila was giggling on the side, so I shot her a glare. She pouted and decided to help me.

"Hey, Dr. Kay!" she shouted, using one of Drake's many nicknames. It's been awhile since I've heard that being used.

"What is it, Pringles?" he asked in reply, using a nickname of hers.

She sighed and tapped her chin like a detective. "Oh... Nevermind." With this, Drake was all caught up in trying to find out what she was going to say. Her plan worked like a charm; it almost made me proud.

Then, there was a loud thump. It sounded like a body being thrown against a wall. I darted my eyes around and found that it was Kaira. She had pounded her fist against the table for some reason.

All of a sudden, she shot up from her seat like a rocket. "Ugh! I can't take this anymore! There's so much density in the air!" Kaira combed through her hair in frustration. "This is such a simple reverse-harem, but none of you are able to raise your LP and FP without any help. You should be ashamed to exist on the same planet as Keima-kun!" She scowled at me for a split second before motioning Drake, Iden, and Elliot to follow her somewhere.

"Keima-kun"...? I thought to myself in wonder. Who the heck is that? When I looked over at them, it seemed as if she was scolding the guys. I didn't understand why because none of them had really done anything wrong. Lila didn't waste any time with asking questions... to me.

"So..." she uttered before scooting closer my way. Leaning towards my ear, she whispered, "You like Drake, don't you?" I turned red again and tried to say something, but words failed me. Lila threw back her head in a fit of laughter. "I knew it! It's so apparent, Ode! I could also tell that he likes yo--"

Annoyed, I let out a loud groan and slammed my head onto the table several times. Lila stopped teasing me and started patting my head the way she did earlier. Kaira, Drake, Iden, and Elliot came back and they all looked motivated by something. The bell rang; thus, ending lunch and continuing the learning part of the schoolday.

Ever since I ran throughout the school this morning and ran later for P.E., my left calf had been aching like crazy. I wandered to and from classes with my sucky leg and sometimes dragged it whilst resembling a zombie. Zombies are not attractive for most of the time, so it was kind of a downer to look like I had crawled out of the soil and escaped the feeding maggots from burrowing any deeper into my eyesockets; which hopefully sounds worse than what I really looked like. It didn't seem to last too long, though.

There I was, after school, standing in front of class 408; it was time for the dreaded detention. Everyone disappeared except for Cassy, who was at my side. What a shame; I had hoped for them to set up some sort of strike to get me out of this prison cell. Before I knew it, I was humming the song "Somebody to Love" by Queen. The only reason why I stopped was because Cassy was staring at me with amusement which got me embarassed.

With a sigh, she dragged me into the detention room with her. No one was inside waiting for us or anything, so I turned tail, about to make a break for it. Unfortunately, Cass held me back while giving me a disproving glare. I mouthed an apology and took a seat beside her.

"Does this even count as detention?" I asked her, not even allowing a moment of silence to pass through.

"I don't think we'll be here for long," she replied with a slight grin. Then she mumbled something else that I couldn't make out, and pointed to the window. "Open it," she instructed.

I obeyed in an instant. A cold breeze wafted in, making me shiver and want to close it again, but I refrained from doing so. "Why...?" I questioned, wrapping myself in my jacket which was previously tied around my waist.

"So that I can hear what's going on outside," she replied almost instantaneously.

Why? I thought to myself, mentally questioning her. Are you waiting for your secret organization to swoop over in a helicopter to come rescue you? If that's true, then I hope she takes me with her. It'd be cruel to leave me in a place where two hours are spent in complete boredom.

I sulked in my chair. "Where the hell is Mr.Shalen?!" I shouted. In all the movies I've seen, the teacher is in the classroom with the inmates of detention. Then, the prisoners' friends call him out of the classroom for an escape plan.

Mr.Shalen not being here is ruining my hopes for my friends to show up. That man was making my life less adventurous by the second. Or maybe my friends kidnapped him! Or maybe he nor my friends will show up at all... Crud; I hadn't thought about that. But now I was thinking of how little I think or say the word crud; no matter what, I always seemed to revert back to irrelevance.

