Chapter 13: Counterattack

Not everyone was thrilled with the announcements at the assembly, or at the faculty meeting before the assembly. Before going to their classrooms, a group of dissident teachers stopped in the meeting room Linda had used to make her phone calls. They believed it was rarely monitored.

"The headmistress has gone soft. Or they got to her, somehow. This is intolerable."

"I agree. We just need to get that little brat under our heel. Then we could put a stop to all this nonsense quickly enough. FitzGibbon was too soft and got careless."

"Then we are agreed? We 'forget' the new rules and show the girl what real discipline is. After we have tamed her, we bring James back to her senses and get back to the way things should be done here."

After brief murmurs of agreement, the women left the room and scattered to their classrooms.

On the way to her first class, Linda felt the buzz of the cell. She answered it, and learned of the meeting. She acknowledged the warning, then hurried to class.

Her first two classes went largely without incident. She was quickly assigned a seat and given her books, and then class went on. She noted that neither teacher was among those the girls had rated as the worst or the best. They just seemed like teachers. They did not tolerate any misbehaviour, but they were not abusive.

The third class was another matter. It started before class, when another teacher stopped her in the hall and berated her for trivial and in some cases imaginary improprieties with her clothes and grooming. She recognized the setup, and merely accepted the criticism. As expected, the confrontation made her late for class. When she arrived, the teacher berated her for her tardiness. When she respectfully replied that another teacher had delayed her to discuss wardrobe issues, the teacher replied that it was her own fault for having been so careless and improper in her dress and grooming. She declared that Linda had earned 10 demerits, and would lose one grade for the day for having delayed the class. From her subject and behaviour, Linda recognized her as one of the ones from the "worst" list. She also recognized that the teacher was trying to get her off balance, and to set up a situation in which she would have an excuse to take more severe actions. Linda kept her responses proper, and did her best to show no emotional response.

If the teacher had been able to perceive Linda's emotions, she probably would have misinterpreted it as the cockiness typical of an "unbroken" girl. She did not begin to understand just how much power Linda had in this situation. Before the day was over, that teacher would herself be broken, or dismissed with prejudice and turned over to the police, or both. Linda also knew that, in the long term, threats of demerits and grade reductions were meaningless.

She was pointed wordlessly to a desk, and took her seat. She was not issued a book. The teacher started going over the previous day's homework. On the third question, she told Linda to stand and give the answer. Linda stood, and then politely reminded the teacher that she had not arrived at the school at the time of the previous day's class, and had been given neither the book nor the assignment. The teacher berated her loudly for daring to come to class unprepared, and the class flinched. It was clear from their reaction that they expected this to end badly. She went on to declare that it was Linda's responsibility to obtain and complete assignments for days she had not bothered to show up for class. She then demanded that Linda step to the front of the class.

Linda was a bit worried. While she was quite confident that she could successfully protect herself from the older woman, she was concerned that a video of her competently using her self defence skills in that situation might weaken the case against Miss FitzGibbon. As she moved to the front of the room, the cell buzzed. She pulled it out, and read the text message it displayed. Help would soon be on the way. She saw movement out of the corner of her eyes, and barely dodged the baton aimed at the hand holding the cell. She jumped back a step, and pocketed the cell. She went into a deceptively clumsy looking defensive posture, and waited. The teacher came after her, shouting about how dare she use that cell in her class, especially when the teacher was talking to her. She demanded that Linda turn over the cell immediately. She politely refused. The teacher then instructed her to finish her trip to the front of the class, adding that she would otherwise be dragged to the front and dealt with all the more harshly. Linda quietly reminded her that such attacks had been prohibited, and went on to say that she would defend herself if necessary.

The teacher roared "How dare you threaten me?" and swung her baton at Linda's head. She ducked the blow and stepped away, avoiding any special moves. The teacher moved to grab her arm and raised the baton for another attempted strike.

"STOP!" They turned toward the door, where Miss James stood. "I will see you, both of you, in the hallway. Now!" She looked at the rest of the class. "You will quietly read the next chapter until we return." Her tone allowed no question.

Once the door was closed, she turned on the teacher. "Just what did you think you were doing?"

"She was tardy, disrespectful, unprepared, and confrontational. She even threatened me. She played with that cell in class, and refused to hand it to me. She needs to learn who is the master here!" She stood tall and straight, her eyes dancing with a zealot's fire.

"Do you, for one minute, think that we were not monitoring her every move this morning? That we didn't see that staged confrontation in the hallway, or your attempts at provocation and humiliation?" The teacher lost a bit of her starch.

The headmistress continued "Do you have any concept of what you may have done?"

"Yes! If you had not interrupted me, I would have been well on the way toward saving the school and restoring the legacy of more than a century!"

"Wrong! You would have destroyed the school, and ended up in disgrace. In all likelihood, you would have found yourself in prison, as well. You still may."

"She is trying to destroy the school and all we stand for!"

"No, she is our only hope for saving the school. Did you pay no attention at all this morning? If she does nothing, this school will be closed in the midst of a very public scandal. We will all be disgraced, and you and several of the other teachers will face serious criminal charges. Our backers and friends will do nothing to stop it, or to help you. Most likely, you will spend the rest of your life in prison."

"She was attending classes today in order to ascertain whether there is anything about this school which makes it worth her considerable time and effort to save it. She can walk away at any time and leave us to our fate. And just to make it clear, if she does manage to rescue the school, she will effectively own it. She will have the authority to have any of us summarily dismissed for cause, and to change any and all of our policies and procedures."