Chapter 1- Perri

Perri North is the PE teacher.

“Perri, Perri, come over here a minute!”

India Tomlinson stood in the doorway of the gym, waving a slip of paper furiously in Perri’s direction.

Perri glanced at the sweaty, jogging kids, and walked out of the door with India. Once outside, and turned to India.

“Sheesh, India- yell my first name louder will you? I think one kid on the other side of the SCHOOL didn’t hear you!”

“Keep your hair on, love.”

“India, the kids not knowing my name is the only thing that makes them respect me- take that away and they’ll start a rebellion!”

“Bit dramatic, don’t you think? If anyone should be worried about their name, it’s me! Can you imagine what the students would do if they knew my first name was India!? And how is Miss North any better than Perri?”

“Well, for one thing, some of these kids are barely five years younger than me and I want a position of power over them, thank you very much. And secondly, I’m not going to be Miss North for much longer!” Perri trilled happily.

“Ring that bell when Michael sets a wedding date.”

“India, that’s not fair…”

“Oh, no?” India said sarcastically, “How long have you been engaged now? Two years? And he hasn’t even picked a date!”

“It’s been one and a half years, actually, and he just said he wanted the wedding in the winter-near Christmas…” Perri’s voice trailed off blissfully.

India dragged her back down to Earth.

“Yeah, and it’s SEPTEMBER! If he really wanted to marry you, he’d have set a date by now!”

Perri caught a breath; shocked by how mean India was being.

“How did you get engaged anyway-you never told me. Was it in Italy? I bet he had a bit too much fancy wine and…”

“India! He proposed because he loves me! And it wasn’t in Italy, um, it was in Scotland, you now, when we went to see my parents.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yes! If you want the truth, it was after…well it was after our first time,” Perri blushed and looked away, embarrassed.

“Oh, Perri, you’re too naïve! Trust me on this; men’ll do anything to get laid, and they’ll do anything after, too! He didn’t mean it, love.”

“Then why didn’t break it off? I mean, he loves me; that’s why we’re getting married!”

“Perri, you and him are still doing it, aren’t you?”

Perri hesitated. India nodded and handed Perri the slip of paper.

“Mr. Barmy wants you in his office at break.”

“India!” Perri hissed, “Do not call the head teacher that-you’ll get fired, you idiot!”

“You’d better get back to class,” India said, turning on her heel and leaving Perri in the hallway, thoroughly unsure of herself and her engagement.

“Don’t listen to her,” Perri muttered to herself, “She’s just jealous.”

She went back into the gym hall.

Of course, all the kids had stopped jogging, and were standing around, chatting. Perri rolled her eyes and blew her whistle. The kids all covered their ears- but she knew it was all an act, the whistle wasn’t that loud.

Her first class of the new school year was a group of year 8 girls. She’d taught a few of them last year- Maddie Logan, Sasha Banks, Dorothy Parker, but most of them were unfamiliar faces, and it was going to be a hell of a job to try and remember all of their names. Year 8 was a tricky year- the students were at their most misbehaving. Year 7’s were a doddle- they were new to the school and too scared to try anything, and year 9’s didn’t particularly want to throw away their chances of getting a GCSE, so they were trying a bit harder. But year 8’s were a nightmare. Hell on Earth. Everyone said so.

However, she had hoped that in the first lesson back there would have been just a bit more maturity on their part.

The rabble made its way towards her, and Perri got out the clipboard with her register on it.

“Emma?”

“Here, Miss North.”

“Amy?”

“Yes, Miss North.”

And so on. Perri tried to ignore the restless muttering, but it was hard. Most new students took her for a softie, and Perri was determined to prove that she was anything but a pushover.

When she had finished the register, the whispering did not stop. If anything, it got worse. Perri decided it was time for the teacher to take charge.

“Do you lot want to shut up, do some PE, get a level that might be halfway decent, or do you want to carry on talking, get a 2c, and then get a string of miserable detentions where I make you run round this hall until you collapse?”

A shocked kind of silence fell on the class. They didn’t know it was an empty threat.

“Now,” Perri continued, seeing that she had their full attention, “If I ever catch you slacking during your warm-up again, your sorry butts are going to be in a lot of trouble!”

After that, the lesson went as smoothly as any PE lesson Perri took. She set the girls off on a basketball task. They blundered around with no skill and barely any effort, until Perri blew on her whistle and sent them to the changing rooms.

Perri rubbed her temples wearily. It was going to be a long year.

But as the kids left the PE building, she heard something that made her want to punch one of the little twerps.

“First lesson back and I already want to kill myself!” a girl whose name Perri was pretty sure was Stephanie said loudly as her and a short ginger girl with freckles left the building.

Stephanie had short, dark brown hair, and she was so small that her uniform fell baggily around her. Perri had noticed her as a bit of a loner during the lesson, standing in the corner, appearing to do as little as possible.

“Yeah,” muttered the ginger girl, “who does she think she is, anyway?”

“She is soo stuck-up!”

“Yeah…she’s an ice-queen!”

“Pur-lease! You think her hair is natural? It is so obviously bleached!”

The two girls sauntered off, very pleased with their cleverness.

Perri bristled. Stephanie had hit a nerve with that last comment. Accusations about her hair always irritated her. Her ice blonde hair had always been picked on as being ‘out of a bottle’ and it had gotten her teased through the majority of secondary school.

Sure, the popular girls were allowed to dye their hair, but Perri had never been one of the popular girls.

Chav, s**t, fake… the taunting rang in her ears as she remembered. Charlotte Francis cornering her in the canteen; notes about her on the bathroom walls; and worst of all, Alan- the boy she’d fancied for three years- joining in the taunting. And then, not being able to prove anything.

Perri’s hair was completely natural, but the white-blonde, shimmering mass that fell past her waist could have fooled most people. It was deadly straight, so they’d always accused her of having extensions, too.

Yet she’d never cut it all off. She wasn’t going to change who she was, not for them, not for anybody. And certainly not for a couple of stupid year 8’s who were just asking for trouble.

 

Author's Note

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[RachelKim]

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