35

Furious

Mum sat opposite Mrs C, in her office, tight-lipped and worried.

For once I got to sit down too. But I had to sit there in silence while Mrs C gave Mum a blow-by-blow account of what had happened in the staffroom. So of course Mum only got her side of the story. How I’d ‘burst’ in and started ‘bawling’ at the history teacher ‘at the top of my voice’ and in ‘an entirely inappropriate way’ and ‘completely unprovoked’!

It was totally unfair. Mrs C made it sound like it was all my fault! Like her precious teacher hadn’t done anything wrong at all! But when I tried to explain, Mum shut me up with a look.

I slumped back angrily in my seat, with my arms folded.

Then Mrs C went on about how ‘aggressive and threatening’ I’d been, and how ‘shaken and upset’ the teacher was afterwards. Honestly, she made it sound like I’d actually attacked her! Finally, Mrs C stopped and Mum turned to me.

‘Jaz, I’m shocked and … and …’ she struggled to find the right word, ‘… appalled by your behaviour!’ she said.

‘But I was standing up for Nadima and her family!’ I protested. ‘I was only telling her what her stupid homework had done to them!’

‘Bawling at your teacher in the staffroom was not the way to do it,’ snapped Mum.

‘So, what, we’re not allowed to tell a teacher their stupid homework was stupid and thoughtless and cruel and had Nadima’s family in tears?’ I argued hotly.

‘Not if you do it by blasting into the staffroom and losing your temper,’ said Mum.

Then Mrs C pitched in. ‘I didn’t put you in isolation for telling a teacher the homework was insensitive, Jaz. I isolated you because of your aggressive behaviour towards her.’

‘I wasn’t aggressive!’ I yelled.

‘Well, you’re being aggressive now!’ snapped Mum. ‘Just calm down.’

Furiously, I threw myself back in my chair.

Mrs C turned to Mum. ‘Mrs Watson, by rights I could exclude Jaz from school, but I’d prefer not to.’

‘I’d prefer you didn’t too,’ said Mum. She’d gone white.

‘I’m going to put her back into isolation until lunchtime,’ Mrs C carried on. ‘I’d rather leave you to deal with her than have to exclude her.’

‘Thank you,’ said Mum. ‘And obviously Jaz will apologise to the teacher concerned.’

‘What?!’ I gasped.

I could not believe what I was hearing! Mrs C stood up. ‘Thanks very much for coming straight in, Mrs Watson. It’s very reassuring when we know we have the support of the parents.’

Mum nodded, then she turned to me. ‘We’ll talk about this later, Jaz,’ she said. and left the room without even saying goodbye. I’d never seen her so angry.

I spent the next two lessons banged up in isolation doing maths. The time dragged and dragged. I was desperate for the day to end. I knew I was going home to a major roasting – and I just wanted to get it over and done with.

As soon as the bell went for lunch I went to find Nadima, to make sure she was all right. I saw her heading over to the canteen with the others.

‘Nadima!’ I called and she came rushing over.

‘Jaz! Is OK?’ she asked anxiously.

‘Yes! Everything’s fine,’ I lied. I didn’t want to get sidetracked into talking about me. ‘Are you all right?’ I asked her. ‘And your mum, and Rasha? Are you all OK? After last night, I mean.’

The anxious look slid off her face and she smiled at me. ‘Yes. Thank you, Jaz. Yes. We OK.’

‘I was worried. You were all so upset.’

She shrugged. ‘Is sad. Is very sad. We cry. Lots.’

I nodded and I went to put my arm round her. But she slipped her arm through mine instead.

‘Today is new day,’ she said. ‘Is lunch! I am hungry. Come on!’ and she pulled me towards the canteen.

The others had kept a couple of spaces for us. As soon as I sat down they practically mobbed me. They all knew where’d I’d been, of course. But they didn’t know why. No one in our class had ever been in isolation before, and the rumour factory had been working overtime.

‘Somebody said you’d stormed into the staffroom and punched a teacher!’ gasped Kara, her eyes shining.

‘Was it Mr Y?’ asked Chloe.

‘I bet it was!’ cried Elly.

‘I didn’t hit anyone!’ I said.

‘Well, what happened then?’ asked Lily. ‘Must’ve been something dead serious.’

‘Are you getting expelled?’ asked Chloe breathlessly.

‘No, course not!’ I said heatedly. And then – and I’m not kidding – she actually looked disappointed!

Tactless or what?!

Honestly, they were all behaving like a pack of vultures.

So I started to tell them exactly what I’d said to Mrs B. As soon as I got to the bit where I reminded her that Nadima came from Syria, Lily cut in.

‘Syria?’ she said, and turning to Nadima she added, ‘You come from Syria?’

Nadima shot me a quick look and then she nodded at Lily. ‘Yes. I am from Syria.’

Everyone went quiet and stared at Nadima. Nobody knew what to say. Even Elly and Chloe had heard about what was happening in Syria. And for once Kara didn’t go all melodramatic.

Nadima’s eyes flicked round the girls’ faces, one after another. I think she was scared about how they were going to react. I wished I hadn’t mentioned Syria at all. So I said, ‘I don’t think Nadima wants to talk about Syria. It’s very bad over there.’

Lily leaned across the table and took hold of Nadima’s hand. ‘I’ve seen it on the news,’ she said. ‘It looks terrible.’

‘Yes. Is very bad,’ Nadima said quietly.

‘You don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to,’ said Lily.

Nadima nodded tightly and managed a small smile.