❝ Sheep abide by the herd complex; safety in numbers. When all are the same, no one can be singled out.
A fox among sheep is able to infiltrate the herd only a handful of ways: under the veil of dusk, or by clothing itself as the prey, shedding i...
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"SO, JONAH,ARE you in agreement that for now on you'll change your attitude, and apologise to Madame Leroy?"
M. Dupont studied Jonah's slouched posture. Giving him the once-over, the teacher was unaware that he was under just as much scrutiny. Jonah had years of experience reading body language, and currently, he was putting it to use.
From his tapping foot and constant glances at his watch, it was clear to Jonah how the teacher couldn't be any less interested in his and Mme Leroy's one-sided 'altercation' from last week, if he tried. Jonah thought of it as almost comedic watching the headmaster's estranged attention metamorph into discomfort from the surges of rage courtesy of Mme Leroy. It was beyond obvious how he would have preferred to be anywhere else but entrapped in the classroom with them, alone.
Jonah bit the inside of his cheek. "But I thought we had already established that I did nothing wrong?"At this, Mme Leroy no longer attempted to disguise her sneer, letting the aggravation seize free rein of her face.
M. Dupont ignored his remark. "Madame Leroy has apologised for her lapse of judgment, earlier," he reasoned on behalf of the woman, whose scowl was intensifying by the second.
Her hair was crisp, layered so thickly with mousse that Jonah thought if he bent a strand between his fingers, it would snap. The leering she was directing Jonah's way only emphasised her wiry features, nearly as rigorous as her drive to put a wedge in Jonah's day-to-day life, just because she can.
He suppressed the urge to call her a name which would most definitely land him in hot water. Mme Leroy's 'apology' for unjustly losing her temper with him, was her feeding to M. Dupont how 'they both acted poorly' that day; not that she had been a complete and utter cow unprovoked, admitting to nothing. However, Jonah acknowledged that pushing for more than what luck had already granted him would be fighting a war he couldn't win. If a promised 'clean slate' was all the compensation he was to be offered, he'd take it.
Whatever Matthieu said to M. Dupont had worked wonders because he was willing to let Jonah get off with no more than a slap on the wrist, rather than the suspension Mme Leroy demanded when she found out he never made it into the headmaster's office. Matthieu had more than smoothed things over, to say the least.
Both of the Dartmoore siblings have remained elusive since Jonah's last encounters with them, with the exception of English lessons with Matthieu and the handful of classes he shared with Opal. They would consist of pining stares Jonah would secretly send her way when she wasn't looking, as well as the moments he'd find himself at a loss for words when Matthieu would call on him, because his thoughts had been entirely at the mercy of Opal.
However, his wandering thoughts couldn't keep the glass of his bottled-up resentment from cracking. The sheer audacity of this woman was sending him into orbit.
