My Rules

rule 4

At the clock's hands neared three p.m., I got a slightly anxious feeling. Dread settled heavily in my stomach and made me tense up. I didn't want to go and see Elliott.

And thought crossed my mind, Why should you then?

No. I'd disobeyed the school rules, and I needed to face the consequences. So, with mounting anxiety, I cleared my equipment from my desk when Miss Rowles told us we could pack up, and swung my rucksack onto my back.

Nadeem and Kyle bid me good luck with grim faces. Elliott already had a reputation of being strict. Nothing had happened in our class, as top set year eleven doesn't really have time to mess around, but she'd reportedly not been lenient, and hadn't even been seen to smile yet. If anyone put a toe out of line in Elliott's class, you got an automatic warning. If it happened again, you were immediately sent out. After that, it was straight to detention if you were stupid enough to misbehave a third time. She'd already given Sammy in the year below us three detentions, and he'd only had two lessons with her. Worse, the bully Alana in year nine had already been sent to inclusion after she called a girl a fat slut and threw her chair across the room. According to Mitch, Kyle's younger brother, Alana had also called Elliott a "son of a prostitute ridden with super-gonorrhea and a car washer", to which she just raised an eyebrow.

This disturbed me. If her system was warning, sent out, detention, why was I going to her classroom? I'd been sent out, surely a detention would be next. Logically, I would have just been sent to the CDR (Central Detention Room at my school) and stayed for an hour before being set free.

Whatever. I wasn't sure if Elliott was the kind of teacher to play mind games, but I wouldn't put it past her. I steeled myself as I walked across and up to the maths corridor.

I came to Elliott's door and took a deep breath. Here we go. I knocked.

"Come in."

I fumbled with the door handle and then walked in, seeing Elliott sat stoically at her desk. She looked at me and stood up, approaching me. "Sit down."

I sat down at the nearest desk, depositing my bag on the floor without grace.

"Why wouldn't you take your hoodie off?" She stood and walked to be in front of me, then leant against the cupboard opposite me and I scowled.

Bet she's loving this. Standing up whilst I sit down. I bet it makes her feel more powerful than me. "Why didn't you just give me a detention?" I deliberately held the eye contact between us.

"Answer the question." Her tone emanated practical boredom and methodical deliberation.

"It's cold." I folded my arms.

"There are school jumpers," she replied, walking through the logic with me.

"Yeah, and I left mine at my mum's. So get off my back about it." I blinked after I said that. I hadn't answered back to a teacher before, but I wasn't about to let her know that.

There was a pause. I couldn't tell what she was thinking, what she'd do. How bad was answering back in her eyes? What would the punishment be?

"Go down to the CDR and stay there for an hour." Elliott looked at me, her eyes boring into mine.

Wordlessly, I stood up, maintaining the eye contact, picked up my bag and left.

.......................................................................................................................................................

I hesitated for a moment outside of the CDR. Know one knew I was supposed to go in, so I could just walk away. But no.

Rule 4: do the crime, do the time. Very cliché but still a good rule.