Between the Prison and the Sewage works

 

Chapter 0ne

1

‘This place smells like a prison toilet!’ the detective cringed as he spoke to the constable.

‘Bad enough that you’re murdered but to be dumped at sewage works adds insult to injury,’ the constable replied sympathetically.

‘We’ll have our work cut out here, the body is extremely mutilated. Probably drugs related in this area,’ continued the detective as he visually surveyed the body and carefully searched the victim’s pockets.

‘He’s wearing designer clothes, a bit well dressed for a junkie?’ the constable remarked pointing to the Armani label on the jacket.

‘Junkies come in all forms; they’re not just scanks hanging around on street corners or getting wasted in shitty bedsits. Chances are he’s a dealer,’ replied the detective, now analysing the severe knife wounds on the chest and a deep gash to the neck.

‘He’s carved up like a pork roast which could suggest something personal, psychotic or most probably a nasty drugs dispute,’ said the detective decisively, signalling his partner to come over.

‘Gov, according to the local police, there’s a new drug that’s hit the streets in the area. The difficulty is it’s in short supply and dealers are scrambling over themselves to get enough supply, it’s causing a lot of agro between dealers,’ said his partner.

‘Why is it so special?’ the detective asked.

‘The hit the junkies get is lower but it lasts five times longer and it’s cheaper than coke or heroine,’ his partner informed him.

‘Sounds like good value for money! What’s it called?’

‘Nonstop.’

‘Nonstop, what kind of name is that?’

‘I presume it’s because it keeps you high for longer.’

‘We’d better start looking into this new drug to see if there is a connection with the victim. I suppose we should start with the school, seeing as it’s virtually next door.’

 

Chapter Two

2

 

Mara looked at her watch it was eight twenty; staff training was due to start at nine.

Knowing characteristically science teachers were an antisocial group, she headed for the science preparatory room for coffee and to meet her new colleagues.

She was a beginning teacher in a new school that had been relocated, rebuilt and renamed in accordance with the fresh start model designed by the government for deteriorating inner-city suburbs.

Opening the door to the prep room she had to quickly mask her initial shock at recognising a former classmate from the College of Education.

‘Olright,’ Gordon beamed.

She had had the misfortune to be partnered with Gordon on teaching practice at a school in Bexley Heath. After only six weeks on the course he had become resentful and cynical; loathed teaching and hated kids. Most days Gordon pessimistically complained about the system and the students.

‘I didn’t know you got a job here as well?’ Mara asked.

‘Yep, it was an eleventh hour thing,’ he grinned.

She then felt an arm and hand embrace her across her back shoulder and breast.

‘Hiya Ma.’

If Gordon was a shock, Daniel Oliver was a kick in the teeth. He had also trained at Goldsmiths College and been placed on a separate teaching assignment with Mara at a school in Lewisham. This had been a particularly painful experience as Mara found Daniel to be a revolting individual with narcissistic sexual issues. He was immune to other people’s reactions to his often grotesque remarks and topics of conversation.

A discussion with Daniel and Gordon revealed that in addition to the second teaching position vacant at the time of her interview, another post became available when one of the teachers sent a fax from Tehran, informing the school he was not allowed back in the country. Both Daniel and Gordon were the only applicants and had been offered the jobs on the phone. This supplementary information only deepened Mara’s anxieties about teaching at the school.

She now focused her attention on the two teachers patiently sitting in the prep room. The oldest teacher, Roger Judd smiled placidly at Mara welcoming her to the department. The second teacher immediately made her feel uncomfortable; an overweight middle aged man, with a mass of facial hair. He introduced himself as Piles.

‘Beg your pardon,’ Mara asked
‘It's my name see, right here,’ he replied.
‘Oh yes Piles, right there on your little snoopy name tag,’ Mara answered.

‘My wife bought that after our sixth child was born.’
‘You have .... children?’ Mara replied.

‘I'll show you some photos if you like?’ rummaging through his wallet. ‘Better not show you those ones. They're a bit naughty of me and the missus. Huhuh ehhh!’

‘Uggggh. Too much information,’ Mara replied curtly.

This wasn’t the most heartening of introductions to the science department. In the space of a few minutes she had found out she was now working with Mr unenthusiastic, Daniel Oliver, whom she was hoping never to see again, Roger, who was obviously waiting to retire and die and something that looked like it hadn’t followed the same evolutionary path as the rest of humanity. The only saving grace it seemed for the science department was the head of science, Jeremy, whom she had met in her interview; although morbidly obese, was comparatively ordinary.

