"Quiet, now quieten down otherwise I'll get Mr. Gerdman." Suddenly the
noise levelled off into a few whispers and then total silence.
"If you want to learn anything in your lives then listen."
Mr. Wright knew he had our attention as soon as he uttered the words "Mr.
Gerdman", the dreaded head of department.
"Right first of all I would like to introduce a new member to the course-
Stephanie Paterson, Now if you would like to take a seat at the back with
Melanie then we can get started".
I just knew he would sit her next to me. He always did. Any new student
that arrived would be magnetically drawn to sit near me. First it was a boy
called Sven from Finland and last month a girl name Jodie who had been
expelled from her last school and made it a habit here too.
I was hoping that there wouldn't be another sucker pawned off on me, since
it was near to our GCSE exams, although, I was glad of the unfamiliar
company.
I politely offered her a seat. As the lesson went on I learned quite a lot...
about Stephanie .She had moved from a small village called Gwenfield in
Northern Ireland to Edinburgh in search of a good school. "What are you
doing here then?" I asked. She laughed, which I took as a good sign and we
got along well for the rest of the lesson and the rest of the day in fact.
The door slammed with a thud. Rob was home. He was my mum's boyfriend. I ran to the landing and peered down the stairs. "What's the matter?" I asked. Rob was covered in water from his head to his toes. His jet-black curly hair was now soaking wet and dripping over the carpet. "Get me a towel, will you love." He said in the slimiest tone ever. I walked into my room and grabbed a towel out of the airing cupboard and threw it down to him over the landing. Rob was an accountant in the bank a couple of blocks away. He earned a lot of money, which I thought was the only reason my mother was with him. He was al right I suppose but he was nothing like my dad.
My Dad and I were like best friends. Dad was part of the reason we moved to Edinburgh from London. About three years ago my dad was on business over In Southern America. He was a well-known judge and he flew out there to judge a very important case. A middle-aged white man, a very famous rap artist called MC Relay, was being tried for the murder of a young black man. Just before the verdict was given, one witness stood up and shouted, "I'm not having a nigger convict my brother." The man was restrained whilst the verdict was read out. MC Relay was found guilty of the murder and sentenced to death although he protested that he was innocent. Later that night as my father left to go home he was approached in the parking lot and stabbed thirty six times in the chest before dying alone in the dark parking lot calling for help the whole time. The police suspected it was nothing to do with the case and just a random racial attack. The brother of MC Relay was arrested in connection with my father's death but never convicted. Last summer he was released and the police never heard from him again. My mum told me that my dad had died in a plane crash on the return flight from America but on the day of his funeral I overheard one of his colleage's describing what happened. I didn't trust my mother for a long time after that but then I realised that I'd already lost one parent and if I lost another, whilst being mad at them I would never be able to forgive myself.
The rain was dripping slowly down the sides of my black umbrella as I dodged the puddles on the way to school. As I sat down and opened my bag an ear-piercing bell rang. I closed my bag and swerved through the mounds of people to the door. When I got there I was presented with hundreds upon hundreds of people running and falling over down the corridor. Everyone was desperate to escape. I knew this was just a false alarm, so I slowly walked behind them. We had one fire bell practice every term, you see. I went to stand with my form. Thankfully it had stopped raining by then but the wind was still blowing hard.
Stephanie was already sitting down when I came back to Mr. Macintyres classroom. "Hey" she called as I sat down next to her. "What you up to after school today?" she asked. "Dunno" I replied. "Do you want to come round mine?" "Yeah sure, what time shall I come?" Just as I uttered those words Mr. Macintyre came in. He slipped over the piece of paper lying on the floor and slid to grab hold of his chair to steady himself, which unfortunately toppled over along with him. The entire class rippled with laughter. Mr. McIntyre got up and caught his balance. His face was bright red from embarrassment but he shakily said "page 42 class today we will be revising last lessons work on rock types." I admired the way he carried on with the lesson although he had just made a complete and utter fool of himself. Geology was my best subject. "I'll meet you at lunch". Stephanie whispered. "By the steps" I replied. "Shush Melanie otherwise you can stand outside. "Mr.Mcintyre scoured. "It was me sir" Stephanie said. "There's no need to stick up for her. See me afterwards Melanie." After class Mr.Mcintyre lectured me about letting my grades slip if I carried on talking my way through class. "Come to mine at six you can have tea there." Stephanie smiled.
