Chapter Thirty Seven

Beatrice:

Tuesday came and went.

Yes, my mother came back home on Tuesday, along with Atticus and Wyatt. I did give her the ultimatum. She should listen to me and never see Atticus and Wyatt again or I will call the cops and have them drag Atticus and Wyatt out of the house.

The results?

Mom said that if I don't straighten up, she was going to make me give up my room and give it to Wyatt after sending me to the Houston Juvenile Institute.

I knew that calling the cops will have to wait until I figure out when will be the right time.

Then, I drove to my new school and gave myself some time to memorize the roads that led me there and try out some roads that'll be my shortcuts in case if I was late.

After I got ready for school, I wrote several notes on my arm, making little reminders to keep myself from being the student who stands out from the other students.

Right now, I'm wearing an outfit from a website that made an outfit after someone was inspired by Mickey Mouse. I was wearing a black, oversized, long-sleeved T-shirt, red button-up pants with white buttons, and yellow Converse shoes. In my pants pocket was my schedule and my hair was braided in to a single braid and was tied back with a black ponytail band.

Hey, I may be a tomboy but I only dress up on special occasions. My first day at my new school is a special occasion and I would like to look my best.

Yes, I'm wearing my dog tag. I have been wearing it every day and that has also been the same with my glasses.

And right now, I am two minutes away from the school and I am driving in my truck while listening to Chuck Berry's You Never Can Tell on my radio.

All right, Beatrice. I thought. Remember these things. Don't answer every question, don't be the center of attention, and if someone is giving you trouble, don't be defensive unless it's necessary. Respect your teachers and possible new friends.

As soon as Chuck Berry's song stopped playing on the radio, I found a parking spot and I park…on the right side of my new school.

The Zelkova Educational Institute was a giant, old four floor building with a metal fence surrounding it. Some parts were covered with green leafy vines and the ground was rocky and patched with grass. There was a small stone staircase and some students hung around that area.

Students, ranging from kindergarten to twelfth grade, all were wearing winter clothes, were playing in front of the front of the school. Some groups of students were having conversations with their friends and very few of the students were found doing something else, like reading, writing, or drawing. I even noticed that there were a lot of Toons (like Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Goofy, Donald Duck, etc.) in the school area and a few of them were entertaining some of the students.

I took a deep breath, grabbed my backpack, my lunch bag, and my truck keys and walked towards the school after locking my truck and leaving it in my parking space.

As I walked in, some of the students looked at me and then, they went back to what they were doing and I watch three ninth graders mess around with Rubik's Cubes.

I smiled.

I think that I'm going to like this school. I thought. I wonder—

All of the sudden, I hear the front doors open up and almost immediately, all conversations, playful shouts, giggles, hopping, skipping, the sounds of Toon slapstick comedy cease and almost immediately, some young girls screamed in terror. The students and Toons who were hanging around the stone staircase immediately retreated from the area and I began to look around in confusion.

Why did everybody stop laughing? I thought. What's the matter? What are they scared of?

I looked at the front doors and I saw a tall, skinny but big-muscled figure in a dark green olive-colored outfit with a big black belt around its abdominal area. I even saw some dark sunglasses on its face. Although I'm not getting a good view of this person, I can see that their left hand is covered with…a…leather glove and they're slapping a riding crop on their palm.

Then as soon as the figure walked down the steps slowly, the students and Toons who were surrounding the staircase parted as the figure walked forward, kind of reminding me of Moses parting the Red Sea.

The figure immediately turned its head to a random student and shouted, in a slightly deep and scratchy voice,

"YOU, DENTENTION!"

Almost immediately, I began to have a feeling that the figure…that teacher is not the kind of person that you would want to mess with. This teacher that I'm seeing is probably nothing but trouble.

A bunch of students and a lot of Toons immediately moved out of the teacher's way and I gasp at the sight of the riding crop getting slapped on his palm in a threatening matter.

I really want to run and hide but my feet can't move. They aren't bud—

Something tugs the bottom of my left pant leg and I look down.

My eyes widened when I saw a small Toon who looked like Mickey Mouse in his Steamboat Willie cartoon except this Toon's body was a bit rounder, its ears were longer and skinnier, its tail was like a powder puff thing for make-up usages, and its white shorts didn't have buttons.

The strange-looking Toon had some blue foggy flames 'burning' on him, almost looking like the will-o-the-wisps from this movie I saw last summer or so.

I looked at the Toon in surprise as it ran…well, make that hopped its way to an old shed with an empty gap, leaving behind trailing footprints that would burn and fade after a few seconds. The Toon disappeared into the gap after entering it and then, it popped its head from behind the wall of the gap of the shed and beckoned me with its arm, as if it were saying, "Come and hide here."

"You're too small!" The teacher shouted, causing me to look back at him. "Grow up quicker!"

