A New Style of Education

by Karen Page

Part 35

Sleep. Oh, I was so eager for sleep. I hadn't had enough the previous night and I was so glad to get to bed. If there was a plan to disrupt the trip to Russia, it was having quite an effect on the entire school. Oh, the daily actives continued, but there wasn't the same enthusiasm. The younger years at The Manor seemed to be the least disrupted, probably because they knew a lot less of the school goings on. The only ones that seemed to understand in the younger years were Matilda and Mary Beth.

It seemed strange, but I woke up before the alarm. I looked over at the time; the alarm would go off in five minutes.

"Morning darling," murmured Helen.

"Morning," I responded, giving a little stretch. I turned over to see her smiling face. "How long have you been awake?"

"Only a few minutes. You looked so peaceful as you slept."

"Er, thanks, I think."

Helen gave a little giggle and moved closer to me. When I saw the look in her eyes I leaned across, gave her a kiss and jumped out of bed.

"Why?" she said, sounding hurt.

"Because things are hard enough at the moment, without us getting into trouble."

"Mmm, yes, things are getting hard, aren't they?"

"Go and have a shower like I'm going to," I pleaded, giving her a sad look.

"Together?"

I sighed. "Is this like how you felt in Paris and when I came back from Scotland?"

"I suppose," she eventually responded.

"I don't want us to get into trouble like last time. Now go into your bathroom and have a shower. I'll see you when we are both ready for the day."

I watched heartbroken as Helen walked to her bedroom, her shoulders slumped. As she said, "I'll see you in a few," she sounded like she was holding back the tears. I wanted to rush up to her and hug her, but was worried where that would lead. Feeling rather dejected myself, I made my way to take care of my morning duties.

As I showered, I discovered it was the best place to have a think and a bit of a cry. With the water running and the doors closed, nobody can hear you. I'd have to remember this next time I'm upset.

When we were both dressed, Helen had joined me in my room. "I'm sorry, I've been letting my hormones get the better of me again," she sniffled. "I don't know why I get like that when something exciting has happened."

"Don't worry about it. Nothing happened, and we won't get into trouble."

"Yes, but you get sick if things go too far."

"If they go too far for me," I agreed. "However, we are both too young for things to get like that. When we're sixteen it will be legal and we can see how we feel then, though it will still be against the school rules."

It was early morning, actually during our Russian lesson, that my PDA began to warble. Nobody ever rang anybody during lessons, so there wasn't any reason to put them into silent mode. It made me very uncomfortable when thirty pairs of eyes stared at me. I didn't know what to do, as this was the first time this had ever happened, so I just sat there frozen in place.

"Jayne, why don't you take it outside so you don't disturb anybody," offered our teacher, with a slight frown.

"Thanks." I made a mad dash for the door, with the sound of a few giggles ringing in my ears.

With the door safely shut, the PDA stopped ringing. I looked at the PDA and smiled at the name shown on the missed call list. I quickly rang back. "Hi, how's it going?"

"Hi Jayne, I just thought I would give you an update, but then remembered that you would be in lessons. Sorry if I've got you into trouble."

"Nobody is in trouble," I quickly reassured, hoping that I wasn't, in fact, in trouble. "So, how are things going?"

"Dad woke up late last night. This morning he is a lot more himself. The doctors are really pleased with how he's doing. It seems that the accident he was in was really bad, and Dad must be a real fighter to pull through so well."

"And?" I encouraged her to tell me the real news. Her voice was too excited to be just a plain update. Gone was the Richard voice, and it sounded just like Jessica. Had Jessica developed so much that Richard had to be forced and Jessica was the primary person?

"Dad and I had a talk this morning. He said he was sorry for the way he'd behaved last year. He talked so much it really wore him out, but he was determined to do it. He then said that it was all in the letter he sent me months ago. Could you go to my room and read the letter out to me? It is on the side."

"No it isn't," I confessed. "Tracy has it. I thought it was best she had the letter, just in case it was needed."

"Oh, thanks," she said, genuinely happy.

"Are you still coming back later?"

