Chapter 19 – Opening-Up

Beca wiped her nose and started to talk about Monday.

"Chlo and I were in the coffee shop, she went to go to the toilet and after she walked away, Miss Posen came up behind me and said 'I can't get rid of her that easily' and that she was going to make sure everyone sees my anger and to quote ' lose everyone, even your precious girlfriend'. I said why can't she just leave me the fuck alone and then she said she was going to expose the real me and she started to talk about my dad, and I got angry and started to cry. How can a teacher get away with that inside school or not, how can she do that?"

She put her need to her head and sobbed loudly.

Mr. Harris was shocked to say the least. This was the first time Beca was opening-up.

*RIIIING*

There went the first period bell.

"Rita" he shouted.

She walked in and saw Beca crying.

"Yes, sir?"

"Cancel all appointments today, and apologize"

"What do you want me to say?"

"Just that something more important has come up here and I need to be here. Can you bring in a box of tissues, and Beca?"

She looked at him, her eyes were so blood-shot, and her face was red.

"Would you like a drink?" He said softly. This was the first time he'd felt sorry for the girl. He couldn't blame her for lashing out the way he did. How can a member of his faculty be like this to a student?

"A coffee if that's ok?"

"Tell Rita how you'd like it, I'll be back in a couple of minutes. Rita, can you put it in a outside cup? I'm going to take her for a walk"

"Of course, John."

"Just black, please" Beca said quietly.

A couple of minutes had passed, and Mr. Harris had just walked back in.

"Come on Beca, we're going to go for a walk, bring your coffee with you, and I know you're only 15, but I know a few students your age do this, I'm not silly, but you don't smoke do you? I know I'm on duty, but I need one"

She nodded her head.

"Get them and let's go for a cigarette and talk? But two things I won't tell if you don't and you have to talk to me"

She was not expecting ever, to have a cigarette with her principal. She stood up.

"Does that mean you're going to talk?"

She nodded and wiped her nose.

"Ok"

They went to the teacher's smoking area which is a secluded area at the back of the school and lit up their smokes and Beca started to relax into her cigarette"

"Where do you want me to start?"

"The beginning preferably"

"Ok, it was 2 years ago, I had just started NY High, my mum and Dad were going through a rough patch, he cheated on her. I knew who he cheated on her with and I've never had the guts to tell her who it was. I confronted this person who turned out to be-

"Aubrey?"

She nodded.

"I got angry at her, because how else is a 13-year-old supposed to react when your teacher is having an affair. I confronted her, got angry and they eventually broke up because I threatened, I'd tell mum if he didn't, so they broke it off. My dad never told my mum and to this day, she doesn't know, he never had the guts to tell her he was sleeping with another teacher. Mum just thinks they were becoming more and more distant from each other and it got messy and, in the end, she asked for a divorce. After a couple more months my Dad and Aubrey got back together and even when they had split up, she was making my life a living nightmare, whenever I went to see my Dad, she would be there and one night they had a massive argument, he stormed out and drove off and she followed –"

Beca choked trying to hold back the tears.

"And erm, she managed to get close to his car, her car clipped the back of dad's –"

She sobbed loudly.

"And that's when he died?" Mr. Harris said softly.

She didn't say anything just nodded.

"Once you have calmed down, can you continue?" He lit another cigarette.

She looked up and nodded, noticing he had lit one, so she got her tobacco out and started to role one. After a couple of drags she calmed down.

"Anyway, there was a police investigation and they concluded it was an accident, which I knew it wasn't the case, she was angry that he walked out on her. Then she started to become worse to me in school, failing me for no reason. In the end I complained to the head and at first, he didn't do anything, but I managed to get moved and surprise surprise my English grades were going up. They did a full investigation eventually but by that point I'd moved because I was sick of it and was skipping, my mum got a call from the school apologizing on their behalf, but it was too late. We didn't want to come back. I was settled here already, everyone's so nice"

"So, tell me, what's going on now?"

"Well, can't you see that she's clearly followed me here, she's already threatened that she's going to make sure I loose everyone. But my mum can't know, it would destroy her, sir you can't"

"Beca, it's destroyed you, you need to tell her, if you want, I can be there, but you can't continue to live on with this. I can't have a student put at risk by a teacher, so I will sort something out for your English lessons ASAP and we will carry out a full investigation against Aubr- sorry, Miss Posen ourselves and the next time she steps out of line towards you, she's gone."

"Why can't you do anything now. How is she here, she's been sacked from one school, surely she shouldn't be able to teach again?" Beca started to become teary again.

"I need to talk to her, give her a written warning and then we can go from there. Unfortunately, it wasn't mentioned anywhere in her paper work that she was sacked, I will call your old school too and get the full details, Is that ok?"

"It's going to have to be, I have no choice, right? What'll happen with my English lessons, you said so yourself she's the only teacher in my year"

"Well I was an old English teacher, so, can we make a deal, I know this is going to be hard, but can you go, when you next have English, I know you have a test coming up, so how about you go to that, please stay out of trouble, and we can work together on helping you out. Make up with your friends, they can help you out and then together we can all work to help you get through this"

"I don't want to go back to English. Can't I not go and only go when I have the test, at least I won't be able to say anything? Please, just don't make me go back to a normal lesson" She was getting more and more teary.

"Ok, ok. Can you go see Miss Posen, get a friend to go with you, and get your work and I'm sure Rita won't mind you working on the sofas outside my office, but it's only until you have your test and we'll figure something out together ok?"

She nodded.

"Right, it's break time in 20 minutes, so how about we head in and then you can talk to Chloe?"

"Wait – can I have one last fag before going in?"

"Yeah of course, what lessons have you got today?"

"I've got Music, PE, and Science"

She put the cigarette between her lips and lit it up.

"Ok, when have you next got English?"

"Tomorrow"

"What period?"

"Third"

"Can you go to the lesson as normal, just get some work, bring your work book and ask for all your other work and we'll sit down and go through your grades. Do you have all your other books from your previous school?"

"Yeah"

"Bring that all with you tomorrow, and I will excuse you from third and fourth period and we can go through it all together and between us we can sort it out and see why she's failing you. When you do your English writing soon, we'll look at the grade what she's given you and we'll go from there, how does that sound?"

"That sounds ok, thank you, sir"

"If you have any trouble between now and tomorrow when we see each other, come and see me and we'll sort it out"

"Thank you. I'm sorry for being a dick"

"Well now we know why, we can put this behind us, we can sort this out, I would like to talk to your mother about the next step so I'm going to see if she can come in later today. She does need to know what's going on. Do you want to be in with the meeting or want me to talk to her?"

"Can you talk to her, just tell her everything, I can't, I just can't do it. I'm too scared"

"That's fine, right come on, let's go back and you can get your stuff and enjoy your break. I will send an email to you when your mum's going to come in just so that you know when"

"I really appreciate it, thank you. Why are you helping me? I was a right dick to you and Mrs. Smith"

"Well, how about you build bridges with Mrs. Smith and Miss. Johnson? And then build bridges with your friends"

"I'll do just that, thank you Mr. Harris"

"No problem, Beca"