As Mara poured a coffee, Jeremy entered the prep room and beamed good morning. He spent a few minutes unconvincingly reassuring his colleagues about the new term. Pep talk now over, he turned to Mara and apologised for her timetable.

‘I’m sorry, but you seem to have acquired a lot of senior classes of low ability students and you have a full timetable.’

Great! Mara thought.

‘But at least you will get some support,’ Jeremy continued.

The bell gave out a piecing ring (It was the warning bell). Staff training was due to start in five minutes. Mara, followed her new colleagues to the staff room. It had occurred to her that this would in fact be the first time she had seen the staff room. On reflection, she had seen very little of the school when she came for the interview, having been rushed in to the headmaster’s office and then rushed out as soon as she accepted the position. Naively she had not requested a tour or seen any students in their lessons.

The large blue grey staffroom felt cold and clinical. The noticeable white board seemed to be the focal point of the room; it was split into four sections: Today, this week, this term and a huge blank white board. Located next to the notice boards were various pigeon holes arranged, not in order of seniority or alphabetically, but according to the sign, how tall you were. This seemed a logical system, however everyone could still reach the top pigeon holes, with the exception of the secretary who was only five foot and at that moment was using a chair to reach the upper pigeon holes. At the opposite end of the room were dark blue chairs, arranged around grey plastic coffee tables in front of an unnaturally large window, which overlooked the school playground.

Smelling coffee, Mara decided she needed more caffeine and walked over to the kitchenette. A large red sign hung over the sink informing staff there was no maid service. Searching for a spare mug she became aware of a nearby door with a porthole filled with swirls of smoke. Confirmation that this was the smoker’s room was soon established when a sickly looking teacher, opened the door coughing and staggered through the archway leading into a teacher work room and offices.

Mara scanned the room for a place to sit realising she’d left it too late to be picky and resigning herself to sitting next to Piles and an equally freakish abnormality who was clearly his friend.

The noise level rapidly dropped as the senior management team entered the room. Mara recognised the headmaster Alan, from the interview; a short well built man in his fifties. He was flanked by his contrasting deputies; Jim Davison who was abnormally tall with very noticeable incisors and a dictatorial grin, and Joyce Crest who had a sour appearance with puffy bags under her eyes and sphere shaped waist which made her look like a Swiss ball on legs.

The headmaster addressed the room with a welcome back and introductions to the nine new staff. As he spoke, Joyce wrote furiously on the board

Welcome back.

Nine new teachers.

‘This year we are going to be working towards raising standards and improving on last year’s G.C.S.E results. We will have…….’ the monotonous tone did nothing to keep Mara attentive to his lecture. Looking around she could see Joyce poised with her chisel tipped board marker summarising the words flowing from his lips, while other staff gazed at different areas of the staffroom.

Mara gave up trying to listen, her mind started to think about the horrific timetable she had been given. Surely that wasn’t fair? All those crap classes and a timetable of a fully qualified teacher! She drifted back into the staffroom. The white board was half full with bullet points and reminders in different coloured ink. The head ended his speech with a smile and informed staff that there would be department meetings until morning break and then two seminars would be held in the library, one on behavioural management, led by Jim, followed by a session on the classroom manager programme with Joyce.

The staff room emptied quickly as teachers left for their individual meetings.

The science briefing was quick and informal. Jeremy hurriedly outlined the various policies and systems within the department. Mara redressed the overloaded timetable, to which Jeremy replied that there was nothing he could do, and that she would have to see Jim Davison, who was also her first year mentor.

The bell rang for morning break.

‘So how long have you worked at the school Roger?’ Mara asked dunking a teabag in a mug.

‘Thirty six years.’

Daniel coughed and spluttered choking on the food he was shovelling into his mouth.

‘Bloody hell, you must have taught these kid’s grandfathers?’ said Daniel, quickly recovering and continuing to chew.

‘Yes, ‘I've seen a lot of changes over the years,’ Roger replied, smiling.

‘I bet behaviour has gotten worse?’ Gordon asked.

‘No, surprisingly it’s stayed the same throughout.’

‘You would have gotten a good old thrashing years ago. That’ll sort these little bastards out!’ Gordon stated. ‘Bring back the cane,’ he added excitedly.

Mara sniffed and looked around the room.

