Part 20 (1/2)

”What a day. What a glorious, glorious day.”

The four of them sat in the courtyard that evening basking in their victory. It was worth the exhaustion.

”I honestly think I feel better about today than the first time I played for the school eleven,” Charlotte said.

Their contentment was short-lived as the shadow of Mrs Ayers fell upon them. ”Susie Clarke and Charlotte Bevan, your socks are down. A demerit point each!”

”Oh for G.o.d's sake, it's Sat.u.r.day night,” Susie said.

”A detention for answering back and swearing!” Mrs Ayers shrieked.

Susie looked at her. She a.s.sessed the situation. Now, she felt, was the time to strike.

”No thanks.”

Mrs Ayers was momentarily confounded. ”You'll take a detention,” she repeated.

”No, I won't this time, thanks all the same,” said Susie. Her tone was pointedly flippant. The others sat there, hardly daring to breathe.

No one had ever actually refused a detention before. Mrs Ayers had experienced acquiescence, sullenness, apathy, pleading, profuse apologising but never this.

”It's not up to you to accept or not. You'll be in detention this week and the week after for insolence.”

”I'm afraid I won't. I've had quite enough detentions from you.” Susie's polite smile and the contempt she put into her words incensed the Geography teacher beyond measure. Already unbalanced through her hatred of the schoolgirl and her recent traumatic ordeal with Mr Peters, she started screeching at Susie. A slew of insults flew from her lips. Other people around them were turning to watch.

Susie merely sat there, smiling while refusing to respond, goading Mrs Ayers even further. Eventually she lunged at the girl, grabbing her by her shoulders and starting to shake her while she shouted and ranted at her.

Laura and Charlotte, on either side of Susie, tried to intervene and get Susie away. But Mrs Ayers was deranged by her fury. As Susie struggled in Mrs Ayers' grasp, Miss Partridge and Miss Vine appeared and rushed over to find out what was going on.

Seeing Mrs Ayers a.s.saulting Susie, Miss Partridge managed to drag them apart and ordered the girls away. ”All of you, back to your House or supper or wherever you should be.” They left in a mix of relief and excitement.

”Pat, what the h.e.l.l got into you? We'll have to go to the Head, half the school has seen anyway.” The Games mistress managed to get the Geography teacher out of the courtyard and towards the staffroom, Miss Vine following.

”She disliked me and became increasingly vindictive,” was Susie's explanation to the Headmistress the next morning. She had a scratch and bruise on the side of her face and had tied her hair back deliberately to expose them. There were also marks on her arms from where the Geography teacher had grasped her.

Mrs Grayson had thought it better for the matter to rest overnight as far as the girls were concerned. She had already ordered Mrs Ayers onto immediate sick leave.

”Did you give her any cause?” Mrs Grayson asked. She knew that however Susie may have provoked the Geography teacher nothing warranted a physical attack. Susie would also be perfectly within her rights to tell her parents and make a formal complaint. But the housemistress felt by instinct that Susie would not do this.

She looked at the girl. Susie's expression wore its usual mask of polite composure. Yet in her eyes there was a light of both satisfaction and defiance. Susie had gone into battle, and she had won.

Either way Mrs Grayson had to get to the bottom of this. She already regretted not paying more heed when Grace Grant had raised concerns with her several weeks earlier.

Susie had no intention of admitting anything. ”You have seen my work,” Susie replied. She had brought her immaculate Geography exercise book with her.

”This is about more than work, isn't it?”

Susie paused. She was thinking past the Headmistress's question which didn't really need a response since they both knew what the answer was. ”She had a choice,” Susie said.

”Yes, she did. But so did you.”

Susie couldn't feel any remorse for goading the Geography teacher past the point of no return. ”She was a blight,” she said, using Charlotte's phrase.

Mrs Grayson felt partly culpable in the matter. Pat Ayers had been a problem for years and really something should have been done before now to moderate some of the worst excesses of her character. Perhaps her breakdown was inevitable.

But there was no doubt that Susie Clarke had knowingly and deliberately accelerated it.

”We all have a choice, Susie, even if we have no obligation, when it comes to compa.s.sion and forbearance.”

Susie felt momentarily small at these words. But she had never regarded her task as n.o.ble, only necessary. And it was done.

31. The catalyst.

Mrs Grayson, Miss Wingrove and Grace Grant were discussing the situation.

”The problem is that she didn't actually do anything,” Mrs Grayson said, referring to Susie. ”Not something that one could pin down so to speak.”

There was less to say about Mrs Ayers. Her breakdown had been of little surprise to many of her colleagues who had regarded her as unstable for years. Miss Partridge, who had a degree in Geography, was taking her cla.s.ses until the end of term. There was no regret, only relief, among the girls that she was gone. And among the staff too, not least of all Mr Peters who regarded her exit as a personal victory.

”She's more of a catalyst,” Miss Wingrove said. ”She doesn't necessarily do anything herself, but others seem to behave differently around her. She's a nice girl though, bright and popular. Loyal to her friends,” she added, thinking of a couple of times where Susie had covered for someone else's late arrival or provided a similar favour.

”She clearly has little respect for authority,” Mrs Grayson said.

Grace Grant had been privately troubled ever since Susie's odd confession about visiting Mr Rydell, even though he had corroborated her story. The whole thing had made little sense then and her unease had only grown. Miss Wingrove's words began to cast a new light on things.

The housemistress hadn't really considered why Susie might lie, except for self-aggrandis.e.m.e.nt or to create drama. Schoolgirls did this so often that fantastic tales were par for the course.

But what if Susie had lied to protect someone else?

Most likely it would be one of her closest friends, her three dorm mates. Not Margery, certainly, and Charlotte seemed highly improbable. She was so focused on her hockey these days. Which left Laura. Could she have visited Mr Rydell that night?

Grace Grant thought about Laura that term. So far as she knew the girl was still doing well at her lessons, was healthy, maintained her friends.h.i.+ps. It was a time of change for many girls, growing into womanhood.

Was it possible that Laura was the one who had propositioned Mr Rydell, with Susie lying to save her from embarra.s.sment?

But if that was the case, why had he backed Susie's story? She couldn't disregard his own statements, unless...

Unless something very different and very, very troubling was happening.

”You're pensive, Grace, anything to add?” Mrs Grayson asked her. ”I must say these are all complications we don't need at this stage of the school year. It's bad enough having to find a replacement Geography teacher mid-year, but now German as well.”