Term 20 Detention: Dishwashers

Autumn honestly had no idea why the professors would entrust her to watch detention students, but she felt like that was part of being Head Girl. And the job seemed easy enough. She just wished that Julie-Pierre would be there to keep her from getting bored.

"You all are going to be giving the House Elves a bit of a night off and doing the dishes," Autumn explained. "They send their thank-yous in advance."

"You're here until 8:30 or until you're finished, then myself or another Prefect will escort you up to your dormitories. Any questions?" the prefect asked, feeling like she was doing a pretty good job so far.

Sophie was pretty sure she didn't belong in detention. She was just helping a girl get her fashion straight. She rolled her eyes at the ceiling but plastered a sweet little smirk on her face. Iz hadn't been allowed to get her out of this, unfortunately. She glanced at her fellow detentionees. No one she knew, really. Her eyes fell on Apollo. Sophie giggled and waved to him.

God, washing dishes sounded like such a drag. Sophie noticeably stifled a yawn. When the Head Girl asked for questions, her colorfully manicured hand shot up. Well, she wasn't a teacher, she was only three years older than her, so Sophie figured that was unnecessary. Sophie blurted out, "Can we talk or do we have to shut up and watch the paint dry? Can we, like, sing? I love singing!" She giggled loudly.

"And can we use magic or do we have to wash it the Muggle way? Cuz, I don't know about everyone else, but once I washed dishes the Muggle way for my mom and I ended up breaking like, three dishes out of like, ten. She was soooo mad. One was from an expensive antique store in Spain, too. Also another time I accidentally put a wet dish on a low shelf and my dog jumped up and knocked it over and there were a bunch of bubbles on the floor!" Sophie giggled loudly again. "It was actually kinda fun, but my parents don't like bubble skating the way I do. Oh, and my dog's name was Pluto. Like the Mickey Mouse dog! But I don't have him anymore." Sophie frowned.

Apollo was worried. Really worried. He had no idea how detentions would work at such a renowned Magic Academy...what if he was forced to fight with trolls or something? He sighed. It wasn't his fault anyway. He was just playing soccer...he didn't want to kick the ball through that window! It was an accident. Apparently the Headmistress doesn't take such accidents lightly. The detentionees went down to the dungeons...Oh gosh, he thought. Probably they're gonna be tortured with Black Magic or something...

However instead of entering in some sort of torture room they entered the kitchens? And even worse, Autumn was there! He remembered that when they met, he promised to not cause her trouble. And now he was in detention and she was the Head Girl...Great, just great! Like this couldn't get any worse...As Autumn was giving instructions, he tried to hide his face. He didn't realize that this made him even more noticeable than before...

Suddenly he heard a giggle...He turned and saw Sophie waving at him. He smiled and said "Hello" with his lips. At least he'd have a friend to have fun in detention. 

"Oh oh, I love singing too!" He said impulsively and laughed, in response to Sophie's comment. Maybe that annoyed Autumn...well he didn't want to be annoying or anything...He did love singing, OK?

Sophie began saying some pretty random stuff...and Apollo loved everything random. He giggled loudly as she was talking. Maybe detention won't be that bad after all...

Carlie wasn't incredibly happy to be in detention, but she couldn't deny that she deserved it. Running around after curfew wasn't okay. But neither was extinguishing the all the candles in the palace, making it impossible to see without a wand, which she didn't have. The young witch might have made it back in time if she'd had her wand.

Carlie pulled her bleached blonde hair back up into a ponytail and rolled up the sleeves of her uniform. She put her hands on her hips and looked at her detention companions. "I don't know about you guys, but I want to get this done. So let's go," she said, walking up to the massive set of sinks in the middle of the room, each filled with dirty dishes. She turned on the hot water faucet and grabbed what appeared to be a sponge and a sludge covered plate. "This is kind of disgusting," she commented.

Autumn smiled at the younger Montagnard girl's question. "No, Sophie. You can talk. You could sing, too. Magic is not permitted, though. The Muggle way is your punishment, but it won't be too bad. This is how I still do dishes at home."

Although, Autumn couldn't recall a time where she'd ever had to do this many dishes, though. And Marli, now seven years old, was able to help with the chores somewhat.

Autumn looked at the food crusted on the plate that Carlie had in her hand. "Uh, yes. That looks... not edible. I can't tell what that is. You could probably just let that one soak."

Aidan was mad. Yeah, he blew a hole in the wall, but how else were those imps going to go away? Sure, maybe it was a little drastic, but you shouldn't just leave a class filled with 11-year olds alone... That aside, he was way more angry about the way Ursula and Stephanie got treated. The fact that not only he, but also the two girls, who, by the way, didn't even blow the smallest of holes in the wall, got detention was just wrong! If that wasn't injust, Aidan didn't know what was. When he entered the kitchens, he was a little relieved to see Apollo there too. It did seem like him to get into this too. He also saw a girl he thought he had some classes with, someone who he didn't recognize at all, and Ursula and Stephanie. Still unfair, but he said hi to them both. 

