Gently Jo and Jill helped me to my feet. Brushing down the dirt that had collect on my jumper and handing me a tissue to wipe away my tears and the blood that was dripping from my recently grazed hands and knees. I put one arm around each of them and they helped me gently limp towards our classroom.
"It's not true you know." Jo said as we moved slowly down the corridors and past all the groups of older kids who stared at us liked we'd fallen from another planet. "Hatty wouldn't be dumb enough to get involved with all of that." I nodded dumbly as we got to our classroom. I didn't want to even think about whether it was true.
Miss Jones was stood at one of the windows when we walked into the room. She was daydreaming and Jill had to knock hard on the door to get her attention. When she did finally recognise us her slim face was filled with concern. She was only in her mid twenties and she didn't come from around here. She was brought up in a middle class area the other side of London and she wasn't used to the fights like we were. She was one of those rare teachers who went into teaching because they really believed that they could make a difference. She liked to help people and she'd helped me a lot.
The first day she arrived was on the first day I started in year nine. Baby Liz had been born in the summer holidays and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't seem to find a playgroup that would look after her while I was at school but wouldn't charge the earth for it. So I had no choice but to bring her into school. The rest of my class had a right laugh when I brought her in: asking who'd 'knocked me up' during the holidays. I was on the point of bursting into tears when miss arrived. As I'm sure you can imagine she was more than a little shocked to arrive to a screaming baby, this was not what they'd prepared her for at teacher training college. But she calmly managed to get me away from the rest of the class and find out why I'd brought Liz to school.
"Is this your baby?" She asked me.
"Nah," I replied. "It's me mum's."
"It's my mum's." She corrected me.
"What?" I asked.
"You say 'It's my mums' not 'it's me mums'." She told me calmly. And then she went on to ask why I had brought my baby sister into school. And after I'd explained all about my mum having to work and there being no one to look after her she took me to the office and phoned around to try and find a babysitter for today and a play group for the rest of the time. And that was the first time I met her and she's been looking after me (so to speak) ever since. Like when I confessed to her that I thought I'd like to be a doctor but didn't think I'd be clever enough she said that I would be clever enough and that she would give me speech classes so that I could talk like a doctor. And true to her word she has given up every Monday lunchtime to helping me learn to talk properly.
"Oh, my." She exclaimed as I walked towards my seat "What on earth happened to you, Polly?" I opened my mouth to try and explain but I found that no words came out so I shakily sat down in my seat and let my friends explain.
"It was all that bully Michelle's fault." One began
"Yeah, she was being horrid to Pol just cos she wouldn't do her homework for her." The other continued.
"Then she started saying all these lies."
"Bout Pol's sis."
"And how she was a pro and all that."
"A what?" Miss Jones asked, looking from one to the other.
"Prostitute." They said together and she nodded knowingly.
"And then Pol got real upset about all of it." Jo- or it could have been Jill- continued.
"And she tried to grad her but Michelle stepped out of the way-"
"So Pol fell flat on her face: and they all laughed."
"Bloody bitches."
"Girls! Language." Miss Jones warned them.
"Sorry Miss, she just makes me so mad. I just wanna-" Jo was cut off by the bell ringing loudly into the classroom, marking the fact that registration had started.
"We'll talk about this later." Miss said as the first students began to slowly walk in. Jo and Jill both nodded and took their places next to me on the table.
It took a while for everyone to slowly drift into the classroom and even longer for them all to shut up long enough for miss to take the register. Firstly she started by standing at the front of the class in the hope that they would all realise she was waiting for them and just be quiet, then she tried to reason with them and in the end she had to practically shout the place down in order for anyone to even notice she was there. So eventually the register was taken and it was noted that twelve people out of the thirty-one in our class couldn't be bothered to turn up for school today. The few that had turned up were all huddled up in one corner of the classroom: as far away from me as possible. Some were swinging back and forth on 2 legs of their chairs, some girls were doing their hair or nails and I think one boy was asleep but they were all listening to Michelle re-live what had happened this morning in the playground.
Every now and again Miss would try and get them all to sit in their correct places and stop making fun of me but it was no use.
"Michelle." She started one time, "would you please come and re-join the class. I'm sure that what ever happened this morning was highly amusing but there is a time and a place for you to talk to your friends and my classroom is neither of them."
"I'll do what I bloody well like." Michelle replied cheekily and Miss opened her mouth to say something to her but at that point the school receptionist walked in and distracted her. She beckoned for her to come outside.
As soon as she'd gone the class got even louder. They started shouting congratulations at Michelle for standing up to a teacher and some were begging her to re-tell the story. I turned my head away, not really wanting to watch them any more only to feel something hard hit the back of my head.
"Oww!" I called and then I looked behind me to see a pen lying on the floor. I reached down and picked it up then turned in my seat to face the giggling crowd.
"Did you throw this, Michelle?" I asked.
"Yeh. What you gonna do about it?"
"Nothing." I said, wishing that I hadn't even asked.
"Give it me back then." Michelle said. I stood up, still a little shaky on my legs and walked over. I put it gently onto the table in front of Michelle and turned to walk away.
"Oh no you don’t." Michelle said as she stood up behind me. She put on hand on my shoulder and spun me round. We were standing so close that we would have been nose to nose but she was taller than me and she was wearing big heels so that I only came up to her neck. She raised a hand and I closed my eyes, knowing she was going to hit me.
"Polly." I heard miss Jones call "Polly, would you please come outside for a minute." I knew that she was going to tell me off for walking over to Michelle and starting a fight but I'd rather that than be beaten up so I went outside.
"I wasn't starting a fight, I promise Miss. I was just-"
"Polly, it's not about that." She interrupted me.
"Oh, well what is it about?" I asked.
"It's your little sister, Emily."
"Emmy! What's happened to her?" I was starting to panic.
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