Chapter 6

Sarah walked in to the school office two minutes later. The secretary looked up from her bagged lunch. "Can I help you miss?" she enquired.

"Mr Skinner will want to see me," Sarah replied as she sat down.

"He's just gone to the lunch hall to sort out a problem, but I don't see you in his diary," the older woman said.

"I'll wait." Sarah stated she sat down, waving away Mitch and Jason who were glancing round the door jamb.

"Mr Carter! Miss Fenner!" Skinners voice came from outside. "You've got better places to be than this, haven't you?"

"Yessir." They replied together, smiling at Sarah as they passed the door and bolted down the hall.

"Joyce, page Sarah May for..." He stopped as he rounded the door and saw Sarah waiting in the chair next to his office. "Come with me." He ordered, opening his office door. "Sit."

"I'd prefer to stand sir," Sarah said, adopting an 'at ease' stance as she did when her dad gave her an ear pounding.

"Ehh?" Skinner grunted, looking at the forthright teenager. "I don't know whether language like that is acceptable in..."

"Sir," Sarah interrupted, "I'd like to apologise for the language I used in the dining hall. I was provoked but that's no excuse for using those words in school," she finished, all the while staring at a spot about a foot above Skinners head.

Skinner leaned back in his chair. "Ok." He said clasping his hands together. "What prompted that outburst?"

Sarah looked down and straight into the principals' eyes. "Are you aware, sir, that your school is suffering from endemic bullying?"

"Endemic? What?" he sat up.

"Endemic; Widespread, rife, extensive,"

"I know what it means!" he bit. "What are you talking about?"

"The sports teams and supporters, sir, are beasting upon the other students."

"Beasting?"

"Sorry, verbal and physically pounding, hazing, hammering, bullying," she emphasized.

"Bullying? Here? This school has an excellent discipline record! I've never come across bullying here!" He finished as the bell rang five minutes before the end of lunch.

"Ok, would you mind stepping with me to the hall door sir?" Sarah asked. Without waiting for a reply she executed a perfect about turn and held the door open for her principal.

"Pardon? Ah, ok." He blustered, thrown off balance by the Brit's comportment.

They stepped through the office and Sarah stopped him in the hall door. "Watch." She ordered. They stood and watched for a few seconds as Sarah watched what she'd seen before, the athletes boisterously occupying the center of the hall and the rest nervously shrinking away to the walls. "See?" She posed.

"See what?" Skinner asked.

"The sports cliques are intimidating the rest of the students!" Sarah responded, getting frustrated.

"It's not intimidation, they're just showing due respect to the athletes."

"DUE RESPECT?" Sarah blasted. "Sorry." she said and walked back to the office without Skinner.

"Please, do not raise your voice to me young lady." Skinner said firmly as he returned to the office to find Sarah counting under her breath.

"Sorry sir." Sarah persisted. "But 'due respect' my arse. To put it bluntly sir. They're junior sportspeople, not gods upon the earth. The rest of the school is afraid to say anything; they know you'll side with the athletes."

"Hah!" Skinner trumped. "They're just jealous, that's all."

"Well if that's the way you see it sir." Sarah said. "Do you wish to issue any punishment for my outburst?"

"No, not for the first time. Just watch your language in future."

"Yes sir." Sarah replied in her best voice. "By the way sir, is it true that any student can start an after school club if they can get ten student signatures?" She asked.

"Yes, I believe that's correct. Although I think you also need the signature of a sponsoring teacher." A puzzled Skinner replied. "What kind of club were you thinking of?" he asked. "Maybe it's already running."

"A supporters club for non-sporting competitions sir." Sarah said.

"What do you mean?"

"Things like academic competitions, chess competitons and the like."

"Well I can't see a problem with that, as long as you can find a sponsoring teacher," Skinner finished, "You may go now Miss May."

"Thank you sir." Sarah said, pulled a perfect about-turn and smiling to herself as she exited the office.

"Well? How'd it go?" asked Mitch when Sarah finally got to gym class and had changed in the deserted locker room.

"He's a stupid Twat, that's how it went." Sarah whispered angrily.

"A what?"

"A Twat with a capital tw." Sarah emphasised. "A twat, a fanny, a complete and utter c.u.n.t." she finished. Mitch laughed as they waited their turn on the vault.

"What do those first two words mean?" Asked a confused Mitch.

"Oh, they all mean the same thing; they're all words for the pussy."

"Even fanny?"

"Yeah, why, is it different over here?" Sarah queried.

"Oh yes. Here your fanny is your ass," Mitch continued. "Although I think yours is funnier."

Sarah explained how the meeting had gone and Mitch told her the other girls' names as they completed various gymnastic elements, vault, bars and the like. She noticed Mitch was looking at her quite a lot and was getting quite embarrassed about it before the coach called a halt to the gymnastics.

"Ok people; let's get this gear cleared away before the end of the session and the mats out for the cheerleaders." She shouted. The gear was cleared and mats down quicker than expected so they were left with ten minutes to go. "Is it right we've got an overseas student joining us this year?" She asked.

"Yes Miss." Sarah volunteered nervously. "I'm here from England permanently."

"Well that's nice, but I'm not a teacher, you call me Coach, not Miss. Do you know any quick games we can play before the end of the session?"

Sarah immediately thought of her favourite game which had been banned at her old school and smiled. "We could play British Bulldog, Coach."

"Ok, tell us how," said the bemused coach. Sarah explained the principle of the game and picked two random people to be the catchers and everyone else went to one end of the gym. Mitch was tackled in the first rush and was made a catcher along with a small Hispanic girl. The next few rushes Mitch seamed to home in on Sarah wherever she went. She tackled Sarah repeatedly round the waist, crashing to the ground and then just as she was winning she'd give up and Sarah would scramble away. Sarah was eventually taken down by a large girl called Shanelle.

"That was great; what you did at lunch," she puffed as they got up. "That bitch Zoucks needed to be smacked down and no one here would do it."