After singing along, he asked the girl that started singing: "Do we have Charms together? Aidan, by the way. How did you get in jail? Same goes for you." He pointed at Apollo. "I'm really dissapointed in you, you know? I thought you were better than this." He started laughing. "Just kidding. Seriously though, what did you guys do? I want to see how impressive the three of us are here."

Detention surely wasn't something good. But, Apollo just wondered...what if he could make it look like fun? He could make everything seem entertaining, if he wanted to! Even washing this massive amount of dirty dishes. He looked around again and spotted Carlie. Apollo waved cheerfully at her, but she wasn't really paying attention to him. She was concentrated on washing all these dirty dishes.

As Apollo was washing the dishes, he muttered the song that Sophie started singing. Suddenly, a second, rather deep, voice began singing along with her. Apollo looked next to Sophie. It was Aidan! Gosh! This detention is going to be so much fun! Moreover, next to Aidan, there were two girls as well, washing dishes. One of them was...

"URSULA!?" Apollo said and squeaked in shock (yeah, it wasn't a manly squeak). Ursula heard him and looked at him. Apollo quickly continued to wash the dishes. Before Apollo could even get the chance to calm himself down, Aidan talked to him...

"We-ell, let's say that I broke some school property with a soccer ball." He laughed. "What about you, dude? It's so awesome that we're all here, though! Me, you, Sophie, Carlie...Ursula... It's fate! It's magic! And it's awesome~!" Apollo said, in an excited manner. It was certainly exciting to have all those friends together at detention. Yeah it was detention, but everything is way better when you're doing it with friends, right?

Stephanie was pretty much...freaking out. This was the first detention of her life...Great! Now she is probably going to be a criminal or something, when she'll become an adult. Her future is ruined! She tried to think in a realistic way, but her pessimistic side, took over. She had to calm down. Stephanie sighed. At least, Aidan and Ursula were going to be with her. She felt better, when she was around people she knew.

Stephanie entered the kitchens. They were full of sinks and dirty dishes. DIRTY dishes. And she had to wash them! With all those germs and food remnants and saliva and...everything. The mere sight of all these, made her cringe.

"Ew..." She said with a calm voice, but her face seemed more than disgusted. She went to a sink, next to Ursula, and tried to wash these utterly disgusting dishes. Aidan was talking to some kids and somebody, probably, said Ursula's name, but the one and only thing that really worried Stephanie now, was how she's going to take that slime-thing off her gloves...Disgusting...

Ursula didn't really mind having to go to Detention. After all, they got nearly eternal fame due to the case that would forever be known as "The Imp Incident", and Aidan and Stephanie were going to be there too, so how bad could it be? Yeah, she had to wash dishes by hand, but oh well. Once she entered the dungeons, however, she heard a really, really high-pitched scream. Imps again? She drew her wand and looked to where the scream came from. She wanted to facepalm. Apollo stood there, looking at her with a terrified look in his eyes. 

"Look, I said I'm sorry for beating you up. What else do you want?" 

She snickered a bit as Apollo told us his crime. "Yeah, well, at least we actually did something. Remember that earthquake a while ago? Yeah, that was Aidan. Me and Stephanie over there don't really have anything to do with it. Well, we do. Like, we kicked some imp ass like I did yours a while back, but really, Aidan should have gotten full credit for that, though. He was awesome. By the way, how much dishes are there? Seriously, it's getting kind of tiring..."

"Wait, that earthquake, was you guys? Whoa... Awesome! How did you do that!? It was the first earthquake, I experienced in France! I owe you a favor, because I lost a booooring class, thanks to that little earthquake. By the way, who's that Stephanie you're talking about?" Apollo said, in reply to Ursula's comment. That earthquake totally saved him, from getting bored to death. Well, that was Apollo's over-dramatic explanation of what was going to happen, at least...

"I know...I just wish we could use magic to wash them. I'd be so much better..." Apollo was beginning to get tired too. So many dishes to wash. Well...he always looked at the bright side. At least he's gonna get some muscles, from all that exercise! Autumn was watching them, during the whole time, so they couldn't cheat. Apollo returned to washing the dishes, but just the thought that he's going to get tired, exhausted him.

"So, Sophie, what's your favorite song?" He said, trying to make things more interesting.

Stephanie hated detention. Not only was she washing these disgusting dishes, but she was also too socially awkward, to talk to the others. She was just... standing there, washing infected dishes, full of one million plausible diseases...Yuck! It seemed like she was washing these bringers of death for hours. She needed some rest. Stephanie took a deep breath and looked around. This was going to take a while...

Suddenly, she listened to somebody, mentioning her name. It was an older boy, with dark brown hair and a goofy smile. Correction: A really broad goofy smile. He seemed kinda silly, but Stephanie has learned to not judge a book by its cover. He seemed friendly nevertheless...

"Um...I'm Stephanie. Ciao, there...Apollo?" Stephanie said, not knowing his name. She kinda listened to the others, mentioning a guy named "Apollo". However, she wasn't 100% sure if it was him or somebody else.
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*Ciao: "Hello/Hi", in Italian.