CHAPTER 9 SCANDAL!

Rose was proud of herself, she had completely ignored Thomas the whole day, well, that is except for when he had "accidentally" bumped into her as she went into the class. He'd meant it, of course so that she would simply look at him, and gave her a cheeky wink, but she didn't see that. Instead she scrambled around on the floor pick them up, and unfortunately a sketch flew away from her pile of books, an insolent sketch of him in line for the guillotine, as she danced merrily around him. He noticed that too, half happy that she paid him that much attention to draw him, but in a way that sketch was simply too real for his likings. She saw his look at that to, snatched from his hands and marched over to where Anne was giving her sympathetic looks. But other than that – and he didn't try that again, it was like he didn't even exist. Which suited her perfectly.

The classes flew along, and before she knew it the day was over (if only all school days could be like that) and she skipped along with her chums back to the boarding house.

The next day however, wasn't as quite blissfully as uneventful as that…from the start it seemed to be hung over with an unlucky star. Rose got out of bed stormingly, with that feeling that you just had to kick something - that feeling bottled up inside you that inevitably would explode sometime. Anne was sick, so she went to walk with Ruby, but she was walking with that abdominal creature Thomas. So Rose marched off ahead, not looking twice at them.

At school, in maths she had been writing the answer on the board, and still fuming from that morning, she got it all muddled, and to top it off the teacher got Thomas to write it out, which he got right, and really it wasn't to be endured!

So when there was a knock on the door, and Mr. Craig the sports teacher came in with an announcement, really, there wasn't a bit of sense left in Rose's head, which would explain what happened next, and when she finally came to her senses, she was too far into it and wouldn't be able to get out of it.

"Attention students!" The class all looked to Mr. Craig, some half sleepily, it being the first lesson of the day,

"There is an upcoming boys baseball competition to be played against Kingston Grammar, any interested students should meet me at recess, thankyou, that's all" A buzz went around the class, and especially Rose. She was tingling from head to foot, why baseball was her favourite sport ever, her and her chums at home used to play it all the time at home and she loved the rush it gave her. Sports was like a battle in a way, and you got all the adventure and the thrill, without all the violence, Rose felt that every time she played, and she did play heartily, putting herself all out in it. But what did he say? It was for boys, well all she would do then was to ask if there was a girl's section. Her clear voice rang out to him, just as he was walking out,

"Mr. Craig?" He turned,

"Yes?" The whole class grew strangely quiet, all listening

"About the competition, can girls enter?"

"I thought I said quite clearly it was for boys, and from your looks, I don't think you're exactly male" The class roared at this, Rose's cheeks burned, but she went on,

"No, I mean is there a section for girl's?" Mr. Craig smiled faintly. The class grew quiet again

"Now what would a girl want to play baseball for?"

"Oh but Mr. Craig! There should be – why isn't there one?" It put him a bit off guard, in all his life he'd never heard of such a thing as a girl playing softball, so he laughed, such a ridiculous thing! And that girl Rose sat there with her eyes wide and serious, she must be making fun of him.

"Girls have never played baseball in my experience, why I'm sure they wouldn't know the first thing about it!" He laughed again, that laugh rankled in Rose's mind and she saw, in the corner of her eye Thomas' face, his eyes shining with the laugh of it, of course he would find it funny. A blaze of indignation swept over her, which made her go further down this risky track, Mr. Craig was leaving the room again, chuckling to himself

"What if a girl could, what if she could prove that she could play baseball just as well – or better than the boys, what if a heap of girls could – then could we play?" Mr. Craig spun around if slapped, his eyes grew to slits and laughter grew cold on his lips, the red head girl was taking it too far, if she wanted to humiliate herself and humiliate him, well, he would give her the podium to do it on,

"Okay then missy, if you can gather up a team of girls who can play softball" he smiled cruelly, sure she wouldn't even get that far, "if you can actually do that, I'll give you that chance to prove yourself, or not when you play against the team I personally pick from the boys in a weeks time…and if you can beat them, you can do your best to enter the competition, if you get that far" Roses fiery, determined eyes went straight into his, she nodded, and he stalked out, ready to tell the joke to anyone who came his way.

The maths teacher, who had been waiting meekly in the corner, awed by the audacity of the situation, regained himself and tried to get the class back to the lesson. But it was as useless of trying cage a bull on rampage, for the buzz was a roar by now, everyone wanted to talk to Rose, either scorning or agreeing whole heartily with her. She was famous all lunch, for the word had spread around, she had a chattering mob around her the whole day, all the while recruiting for the team.

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Next chapter - Aftermath

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