As I peered down my fork at the spaghetti bolognase Stephanie's mother reassuringly told me to "leave what you don't want Melanie". After dinner we went up to Stephanie's room. "I'm just popping to the loo, put the telly on if you like." Stephanie called. I put it on and searched the area for a remote. It was under a shoebox on her bedside cabinet. I slowly pulled the remote from under the box but the box toppled onto the floor and her diary came spinning out onto her wooden floor. I couldn't help but read it but as I did I discovered the real reason she left Northern Ireland .She had got accidentally pregnant, with a boy called Jason and because the community was made up of Catholics she had to move in order to get the baby terminated because there were no abortion clinics in the area. I couldn't believe what I was reading and wished I'd never started to read it. A shadow drew over the book and I span round to find Stephanie peering down at me. "How dare you. You can't just read other people things like that it's immoral." As the "immoral" rolled off her Irish tongue and rang in my brain I broke the silence with "Having an abortion is immoral." She burst into tears and sat on the bed next to me. "I didn't mean it, I was just angry that you lied to me." I cried as we both sat hugging on her bed.
"I'm back" I called. My mum came through the living room door and started screaming and shouting, "Where have you been? Do you know what time it is? Why didn't you come home from school?" "I told Rob to tell you that I was going to Stephanie's" "Who's Stephanie?" "You know the girl who started at my school a few weeks ago." "Rob didn't tell me a thing about this are you sure you told him." "Yes mum why would I lie?" "ROBBBBBB!" Mum called up the stairs. No reply. "Robbbbb!" she called again. Rob slithered to the top of the landing and started to crawl down, he seemed very tired. "Rob daring were you meant to tell me anything about Mel." "Not that I can remember." Rob said sounding really innocent and pathetic. I went upstairs and stayed there for the rest of the evening.
In the morning the doorbell rang. I spat my toothpaste out into the sink and ran downstairs to answer the door. To my surprise it was Stephanie. "Hi, I hope you don't mind if I trot along to school with you do you?" "No" I replied "I'll be glad of the company." I grabbed my coat and my dinner money off the side and pulled the door shut behind me.
The door slammed with a thud. Rob was home. He was my mum's boyfriend. I ran to the landing and peered down the stairs. "What's the matter?" I asked. Rob was covered in water from his head to his toes. His jet-black curly hair was now soaking wet and dripping over the carpet. "Get me a towel, will you love." He said in the slimiest tone ever. I walked into my room and grabbed a towel out of the airing cupboard and threw it down to him over the landing. Rob was an accountant in the bank a couple of blocks away. He earned a lot of money, which I thought was the only reason my mother was with him. He was al right I suppose but he was nothing like my dad.
My Dad and I were like best friends. Dad was part of the reason we moved to Edinburgh from London. About three years ago my dad was on business over In Southern America. He was a well-known judge and he flew out there to judge a very important case. A middle-aged white man, a very famous rap artist called MC Relay, was being tried for the murder of a young black man. Just before the verdict was given, one witness stood up and shouted, "I'm not having a nigger convict my brother." The man was restrained whilst the verdict was read out. MC Relay was found guilty of the murder and sentenced to death although he protested that he was innocent. Later that night as my father left to go home he was approached in the parking lot and stabbed thirty six times in the chest before dying alone in the dark parking lot calling for help the whole time. The police suspected it was nothing to do with the case and just a random racial attack. The brother of MC Relay was arrested in connection with my father's death but never convicted. Last summer he was released and the police never heard from him again. My mum told me that my dad had died in a plane crash on the return flight from America but on the day of his funeral I overheard one of his colleage's describing what happened. I didn't trust my mother for a long time after that but then I realised that I'd already lost one parent and if I lost another, whilst being mad at them I would never be able to forgive myself.
