The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 2070 by Angharad Copyright © 2013 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

After lunch I went back to my office in the broom cupboard and marked some more papers. We have to keep them locked away and that’s a bit of a bind, but it did mean I got a new locking cabinet last year. Just before I started I set my phone alarm to tell me to stop and go and collect the girls. At a quarter to three it peeped. I collected up the papers and locked them in the cabinet, placing the key in my purse, and that in my handbag. Then I locked my office and left.

I know I’ve had a few cars, but this Jaguar is something else, and I really do love it. I was in this laid back good mood when I strolled into the school playground and one of the nuns said, “Lady Cameron?”

“Yes,” I spluttered back being taken unawares.

“Sister Maria would like to speak with you.”

“What about my girls?”

“They’re with the headmistress.”

“Thank you,” I said and trotted down the corridor, my trainers squeaking on the polished tiled floor. A host of scenarios ran through my head: are they in trouble or sick? Have they done anything wrong? Have they been cheeking the teachers? Are they suspended?

I rapped on the door and was bid enter. The three mouseketeers were seated in a line looking very sorry for themselves.

“Ah, Lady Cameron, do come in.”

“Headmistress,” I acknowledged back.

“Thank you for coming.”

“What’s happened?”

“Two of your three got involved in a little fisticuffs.”

My tummy flipped. I just get the school to let them miss religious tuition because Trish is running rings round the nuns, and this happens.

“I see,” I said awaiting further details.

“The reason I haven’t suspended them for unladylike behaviour, is that they came to the assistance of another pupil who I gather was being bullied.”

“Oh,” this might be recoverable yet.

“Year seven and year three have PE or games on the same afternoon. From what I’ve been told a girl in year seven was being bullied by two of the others when Trish and Olivia heard it. Apparently they interceded on behalf of the girl being bullied, somehow knocking one of the older girls over, the other one ran off.”

“My two eight year olds knocked down a thirteen year old and scared off a second? You’re joking, aren’t you?”

“Apparently not. A teacher who’d been advised of the girl’s predicament was on her way to resolve the situation said Trish somersaulted in, kicking the girl’s legs from under her and sprang up and aimed a kick at the other girl who fled the room.”

I was gobsmacked. where had they learned that–watching Jackie Chan?

“Do we know why the girl was being bullied?”

Sister Maria blushed, “I must ask that you receive this in total confidence.”

“Okay.”

“The girl has something in common to Trish’s previous situation.”

“What, a children’s home?”

“Um no, being gender dysphoric.”

“Oh,” now I was blushing as much as Sister Maria. “Was this cause of the bullying?”

“I don’t know if they guessed rather than proved anything. She claims that she wasn’t exposed below the waist but that she was simply accused of being a butch lesbian or a boy in disguise, which I think was when her two rescuers appeared, is it not?” The headmistress stared at my three.

“Yes, Miss.”

“So Mima wasn’t a party to this?” I asked for clarification.

“No, I brought her in for security.”

“Okay. So what happens now?”

“I don’t know whether to punish or praise them.”

“How about we condemn their hastiness to violence but accept their belief it was necessary?”

“You should be a diplomat Lady Cameron.”

She told the two older girls off and then explained that they were not to do such a thing again or they would be risking suspension like the two bullies had been given.

“Might I ask who the girl being bullied was?” I had a good idea, surely there can’t be more than two transgender children in school?

“I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to disclose that.”

“It was Cindy Highsmiff, Mummy,” disclosed Meems.

Sister Maria rolled her eyes with an expression which said, ‘why do I bother?’

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear it.”

“It was Cindy...”

“Thank you, Jemima, that will do.”

“But Mummy said she didn’t hear it.”

Oops. “Forget it, Meems, it isn’t important.” I looked at the headmistress, “Perhaps the girls could go outside for a few minutes?”

She nodded.

“Okay, girls, go out and play, but don’t get dirty or speak to any strangers–stay together, I’ll be out in a few minutes.” They ran off before the instruction was rescinded.

“I knew of Cindy Highsmith, her grandmother told me without knowing who or what I was. Coincidence or what?”

“I’m afraid my take on it would be of divine intervention, but I accept that’s unacceptable to you.”

“Only because it can’t be proven one way or the other.”

“But of the hundreds of thousands of people in this city, don’t you find it strange she spoke to you?”

“I suspect she might have spoken to anyone who looked half sympathetic, I just happened to be the one who was sitting there.”

“Not just, it was meant to be, just as it was your two who entered the changing room when Cindy was being bullied. Anyone else might have joined in or ignored it.”

“What happened to Cindy?” I asked.

“She went home, I’ve asked her parents to come and see me tomorrow to discuss what they’d like to happen.”

“Oh well, I hope she won’t let it stop her attending this school.”

“I hope so too. Look, why don’t you come as well?”

“On what grounds?”

“Your girls broke it up.”

“I think that might be a little tenuous.”

“But not if we add the reason they intervened was because you’ve educated them to tolerance of minorities because you’ve dealt with it at university.”

“It’s still very tenuous.”

“Yes, but if you’d accepted the place on the governors I offered, you’d have had a perfectly valid reason for being there.”

That was the reason I refused, but I didn’t tell her that. I sat quietly while Sister Maria suddenly squeaked something which I missed, picked up her phone and spoke rapidly down it, ending with, “If she agrees.”

“Right, if you were to agree to become a trustee of our scholarship fund, as Cindy is a scholarship girl, you’d have a reason to be here tomorrow morning at ten o’clock, wouldn’t you?”

“Don’t trustees have to be vetted?”

“Pending that vetting, please say yes, I’d really like you to be here.”

“I’m just wondering if I’m putting myself at risk, of disclosure which would in turn put the school at risk, wouldn’t it?”

“No, because your legal status was female before I asked you. Anyone who wants to query that, I presume would face your legal team.”

“They might, but it doesn’t discount my previous history, does it?”

“How can we ever move on if we stay rooted in the past? You are a good friend of this school, you’ve raised money, saved my sanity and my life once. I can’t ever pay you back except by accepting you as as much a woman as any other female parent, staff or child who comes here, myself included. Anyone who believes anything else is totally mistaken. I also like to call you friend, but you might feel that’s pushing my luck somewhat, given the divide which separates us over the question of theology.”

“I’m privileged to know you, Sister Maria and grateful that you don’t think my agnosticism a barrier to our cooperation and friendship. I’ll be here tomorrow at ten,” I said, but thought, ‘Shit I’ve still got all that marking to do. I’ll have to ask Tom or Stella to collect them tomorrow or I’ll never get it finished in time.’