‘What’s that smell?’

Piles sat eerily in the corner eating tuna fish out of a small can. Mara then recoiled in disgust when he picked pieces of tuna out of his beard and devoured them like sweets.

He truly is disgusting! She thought averting her eyes.

The door of the prep room opened and a woman put her head around.

‘Hi Jeremy, here’s the French recipe book you wanted,’

‘Thanks Tessa,’ replied Jeremy as he heaved himself off the stool to collect the piece of paper she was holding.

Meanwhile Daniel was laughing at the noise that had just erupted from him.

‘Better in than out,’ he grinned.

‘Still eating a tin of beans a day Daniel?’ Mara asked sarcastically.

‘Yep, stops my insides from clogging up,’ he replied, oblivious to the revolting smell now consuming the room.

The bell rang.

‘Part deux of training,’ said Mara picking up her folder and leaving.

She quickly walked to the library, endeavouring to be one of the first in, so she could pick a suitable seat. About half the teachers were already present and sat in their various social groups. She noticed two younger male teachers who looked more normal than the science department and sat in the empty chair next to them.

‘Hi. I’m Mara.’

‘Uh, I’mm Deeon,’ he strained.

‘Nice to meet you,’ Mara replied.

‘Yeeah, nice to meet you too. What do you teach?’

‘Science,’ she answered.

‘Yeah biioloogy and all that?’

‘Let me guess? You teach P.E?’

‘Yeeah, how did you know?’

The inane blank expression you’re sporting! Mara thought cruelly.

‘The tracksuit, of course!’

A baby-faced, conservatively dressed teacher besides Deon introduced himself as Mat.

‘ Mara.’

‘Are you new here as well?’ Mat asked.

‘Yep, is it that obvious?’ she replied.

The library filled with the remaining staff, one of whom was very noticeable; she had long curly red hair and a tight low cut cerise dress. The woman searched the room for someone to sit with, momentarily glancing in Mara’s direction before turning, flicking her hair and theatrically resigning herself to sitting next to a tiny girl who just paled in comparison.

‘That’s Steffi, the media studies teacher. She’s nuts, I’d keep away from her,’ Deon warned Mat.

Looking around the room Mara could see the librarian lifting papers while frantically talking on the phone in her glasshouse office.

‘She looks busy,’ Mara joked to Deon.

‘She’s mad as a bag of frogs that one, the school has been trying to get rid of her for ages.

Jim entered the room with an air of authority and the talking quickly died down.

‘Good morning. This morning we will be focusing on behavioural management in the classroom and the policies that are in place to deal with such conduct. I do really urge you to use the systems I have put into place.’

He rattled on for another twenty minutes, showing various flow charts and diagrams on the over head projector.

There seems to be a structure in place to deal with naughty children. Mara reassured herself.

It was now time for Joyce to take her place on the podium. At this point Mara shifted in her seat and glanced at Deon who looked positively dazed.

Must be on autopilot; too many sentences for a PE teacher. She joked to herself.

‘Hi team. My job is to oversee data. Today I’m going to talk about the classroom manager programme on the server, and how you can make my job easier,’ she chuckled.

‘Now, how to use it: A, you need to enter the correct data, b, stick to deadlines, because I’m far too busy to chase anyone up, c if you need to give me any information to enter into my system, which will happen, then give me the information on the correct colour paper. There are six different colours for each area, please don’t get them mixed up, otherwise you’ll have do it again on the correct coloured paper as everything has to be filed. Now yellow is for….’

Mara switched off and started to reminisce about her holiday in Portugal a few weeks ago. The difference was stark; no beach, no sun, no cheesy music, no drunken behaviour and no Don Juan’s.

‘And pink is for those students you have entered for the exam, but have not achieved any grades, and will probably be withdrawn, depending on wheather they gain any future grades. Then of course if that happens, you need to start using the buff coloured paper again. I hope that’s clear.’

The bell rang again to signal lunch. Jim stood up at this point and announced that lunch was in the canteen for all members of staff.

The canteen was predictably different hues of grey with food laid out as a buffet; consisting of sausage rolls, pies, cake, and an array of stodgy stuff and a sorry looking salad in a bowl. Jeremy, working on his figure, unashamedly filled his plate with mini pies, sausage rolls and chips. Mara reconciled to sitting next to Gordon and Daniel to eat her fish fingers and chips. Better the devil you know! She sighed inwardly.

