Synopsis:

Why do events that cause issues always occur?

Story:

A New Style of Education

by Karen Page

Part 33

There was still nothing on the schedule when we woke up. I had an idea that Mr Hobson was teasing us, but it wasn't like him to do such a thing. If it had been Brenda, I would have understood.

"I'm sure things will become clearer after breakfast," said Helen. "Now put down your PDA and let's have a snuggle before we go and wear ourselves out with our morning exercise."

Now who was I to refuse an offer like that? Our relationship had grown to one of mutual affection and was much more evenly balanced than when Helen first fancied me two years ago. Then Helen was more the protector. Today, there was nothing really to hide from, or to fear. Well there was, but Helen was generally a good girl and both knew that we would be in serious trouble if our relationship turned sexual. Anyway, besides getting nauseous at any thoughts of having sex, we were far too young.

At first, our morning exercise had seemed a bit of a chore, but as we'd both got fit, it was more fun. Even though we didn't need to go out every morning, if we didn't, we seemed to miss the way it removed the cobwebs from the previous night.

"After Christmas, why don't we start a morning run?" I asked Helen, as we made our way back toward our room.

"Don't you like cycling?" she asked, giving me an enquiring glance.

I smiled inwardly at the way she'd asked the question. It was full of concern and love, with no sign of malice. "Oh sure, but I thought it would be a nice change."

"How about we cycle one day and run the next? Then we get the benefit of both forms of exercise?"

"I suppose that sounds like a fair compromise," I agreed, relieved that she had agreed and she hadn't taken offence. She really had taken to cycling and as we'd got fitter, it was enjoyable.

We weren't the first to our year room, but we weren't far behind. Melissa, Aurora, Ruth and Michelle were waiting outside, looking at a big box outside our room. A big label on it said 'Year One and Year D. Not to be opened till after breakfast'. Nobody had said anything about a box being delivered, which in itself was unusual, but we'd only been at the school five months, so perhaps this was something new that we'd yet to experience.

This was one of the other strange things about the school. The year room was private and even teachers could not enter without permission. Yet our bedrooms weren't as private and things like clothes were being put in everyday. Most places you would think your bedroom was a sanctuary, here at school it was your year room.

"What do you think it is?" asked Melissa, having looked and failing to find any further clue.

"A bomb?" laughed Ruth and got a friendly tap from Michelle.

"So, no hints from our four experts?" asked Aurora, which got some faked blank-looks from the four Beta members, and a rebuke from Melissa.

"I do have an idea," I said reluctantly. I'd had a thought last night before bed, but didn't mention it to Helen just in case I was wrong. I know we are supposed to be fully open with our partners and I know Helen wouldn't really have laughed if I was wrong, but the nagging feeling of opening up too much was still there. I'd thought about mentioning the reluctance to be too open to Rachel, but I'd yet to get the courage. Anyway, I think I should mention it to Helen first. Maybe later.

"Oh?" came five other voices, jarring me from my internal thoughts.

"How many days are there till Christmas?"

"Twelve," they responded, remembering what date today was.

"Oh, isn't that the day that the Christmas decorations go up?" asked Helen, getting excited. I gave a weak smile, glad that I had remembered correctly and also glad that Helen had been paying attention. Perhaps I should have discussed it with her last night. Oh well, to late now.

"Well let's drag this box into the common room, and not say anything to the others. It will be interesting to see how many others work it out," laughed Melissa, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Oh, there's Wendy," I said, spying Jessica's older sister with her partner heading towards their year room. "I'll catch you all at breakfast."

"Err, Wendy," I called, rushing along the hall, as she stopped and looked. "Can I have a word?"

"Sure" she said, as I caught up with them. "Oh, how's my little sister doing?"

"A lot better now. We are all having lessons on how to deal with stress."

"That sounds like a good idea. I remember how hard year one was, getting used to a totally different way of learning. So, what can I do for you?"

"I don't know how to ask this," I admitted.

"Jayne, I won't let her bite," said Yvonne, trying to make me relax a bit. I thought about sticking my tongue out at her, but was too nervous to do so.

"Jessica mentioned something last night about us speaking Russian too formally."

