Page 48 of Knowing You
It’s Friday. Bonfire Night. The fun snaps are in my lunch box. I tried one out yesterday after school in the back garden just to be sure they were still working. I didn’t notice poor Flossie. Her fur stood on end and she bolted. I called her back and said not to be frightened and snuck a handful of cat biscuits out of the kitchen, as biscuits always make me feel better.
Science goes on forever. It’s the last lesson before we go into the dining hall. I grab my box and drinking bottle. A group of boys still make raspberry noises when I pass. As we queue up Alice sees me and talks in a really loud voice about the party she is going to tonight. That’s what I don’t get – I’m a nobody to her, so why does she bother trying to make me jealous?
It doesn’t work anyway. I’ve got Flint now, and a couple of people I speak to in recorder group on a Wednesday after lunch. We file into the hall. Mrs Crawley the dinner lady is telling off a boy. We all strain to look. He’s dropped something into one of the water jugs. It’s white and swollen with a thread of string hanging out underneath like a firework.
‘Do you know what a tampon is, Violet?’ asks Alice and it’s as if the whole class has stopped to hear my answer. I can tell from their faces that most of them don’t but they’re glad if I’m the one who’s going to be made to look stupid. Luckily I know. I found a box of them once in Mum’s bedroom and asked her.
‘They are sweets for adults, made of really tough marshmallows. You can’t eat them with baby teeth.’
Alice starts laughing. Everyone joins in, although they don’t look as if they are sure why.
‘You’re a dumb fuck,’ she whispers.
Sometimes Alice says really rude words. She reckons they are cool because her brother uses them.
Annoying tears spring to my eyes as everyone laughs and sits down to eat. Half the class queue up for hot dinners, including Alice.
I wait. Wait until she walks back towards the table. As she passes me, my fists uncurl and I reach into the fun snap box under the table on my lap. I have a quick look around and then throw three of them hard at her feet. Flint says one is too risky as it might not go off.
I needn’t have worried about that.
Alice shrieks and tips her tray towards herself. I’m glad it’s a messy meal. Gravy splats against her dress.
‘It’s hot!’ she yells.
Mrs Crawley hurries over and in front of everyone quickly unbuttons her shirt. The boys laugh at her brown-stained bra and Georgie grabs a glass of water and throws it at Alice’s chest. She howls and starts to cry. Mrs Warham appears and tells the boys to stop laughing. Mrs Crawley leads Alice away.
‘Who did this?’ she says in her sternest voice, which she normally keeps for children who copy each other during tests.
I stare at my apple. No one replies. If my heart thumps any louder, she’ll surely hear and know it’s my fault.
I almost sigh with relief as I hear Mrs Warham start to walk away.
‘It was Violet.’ I stare harder at my apple. Georgie’s voice sounds defiant. ‘I’m no snitch but Alice is my friend, she was really frightened and she might have got hurt.’
My knees start to shake.
‘Violet?’ asks Mrs Warham in a voice that doesn’t believe what it’s heard.
‘It wasn’t me. It wasn’t,’ I say.
‘We’ll discuss this in the classroom. Follow me immediately.’
I push down the lid onto my lunch box and stand up. I’d forgotten about the fun snaps box. It falls to the floor. Mrs Warham picks it up.
‘It wasn’t my fault. Flint told me to do it,’ I say. I feel bad but Flint doesn’t even go to this school so he won’t get into trouble.
‘Who’s Flint? A nickname for someone here?’
‘No. He’s my friend.’
‘Shrinking Violet doesn’t have any friends,’ says Georgie and the others laugh.
‘Silence!’ Mrs Warham looks my way with icy eyes. ‘Come with me.’
I follow and wonder if I’ll throw up my sandwich. We enter the classroom and she closes the door. She says she knows Alice can be difficult but that my actions were dangerous. Alice could be badly burnt. I don’t know what to say. If she knows Alice is horrid, why doesn’t she do something about it? But she’s too cross for me to ask, as is Mum.
‘I knew that Flint was trouble,’ says Mum as we get in the house. When she picked me up, we had to go into the head mistress’s office. I’m not allowed to go back into school until a vestigashun has been done. ‘He’s not coming around to tea anymore. You’re to stop seeing him. I don’t want to hear his name ever again.’