With lunch over, the afternoon was spent getting classrooms set up and preparing work.

What a day, Mara thought, as she waited for the bus. I’m not looking forward to tomorrow, I may need to call into the supermarket and get alcoholic sustenance.

 

Chapter Three

3

‘Yet when I hoped for good, evil came. When I looked for light, and then came the darkness. The churning inside me never stops. Days of suffering confront me, hallelujah. Praise the Lord,’ Pastor Cosmos shouted.

The alarm clock was set to the religious station God Show Me the Way. A channel so tedious and thunderous Mara found it difficult to lay in bed and fall back to sleep.

Staring at 6:02 glowing on the clock Mara knew it was time to get up if she was going to catch the bus before the school kids.

The combination of nerves, fatigue and the residual effects of red wine, gave her a foggy sensation. As she showered, dressed, ate, drank and walked to the bus stop, she felt like a voyeur hovering above her head. Even the beautiful autumnal morning was eclipsed by the prospect of teaching. Headlights roared towards her; she squinted to see the bus number and then stepped back. Two more buses rumbled along throwing out plumes of smoke and stinking diesel, finally a number thirty six approached and slowed down as she stuck her hand out. Stepping onto the bus she showed her pass and the driver gave a quick look and nodded. She found a seat at the back.

‘God I hope no nut cases sit next to me today,’ she sighed, studying the parade of early morning workers exhibiting various degrees of misery. By the time the bus reached the school Mara was the only one left.

End of the line! Mara thought standing up waiting for the bus to stop.

This is the day I confront the academics of Thamesmead Polytechnic School, and impart my knowledge onto them. What a responsibility, she mocked, trying to lighten her mood as she walked through the gates.

 

Mara’s first tasks were to make coffee, check the notice boards and empty her pigeon hole. To her surprise Daniel Oliver was already in the staffroom and what looked like riffling in other people’s pigeon holes.

I’m making something of nothing, Mara thought. Just because I detest him, I can’t assume that he’s always up to no good.

‘Hiya Ma, what are you doing here so early?’ Daniel asked.

‘I have to catch the bus before the kids get on, so it’s an early morning start for me, but at least I can get some work done.

‘Yeah, I thought I’d come in early to use the computer and get…..’

Mara looked in her pigeon hole while Daniel prattled on about what he could achieve in the mornings. There were a few notices about staff meetings, a photocopying number, an important dates notice, a user name and password for computer and internet access.

‘Wanna cup of coffee?’ Daniel asked.

Mara paused.

‘No. It’s okay, I’ll make it,’ thoughts of Rohypnol being slipped into her morning coffee sprung into head.

He’s only being friendly, she chastised herself.

‘Did you know there was a meeting before lessons?’ she asked guiltily.

‘Yeah, waste of time, if you ask me, see ya.’

Mara retreated to her classroom to prepare the board for her first class. The nerves didn’t seem to subside no matter how many times she tried to calm herself.

The bell rang for the morning briefing. She made her way to the staff room, saw Daniel and sat beside him still feeling a little penitent. The teacher behind her was asleep until Daniel brazenly shouted.

‘Rise and shine sleeping beauty!’

Mara rolled her eyes, justifying her previous misgivings.

The headmaster walked in followed by his posse of deputies. Joyce took her place by the whiteboard ready to incessantly scribble the briefing notes, while Jim stood behind Alan beaming at his underlings.

‘Good morning all. Today’s the day the students come back,’ Alan said firmly.

Mara glanced at Joyce. Day one for students was being scrawled across the whiteboard; she then changed her pen to a different colour.

‘We need to start out in a positive manner. Remember always try to be encouraging, some of our students come from tough backgrounds and sometimes school is the only stability they have in their lives.’

Alan’s voice disappeared as Mara started thinking about her first class. She snapped back into the room when the tone changed. Jim had taken over to give out the daily notices.

‘All students must stay in class; they are not allowed to go to the toilet. If you must let students out, remember to give them a note which should have a time, date and signature, of course if it’s an emergency and you need someone from senior management, send a trustworthy student with a note containing the emergency code. Oh, that’s ‘red balloons’ for those of us who are new to the school.’

He continued to read a list of procedures for the next few minutes unaware that his audience had turned off.

Joyce was now crouching down low, trying to write in the final bullet point.

‘Just before you go,’ Joyce croaked.

