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Friday had finally arrived, and Patsy was counting down the hours until she could leave school and relish two days of freedom. So far, this week hadn’t been too bad, and she began to feel hopeful that perhaps Eugenia and her cronies were tiring of their campaign of intimidation, although she tried not to think like that in case she was tempting fate. Her group of tormentors was called The Pinkies and purportedly took its name from Harriet Pinkerton’s surname. For a while, she had been the ringleader but of late, her friend Eugenia appeared to have assumed command. Patsy thought it most likely that the group had taken their inspiration from the film Grease, where the fashionable set of girls was called the Pink Ladies.
Her friend Susan, was busy rehearsing in the choir for the end of term concert and her other close friend Mandy, was finishing some overdue homework in the school library. This left Patsy at a loose end at lunchtime and as it was such a hot stifling day she’d given up trying to read her book inside and was sitting on a bench overlooking the playing fields. The school had extensive grounds comprising a hockey pitch as well as a concrete area in the courtyard for netball. To the edge of the mowed playing field, was a small woodland where the ground fell away into a slight dip, and the area had been left as a natural wildlife habitat. Patsy had stretched out her long frame on the seat with her face upturned towards the sun when she sensed a group of girls approaching from behind.
‘Well, if it isn’t our friend, Cornish!’ rang out the familiar clarion voice of Eugenia. They had decided to change her name from Patsy to Pasty and hence, it wasn’t long afterwards that Cornish as in Cornish Pasty, had been appropriated. ‘All on your own again? Not surprising is it really?’
‘She’s often alone. Probably due to the smell!’ laughed Harriet.
‘My horse smells better than her,’ laughed Eugenia, ‘even when he needs mucking out!’
Patsy carried on staring into the distance, ignoring the taunts.
‘Fancy a sweet?’ asked Sophie, picking up Patsy’s legs so she could sit down next to her on the seat.
‘No thanks.’
‘We’ve come with a message, Miss Maynard wants to see you.’
‘You’re so funny,’ replied Patsy.
‘It’s about the incident when you kicked me the other day. I think you are going to get a detention.’
‘Really. Well, if I’m going to get a detention, I’ll be seeing you there as well, considering you were the one who pushed me.’
‘Ha! That was quite a good response, for you anyway. Do you know girls, I think our little friend Patsy is beginning to stick up for herself? What do you think?’
‘I doubt it, she’s a coward,’ replied Harriet.
Patsy remained silent. She partly regretted her riposte, as it only encouraged them but she was feeling irritable and felt like taking her anger out on them.
‘Let’s take a little stroll? Lovely day for it, don’t you agree?’ suggested Eugenia.
‘Piss off. Go and annoy someone else.’ Patsy surprised herself with her last comment. Something had made her feel emboldened, but as soon as the words left her lips, she immediately regretted them. She started to rise from the bench, but two pairs of firm hands pressed her back down again. Patsy shrugged the hands off and remained seated.
‘Ooooh, I’m so frightened,’ replied Eugenia, throwing her head back and laughing uproariously. ‘Patsy is trying to act all confident!’
‘She’s trembling with fear, can’t you see?’ said Harriet.
‘Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat!’ taunted Sophie.
‘Let’s see how brave she really is!’ said Eugenia. ‘Get up!’ she shouted, putting her head close to Patsy’s ear.
‘No!’
At this point, the three girls got hold of Patsy and dragged her to her feet and forcibly carried her into the adjacent patch of woodland. All the time they were laughing and lifting her up and down as if giving her the birthday bumps and Patsy’s wriggling and protests looked like it was all part of the fun. The other girls on their lunchtime break were too busy with their own games and conversations to pay any heed.
In the woodland, she was dropped carelessly, her dress riding up and showing her underwear. Patsy pulled down her dress and tried to get up but the Harriet and Sophie held her down.
‘Oooh, nice knickers!’ shouted Eugenia. ‘I wonder how many days she’s had those on for!’
‘Probably a couple of weeks,’ laughed Harriet.
‘OK, hold her down for a couple of minutes whilst I get a head start,’ shouted Eugenia, scurrying off towards the school buildings.
Patsy continued to wriggle around on the ground, but she was being overpowered. Suddenly she had an idea. She gathered a glob of saliva in her mouth, then spat it with all the force she could muster, projecting it right into Sophie’s eye who cried out, simultaneously recoiling and falling backwards.
‘Ahhh, you filthy tart!’ she screamed. ‘I might catch something from you!’
The pressure on Patsy was released, and she sprang from the ground and sprinted off towards the school as the warning bell sounded for the start of the afternoon lessons.
