Before Big Bow Rebecca could explain any further, the boys started getting ANGRY and shouting things like:

‘No one is touching our pitch!’

‘Where will we play the
Sciath na Scol matches?’

and ‘I LOVE FOOTBALL, NOT FLOWERS.’

And then Liam, who once called our teacher Mamaí instead of Múinteoir, started CRYING because, besides being afraid of thunder, spiders, clowns and tomato soup, he was also afraid of bees, and what if they had to do hurling training in a meadow full of bees buzzing around them!?

Then the whole class started talking all at once and Lucy shouted that it was a great idea, and lots of people were nodding in agreement because everyone knew that Lucy was the CLEVEREST girl in our class and always right. But then Orla shouted that it wasn’t a great idea because she loves all types of sport and agreed with the boys that we couldn’t lose the pitch. Then, Big Bow Rebecca shouted that we needed to SAVE THE BEES and I shouted too because I was feeling left out, and then Múinteoir Emer shouted

LOUDER

than all the rest of us put together to

We all went quiet and looked at each other and wondered what was going to happen next.

Múinteoir Emer took a deep breath to calm down and then said, ‘The bee meadow is about the best idea and the one least likely to spark a civil action, so we are going to do that. No buts, I have made the decision, end of discussion.’

Big Bow Rebecca and her team smirked at the boys, thinking that they had won because they had thought up the best idea, but then Múinteoir Emer said that while their idea was the best, it was also far from perfect and needed TWEAKING. Then she explained that for this to work, we were going to need to be more realistic. And, more importantly, for the sake of her own wellbeing and sanity, we were going to do it on a much SMALLER scale, a mini meadow, and definitely not on the school’s sports pitch.

And then the boys smirked back at Big Bow Rebecca and her team, because their pitch was safe.

So, you see, that’s how it all started. Only there’s more –

much,          
much more.