If you borrow a book from the library, you have to return it or pay for it. Those are the general rules, but in today’s story, there’s a third option – detention.

This story takes place in a high school, and the student with detention knows she’s innocent.

Let’s see how the truth eventually comes to light…

Shame me with lunch detention? Joke’s on you – I will sit here forever.

It was the late nineties, I was still wearing too much flannel and continuing my historical trend of keeping books from the library much too long.

I had a paper due for my sophomore Global Studies class, so I naturally took out more books than I could read, wrote the essay, and completely forgot about the books piled in the corner of my bedroom.

After a series of overdue slips sent to my homeroom, I eventually did return the four or five book one sunny afternoon in the anonymous drop book during a study period.

Promptly moved on to bigger and better things.

She was in trouble!

About two weeks later, I was called down to the assistant principal’s office in that space of time before classes officially started that was reserved for one thing and one thing only – the reprobates and delinquents were in trouble.

I walked the halls thinking that surely this was just a timing mishap and I was being summoned to receive congratulations for some kind of award I didn’t know I had entered into competition for.

Yup, he just wants to prepare me for the surprise ticker tape parade.

I was wholly unprepared to hear that I was receiving lunch detention, to start immediately, because I had not returned a single book, that I still remember was slim and had a white and red cover, from my GS paper research.

There was no point in arguing.

I tried to argue that there was a mistake, since I was sure, like I am sure that I have fingertips, that I had returned it.

But he could not be moved, and I was sentenced to indefinite lunch detention until I either returned the book or paid the sixteen bucks to replace it.

I left the office, late for first period, defeated, but kept my head held high at lunch later that day as I walked past the entirety of cafeteria, which held a couple hundred of my peers.

Plastic food try in hand, I went down the hall to the old shop classroom that had since been moved and the awaiting detention.

Detention was actually awesome.

I checked in with Mrs. Brown at her desk in front and took an inconspicuous seat in the back.

Staring down at my canned peach slices, I braced for the worst.

A murderous ruckus were going to break out any minute, I could tell. But once my ears stopped ringing, I discovered that it was really a calm escape from the crowded and rowdy lunchroom.

I eat slowly that day, enjoyed my young thoughts in blissful quiet, and wondered what kind of heaven was this.

She’s pretty sure she did return the book.

To be fair, I did search far and wide for that book that first day.

Attempts to find it in my locker, bedroom, and backpack were fruitless and the general consensus in my home was that the school was being ridiculous.

I certainly wasn’t going to pay for something I didn’t lose. So the next day, considering my brief brush with the law and the invisible stain already attached to my reputation, I went armed with a book and my lunch past the maddening crowds to the detention room.

I sat there, day after day, for nearly two months of lunches.

She still remembers detention fondly.

In retrospect, to this day those remain some of the most relaxing lunch breaks of my life.

I had around forty solid minutes to recharge in (mostly) complete silence with my reasonably priced lunch and whatever book I was currently reading.

I had to recount my origin story a few times, since no one could figure out how the quiet bookworm of a girl who had never been in trouble before had landed in the wilds of detention, but I was mostly left to my own devices in this newly found peaceful retreat.

Mrs. Brown helped her pay for the book.

I was friendly with Mrs. Brown, who had worked for the district of my small town since I was in elementary school, and even hooked her up with a sweet Horse Whisper poster that she loved from my family’s mom and pop video store.

She must have felt bad for me, because somewhere around the one month mark she started up a collection to cover the cost of the book.

She added the initial donation, but teachers who would stop by to chit chat would add loose change to it, and race to buy my freedom was on.

After a few weeks she handed me just under seven dollars.

The library eventually found the book.

My love of solitude was no match for the guilt of carrying around that money or my mom who had just started a new job in the school district, so with a heavy heart I paid in full for the missing book and went back to my old lunch table in the thick of the action.

Months later, during the last week of school, I was called down to the library at my convenience and with sweaty palms forced myself to face the music over what was inevitably going to be yet another overdue book at the end of the day.

Well lo and behold, the end of year inventory check had located the book as waylaid in the wrong section of the library.

I received a few sheepish looks from the librarians as they refunded the money and apologized in a backward way that still made me the bad guy, as overdue books are the real blemish on one’s character, so how were they to assume that I didn’t lose the book.

Her mom walked by the library at the perfect time.

Remember my mom’s new job in the school?

Well she just happened to be walking by the library just as I was finishing up and to say that she laid into them is far too extreme sounding. But she did scold some stern faced librarians into giving me a proper apology.

She also demanded that they look into reforming their system and, my favorite part, take the proper measures to expunge my record – she was very concerned about me carrying around the albatross of false accusation apparently.

And just like that my life of crime was over…

They really needed to do more than apologize for forcing her into detention for months, even though it sounds like she really enjoyed detention.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted…

This parent’s 10-year-old also loves to read.

Another person pointed out how wholesome this story was.

Here’s another story about reading at lunch.

Here’s another story about a library losing a book.

This person also thought of detention as a reward.

Detention isn’t that bad if you like to read!

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.