"Yes, we'll be back tonight."

"Jessica, remember, you need to be Richard."

There was silence for a moment and Richard's voice said, "Thanks, it's surprisingly hard not to slip back to how I now normally speak. We'll see you this evening."

I tried to sneak back into the room so not to disturb the lesson, but as soon as I opened the door everyone turned round to look at me.

"Why don't we have a five minute break," said the teacher.

"I don't want to disturb the lesson," I apologised.

"Mr Hobson warned all the teachers that it might happen and rather went on a bit, so it will be a good time for me to run to the toilet."

When the teacher went out, I was inundated with a stream of questions.

"Wow, where is your discipline?" asked Helen above the noise. "Jayne can only tell us when we're quiet and we don't have much time"

The room fell silent as I updated everyone. Afterwards there was a stream of questions to which I didn't know the answers.

"Look, you're going to have to ask Jessica yourself. The plan is that they set off around lunch time and should be here about five, depending how many stops they make and how bad traffic is."

The teacher returned and the lesson returned to normal. We all wanted to make sure our Russian was ready for our trip.

After our Russian lesson, Stacy approached Helen and I and asked how we were coping with the situation.

"We're doing fine," Helen smiled.

"What happened?" asked Stacy immediately, grabbing Helen's arm and dragging her into the nearest empty room. I hadn't had chance to say anything, but meekly followed.

"What do you mean?"

"Helen, your face didn't show you were fine. In fact, it showed something was very wrong. I can't help you if you can't be honest with me."

"We're fine," insisted Helen.

"Remember how we got into trouble after my trip to Scotland?" I added to Helens dismay. She gave me a dirty look.

Stacy didn't flinch, but just nodded in understanding. "Brenda was the same last night."

I raised an eyebrow and had the pleasure of seeing Stacy blush.

"Jayne, why don't you leave us to have a little chat?" Stacy requested politely. The expression on her face, which wasn't visible to Helen, clearly showed it was an order and not a request.

I gave a slight nod and went to one of the soundproof practice rooms. A bit of solitude with my instrument was needed and it would certainly fill the two hours before lunch. After warming up, I delved into the folder given to me by my peripatetic music teacher. He was just one of the people who came into the school who had been carefully vetted and knew better than to question why some lessons were with David and some with Jayne. I did know that besides teaching me a few others here and in some private schools, he was a principle player in one of the large London orchestras.

My practice was disturbed by the ping of my PDA. With the noise from my instrument, I would have missed it if I hadn't felt it vibrate.

I looked at the PDA and frowned. It was an urgent meeting from Mr Hobson for Stacey, Helen and myself. He wanted us in his office at once.

"At once" was not a phrase used very often at the school. When the headmaster says something has to occur at once, you drop everything you are doing, unless stopping would be life threatening.

I knew I was nearer than where Helen and Stacy had been, so had enough time to put my instrument and music away and place them out of the way. I would have to collect them later.

I'd just arrived outside Mr Hobson's office when Stacy arrived with Helen in tow. Helen's eyes looked red from crying and I wondered what had been said between them.

"Are you okay?" I asked Helen.

All I got in response was a not very nice look and an expletive mouthed at me.

"Helen, please keep calm till we are finished here. I know you aren't happy with Jayne, but that needs to wait."

Helen didn't say anything, but knocked on the door and we were quickly ushered in.

"Last night a criminal called George Hoskins was taken ill at a local prison and was taken to the hospital. About fifteen minutes ago he sneaked out of his ward and tried to kill Mr Barnes."

"Tried?" queried Stacy, as Mr Hobson paused.

"We had someone there who was able to stop him, which prevented Mr Barnes getting any further injuries. An attempt was made to talk to George, but he refused. He's now back in the hands of the prison staff. Mrs Barnes has been upset enough about everything, so won't be told. Wendy and Jessica won't be told, either."

"So why are you telling us?" queried Helen, trying to hide her strained voice.

"Because if Mr Barnes died, the children would have had to stay till the funeral and it would leave the school not having the Russian knowledge that Wendy and Jessica have."