The rain was dripping slowly down the sides of my black umbrella as I dodged the puddles on the way to school. As I sat down and opened my bag an ear-piercing bell rang. I closed my bag and swerved through the mounds of people to the door. When I got there I was presented with hundreds upon hundreds of people running and falling over down the corridor. Everyone was desperate to escape. I knew this was just a false alarm, so I slowly walked behind them. We had one fire bell practice every term, you see. I went to stand with my form. Thankfully it had stopped raining by then but the wind was still blowing hard.
Stephanie was already sitting down when I came back to Mr. Macintyres classroom. "Hey" she called as I sat down next to her. "What you up to after school today?" she asked. "Dunno" I replied. "Do you want to come round mine?" "Yeah sure, what time shall I come?" Just as I uttered those words Mr. Macintyre came in. He slipped over the piece of paper lying on the floor and slid to grab hold of his chair to steady himself, which unfortunately toppled over along with him. The entire class rippled with laughter. Mr. McIntyre got up and caught his balance. His face was bright red from embarrassment but he shakily said "page 42 class today we will be revising last lessons work on rock types." I admired the way he carried on with the lesson although he had just made a complete and utter fool of himself. Geology was my best subject. "I'll meet you at lunch". Stephanie whispered. "By the steps" I replied. "Shush Melanie otherwise you can stand outside. "Mr.Mcintyre scoured. "It was me sir" Stephanie said. "There's no need to stick up for her. See me afterwards Melanie." After class Mr.Mcintyre lectured me about letting my grades slip if I carried on talking my way through class. "Come to mine at six you can have tea there." Stephanie smiled.
As I peered down my fork at the spaghetti bolognase Stephanie's mother reassuringly told me to "leave what you don't want Melanie". After dinner we went up to Stephanie's room. "I'm just popping to the loo, put the telly on if you like." Stephanie called. I put it on and searched the area for a remote. It was under a shoebox on her bedside cabinet. I slowly pulled the remote from under the box but the box toppled onto the floor and her diary came spinning out onto her wooden floor. I couldn't help but read it but as I did I discovered the real reason she left Northern Ireland .She had got accidentally pregnant, with a boy called Jason and because the community was made up of Catholics she had to move in order to get the baby terminated because there were no abortion clinics in the area. I couldn't believe what I was reading and wished I'd never started to read it. A shadow drew over the book and I span round to find Stephanie peering down at me. "How dare you. You can't just read other people things like that it's immoral." As the "immoral" rolled off her Irish tongue and rang in my brain I broke the silence with "Having an abortion is immoral." She burst into tears and sat on the bed next to me. "I didn't mean it, I was just angry that you lied to me." I cried as we both sat hugging on her bed.
"I'm back" I called. My mum came through the living room door and started screaming and shouting, "Where have you been? Do you know what time it is? Why didn't you come home from school?" "I told Rob to tell you that I was going to Stephanie's" "Who's Stephanie?" "You know the girl who started at my school a few weeks ago." "Rob didn't tell me a thing about this are you sure you told him." "Yes mum why would I lie?" "ROBBBBBB!" Mum called up the stairs. No reply. "Robbbbb!" she called again. Rob slithered to the top of the landing and started to crawl down, he seemed very tired. "Rob daring were you meant to tell me anything about Mel." "Not that I can remember." Rob said sounding really innocent and pathetic. I went upstairs and stayed there for the rest of the evening.
In the morning the doorbell rang. I spat my toothpaste out into the sink and ran downstairs to answer the door. To my surprise it was Stephanie. "Hi, I hope you don't mind if I trot along to school with you do you?" "No" I replied "I'll be glad of the company." I grabbed my coat and my dinner money off the side and pulled the door shut behind me.