Summary

The short story “The Sin Bin or Lucy’s Heart” by Lucy Cross opens with Lucy Cooke being in school detention for hitting another student, Penny Jones. She is copying a drawing of a heart from an old biology textbook as punishment. Mr. Paterson, who supervises the detention, asks Lucy why she is there since she is an A student. He wonders if Lucy hitting Penny Jones has anything to do with Bethan, whom he thinks is influencing Lucy, but Lucy denies it. 

Lucy remembers Bethan asking her to hit Penny Jones, who used to be Lucy’s friend. She reasons it was because Bethan wanted Lucy to be her best friend, so Lucy had to prove she wanted nothing more to do with Penny. Bethan also influences her in other aspects of her life, such as smoking and using make-up. Her education also suffers because of Bethan’s bad influence.

Lucy notices Bethan at the school gate, waiting for her to finish detention, and she is happy to see her. However, she does not like Bethan’s friends and hopes they will be gone by the time she comes out. As she thinks about her school achievements, she is unhappy with her drawing, so she asks for another piece of paper. She finishes the drawing and hands it to Mr. Paterson at the end of the detention. He tells her the drawing is good and asks Lucy if she wants to keep it. However, Lucy sees Bethan coming for her and tells him he can throw it away. Then she leaves together with Bethan.