"Are you sure it's just not a coincidence?"

"It could be, and we are looking to see if George Hoskins knows the Barnes family. We are also looking into who has been in contact with him. However, prisoners don't suddenly get so ill they have to go to hospital and then get well enough to suddenly appear at the other side of the hospital wielding a knife."

This was by far the most detailed information we'd been given and it worried me that students were in danger.

"Isn't the school supposed to be keeping the students out of danger, not put them into danger?" Stacy echoed my thoughts.

"Of course, and this blatant attempt shows once again that this school has a leak. If that leak isn't blocked, the whole school could be in danger. I can't let that continue. At the moment, nobody has put the students in danger and I don't expect that to change. Whoever these people are, they could have done something to Wendy and Jessica, but they haven't. At the moment, I don't think that any student is in danger directly from them. Whoever is behind this will know that it would be stupid to try and attack the Barnes family again, so I don't think anything like this will happen again."

"Is the information in Russia that important?" I asked, rather naively. "Could the information be got a different way?"

"I'm afraid that it is very important. It is probably one of the most important trips this school has ever made. However, if any of the students were in danger we would not be going. That, as always, is my first priority."

After we left Mr Hobson's office and were out of earshot, Helen turned to me and said rather gruffly, "Why did you have to tell Stacy?"

"Because I didn't want you upset," I said, and then smiled at the irony of my statement and added, "Like this morning."

"But you didn't have to snitch."

"I thought it would be better if Stacy helped as she has been through this. Stacy isn't going to tell Rachel, are you Stacy?"

"As long as I don't think that Helen is going to murder you tonight, then no. This is me, as an older student, trying to help a younger student over a tricky situation."

"Oh," said Helen. This is one of the things I love about Helen, she will eventually listen to others.

"Jayne, why don't you run along and let us continue our little conversasioni?"

"Your what?"

"Conversasioni. It sounds more exotic than a shouting match."

Helen just looked at Stacy like she was a nutter. I just smiled and after rescuing my instrument and music, went to see who was in our year lounge.

By lunchtime, Helen joined me and was looking a bit more herself.

"Are you okay?" I queried, slightly worried.

"Sure. I'm no longer upset with you, but I do have a few things to think about. I'll tell you tonight, but don't worry."

Don't worry, that was a laugh. Of course I worried, but when I saw her eat all her lunch, I knew she was going to be okay.

"Jayne, you've got to do something," pleaded Richard, when he rang me during the early afternoon.

"What's up?"

"We all keep getting phone calls, asking if we are okay and what time we're likely to get back to the school and it's driving us crazy. We're all tired and we are all trying to sleep, but we keep getting those phone calls. Sam said that there is a way to show where we are and an estimated time of arrival. Is there anything you can do to show that, so we don't keep getting calls?"

"I'll see what I can do," I promised. I knew exactly what Richard had talked about, but knew that the car locations were restricted. I could have found the information myself and made it available, but since it wasn't an emergency, I thought going through proper channels would be the best way.

I moved to a quiet corner in our year room and rang Julia. I outlined the issue and what I wanted to do.

"That's restricted," she instantly said.

"I know that," I responded, trying not to get frustrated. "Would it be possible to segment one car and flag its location as unrestricted, until it gets back to the school?"

"I'll see what is possible," she offered, without committing to anything.

While I waited, I sent a message to all in year one and three, asking them to refrain from disturbing the four travellers. Knowing the type of people they were, I was pretty confident that it would be obeyed.

It didn't take long for Julia to get back to me, with good news. I quickly sent a broadcast message to all the students.

"Wendy, Yvonne, Jessica and Sam are on their way home. So they aren't constantly asked where they are, the current location is being broadcast on television channel 0901 and on your PDA's there should be a link from the main screen. Once they are home, this facility will be removed."

I heard the familiar ting, as the message got broadcast to all the PDA's and a loud cheer emanated from everyone. Our television was soon broadcasting the car's location. I smiled to myself to see that information like the speed wasn't being shown.

