It's A Good Day So Far: Chapter Twenty-Eight. Miss Chew Goes Off On One.

Chapter Twenty-eight

It’s my Birthday tomorrow, I can’t wait but even better than that, in two weeks on Friday, Mum goes into hospital to have Andy. Just think, in just over two weeks I’m going to have my little brother here. I can’t wait to see him, I wonder if he looks like me? In a way, I hope that he looks like Mum, because then, when she gets really bad, or if she dies or something, I’ll always be able to see her in Andy. I just look like my dad, everybody says so.

I was so nervous going into school yesterday and that’s apart from being tired cause I’d been up with Mum all night. I didn’t know what it’d be like seeing Danny again; I mean, what if he’d had second thoughts overnight. What if he’d decided that he didn’t want to go out with me after all? But mostly I was just excited. I didn’t expect to see him until I got into school, so imagine my shock when I opened my front door and he was there, leaning against the privet. He lives almost as far away from school as me, but in the other direction, he usually bikes it in. He must have been up really early to get to mine—and he’d left his bike at home so that he could walk with me.

‘Hi,’ he said kind of shy, like.

‘Hi,’ I said back to him and he pushed himself off the hedge as though he was really cool, but he had this piece of bush sticking out of his hair. I laughed and when he looked to see what I was laughing at I reached up and picked the branch out of his hair and he blushed. We started walking

but I couldn’t think of anything to say and I don’t think he could either because he didn’t say anything for awhile. He didn’t hold my hand or nothing and I so wanted him to.

‘Did you sleep well?’

‘Yes, thanks,’ I said. Well, I couldn’t tell him the truth, could I? I mean, how bad would this sound, ‘No, my mum wet the bed and I was up all night bathing her and getting all the stink off her,’ so I just said yes and asked about him. ‘You?’

‘Not really.’

‘Why?’ I asked.

‘Because I was lying awake for ages thinking about you and I couldn’t get to sleep.’

I’ve never had a boyfriend before, not really, but I don’t think they’re supposed to say things like that when you haven’t even been seeing them for one whole day. I don’t think he’s had a proper girlfriend before, either. My stomach did the butterfly thing that it did when I got home and thought about him kissing me. I got dead brave and reached for his hand and he grabbed mine and gave it a squeeze and then he let go of it and put his arm around me and pulled me into him, first around my shoulders, and then, when I put my arm around him, he dropped his so that it was around my waist and we walked along the street like that with our arms crossed at the back and I put my thumb in the belt loop on his trousers. And we were there, just liking the feel of each others arms and then he kissed me on the cheek and I turned my head to look at him.

Then he made this noise in his throat and he pulled me behind a bush where people walking down the street couldn’t see us. He pushed me up against the wall, quite hard, too, not gentle and then we were kissing, and kissing, and kissing and he had his hand under my hair on my neck all hot and dry, not soft, like a girl’s hand. Not that I’ve had any girl’s hands on my neck, mind. But the thing is Mum was gone, and the wee on the mattress was gone, and the spelling test second period was gone and I wasn’t tired anymore. I could hear him breathing all loud and deep and then he put his tongue in my mouth. It felt weird and then I got a bit scared because I thought that he might want to touch my boobs. I pushed him away. ‘We’re going to be late for school,’ I said, and it was only then that I noticed that I could hardly breathe. I was all breathless, too. I felt happy and a little bit scared and a little bit embarrassed all at once.

He put his arm around me again and I put my arm around him and we walked the rest of the way to school. Every time I looked at him, he’d give me a little kiss on the lips and it took longer to get there than it would have done if I’d been going on my own.

Most people were already in the form room but we weren’t late, it was only five to nine. I was supposed to meet Sal in the yard before we went to class and when we walked in she glared at me. I mouthed ‘I’m sorry,’ at her, but she still didn’t look happy with me. I’d made her promise not to tell anybody about me and Danny because I didn’t know if he wanted people to know, or not. I couldn’t stop looking over at him and when I had my head down working, I could just feel him looking at me. It’s a good job I’d memorised all the spellings because if I’d had to think about them, I know I’d have got, like, two percent or something. I only got one wrong, Veterinarian, see, I know it now. I came third in the class and got 92%. Danny got 64% and blushed when his score was read out. He glanced at me and I smiled, but I think he was worried that I’d think he was thick.

At first break Sal rushed me off to the toilets to talk. She wanted all the details of this morning and I wanted to tell her, but I was worried that she’d get all stroppy with me again because I’m seeing somebody and she isn’t. I told her a bit about the kissing again and his tongue and stuff and she said, ‘He’s so going to cop a feel, for sure.’ And I felt scared then. I don’t want him to touch me. I just want it to be nice, you know? If he did touch my boobs, it’s no big deal, but what if they’re still too small? Lots of girl’s in my class have had their boobs felt, in fact, most of them. It’s no biggie, but if I let him touch my boobs would he want to touch something else? That is a big deal. It’s a huge deal. I know I don’t want that. I’m not ready.

I told Sal about him getting all breathy.

‘Oh my God, Kate,’ she said, ‘did he have a stiffy?’

I could feel my cheeks all red and hot, ‘I don’t know.’

‘Couldn’t you feel it pushing against you?’

‘No.’

‘Well how were you standing? Show me what position you were in.’

I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. It was private stuff between me and Danny. And now I feel torn between them. I’ve got my boyfriend on one side and my best friend since juniors, on the other. I can see problems coming up and I don’t know what do to. I didn’t even want to be with Sal at first break, I wanted to be with Danny, not kissing or anything like that, just being with him, talking to him. I couldn’t stop thinking about him and I hadn’t seen him for ten whole minutes and it was killing me. And there’s Sal telling me what we’d do at lunch break. She’s never done that before. She’s never said, ‘We’ll have lunch and then hang on the top field.’ We just have lunch and then hang on the top field without having to say so. And I said okay, just because I didn’t want to cause and argument. But I knew that I would go crazy, if I didn’t see Danny at lunch time.

We went to history, next lesson. Miss Chew always asks me now, every lesson, ‘You all right Kate?’ and I always say, ‘Yes Miss.’ I don’t think she expects me to say anything else, but I think she’s just letting me know that I can talk to her if I want to. I wondered about asking her about the Danny versus Sal thing but then I decide not to because it’s just kid’s stuff, like what every kid goes through.

We all got our books out and I thought that we were going to do about the Ancient Romans again. Do you know that they used to sit in a bath, all of them, together, but they weren’t gay, or anything, I don’t think? Miss Chew didn’t tell us that bit. But they used to eat so much, a whole heck of a lot, in fact, that they made themselves sick and they had this cut out bit in the side of the big bath. Like a gutter that they used to puke into. And then they used to eat some more until they puked again. They were all really fat, apart from the peasants who were starving, and they just spent all day eating and puking. I don’t think they had time to be gay. Isn’t that just the most disgusting thing you’ve ever heard?

So I opened my book and turned to page twenty-three to learn more about the Puking Romans but Miss went to the blackboard and wrote one word in big capital letters.

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.
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 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 sentnece 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 horribly 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. 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 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?’ I said.

‘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 to be with 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.