The week went fast. I soon got used to finding my way around with the help of my friends including my new special friend, Petra.

 

Orphan 22

by Susan Brown

 

Previously…

‘Steph...Stephanie.’

‘Hmm?’

‘Will, will you come home to tea with me sometime?’

‘Me, why?’

‘It’s just…well do you mind if I tell my mum and dad about you?’

‘No…I’d get into trouble.’

‘You won’t, I promise. If…if you come to tea, an…and I tell them about you, they might be able to help you adjust…they know a lot about what we’ve been through.’

I looked at her, realising that perhaps they might be able to help me somehow…Oh I knew that Matron and the Head were trying to help and that was lovely, but Petra’s parents had been through it all with Petra and maybe, they could help me too?

I just nodded and Petra squealed and gave me a big hug. I just hoped that I wasn’t getting out of the frying pan and into the fire.

And now the story continues…

The week went fast. I soon got used to finding my way around with the help of my friends including my new special friend, Petra.

It was nice being treated as just one of the girls. None of the other teachers apart from my form teacher ever mentioned my strange status at the school and I was just treated as another girl.

That first day I will always remember with fondness. I spent the remainder of the morning being shown around by Petra. I marvelled at the fact that she was such a girl. She showed no signs at all of having any boyish ways. I just wanted to be like her. I knew that I was rough around the edges. I didn’t quite walk right or wave my arms about when I was talking — all signs of being a real girl. Petra gently reminded me of my faults.

‘Look Steph, I hope you don’t mind me telling you these things. I want you to fit in and not draw attention to yourself.’

‘I need all the help I can get!’

‘Well, considering that you haven’t been doing this long, you have been doing brill. Anyway, no one has cottoned on that you are different. Just try to remember girl not boy all the time. I’ll help all I can.’

‘Thanks Petra, you are great!

I had lunch with my friends from the home and Petra too, who was friendly with most of the girls anyway. I had the usual barrage about how I liked my first day.

I chewed on the spotted dick pudding and in between mouthfuls told everyone how the morning had gone.

‘What do you think of the Head’ said Tracy, ‘Bit of a witch?’

‘No, she’s sweet.’

‘WHAT!’ shouted the rest of the table.’

‘She is sweet; she was ever so nice to me.’

‘Blimey,’ said Paula in between making sick sounds with her throat, ‘you must be a little angel. Every time I see her she either tells me off or gives me lines like “I must not run in the corridor” 200 times - hurts your hand, you know.’

No matter what I said, the kids all agreed that she was hell on earth. All except Petra who stayed quiet on that point and I had a sneaky feeling that I knew why.

After lunch and a quick rush around the playground to kill off excess energy — I think; we were back into school and I was being taken to my first lesson by Petra.

‘Luckily, we are in the same stream, so we will be doing most of the same lessons.’

‘Are you clever then?’

‘What do you mean?’ said Petra a bit uncomfortably.

‘Sorry, I didn’t want to upset you or anything.’

‘That’s all right. I suppose, I am a bit bright. So are you, or you wouldn’t be in the Swots’ Class.’

‘Swots’ class?’

‘Yes, it’s the place that all the brainy kids go.’

‘Oh.’

‘Don’t worry; it’s not bad.’

‘But do the other kids have a go cos you’re brainy?’

‘No; a lot are relieved because they don’t have such hard lessons and not so much homework as us. If anything, they feel sorry for us.’

‘Well, that’s different from my previous school. If you were bright, the bullies got you.’

‘They don’t tolerate bullies here.’

‘What about outside school?’

‘It’s the same. Anyone, and there’s only been a few, who bullies a pupil outside school gets expelled immediately.’

‘Wow!’

‘Yep, wow!’

We went up some stairs following a stream of pupils. I was pleased that I was wearing the thin gingham dress, as the other one would have been heavy to wear around a school with loads of floors and miles of corridors!

We went up three flights of stairs and then down a short corridor, there were a few girls in front of us. One was a coloured girl with frizzy hair and a lovely chocolate complexion and the other one had long blond hair down to waist.

The door was open and we walked in; there were several tables and chairs dotted around the room. a few girls were sitting reading and others were just chatting. I didn’t see a teacher and Petra led me over to a table and we both sat down. I got a few curious glances, but nothing hostile, if anything, the girls seemed quite nice.

Just then, the teacher walked in.

‘Afternoon, girls.’

There was a chorus of ‘Good afternoon, Miss.’ as we all sat down.

The teacher glanced over to me and beckoned me forward.

With my heart in my mouth, I went over to her.

‘Right girls, this is Stephanie and she has joined us today. What do we all say?’

‘Hello Stephanie.’ said all the girls.

‘H…hello.’ I said in return.

‘Don’t worry Stephanie, this bunch won’t bite you. Go back and sit down and I’ll be over in a minute.’

‘Right girls, this afternoon, I want you to chat amongst yourselves and then an hour before home time, write a 500 word essay about whether the church should get involved in politics, using history as your example.’

The teacher came over.

‘Hello girls; Petra, would you like to join Gemma and Suzy for a while?’

‘Yes Miss.’

‘Right Stephanie; come into my office so we can have a little chat.’

I followed her into a small office at the back of the classroom. She closed the door and motioned for me to sit down.

She dragged another chair and sat beside me.

‘Right, I’m Miss Jenkins and I am in charge of this stream; you know what I mean by stream?’

‘I think so.’

‘You don’t sound that sure, so I’ll explain. What do we mean by streaming? It’s the practice in education, of placing students into different groups within a school, based on academic abilities. We find that this works very well here. We have a stream for those girls that struggle, others that have mixed ability and so on. You are in the stream based on your high intelligence. This doesn’t mean that you are a better person than anyone else here, it just means that we can maximise your abilities and the others as well by placing all of you in an environment that helps tyou to learn to be as good as you can. Is that clear to you?’