Not very long after I'd sent the information, I got a message from Matilda, asking for information on what I'd done. I replied, "I went through the proper channels and access to the information was granted. It saved me a lot of trouble later. I noticed your attempt to access the server a few minutes ago to find the data feed. If you want to know, just ask, and I will be more than happy to sit down with you in the main computer lab."

Helen came up as I continued to monitor the server the feed came through. "That was a great idea. At least people know where they are without pestering them."

"Julia and others must have thought so too," I agreed, watching another attempt to gain entry. If I hadn't been watching, Matilda would have got in, but I quickly closed down the method she was using. Would that girl never learn? I'd just offered to sit down with her and do things properly, and yet she continued.

"What are you doing?" Helen enquired, seeing my frown.

"I'm stopping a persistent American girl from being naughty," I said, closing down the link from the American school. This would upset some teachers, but it should shut off Matilda's access from the server she was using in America. I added a filter and bought the link back up. I knew it wouldn't be long before Matilda worked around the filter, but it gave me a few minutes breathing space.

I dialled her PDA. "Matilda," I said rather sternly, causing others to look up from what they were doing. A few of the American's giggled, knowing that their rather loveable, but naughty friend, had been bending the rules again. "I'll be in our usual computer classroom in five minutes. Your presence there would save everyone, especially you, a lot of trouble."

"Good luck," Helen said in a low voice, as I got up to chat with Matilda. If this had been a dry, warm, summer day, I would have met her in the back of the school and discussed things while laid out on the lawn. Being it was winter, and only about five Celsius, it was not something either of us would have agreed to.

I was there first, presumably because Matilda needed the toilet on the way. Being there first, I grabbed the workstation I normally used. It was right next to the radiator, so I was always warm, and there was a great view out of the window. In the warmer months it was always interesting to see what was happening outside, not just with pupils, but with the wildlife. I think with the sudden cold snap we'd been having, most of the sensible wildlife had gone into hibernation.

"You commanded my presence," came a rather sulky voice from the doorway.

As I turned, I noticed she'd brought her doll with her. "No, I was just trying to save you a bucket full of trouble. Would you like to have written a nice report to Julia outlining why you went snooping when you didn't need to? I'm also a bit curious, why did you bring your doll with you?"

"I suppose not," she admitted. "When an intrusion occurs, Julia certainly seems harsher than RJ." She then looked down and readjusted the position of the doll she was cradling in her arm. "This is Nellie. You haven’t met her yet, and she hasn’t seen this part of the school."

"That's probably because the computer systems here weren't very good when she started and she had to do a lot more tightening up than RJ had to do. Though I presume you've caused him a few headaches since you joined."

Giggling, she replied, "More than you know."

"Look, come over here by the nice warm radiator while I go through this information. Don't they have a system like this at The Manor?"

"They have one which tracks PDA's, but I've never seen anything to do with tracking cars. If they do, it must be one of the only items I've never found," said Matilda, sitting down next to me.

"There are one or two other things that you haven't found," said a deep male voice from the doorway.

"RJ!" screamed Matilda with delight. She jumped out of her chair and ran across to give him a big hug. "What are you doing here? I thought you were still in America."

Matilda looked so small and helpless next to RJ. I shook my head as I remembered how much trouble that helpless girl had caused in her small time here.

"I'm here now," his voice boomed, while prying Matilda off his waist.

"RJ, please meet Jayne. She's Hayfield's resident student computer expert."

I got out of my chair and met RJ half way across the room. Wow, he was tall! He made Matilda look like a tiny doll.

"Pleased to meet you, sir."

"Sir is way too formal for me. I'm RJ and it's great to meet you, I've heard a lot about you. Well Matilda, I've just had Julia bending my ear about some strange log entries."

"I'm sorry, RJ," Matilda nearly broke down. "I'm trying to behave, but they have such interesting setups here that I just need to know how it all works."

"Matilda, all you have to do is ask," I sighed. "I offered to show you some items, but you still continued to play."

"It sounds like you two have more to discuss," smiled RJ. "I'll leave you to it. And remember Matilda, we are guests here, so be polite."