I looked back at the Toon, who was still peeking from behind the wall of the gap of the shed, and it nodded. I ran towards the gap and entered into a hollow space.

After I entered the gap of the shed, the Toon was nowhere to be found before the teacher shouted, "Heads up! Shoulders back and stomachs in!"

Not really thinking about the Toon, I looked at the teacher who was still wondering around the front area of the school.

"HEY!" A voice exclaimed from behind me.

I jumped in surprise and looked at the person who exclaimed 'Hey' at me. It was a little dark in the hollow space inside this shed but I can kind of see the person who was about the same height as I am.

"Oh, I'm sorry." I whispered.

"That's okay." The student replied. "It's much better than being out there."

Then, I gasped as soon as the student moved into the light a little bit. It was Cressida!

"Cressida?!" I asked.

"Beatrice, is that really you?" She asked.

"Yeah. I just came here. This is my first day at this school!"

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

Then, the teacher with the riding crop shouted something that I couldn't make out, causing me to look at him for a brief second and look back at Cressida.

"Question, is he one of the teachers of this school?" I asked Cressida, referring to the teacher with the riding crop.

"No, he's the principal." She replied. "He's called Mr. Trunchbull."

"Really? You've got to be kidding."

Cressida shook her head and said,

"Uh-uh."

Then, a brown-haired girl (dressed in a Sherlock Holmes-esque outfit but minus the smoking pipe), who was probably a little bit older than me and Cressida, approached us with both a neutral and worried look on her face.

"You girls better skedaddle." The girl said. "I'm not kidding. The Trunchbull likes to snap a whip in there to see who's trying to hide."

Cressida and I exchanged glances with each other and we walk out.

"I notice that you're new." The girl said to me. "I'm Chrissy, short for 'Christina'."

"I'm Beatrice." I said.

"And I'm Cressida." Cressida said to Chrissy.

Chrissy smiled.

After looking at Mr. Trunchbull, I asked,

"Does Mr. Trunchbull really hit the students and Toons with the riding crop?"

Chrissy and Cressida shook their heads.

"No." Cressida replied.

"It's mostly for scare." Chrissy said. "But what Mr. Trunchbull does is WORSE. He can show teachers a thing or two about handling students and Toons when he makes a weekly visit to the classrooms. Like yesterday, in one of the second grade classes, a student named Julius Buchanan ate half a packet of M&Ms during Mr. Trunchbull's lesson time."

"And Mr. Trunchbull caught Julius?" I asked.

"Yeah, of course, he did!"

"Was Julius okay?"

Chrissy looked at me with shock, as if she were saying 'Are you serious' in a shocking matter.

"After being thrown out the window?" She asked. "Of course, he wasn't okay. If he lived, if that's what you mean."

"Despite of how old Mr. Trunchbull is right now, he's awfully strong." Cressida said. "I've heard several rumors that he participated in the Olympics. He tried out shot-put, javelin, and hammer throw."

"The hammer throw is Mr. Trunchbull's specialty." Chrissy said.

"So he does this all the time?" I asked. "Picking on students and Toons?"

"It's better than being put in the Chokey."

My eyes widened and I gulped.

"The…Chokey?" I asked.

"It's a tall and narrow space behind a door." Chrissy explained. "You have to STAND under a steaming pipe with jagged edges. The walls have broken glass and NAILS sticking out. If you even try to sit down in the Chokey, you will be spiked by either the glass or nails."

I gulped again.

"Mr. Trunchbull puts students in THERE?" I asked.

"I've been in there twice." Cressida said. "I've heard that sometimes Mr. Trunchbull will leave a student in the Chokey all day."

"How did you end up getting locked in the Chokey?" I asked Cressida.

"Penny, my little sister, has been begging me to let her wear pigtails here and my mom sent Mr. Trunchbull a letter about Penny's pigtails and why he doesn't like them at all." She explained. "A few days later, Mr. Trunchbull came up to me and he locked me up in the Chokey."

"Did you tell your parents about that?"

"They didn't believe me at all. Would your mom believe you?"

Just as I was about to say something, Mr. Trunchbull exclaimed,

"Sixty lines on the chalkboard, 'I MUST OBEY MR. TRUNCHBULL'!"

I looked back at Cressida and Chrissy.

"No. My mom wouldn't believe me at all." I said.

Then, I looked back at Mr. Trunchbull.

"Here he comes!" I whispered.

I finally got a good look at Mr. Trunchbull after he pushed away a group of human girls.

His head was round and his grayish-white hair was not-so-neatly combed back. Mr. Trunchbull had wrinkles on his face and his teeth looked coffee-stained.

"Ahh," Mr. Trunchbull said, "fresh meat!"

I gulped and he pushed me out of his way with his riding crop, making his way to another student.