"I suppose you do," Wendy admitted, after a moments thought. "Your accent isn't quite right either. I'd not thought of it before, probably because I was so used to hearing non-Russians speaking too formally. It doesn't seem to be something the American, or our Russian teacher, have either noticed or understood. I suppose it doesn't really matter, as there are so many badly speaking foreigners in Russia."

I screwed up my face. That wasn't the response I'd hoped for. "Is year three less formal than the others?"

"I suppose so. When I've been helping others in the year, I have been slipping into the informal way of speaking and that has rubbed off."

"Then the school have a big difference in the way they speak. That might not be noticed internally, but you can sure bet a Russian would. There seems to be only two people who have lived in Russia for a time, you and Jessica. Jessica finds the whole idea of 'teaching' a bit stressful, but has promised to help our year."

"Are you going to mention this?" Wendy asked.

"Do you think I should?" I responded, knowing full well that I would. It was only a few weeks away, but it could be fatal for the alpha team if they had to pose as a native Russian.

"The school likes to get things correct for trips away," sighed Wendy. "You'd better report it, and I will tell Tim. So much for a quiet Christmas."

Yvonne, who had stood quietly, wrapped her arms round her partner. "You have helped me learn to almost your standard. I'll help you."

"Thanks," smiled Wendy and gave Yvonne a quick kiss. Public signs of affection were not normal. Any overt signs of affection were normally kept to the privacy of our rooms, so this was a rare thing to see.

I sent a quick note to Mr Hobson, copying in Stacy: 'Issue with Russian teaching. Seems we are all speaking too formally. Only Jessica and Wendy have noticed due to living in Russia for a time.'

I got a message back from Stacy, "Thanks for copying me. There is a special meeting tonight for you, Helen, Ruth and Michelle."

At breakfast it was plainly obvious to us all, that years two to five knew exactly what was going to happen. There was a buzz of excitement emanating from them that was far too obvious. Helen, Ruth and Michelle and I were managing to keep a straight face, but Aurora and Melissa were having a harder job.

"Melissa, what's going on?" asked Wesley.

"I don't have any definite information," she said, trying to hide her smile.

"You and Aurora know something, and you aren't hiding it very well," said Susan.

"Look, we heard a guess," said Aurora. "We just don't want to spread rumours that might not be true."

"Matilda seems to know something," added Wesley, looking across at year B. "Though it doesn't appear that anybody else in year A, B or C have any idea."

"The Munchkin has probably hacked the computer systems again, or something," laughed Phil.

"It isn't a laughing matter," said Aurora, laughing herself. When she stopped she nodded, "You're probably right, though."

I pulled out my PDA and sent Matilda a message: 'Which computer system did you hack?' I showed Helen who started to choke on her orange juice. I got some enquiring looks from others at the table. I just smiled and sat back to watch Matilda's reaction and let Helen tell the others.

Matilda got the message and had a similar reaction to Helen's, before giving a look that resembled a small child that had just been caught with her hand in the biscuit tin. Perhaps orange juice at breakfast isn't a good thing to have. It gave us all a good laugh and set us up for a day of fun.

"Can I have your attention," said Mr Hobson, over a much noisier group of students than usual. We all quickly calmed down and he continued. "As the mathematicians among you have probably worked out, today is twelve days before Christmas. For our guests that haven't been informed, that is the day that we put up our festive decorations."

A loud cheer erupted from the upper years, which quickly spread to the younger people present. Mr Hobson let it ride for a few minutes and waved his hands when he thought it had gone on long enough. "Having so many more students certainly raises the volume. Now in a few minutes, the hot breakfasts will be served. While you eat, an update will be sent to your PDA's detailing what room or area you will help decorate. In the original part of Hayfield Hall the ceilings are very high, therefore special scaffolding will be given and special safety precautions must take place. If anyone is scared of heights, there is plenty to do at lower levels. Each area will be assigned a leader, whose directions you will follow. Leaders might not be in the top year and they might not be year leaders. So if you are assigned a leaders job, then use that time to learn. Remember, leaders can always ask for advice if they are unsure. Any questions? Then enjoy breakfast."

