Page 23 of Autumn in Sycamore Park
‘Well, say goodbye to your class getting the prize for best stall,’ Rick said. ‘You let that idiot Gordon be in charge and you’ll be lucky if any of the cakes make it as far as the stall. He’ll be selling them outside the arcade on the high street to raise money for his vapes.’
‘I’m pretty sure he doesn’t vape,’ Jennifer said.
‘Give him time.’
‘I’m hoping the extra responsibility will be the making of him,’ Jennifer said. ‘Since his dad left he’s had nothing to focus his frustration on.’
Rick took a sip of his coffee, then upended the leftover filter straight into the rubbish bin, coffee splashing down the plastic sides. ‘Right, I’d better stop gasbagging with you two. My class has games next.’
‘Good luck!’ Amy said in a titter that was just a little too high-pitched to sound normal.
‘Come join us if you fancy a couple of extra laps,’ he said. ‘Not going to burn off breakfast watching DVDs about wildlife.’
‘Actually, we’re going on a nature walk,’ Amy said. ‘Down to Sycamore Park and back.’
‘Well, watch out for hunters,’ Rick said with a smirk, before setting his unwashed cup in the sink and heading out.
‘I have no idea what you see in him,’ Jennifer said. ‘Convicts have better manners.’
Amy, who was staring forlornly at the door just closing behind Rick, sighed. ‘I’m really not quite sure what it is,’ she said. ‘I think, deep inside, he kind of likes me too, because if he didn’t he would just ignore me, wouldn’t he?’
‘You think he rips on you because he secretly likes you?’ Jennifer shrugged. ‘It’s not impossible. I wouldn’t get your hopes up, though. And I imagine he’s like one of those supermarket cake counters—the cakes look good on the outside, but on the inside, they’re hollow and worthless.’
‘I think you have trust issues,’ Amy said.
‘I—’
The bell rang. Jennifer just flashed Amy a smile and headed off to class, dodging the children coming in from break as they raced down the corridors, bouncing off each other like dodgem cars.
By the time she got to the classroom, several of the kids were already there, standing around, chatting or teasing each other, playing tabletop games or generally mucking about. Jennifer was about to call for order when Matthew Bridges came in, supported on each side by the Jarder twins. His face was scrunched up like an old towel, one trouser leg pulled up to reveal a nasty graze on his knee.
‘I didn’t do nothing!’ Gavin Gordon snapped, as two other boys herded him in through the door.
‘You pushed him!’ Rachel Low snapped, aiming a swipe at Gavin’s face which Jennifer had to move quickly to intercept.
‘No, I didn’t, he tripped!’
‘Yes, you did!’
Jennifer tried to tend to a sobbing Matthew while steering the other kids to their seats. In the end, she instructed the Jarder twins to take Matthew to the school nurse, before putting on a DVD while she took Gavin out into the corridor.
‘Okay,’ she said, squatting down in front of him. ‘No one else is here. Don’t lie to me, because I’ll know. I used to be a spy.’
At this attempt at humour, there was a brief curl at the edge of Gavin’s lips, but it was gone quickly enough to convince Jennifer not just of Gavin’s guilt, but also his remorse.
‘You pushed him, didn’t you?’
Gavin nodded. ‘But I didn’t mean to. We were playing football and he just got in the way. I was trying to get to the ball. I didn’t even know it was Bridges until he started screaming like a girl.’
At moments like this, Jennifer could understand why so many teachers had stress issues. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It would be easy to ball him out, perhaps channel a little of her own frustration into a vicious tongue-lashing, but she was trying to improve the situation, not push Gavin further along one of Greg Downton’s life paths.
‘I’ll talk to him and explain,’ Jennifer said. ‘I want you to try to be more careful. Matthew’s a lot smaller than you.’
‘He just kind of bounced off.’
Jennifer had to suppress a smile of her own as she imagined the scene in her mind. Gavin wasn’t a bad kid, but he was probably twice Matthew’s weight and boisterous. Most kids would bounce off him.
‘Look, be more careful. I’m not going to keep you behind or punish you, but I want you to promise me that you’ll try harder. I expect more from my chief of staff.’