"Yes, RJ."

"RJ, before you go, who trained Matilda?"

"Probably the same person that trained you. Why?"

"Ah, I met her the other month. If nobody else has any objections, would you mind if Matilda met them?"

Matilda, who was standing next to me, looked puzzled. I don't think she had worked out that it was a student, now an ex-student, who had taught her all those naughty things.

"I think that would be a great idea. Why don't you run it by the two principals, and see what they say? As long as Matilda doesn't mind."

"Mind what? RJ, you know I hate being talked about as if I'm not here."

"Yes, and it shows how you've learned restraint. I'm proud of you."

"Really?"

"Yes, now let's see if you can learn restraint in other ways. Speaking of restraint, you haven't kicked anybody, have you?"

Matilda looked at the ground, with her hands behind her back, scuffing the floor with one foot, "W — Well."

I remembered the incident well, as I lifted my leg, rubbing my chin.

"Matilda! You promised."

"I did apologise," she muttered, refusing to look at RJ or me.

"When we get home, I think we need to work a little more on that relax action."

RJ wandered off shaking his head. When Matilda had calmed down, we settled down together to go through one of the restricted systems. She had clearance to be told the information, as and when it was deemed the appropriate time.

"Each school vehicle has its own tracking device, which is primarily intended to be used to recover the vehicle if it is stolen. This isn't anything special to this school, a lot of high performance or expensive cars have these type of devices attached."

"In America, we also have it in some rental cars so that if you break the speed limit, the satellite detects the fact and the rental company adds a penalty to your final bill."

"What we have is our own tracking devices, which interface through to the school's system."

I showed her the incoming data, and how it was processed. I finally showed her how Julia had converted the screen into a television channel. There is one great thing about Matilda, she never needs to be shown things twice.

"In school, we have the ability to track people, based on their PDA's. When they are outside school, can the same system detect them?"

"Sort of," I said, reluctantly. "It is more based on the car system than the internal tracking system."

"So they can be tracked even if they don't have a travel PDA with them?"

"Yes, and I'm only admitting that to you because I've been told by Mr Moore and Mr Hobson to be honest with you. You mustn't tell others that, or they might get upset."

"I know. I already know far too much information that I can't tell others. I think I'm the youngest adult at The Manor. Years E and above were frantic when they were told about Wendy and Jessica going home. They remembered all too well what happened at Marshalville. I think all the psychiatrists were working overtime with that."

"And yet you keep on asking more questions."

"Without asking questions and learning new things, I won't know how to help others, even if they don't know I'm helping. For instance, you knew about the car tracking system and were able to help by getting the information that people wanted, though I'm sure that it will have caused some at our school to wonder if we have a similar system."

"Well be careful. By helping others, you might have to take the blame, to keep facts secret. Just like what happened with Helen and me."

"You mean with Mr Black the other day?"

"Yes."

"It wasn't really a punishment though, was it? It looked like one, but I'm sure Mr Hobson knew exactly how they were all going to vote."

"Hey, you're probably right. I'd never thought of that. Now you know this information, does this stop you going prying into the server?"

"It will stop me looking through Hayfield's servers, although it looks like I missed a couple of things at The Manor."

"Matilda, stop and think for a moment. RJ isn't stupid and knows you will go looking. Why don't you surprise him and ask him for the information. Do it the right way, instead of bending the rules. Save bending the rules for when it's needed."

"At least he doesn't make me write reports. I just have to show him what I did. Thanks for teaching me." Matilda gave me a hug before gently picking up her doll and rushing out of the room.

That girl will be the death of me and I've only known her a few weeks!

There was a rush of activity about ten minutes before the car arrived. Students were seen rushing to their rooms to grab their coats. Every student at the school had taken it upon themselves to be outside for their return. This wasn't something that the teachers had arranged, or even the year heads; it was something spontaneous. A few teachers and psychiatrists wandered around, making sure everything was orderly, but generally kept out of the way. As the car drove into the school's driveway, they disappeared, allowing the students all the time they needed to welcome home four of their family.