Disclaimer: Pfft. Not likely. It all belongs to Jack.
AN: Sorry for the delay folks, I wasn't intending to leave it so long between Susan and Edmund's chapters. Heavens this was difficult to write! Susan's and Peter's just came out so easily, but this one…! Anyway, apologies again for the delay, I hope you enjoy. :)
And I know that in the books Edmund and Peter go to a boys school, and Susan and Lucy to a girls, but I like the idea of them all being together. Also, remember – Lucy often rode to war with the boys (That is cannon! Check The Horse and His Boy if you don't believe me), so she knows what to do in a fight.
Props to my Great-Grandfather for the term 'disappointed old ladies.' I think it's a very apt description of the few that I've met (I say few. I'm sure there are some very lovely ones out there… I just haven't met them.).
Love Bundi
OoO
Virtues
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Just
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It is very hard to be Just in an un-just world.
Even harder when – though you know you're a full grown man who has run a country, won wars, gone on countless campaigns, lived, loved and loathed… everyone else simply sees an eleven year old boy with a good imagination, behavioural problems and no respect for authority.
They were correct in their assumptions…just not in the way they thought they were.
Edmund did have a good imagination, but not in the sense that Narnia had all simply been imagined. No, Edmund had always had a talent for creating the most outrageous, exhilarating, emotive, and riveting tales by using the smallest amount of inspiration…he and Lucy had stayed up long into the night on more than one occasion entertaining each other with their wild stories and imaginings.
Edmund had behavioural issues, but not in the sense that he was unwilling to learn. Edmund was more than willing to learn new things, but the drab English school he attended was not providing anything even remotely stimulating. As such, Edmund was bored. And Edmund's boredom coupled with his imagination led to his teachers labelling him 'difficult' and subject to 'behavioural issues'.
And no, Edmund didn't have any respect for authority. Not when 'authority' consisted of corrupt policemen who were only in the Force to better get away with their own illicit activities and so that they could get cash bonuses from anyone who happened to have enough money to avoid arrest.
Not when 'authority' consisted of disappointed old ladies who called themselves Nuns and followers of God, yet who relished the opportunity to punish and humiliate children as young as four for the slightest offence.
Not when 'authority' meant 'anyone older than you,' and yet Edmund had been a King to those up to and over thirteen times his age.
Authority was, in Edmund's opinion, something that needed to be earned and worked at. And it didn't seem to Edmund that many of these English figures of 'authority' had rightly earned anything, much less authority.
What's more, Edmund was used to being treated with respect – by both people who were and were not his subjects.
Rulers of countries such as Archenland had held Edmund and his royal siblings in high esteem; had considered them equals and treated them as such.
Rulers of more hostile countries such as Calormen had underestimated the young quartet of Kings and Queens only once before they were set straight, and after that, the 'Barbarian Monarchs' were treated – to their faces – with the utmost respect and – not to their faces – with caution and wariness.
It was therefore understandable that Edmund found it difficult to go from being treated with absolute and utter respect, to being treated like some average English school boy.
The first nun he had encountered after his return had gotten rather a shock when she yelled at Edmund for not paying attention, and demanded that he answer a maths question that would have boggled the minds of Edmund's fellow students. Edmund, however, barely even glanced at the problem before giving the correct answer and returning his gaze back to the window, clearly bored with the whole scenario.
The nun was stunned, and tried multiple times through the lesson to catch Edmund unawares with a difficult question. He answered all of them correctly, however, and that particular nun left him alone after that.
Not the rest of his teachers though. The other nuns seemed offended by Edmund's knowledge, and gladly used any excuse available to publicly ridicule him. Edmund's quick (and correct) responses were regarded as 'back chat,' and for that, he was hauled up the front and lectured before the rest of his class.
If a nun caught him staring out the window at the grassy, sunlit grounds, he wasn't paying attention, and for that he was eligible to receive the strap. Even when his workbook surpassed those of his classmates', and he was able to recite back to the nun what it was she had been saying whilst he had been 'not paying attention,' he was told to stop being disrespectful, and his punishment was extended to include a detention and more lectures.
Over the course of one day, Edmund tried to act in the manner that everyone expected him to. He focussed on his books instead of the window; apologised if he was told he wasn't paying attention instead of reciting half the lesson back to the teacher; and tried to look at the questions thrown his way as opposed to answering them with obvious ease.
This was not a particularly successful tactic – resulting only in longer punishments and more furious teachers, and he gave it up by lunch time.
All in all, it was incredibly unjust. And for the Just King, this was even more difficult to bear than it otherwise would have been.
He couldn't even find solace with his peers.
Due to his behaviour before Aslan entered his life, there were not many in his year level who wanted anything to do with Edmund. None of the girls would talk to him, and many of the boys cringed as he passed them, as though expecting Edmund to hurl something – in the verbal or physical sense – at them.
There was one boy who, every time he saw Edmund, would squeak in fright and take off in the opposite direction as fast as his chubby legs could carry him. Edmund couldn't remember exactly what he had done to this boy before Narnia to warrant such a reaction, but there were many pre-Narnia memories that Edmund had lost.
Then there were the people who did greet Edmund as he stepped through the gates on the first day of the new school term. These were the people who he had been 'friends' with before Narnia – back while he had still been a little beast of a child. These were the people who had helped turn him into that beast of a child, what with their bullying and their snide comments. These people too, boys cringed at, girls turned away from, and the chubby boy ran from. It didn't take much for Edmund to realise that he did not want to associate himself with these boys.
The boys - Myles, Beckett, Lawrence, Collin, James, and Andrew – did not appreciate Edmund's new attitude, and it wasn't long before he was added to their 'List of People to Bully.'
True, their attempts at bullying Edmund didn't amount to much. Edmund had dealt with far worse things than six pre-adolescent boys with a mind for revenge.
Myles and Lawrence cornered him after English one lunchtime. It wasn't really a fair fight. Edmund, with all his training and years spent as a warrior, came out of it with barely a scratch on him. Of course, the three of them were then given the strap for fighting.
The next confrontation was a week later (Myles and Lawrence had needed recovery time), and again, it was after English in the lunch yard. This time, all six boys cornered Edmund. Safety in numbers, and all that.
Again though, it wasn't much of a fair fight. Peter and Lucy saw what was happening from the other side of the yard, and it only took them a few seconds to reach and enter the fray in defence of their brother. All nine of them received the strap after that, and strongly worded letters were sent home, but the boys left Edmund alone after that.
It was a bit lonely though. The only people Edmund spoke to and enjoyed the company of were his siblings, and none of them were in class with him. Not that he didn't understand the reluctance of his year mates to be friendly with him. He wouldn't want to be friendly with a bully either, no matter how much said bully appeared to have changed.
He knew that he would have to gain their trust, and prove himself worthy of being their friend, just as he had had to prove himself worthy of being the King of Narnia.
A small part of Edmund wished that there was some evil false-Royal with a wand that he could splinter. That had proved his worth in Narnia beyond a shadow of a doubt. At least it had all been over with quickly.
But he knew that no one deserved even a second spent in the company of one such as Jadis – no matter how much they enjoyed strapping the hands of children – and he also suspected that he would have to prove his worth to his peers slowly.
One little act of kindness at a time.
It would be difficult, but he deserved it, and he wasn't going to complain.
That was, after all, justice.
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AN: …Ok… that turned out entirely different to how I was planning for it to go. I'm a bit disappointed actually. Edmund is my favourite character, and I fear I haven't done him justice in this chapter.
Ah well, at least I got it up for you. :) Next up, Lucy's chapter: Valiant.
Let me know what you think,
Love Bundi