‘Yes Miss.’

‘Good. I’m betting that at your previous school, you were not very happy?’

I nodded.

‘I thought so. It’s strange that children can be so cruel. Anyone who has intelligence is often singled out for bullying, yet if they are good at sport, the opposite applies. Anyway, enough of that; you will soon get used to the way we study here. Most of the girls in this stream will pass their O levels two years earlier than the standard so we must be doing something right! If you have any worries or problems, just come and see me. I would rather help you with any educational or personal problem than see you suffer, okay?’
‘Yes Miss.’

‘Right go back and join Petra; I don’t expect an essay from you today — just watch what the others do and you’ll soon pick things up.’

‘Thank you Miss.’ I said as I left her.

By the end of the day I was quite tired, but that didn’t stop me practicing my tennis with Sheila. I was getting quite good and I had high hopes of wiping the stupid grin from Tamsin’s sorry Tasmin’s face!

‘You are doing very well,’ said a puffing Sheila. ‘I didn’t say anything before the practice as I didn’t want to spoil things, but your game with Tasmin has had to be postponed.’

‘Why!’

‘Well I was at the club this morning and it turns out that she’s got the measles.’

‘Oh blast!’

Sheila looked a bit embarrassed.

‘What’s wrong Sheila.’

‘Well…her mum gave me a note from her to give to you.’

It was a white envelope with just Stephanie written on it.

I opened it up and there was a short note.

Stephanie,

It looks like you have had a bit of a let off. But as soon as I’m well again, I am going to beat you; if you get a point off me, you will be lucky. So be ready to be beaten.

Tasmin …..not Tamsin but Tasmin and if you get my name wrong again, I’ll shove my tennis racquet down your throat!

I passed the note to Sheila.

‘Charming, she has a way with words.’

‘Perhaps I should apologise.’

‘Why!’

‘I don’t know. I did mess up her name on purpose.’

‘Look Steph, she is a stuck up bit…I mean girl;. she needs taking down a peg or two for her own good. You can beat her and wipe that continual sneer off her face. This is good, because it gives us more time to practice before playing her.’

‘I suppose so.’ I said, not really sure if I wanted to fight anyone.

Friday came and I was well into the routine at school. I was happy there. It was great being with my friends and learning without the fear of being picked on. I got really close to Petra, who I became firm friends with. Luckily she was popular with everyone including the girls’ from the home and we all went around in a sort of a gang.

At lunch time, Petra came up and dragged me away from the others. Tracy was trying to tell everyone that it wasn’t her fault that Miss Smith found a dead mouse in her desk and no one was believing her…I wonder why!

We went over to a bench and sat down.

‘Steph, I’ve been wanting to get you alone all morning. My Mum and Dad have asked you for tea and they say that you can stay for the weekend if you want to.’

I didn’t know what to say.

‘Don’t you want to come?’

‘D…Do they know abbbout me?’

‘Yes; you did say it was okay to tell them. I didn’t do wrong, did I?’

I looked at her, she seemed upset, and so I gave her a hug.

‘No, I said you could; are you sure because I’m not a real girl yet.’

‘You are as real as me; look it will be great, I promise, they really want to meat you and they think that it’s great that we have made friends.’

‘I’ll have to ask Matron.’

‘Shall we ask the secretary if we can use the phone?’

‘Okay,’

We went to the office and the secretary said that I could ring home; she left the office to give us some privacy.

After three rings the phone was answered.

‘Matron, its Stephanie.’

‘Hello, dear, anything wrong?’

‘No, it’s just that Petra wants me to go to tea at her place and stay the weekend; can I go?’

‘Erm, well it could be a problem because of you know what.’

‘They know.’

‘How?’

‘Petra told them.’

‘Why?’

‘Cos I said they could know.’

‘I don’t understand, dear.’

Petra passed me a note that she had written. It said:

Tell her to ring my parents on 423656 and they will explain.

‘Could you ring Petra’s parents on 423656 and they will explain.’

‘All right dear, I’ll ring them now. Can you wait by the phone?’

‘Okay.’

‘Bye.’

I heard a click as the phone was put down at the other end.

‘She’s ringing you’re parents.’ I said, not able to keep the worry out of my voice.

‘It will be okay, I’m sure; don’t worry.’ She gave me a hug as we waited.

The secretary came in.

Are you finished girls?’

‘My Matron is going to ring back in minute, can we wait?’

‘Yes, go and sit over there then.’

We sat down, not saying much. Petra’s hand slipped into mine as we waited…

The phone rang after about ten minutes, the longest ten minutes of my life.

‘Hello? yes, wait a moment.’

‘Stephanie, for you…I’ll be outside having a cigarette.’

‘Hello Matron?’

‘Hello Steph, I’ve spoken to Petra’s mum and dad and they seem nice. They told me in confidence about Petra and I can see why you two have become friends. It will be okay for you to stay with Petra’s family for the weekends. When you get back from school, bring Petra with you and her parents will pick you both up from here. It’s not that unusual for our girls to stay with school friends so don’t think that you are being treated in any way different from them. I’ll see you later, bye.’

‘Bye Matron, and thanks!’

I put the phone down and grinned at Petra.

‘I can come!’

After school, we were back in the heavy formal uniform and on the bus. Petra was sitting next to me and I was miles away, wondering what it would be like to be on a sleepover as a girl. Would they like me and accept me for what I am. It would be different from Petra situation. Her parents accepted her as a daughter out of love. They didn’t know or had ever met me.

What had I let myself in for?

To be continued…

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