Some sitting at our table lost their appetite in the excitement, others tucked in with gusto, wanting to be fully fed for today's activities. Not surprisingly, Helen was one who liked to tackle the day on a full stomach and she encouraged me to follow her lead. Everyone had their PDA sitting on the table, ready for any information on what they would be doing. Just as we were finishing, our PDA's all tinged with updates to our schedules. We repositioned ourselves so that the two tables for our age could discuss things together.

"I'm helping in the main hall," said Jill, always quick on the draw.

"I'd hate to have that one, I don't like heights," said Brian. "I'm decorating the classroom corridors."

"I thought all lessons would have stopped," said Anna. "Oh, I'm not with Jill, I'm decorating in here."

"We will still have language lessons and music," I said. "Don't forget there will be some lessons for stress tomorrow morning."

"Seems Wendy and I have a meeting with Mr Hobson after breakfast," sighed Jessica, knowing too well what it was about.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Helen asked.

"Thanks Helen, but I think I'll be okay. Mr Hobson knows not to burden me too much, so I think I'll be okay. I'm then working on decorating the cinema area."

"Snap," interrupted Ruth, signalling she had the same as Jessica.

"I'm to LEAD in bringing in the Christmas tree," said Emma in shock.

"Oh, well done, Emma," congratulated Paula.

"I wouldn't say that. I have Matilda in my group."

"There aren't any computers or security systems involved, are there?" asked Melissa.

"In bringing in and setting up a tree? I hope not."

"Then I don't expect there will be an issue," I assured her. "However, I'd expect fun to be had by all. Also, listen to her, she has great ideas and often sees a bigger picture than others. Don't let her size fool you. If she was as tall as her heart dictated, she would be the tallest person in her year."

"Okay," Emma nodded slowly.

"It seems I'm a leader for putting some decorations up outside," said Monica. "I'm shocked, after what I said yesterday."

"You know that Mr Moore doesn't hold grudges and I don't expect that Mr Hobson does either," said Melissa.

"Yesterday, Mr Hobson said that he thought it was a good question. He seems to be the type of teacher that would be more upset if you didn't ask the question than if you did."

After we'd all finished breakfast I went to the upstairs bedroom corridor to help in decoration. The mysterious school caretakers had positioned boxes of tinsel, streamers, balloons and banners for us. There were also another box of items to help keep things up, such as drawing pins, string and blue-tack. Just as I started to climb one of the provided stepladders, the gentle sound of White Christmas started to come out of our PDA's. The name Matilda flashed through my thoughts.

As I pulled out my PDA, to reset the system, I found out I was in error. "Welcome to Hayfield Hall Radio. My name is Julia and I'm your DJ for the next few hours. Please send any request for festive music of any taste to me and I'll see what I can do. Many thanks must go to a mysterious Munchkin from The Manor, for providing such a great idea."

"Way to go Matilda!" called a young girl, who was blowing up balloons. That caused some laughter from others who were beavering away.

"Are you Matilda's sister?" I asked, spying a walking stick next to her.

"I sure am, though I much prefer Rachel," she replied.

"I'm Jayne," I said, wondering how to introduce myself. "I have advanced lessons with Matilda. You don't kick, do you?"

"No, when people upset me regarding my name, I use my cane," she replied very seriously, while patting its decorative knob. "At first, everyone at The Manor kept referring to me as Matilda's sister. After a while, it started to upset me. Sure, I am Matilda's sister, but there is a lot more to me than that. I'm smart, inventive and I have a charming personality."

Her voice got a bit louder as she finished talking. I think this was something she was very passionate about and I wasn't the first she'd had this speech with.

"I'm sorry," I said humbly, bowing my head. "I sincerely apologise for any upset I may have inadvertently caused."

"Oh don't be silly," she laughed. "It's funny; but the other month we went to Australia and someone asked if Matilda was my little sister. That made me feel better, but poor Matilda, she was mad as anything."

I wandered back to my work, chuckling to myself, thinking how Rachel seemed like a nice person. At first I felt a bit sorry for her, being injured the way she was, but as time went on I started to look beyond that. Sure, she did remind me a bit of Matilda, but there was something different about her. She, like others at our schools, had suffered. Perhaps in other ways she is different from the others, as her suffering still continued and yet she didn't let it stop her.

