Break the Child: Chapter Twenty-Eight: Bullying...2

Bullying

And then she stood behind her desk and looked at us.

Then she said in a real quiet voice, ‘I want you all to look at that word and just think about it for a minute.’ And there wasn’t a sound in the classroom. The window was open because it’s hot, and I could hear birds singing, but in the classroom there wasn’t a sound. Miss was just standing there, proper straight and glaring. She looked at every person in the room one at a time. Nobody said a thing and the silence went on forever. It felt like half an hour. And then people started shuffling on their seats. Just little shuffles, uncomfortable, like, but not achy uncomfortable, silence uncomfortable. And then somebody coughed and it set off like, a coughing train. About five people coughed.

            ‘Silence,’ shouted Miss Chew and nobody coughed again. Normally, if something like that happened, we’d all be looking at each other, but it was proper scary, and nobody dared. And then it was just silence again for the longest time, but not as long as before. When Miss Chew finally spoke again, Kelly, who was sitting in front of me, jumped even though Miss only spoke quietly.

            ‘Does anybody have anything to say on the subject?’

            Nobody did

            ‘Well?’ said Miss in her angry voice, it was louder now, but she wasn’t yelling, not yet.

            Mary Cole put her hand up. ’Please Miss, can I go to the toilet?’

            ‘No, you can not. Put your hand down, girl.’

            At this point Danny, would normally put his hand up and ask to go to the toilet, just to make everyone laugh, and miss would put him on detention, and he’d say something smart about human rights. But he didn’t and I’m proper confused because I don’t know if it’s on account that it was in Miss Chew’s class and everybody behaves better in her class, or if it was because she was so mad and wrote the big capital letters on the blackboard. Or, I didn’t know if perhaps it was because he has got a girlfriend now and that means that he has to act proper and more grown up. It's a conuldrum.

            ‘Come on class, somebody must have something to say about bullying.’

Ashleigh Potter put her hand up. Miss looked at her and just raised one eyebrow; she didn’t tell Ash to speak but, like, told her to with just her eyebrow. It’s so cool talking with just your eyebrows, but a bit scary.

            ‘It’s bad, Miss.’

            ‘It’s bad. Thank you Ashleigh, very eloquent.’ And then she just took to glaring at us again and I thought we were going to sit for another half hour in silence, but it wasn’t long, really. Miss took a deep breath and then she went off on one.

            ‘I heard something in the staff room last night that was so shocking that I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I am appalled, disgusted and sickened beyond belief by the conduct of some of the students in this school.’ She wasn’t talking quiet now. I bet all of 2b in the room next door heard every word. I hope they weren’t in the middle of a test. With every sentence, she got louder and louder until her face was all red and she was yelling top notch. It was really scary.

            ‘I heard that a mob of bullies surrounded a girl and taunted her.’

            And it was only then that I realised that she was talking about me. I swear, it didn’t click until then. I didn’t know that what they did was bullying. They didn’t beat me up or nothing. I went bright red and people started looking over at me, not staring, they didn’t dare, just sort of glancing at me.

            ‘Katie Bell is going through a difficult time at home, a time when she needs the love and support of her school. A pack of dumb animals wouldn’t do what that mob did last night. I am ashamed to be in the same room as any one of you. This kind of behaviour will not be tolerated. Do you understand?’

            Everybody just stared at her with big open eyes.

            ‘Do you understand?’

            ‘Yes, Miss,’ everybody in the class said. I said it, too. And I noticed that Miss was shaking she was that mad.

            ‘I thought this was a good school. I thought this was a school where people helped each other. But I was wrong. You’re worse than animals. I can’t remember a time when I was more disgusted with my pupils. It makes me wonder why I even bother teaching. What’s the point in trying to educate people who can hurt somebody at the worst time in their lives? This isn’t a school to be proud of, you’re nothing better than a pack of heathens.’

            Jack Brown kind of laughed at that. It wasn’t a proper laugh. I think it was, like, nerves, not that he really thought it was funny, but Miss proper lost it. ‘What’s so funny, Brown?’

            ‘Nothing, Miss.’