This didn't last too long. The door swung open in a flash and in stepped two people, both of which I was half-expecting to see; Mr.Shalen and Kaira. Yes, Kaira. But she didn't seem to be my knight in shining armor. At that moment, she was a prisoner as well, but she didn't seem to care. In fact, she looked really bored as if she'd been in detention hundreds of times before. Kaira was forced to sit at one of the desks on the other side of the room while Mr.Shalen glared his way over to the chalkboard. He scribbled his name along with 'Detention' using a stubby little piece of white chalk that happened to appear out of nowhere.

Kaira kicked her legs up on her newly-claimed desk and acted like a haughty emperor on a throne. I wanted to tell her that the chair in which she was sitting in was not the same as the one in her glorious treehouse, but we weren't allowed to speak. Even if we could, then I should've instead considered asking her how she got in detention, but now I figured that there were infinite possibilities of what she was capable of pulling off. So far, kidnapping was also on the list.

I caught her opening her mouth, but then quickly shutting it. Then, she would open it again for a longer amount of time, but then close it. This continued for a few seconds as if she were playing some weird game with herself. However, she darted her eyes to the side, making eye contact with me. For a split second, she smirked and winked, acknowledging the fact that she knew I was looking. Soon after, she mouthed to me a single word; "Watch".

I quickly picked up on the idea that she was trying to send me a message, so I pulled out a piece of lined paper, a pencil, and a textbook. The textbook was only there to make it seem as if I were studying, but I was only going to use the paper and pencil to take note of the message she was sending. Almost frantically, I shot my attention straight at Kaira once more.

She opened and closed mouth for three long moments, and I quickly caught on; Morse. Then it was two short and one long, then one long. Cass, unlike me, is able to read Morse Code, so when Mr. Shalen wasn't paying attention, I handed her the paper. A few seconds later she handed it back, but this time it was translated; "Out" it said.

Out...? I shrugged at Kaira, giving the obvious notion that I didn't know what she meant. She raised her eyebrow at me and telepathically scolded me for being stupid. Cass helped me by resting her head on the glass window, making me turn my head toward the sound. And there, sitting on a tree branch, was Elliot, still in his gothic clothing. Turning my attention back at Kaira, she mouthed out more Morse which Cass translated into "Tell".

I nodded, grinned, and raised my hand. "Mr.Shalen! There's a shady person stalking us from a tree outside!" I sang out. And it worked.

Mr.Shalen marched toward the windows, and during the time he did so, Kaira got up and slipped out of the classroom. Feeling like I had just been abandoned, I looked back outside to see Elliot jumping out of the tree and landing right next to Iden. Wait. Iden?!

At this point, the teacher started shouting at Iden, saying stuff like "Grab a hold of that suspicious character!" Iden followed instructions and began dragging Elliot toward the school building. Soon afterwards, Kaira came back into the classroom with Drake... and our principal.

Now, I was just watching the world around me as if it were a television show. Mrs.Garris, the principal, was in the act of cancelling detention. It was a shock. Apparently, Kaira also got into detention by dubiously falling into the nurse's office; which was secretly on purpose, but the adults didn't have to know. As we suspected, this wasn't exactly means of detention. Drake was in Mrs.Garris' office the entire time, proving this point, and Kaira, who had left earlier, went over to the office as well, to help with the persuasion.

This entire thing was planned; I was convinced of that when Iden walked in. Elliot had supposedly "freed himself of Iden's grasp and escaped". Then, I realized why they used Elliot as the "suspicious stalker"; it was because he turned goth for the day. Tomorrow, if he went to school looking like he normally did, none of the adults here would be able to recognize him (especially since Mr.Shalen was the only grown-up witness).

Soon thereafter, we all left and caught up with Elliot who had ran off two blocks away from the school. Kaira, Cass, Elliot, Drake, Iden, and I left the school feeling pretty victorious. We all started talking about less complicated ways to have carried this out, but Kaira was the one who came up with the plan, and she explained that by doing something so complex, everybody had a part in it.

Eventually, we all went our separate ways.

After, of course, we ridded Elliot of his disguise.

[]Author's Note[]

DONE!!!!! DONE! FREAKING DONE!!!!! I'm so sorry for taking so long to update~!~!~!~!~!~!

This was fun to write! But ALAS, The Simple Ode is nearing an end.

...

J.K. I lied. Not even close.

I don't know what else to say but my usual "Please vote, comment, follow, and all that beautiful stuff~!" And I'll see you in the next one!

        -!n@