My thoughts were interrupted, as any good thoughts often are, by someone raising their voice. It wasn't a voice raised in anger or hatred, no this was a voice raised in concern.

"Rachel, if you fall I'm going to be in so much trouble," called a voice from across the hall. I'd seen him with Year E from The Manor, but I'd still to learn all of their names.

"Bob, it doesn't seem fair for me to just stand around and blow up the balloons," she said, her face full of determination. "I don't want everyone else having to do more work to cover for me."

"Rachel, you aren't slacking," responded Bob, lowering his voice as he got closer. "Heck, you seem to be working harder than the rest of us. You have blown up enough balloons to decorate two halls and you did that after untangling that massive pile of tinsel."

"But-"

"How about I hold the ladder?" I suggested. I then crossed my fingers as I lied, "I'm not too keen on heights, so passing items up to Rachel will let me recover a bit."

"Works for me. Is that okay, Bob?" Rachel said sarcastically.

"Carry on, just make sure you do it safely," he said, after a moment's thought.

"Thanks, Jayne," smiled Rachel, as I passed her the end of paper chain.

"Does your leg often stop you doing things?" I enquired.

"No, school is really great about it. Sports would have been an issue in a standard school, but here, things are different."

"Tell me about it. I always hated sports, but here I'm doing the important thing of keeping fit, which I always tried to avoid before. I suppose I used to keep fit keeping away from bullies."

"Yeah, but they always catch you in the end," she sighed. "At The Manor, I've started to learn how to look after myself. I'm taking a self defence class on Saturday mornings, which has continued while we are at Hayfield."

"Did you feel unsafe after what was done to you?"

"Wouldn't you?"

"Yes, I did," I said sadly.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't think."

"Oh don't be silly. Now, where are we putting the next items?"

After a few hours, the upstairs bedroom corridor looked as festive as we could make it. I stood and looked with satisfaction at what we'd managed to achieve. It had been nice for once not to be in charge and learn from others who were.

As we went back to our common room to wait for lunch, we gasped at the sight of the Christmas tree in the entrance lobby. It was situated near the stair and went higher than the already tall ceiling, reaching towards the first floor (Second floor for my new found American friends).

I would have thought there would have been lights on the tree, but it seemed not. There were plenty of baubles, tinsel and a large star at the top, but not a single flashing light.

The way the rest of entrance had been dressed was a marked contrast to the tree. It had been cleverly designed to focus the eye on the main attraction. I eventually saw a very satisfied Emma lurking at the far side, watching our reaction.

"You like?" she asked, as I wandered across to her.

"Yes, but how?"

"How what?"

"How did you do it?"

"Oh I didn't. I asked if anybody had design experience, and someone did. We came up with a plan and here it is."

"But you were the leader?"

"I'm not sure. I just took what you said, and listened to other people's suggestions and organised how we were going to do it. I didn't really do much leading."

"Yeah, right," I thought to myself. "This wouldn't have happened this quickly and well if things weren't led properly."

"How was Matilda? Did she cause issues?"

"Not at all. She is very bright. We had trouble getting the tree stable and she came up with a solution when nobody else could. She is rather shy and hung back till I asked her for her opinion."

"She was a bit like that with the computers. I wonder if she is still learning to work in a team, or trusting people outside her year, or school."

"Could be, but whatever she is, wow. Her size makes her look very young and I almost forgot your warning not to judge her."

Others from the year appeared, having finished their tasks, and the praise again started to be poured onto Emma.

When we were all nicely settled back into our undressed common room, Sam asked Jessica, "How did your meeting go with Mr Hobson?"

"Oh, it was a lot better than I thought. He chatted away and I actually think I forgot he was the headmaster. He wanted to know exactly what was wrong and how much we would stand out."

"And?" I prompted, wanting to know the outcome.

"We gave him some examples and he is going to come up with a plan, which he said he would announce at lunch."

"It's nearly lunch now," muttered Lewis.

"Down boy," laughed Ruth. "It's not quite time yet."

"While we wait, why don't we have a look to see what decorations we have? Then we can think what we can do with them," I suggested.