            ‘What can you possibly find even remotely funny about this situation?’ Miss was really out of control now. Her hands were shaking, and she was staring Jack out as though her eyes had laser beams in them. I wondered if Miss Chew has Alzheimer’s too. And then I got really scared `cause I wondered if she’d caught it off my mum and she might blame me. My mum was gentle before she got the disease and it was only then she got her bad temper—but Miss Chew, well, she’s already got a really bad temper so imagine how bad she’d be if she went nuts like my mum. You wouldn’t want to let her loose in a toy shop would you?

And Jack had this grin on his face, not a big one, but it was a grin and I really felt sorry for him, ‘cause even I could tell that it wasn’t a real smile. It was like when Rachael Donaldson came into class and told us that her nana had died. I felt really sad for her. I felt like crying because it was really sad, but I felt my mouth going in a wide grin. And I couldn’t stop it. I was thinking, stop smiling, stop smiling, stop smiling, but I couldn’t stop and the more I thought about it the bigger it got. So, I put my arm around Rachael and just hoped that she knew that I didn’t think it was funny that her nana had died. I was heart sorry for her, but because I didn’t know what to say, my stupid mouth just kept smiling. I could tell it was like that for Jack.

            Miss was so angry. I’ve never seen a teacher as mad as that before. She picked up the blackboard rubber from her desk and threw it with all her might against the back wall. She didn’t throw it at anybody that would make her a really bad teacher. She just lost it and threw it hard at the wall. It landed with a crash and some people gasped. All the chalk powder came off it and made a mess on the floor.  Miss looked as shocked as we did. She put her hands on the desk and took some really deep breaths. She’s got these really, really huge breasts and they were going up and down, but nobody laughed. Everybody was really quiet.

            Jade Williams put her hand up.

            ‘Yes Jade.’

            Everybody looked at her as if she was mad. How could she put her hand up when Miss was having a fit like a nuclear missile? I thought she was going to ask to go to the toilet, or something. I just figured she had, like, a death wish. But she turned in her seat and looked at me.

 ‘I’m sorry, Kate,’ she said, ‘I’m really, really sorry.’ And then she burst into tears and I thought it was the bravest thing I’d ever seen in my life.

            Miss looked at her. She was calm after throwing the rubber. I think she frightened herself as well as us. ‘Thank you, Jade, that was the right thing to do.’ Then three more hands went up, even Ryan Browning who is one of Cotter’s gang. And they all just followed Jade to get Miss to think they were good, and they said sorry to me. But it didn’t mean a lot like it did with Jade.

            At lunchtime everybody was talking about it. Some more people came up and said they were sorry after the class ended and some people from other classes, too. I was with Sal, but I wanted to see Danny. I looked for him in the lunch line, but he wasn’t there. Afterwards we were on the top field, but I kept looking for him all the time. I didn’t see him all break and I was sad. I got worried and wondered if he’d finished with me. But then, when we were walking down the corridor to form room, I felt this nudge on my shoulder. It was Danny and as well as Danny it was the butterflies, but not in my shoulder, in my stomach. ‘Missed you,’ he whispered.

            ‘Where were you?’

            ‘Went into town with Jonesy. Wanted to give you some space, you know, so that you can talk all that girl crap with Sal and them. Walk you home after school?’

            I just nodded and felt all warm inside. I knew than that he wasn’t going to change his mind, and even though it kills me not seeing him every break, it’s okay to spend time with my mates, as well.

            When I got to my place I couldn’t believe my eyes. There was a bunch of carnations from the co-op and a box of Celebrations. Beside them there was a card that said, To a Special Friend.  First off, I thought it might be my Birthday present from Danny, right there in the middle of class. But when I looked at the card it had lots of names in it, signed by loads of people and it said things like. Sorry for hurting you, and, Sorry for what I did, and, Hope you like the chocolates. In the middle it said,

To Kate

We are all very sorry for bullying you

The chocolates are for you and the flowers are for your mum.

We all love you.

And then there were all the signatures. I opened the chocolates and shared them with everybody in the class, even Ryan. Cotter wasn’t in because he’s been suspended for two weeks because it was all his idea, apparently. When I got to Danny and offered the box to him, he winked at me and half the class saw and went, ‘Ooo,’ and stuff, but they don’t know that we’re an item yet.