Chapter 10

Thursday, 29th of November, 2035

Gwen

I saw Mandy off in the morning. She almost didn't want to go back to school, and to be honest, I wasn't sure I wanted her back in that place myself. I was extremely worried by what she had told me about what was happening at her school. She had been there for only two days and it sounded like she had been attacked twice. She had also a good deal of animosity from various camps because of her disguising herself.

I could understand her concern about her appearance, though personally I thought she was beautiful, others would see a monster and fear her. I didn't blame her for trying to hide herself, but from the reaction she got upon revealing her true appearance, I couldn't help but think she would have been better facing the brunt of the bad feeling straight away.

Still that wasn't her way, she was not a confrontational person. I wondered what I could do to help her. This whole parenting thing was so new to me. Before, I had just been responsible for me and even then only just Now, I was in charge of Mandy till she turned 18. It was all a bit bewildering.

I decided to see if Mandy's friend Joyce had any advice. Although Joyce's daughter Dorothy was much more independent and head strong, shad been doing this a lot longer than I had. Also, it would be nice to talk the problem through with someone else, even if they couldn't help it would help me get my head straight.

I didn't have to work till the evening, so I decided to give Joyce a ring to if she was in.

I dialled her number and a short while later heard her answer, "Hello?"

"Hello Joyce, this is Gwen Wilson, Mandy's sister," I answered.

"Oh hello dear, what can I do for you," Joyce replied.

"Well, I wanted to talk to someone about Mandy and I don't really know anyone else with children. I was wondering if I could ask your advice?"

"Certainly dear, why don't you come over. I'll make us a nice cup of tea and you can tell me what's on your mind."

"That sounds lovely, I'll be over in a few minutes."

"I'll see you soon then, Gwen. Goodbye."

"Bye," I replied, and hung up the phone. I slipped on my coat and headed out the door.

It was getting so cold with December approaching. I really needed to get a thicker winter coat, but we couldn't really afford such luxuries, the only possibility was finding something suitable in a charity shop. We were just about holding on now money wise. What I made, with the government assistance, just about paid for our rent and food with a little left over for everything else. I really would have liked to move to a bigger place so that Mandy could have her own room, but it just wasn't possible on what I could make on the jobs I could currently get. At the very least getting her a proper bed would be a start, I didn't like to think of what sleeping on that sofa was doing to her back.

Being relatively poor was a very new experience for Mandy and myself. We had been quite well off when living with our parents. Now we were existing on minimum wage. Growing up, I had never imagined I would ever work as a shop girl. If my parents had their way I would probably have never worked, being married off to an appropriate family as soon as I got to the right age, like some sort of bargaining chip in some political game. I knew well all the things that came with that affluence.

Every time I thought about how much easier things had been back before I had to scrimp and save to afford to eat, I reminded myself of that. This life might be harder, but at least the two of us were now free, and we had each other.

I walked briskly to Joyce's house, in order to counter the cold, and was soon there. I knocked on the door and Joyce answered. She was a nice woman. Her appearance was incredibly formidable, even more so that her larger daughter, due to her more lioness looks. She offset this a little with her very feminine style of dress, going for long flowing flowery dresses, bows and ribbons in her hair. But she was so nice and gentle, it was a cruel twist of fate that landed such a gentle person in a body that scared away people and made her a bit of a hermit, not wanting to offend people, or suffer rejection. She reminded me a bit of Mandy.

"Hello dear, do come in out of the cold," she said.

"Hello Joyce, hope I haven't interrupted you doing anything," I said.

"Not at all dear, you are welcome over any time."

We walked into the kitchen and I took a seat at the table. Joyce poured the tea. "There you are dear," she said, handing me a mug of tea. "Help yourself to milk and sugar."

I took a little milk and then sipped my tea.

"Now then, what is it you wanted to ask me about?" Joyce asked.

"Well, Mandy has been having some trouble at school," I replied, "It sounds like she first tried to disguise herself as a normal girl."

"Yes I saw her do that when she came over Monday. It was quite convincing. I didn't have the heart to tell her, but I did worry she would get found out. I was sure she would then be in even worse trouble than if she'd just gone as she was."

"Yes well that appears to be one of the things that has happened. She was found out and, as a result, has been shunned by the anti-MORFS children, but also some of the MORFS survivors, for being a traitor, or some such rot."

"Oh dear that is bad news, the poor dear."

"She was attacked twice yesterday, one was anti-MORFS girl, who apparently she has encountered before. The girl wanted to cut her face or some other horror."

"My goodness that's awful!"

"Luckily, your Dorothy managed to save her again. But afterwards there was another event. Apparently they tried to get help from the teachers, but a male teacher basically accused them of lying, and threatened them with expulsion if they didn't keep quiet. Dorothy, bless her, stuck to her guns and demanded to see the head teacher, who eventually told them that she could do nothing, that it was their word against this girl and her friends, and since this girl had friends on the governors, she was not likely to get punished."

Joyce stared open eyed at me, seemingly in shock, "That is an outrage!"

"Yes, after this Mandy was attacked again by a young telepath who took offence to her being able to block her abilities or something. I don't think she told anyone about that, probably thought it wasn't worth the trouble after the first incident."

I paused, Joyce seemed to be thinking, taking in what I had told her.

"I guess basically, I'm not sure what to do," I said. "I worry that these girls will make Mandy's school life hell. If this anti-MORFS girl at least believes she is untouchable, she may do allsorts of horrible things before she goes too far and gets into trouble. The other girl worries me just as much. She doesn't sound like someone who is very stable."

"Did Mandy mention this telepath's name?"

"I think she said Trish or something."

"Hmm it's probably Trisha, Dorothy has mentioned her before. She is not a very nice person, a bully who has got her way pretty much all the time. She's also someone that even Dorothy worries about, as she has some method of paralysing people, so physical strength is useless against her."

"Seems she can't with Mandy."

"Indeed, I'm sure that will just make someone like that even more determined to control her."

Joyce took a drink of her tea and then sat thinking.

"Well perhaps we should go and see Mrs Thomas together. Even if it does no good, it will at least let her know that we are aware of what is happening and not willing to just let this bullying of Mandy slide, no matter how well connected the bully is. I may also be able to help there. I have some friends who may be able to exert influence. It might also be worth talking to my friend about this telepath. She is far more knowledgeable about such things than me."

We finished our tea and, deciding there was no time like the present, the two of us walked to the school. We were greeted at the office by the rather unpleasant secretary, Mrs Donnal.