All the boxes were dragged out and the contents dumped in the middle of the room. They were all good quality, new decorations. There was a note at the bottom of the box:

Take good care of your decorations. These are yours for the next few years and will move with you as you go through school.

There were the usual decorations, but Emma, who must have really got into tree decorating suddenly asked, "Can we get a small tree that we can decorate and put in the corner? It wouldn't be the same without a tree in the lounge, and this is about as close to a lounge as we will have while here."

I looked across at the other three year leaders, and after a few shrugs and nods, sent a message to Mr Hobson. We got no response before it was time for lunch.

"Can I have your attention," said Mr Hobson, standing up before the lunch was served. It is a good job we were all pretty obedient as we could all make quite a noise, especially when Lewis's stomach was rumbling. "Thanks to the excellent observations of Wendy and Jessica, it has been discovered that our Russian is too formal. Since we are there for just a short time and want to appear as tourists, it isn't a bad thing. However, it would help to better understand how the locals speak, so that in an emergency they can make themselves understood better. So I'm asking for two people from each year, and each school, to attend a few extra classes. Please could the relevant people please let me know who will be attending."

There was a slight murmur, which Mr Hobson let ride, before continuing, "Next, I have walked all over the school and am very impressed with the fantastic effort everybody made. However, that was not a very good place to put the sleigh and reindeer without proper equipment, but it certainly looks impressive."

That started more murmurs about what was going on and many of us decided to have a good look outside after the meal. "Lastly," continued Mr Hobson, "we have had a request of a small artificial tree in a year lounge, to make it feel more like home. What I want to know is why nobody has ever asked before, or why I never thought of it myself before? So year-one and D have had their request approved and if any other years would like one, the year leaders know where to send the request."

Since we were split over two tables, there wasn't any possibility of us discussing who would volunteer for the languages. Jessica was already very fluent, but as a beta person, I wanted to make sure that if needed, I could blend.

After a very quick lunch, we all rushed outside to see what Mr Hobson meant by improper positioning of the sleigh and reindeer. At first I couldn't see them. It was Wesley that suddenly shouted, "Look at the roof!"

We all looked up and there was the sleigh as if it had parked on the rooftop. I'm not sure who did it, or how they did it, but they had done a brilliant job. No wonder Mr Hobson had been upset, as there wasn't any proper lifting equipment on site to get everything up there. Monica was nowhere in sight.

* * *

That night, we were again escorted by Brenda to the beta meeting. Since it was after our curfew, we had to make sure that we weren't spotted by anybody from the top two years, as their curfews were two hours later. I thought it was just going to be the four of us from our year, which is what Stacy had earlier implied. However, we stopped on the way to get Fran and Ingrid before making our way stealthily to the hidden basement room.

"Sorry about the short notice for this meeting," said Stacy. "Initially this was just going to be for Jayne, Helen, Ruth and Michelle, to tell them the results of a competition they had in Milton Keynes the other day. However, Kriss has an update for the forthcoming trip, which you should all be aware of."

Kriss rolled out a map of Moscow. "It seems that the area where the documents are stored before getting put onto the computer has been getting full. So they have split their document storage now across two buildings, some kilometres apart. The Alpha team from The Manor will visit the building we'd already targeted. Hayfield's Alpha team will go to the new storage facility."

"Isn't what we want going to be on computers?" I enquired.

"We hope so," said Stacy. "However, there is a lot of backlog, hence why physical document storage is currently overflowing. I'll put out a new map on the other desk, so everyone can examine the areas again in more detail."

It was approaching eleven when the phone on the far wall started to ring. That was something that nobody expected and a few of us jolted up from our studying to see what was going on. Stacy calmly went to the phone and after taking a deep breath, picked it up. There is one annoying thing with listening to people on phones; you only hear one side of the conversation.

"Hi. Oh hi ... yes they're here ... okay, we'll be there in a few minutes."

We had all stopped studying the maps as we waited to see what Stacy would say. By the look on her face, she looked rather upset.

"Listen up everyone, there has been a bit of a development. Wendy and Jessica's Dad has just been involved in a car crash. Please continue and Brenda will ensure everything is secure when you leave. Jayne and Helen, can you please come with me? There are a few things that need to be sorted."

Notes:

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