‘The classroom manager system is being updated this morning by my guy Chris, hopefully it will be up and running by lunchtime, so I’ll be far too busy, PLEASE, PLEASE, don’t disturb me with anything else.’

With that final instruction the bell rang to signal the start of lessons.

An excited swarm of children had gathered in the corridor waiting for their teachers. As the classroom doors opened student’s disappeared and the commotion slowly dwindled. Mara now felt nervous at the prospect of teaching her first lesson.

As she walked towards her classroom, she could see a montage of students hungrily waiting at the front of the door. She waded though the children confidently greeting them with a smile as they gawked at her.

‘Come in and sit down silently,’ Mara said, still trying to sound firm.

None of the students said hello or asked a question. She was still an unknown entity.

The boys were typical inner-city teens, scruffy and spotty. In contrast the girls were excessively groomed, with tight pony tails heavily back combed to resemble dusting feathers and hostile make-up plastered to their faces

The last child to enter the class was a sheepish ginger haired boy called Darryl. Some boys had clearly held him down before the lesson and written loser across his forehead. Darryl had waited outside the room until everyone else found a place. As he looked for a seat another boy with glasses and short dreadlocks shouted.

‘Loser.’

‘How dare you speak to another member of the class like that? Wait outside.’ Mara said firmly.

‘What! I’m being sent out for that, that’s stupid,’ he slurred defiantly.

He was obviously high up on the pecking order and needed to show that he was not easily intimidated by a mere teacher.

‘Out you go. I’m not telling you again,’ Mara commanded

The boy left the room as dramatically as he could, exaggerating all his movements, slamming the door on the way out.

She cleared her throat and introduced herself to the class whilst writing her name on the board. For most of the lesson the students looked at her vacantly, occasionally copying from the board.

‘Miss, when are you going to let Michael back in?’ one of the girls asked.

She had forgotten about the boy she had sent out.

‘When I’m ready!’ Mara retorted.

A few minutes later she went out to retrieve the offending boy; he was gazing down at his feet looking bored and confused; not expecting to be outside the classroom for so long.

The lesson continued quietly with no one bothering to answer any questions or engaging with what they were being taught

The bell rang for morning break. Mara was glad to see the end of the double period; it wasn’t as tough as she had anticipated, but it was only the first lesson.

The rest of the classes followed a similar pattern to period one. Mara felt a huge sense of relief at getting to the end of day one. Now that she had met most of the students she was going to teach, she felt a little more confident.

Gordon called into the class room on his way out to ask how the first day had gone. He too had found the kids quite subdued. Daniel later informed Mara in the prep room, that he thought he’d made a real connection with the students.

The week, although busy, was non eventful. When the bell rang at 3:15 it marked the end of the week and two whole days away from Thamesmead Poly. Ten minutes after the bell rang, a message bellowed over the loudspeaker.

‘Heerre’s Boyo. If anyone is interested, there’s a staff debrief at the Pig’s Gut, over and out.’

She had already met Boyo and the thought of being stuck with him and his freak friend Piles wasn’t the least bit appealing. As Mara headed out of the science area, she met Mat in the corridor and he asked if she was going to the pub.

‘I was thinking about it but didn’t want to go down on my own’ Mara replied.

‘Me too, how about we go down together,’ he suggested.

‘Agreed.’

On arrival at the Pig’s Gut, Boyo was finishing a pint and standing at the bar ready to order another. Mara and Mat walked over and stood beside him waiting to be served.

‘This is my local,’ piped Boyo.

‘How nice,’ Mara replied, looking away as if admiring the surroundings.

‘The red velvet wallpaper is so classy and I love the plywood tables and chairs,’ Mara smirked looking up at Mat, ‘Oh and look they even have authentic grime on the floor!’

The bar man finally arrived holding a grubby rag and appeared pissed off that he had customers. He looked at Boyo and nodded.

‘Pint of Stella, please Bill,’ Boyo replied importantly.

Bill didn’t seem to acknowledge Boyo’s request but took his used glass, flicked the beer tap down, filled it and unceremoniously passed it back. Meanwhile Boyo had attentively placed the correct money on the bar, and was waiting for some kind of positive signal, like a dog waiting for a pat from his owner. Bill slid the coins off the bar and put them in the till. He turned his attention to Mara and Mat.

‘I’ll have a Stella,’ Mat said.

