Kota huffed impatiently to himself, crossing his arms over one another and walking down the school hallway.

It wasn’t every day he got detention. In fact, this would be his first. He had been threatened several times by the stricter staff, and eventually his inappropriate wit caught up with him. After being lectured by his science teacher to listen in class, his big mouth decided that was the time to mention – in front of the entire class – he listened enough to overhear said teacher making plans with someone other than his wife that very night. Least to say the teacher had a field day with that, and now here he was: on his way to detention.

Taking a sharp corner, he could hear the sound of students chittering in the library thanks to his talented hearing down the hall. All at once, the sound ceased and another sound – a more mature sound, probably that of the teacher in charge – began speaking. Rather than listening, as he should have, Kota kicked his feet off the ground and raced down the hallway, knowing he very well was about to run late to detention at this point thanks to his daydreaming.

Slipping down the hall, he stumbled in the room just as the teacher’s voice was heard saying, “I’ll release all of you at five sharp.” A few students’ heads turned to face him, giggling amongst themselves, knowing he had officially arrived late. Kota ignored them; that wasn’t why he was here.

He was here to argue for being here.

Normally he wasn’t one to argue, and he hoped it didn’t come to that, but honestly – being here for revealing a teacher’s affair? When everyone basically knew it anyway? It was ridiculous. And would this go on his permanent record? Oh, all the questions he had were bubbling over in his head.

Making his way toward the desk situated at the front of the library, he made eye contact with the teacher who had apparently been put in charge – someone he didn’t recognize. “Excuse me, sir?” he started, stopping to stand in front of the desk. He lowered his voice so the other students couldn’t hear. “My name’s Kota…er, Dakota Ryan. And I, well, shouldn’t be here. It was all just a misunderstanding. So…do I have to stay?” He flashed his warmest smile, eyes wide and innocent as they awaited for the teacher’s response.

“Mr. Croft.”

Kota was fed the teacher’s name, and gratefully accepted the information. “Oh, of course,” he mused. Truth be told, the name sounded familiar. He could’ve sworn he’d heard of a few students whispering about the name, but what they said he couldn’t quite remember. That information would’ve been helpful at this moment to know just what kind of a person he was dealing with.

When Mr. Croft proceeded to explain how there was a mistake, Kota felt his body relax with relief. He let out a soft sigh as the teacher went on about how he would fix the mistake at once, before quickly changing his trail of thought and pinning the mistake on Kota for showing up in the first place. “Wait, that’s not –” His words were cut off as Mr. Croft ordered the boy to take a seat amongst his peers.

He huffed, cheeks puffed out in annoyance. Yes, he did show up to detention, but only to talk his way out of it. If it weren’t for his mother teaching him right from wrong, he probably wouldn’t have shown up at all. And the teacher’s toneless voice was driving him up the wall with nerves – like he had no emotions regarding the subject, while Kota, himself, had plenty enough for the both of them.

Deciding to voice his opinions, Kota remained where he stood and faced the teacher with a light expression. “Look, Mr. Croft, I know you have to do your job and keep me here, but what happened was an honest mistake. I came here to prove my innocence. Yes, I spoke out of turn in class, but it won’t happen again.”

He took another deep breath before asking once more, “So, please, can’t you understand I don’t belong here?”

Kota listened silently as Mr. Croft went on a lecture spree about responsibility, something that seemed foreign to him. Think of this disciplinary action as another learning experience? How could he think of it like that when he was being punished. Punished for something insignificant in the grand scheme of things. He shook his head at the thought, growing rather annoyed at the teacher’s lecture.

Then he spotted it.

He hadn’t been paying attention to his surroundings, so when something moved from the corner of his eye it startled him. Glancing behind the teacher, he spotted Mr. Croft’s long black hair moving on its own around a bookshelf, eventually grabbing a book on its own before bringing it like a loyal dog to the teacher’s awaiting hand. Wow! Now that was something that perked his interests.

Ignoring the book handed to him, he instead kept his eyes solely focused on the man’s hair with a fascinated expression. “That’s amazing!” he exclaimed, giving a small clap of his hands. He hoped that didn’t sound sarcastic; he was genuinely amazed at the actions of the hair, moving around like long tentacles. He grimaced, realizing that was a bad comparison but nevertheless accurate.

Bringing his focus back to reality, his eyes shifted to make eye contact with his teacher. “How long have you been able to do that? And how long can your hair grow? It looked like it had to grow a bit to reach the bookshelf, but maybe that was a trick of the eye. Eyes can be rather funny about things it sees. I would know – my eyes can spot things from quite a distance! Not to brag. It can get me in trouble sometimes, like today for instance. Not that that was my vision that got me in trouble, but my hearing. Anyway.” He paused, taking a much needed breath. Sometimes he went on tangents, feeling a bit sorry for the teacher now having to listen to him.

Nevertheless, he continued on with excitement. “So…how does it feel when it moves? Probably strange, I imagine.” Kota looked at the teacher with wide, patient eyes as he waited for him to answer his several questions.