Cressida groaned when I saw Penny, who was wearing blue jeans and white shirt with a brown cat on it, standing still with these cute little braided pigtails hanging down by her ears.

Penny made a small noise as soon as Mr. Trunchbull approached her.

"Penny Gruwell." Mr. Trunchbull said.

"Yes, Mr. Trunchbull?" Penny asked.

"What are those?" Mr. Trunchbull asked as he walked around Penny.

"What's what, Mr. Trunchbull?"

"Hanging down by your ears."

Penny twirled her finger in her pigtails.

"You mean my pigtails?" She asked.

Mr. Trunchbull stopped walking around and stood in front of Penny.

"Are you a pig, Penny?" He asked.

"No, Mr. Trunchbull." Penny squeaked.

"And do I ALLOW pigs in my school?"

"My mommy thinks…they're sweet."

Mr. Trunchbull bent down and said,

"Your mommy…is A TWIT!"

My eyes widened in surprise while some Toons gasped in shock and a handful of Toons and students covered their mouths in shock and surprise.

Oh, man. I thought. That was harsh.

"She should've listened to me." Cressida whispered.

I looked at Cressida.

"Why? Is-?" I asked.

"Mr. Trunchbull HATES pigtails." She replied, interrupting me. "I've told my mom about Penny wearing pigtails here is a bad idea because another student had her pigtails cut off. I don't want Mr. Trunchbull to do the same with Penny."

"That's not a very nice thing to say." Penny said to Mr. Trunchbull.

"You better chop those pigtails off before school tomorrow or I-" Mr. Trunchbull began.

In the process of trying to threaten Penny, Penny interrupted Mr. Trunchbull by saying,

"But—"

Almost immediately, Mr. Trunchbull raised his voice, stuttered 'But' a couple of times, and then, he exclaimed,

"Did you say 'but'?"

"Hammer throw." Chrissy whispered.

I looked at her.

"What?" I asked.

"Definitely." Cressida said to me.

"I'LL GIVE YOU 'BUT'!" Mr. Trunchbull exclaimed.

Then, he leaned over and grabbed PENNY BY HER PIGTAILS, picked her up, and began to swing her around.

Penny would exclaim 'WHOA' after every swing and they grew longer and longer by the second. Everyone, Toons and other students, watched in horror as they watched Penny getting swung around.

Finally, probably after his twelfth spin, Mr. Trunchbull threw Penny across the school yard while letting out a loud 'AHHHHH'.

"EXCELLENT RELEASE." One student exclaimed in surprise.

My mouth and eyes were wide open as I watch Penny flying across the school as she screamed in terror.

Penny was so high up that, if Mr. Trunchbull was angled right, she would land on the roof of the school. Right now, she is falling her way towards the fence of the school.

"Is she going to make the fence?" Chrissy asked.

"It's going to be a close one." A student replied.

When Penny was close enough to fall on to the fence, the strange feeling that I've experienced a few days ago, the day when the TV in my living room exploded, came back to me. The feeling of electricity ran through my arms and in my head and mental pictures of magnets pulling metal objects by their magnetic draw began to flash in my mind while my eyes began to burn as I watch Penny getting closer and closer to the fence.

All of the sudden, when Penny was at least five feet away from the fence, something invisible made Penny LOOP OVER THE FENCE and land on the ground on the other side, causing every student and Toon to gasp in surprise and shock. The strange feeling disappeared in the sounds of the gasps.

I joined some students and Toons who were running towards the fence and after approaching fence, I watch Penny slide on the ground, building a pile of dirt as she slid while grabbing a handful of flowers.

I smiled as Penny jumped back on her feet, wiped the dirt off her jeans, and gave us a thumbs-up, giving me, Cressida, the other students, and Toons a gesture that she's completely fine.

Everyone, except for Mr. Trunchbull, cheered for a few seconds and some Toons, like Bugs Bunny and Donald Duck, whistled.

"SHUT UP!" Mr. Trunchbull exclaimed. "All of you get to class before I throw you all in the Chokey!"

Immediately, all of the Toons and students ran to the school and entered the building. Well, all except for me, Cressida, Porky Pig (Yay), and Daffy Duck.

While Daffy Duck and Porky Pig broke off two bars of the fence, I took my schedule out of my pant pocket and unfolded it.

"So who do you have for your first class?" Cressida asked.

As Porky Pig escorted Penny back into the school area, I replied,

"Math and my teacher is…Miss Honey."

"Oh, my gosh, she is the best teacher of this school!" Cressida exclaimed. "I also have her for first period! I'll show you the way to her class if you like."

After folding the schedule again and putting it back in my pocket, I said,

"That'll be wonderful, thank you."

Then, Cressida and I entered the school with Porky, Daffy, and Penny. A thought came to me and it wasn't usually the kind of thought that would come to me whenever I go to school.

"Cressida, what's Miss Honey like?" I asked.