‘Me too,’ Mara added. Somehow it seemed easier. Bill didn’t look like he appreciated people mucking him around with choices. While Bill pulled the pints Mara looked over to the group that had formed in the corner. Amongst the teachers was Daniel talking vibrantly to a young girl called Lucy, who seemed impressed by his verbal diarrhoea.

Oh no! There are only two seats and one’s next to that vile creation Piles. She thought, looking at him hunched over and chuckling to himself. The other seat was next to Roger who was contentedly smiling at the space in front of him.

‘Wow, this really is the in crowd,’ whispered Mara to Mat as they walked over to the group.

‘Hi Roger. How’s your day been?’ Mara asked, as she sat down next to him.

‘Good. What about your first week?’ he replied snapping out of his daydream.

‘Not bad.’

As Mara continued to chat to Roger more teachers came into the pub. One of whom was Steffi the media studies teacher she had seen waltz into the library on the first day. Steffi wore a long flowing red dress and was accompanied by her dreary friend, who Mara had now decided was a genetically engineered human mouse creation. Steffi continued to draw attention by talking loudly to Bill about what she wanted to drink.

‘Oh what shall I have? Wine! No. No. I’ll have a Bloody Mary, haven’t had one of those for weeks! Marvellous! A Bloody Mary barman.’

Bill was not amused. He frowned, visibly annoyed at having to mix a drink. Steffi was now scanning the room for someone worthy of her company. Bill Poured tomato juice into the vodka, handed her the glass and waited for payment .

‘It’s missing something barman?’ Steffi said after taking a sip.

‘Oh my friend is paying’.

He turned to Emma and asked her what she wanted without even acknowledging Steffi’s grievance.

Without a word to her friend, Steffi literally spun on her heel and headed over to Mara’s table leaving her friend to pay. The fact there were no seats at the table did not deter her, She dragged a chair from another table and squeezed into a space between Boyo and Mat; making waving gestures for both of them to move apart and let her in.

‘Well hello everyone, it’s just marvellous that everyone’s here, new and old staff alike. I’m Steffi, if you don’t already know, the drama stroke media studies teacher,’ she said lifting her arms and making quotation marks with her fingers.

She’s got crazy tattooed across her forehead! Mara concluded.

To Mara’s surprise the sleeping teacher whom she had seen in the staff room at briefing walked in. He got himself a drink and joined the table.

‘Hi everyone,’ he yawned.

‘It’s unusual to see you here Tony?’ Roger asked.

‘Thought I’d come and join you for a couple, Betty’s away visiting her sister this weekend, so I can do the shopping tomorrow instead.’

He moved a seat and sat next to Emma who seemed to squeak when she shuffled her chair to make space for Tony.

The next couple of hours passed relatively quickly; naturally Tony had fallen asleep and no one seemed surprised.

Steffi had become louder the more intoxicated she got and was now knocking back her drinks at an alarming rate. She attempted to take over the conversation many times, at one point stating that people were afraid of her because she was a confident modern woman. She seemed to have taken a shine to Mat and kept firing questions at him.

‘Do you know how many women are in the senior management team?’ she asked aggressively.

‘Uh, I don’t know,’ he replied.

‘One, that’s how many! That’s of course if you can call her a woman!’ Steffi scoffed.

‘It’s a sexist school you know,’ she added for her audience.

Her outbursts increasingly were becoming erratic and Mat was too polite to tell her to shut it.

Steffi was not the only person getting louder as the evening wore on. Daniel competed adequately with his vulgar story, now starting to catch the attention of those around the table. He was giving an account of how he indecently exposed himself on his best mate’s stag night. Then, as if encouraged by everyone’s silence, further revealed how they had managed to push a toy weeble up the rectum of the groom to be.

‘When I told the story at the wedding in my best man’s speech, I, get this, held up the offending weeble!’ Daniel bellowed unashamedly.

Uncertain and hesitant laughs came from around the table. Even Steffi had stopped in her tracks bemused at Daniel’s tale. Mara who of course was used to his fiction on teaching practice, knew he either fabricated events or exaggerated the truth and wasn’t the least bit shocked.

Daniel’s fairy tale just about ended the Friday after school debrief. Although to be fair to Daniel it was almost over anyway, as Mat was itching to get away from Steffi, Emma had had enough of being ignored by her friend and looked frustrated and Tony woke up, rubbed his eyes and said he was feeling tired and should head home to bed. Daniel and Lucy were the first to go sharing a taxi home. Piles and Boyo however, were very drunk and seemed deep in conversation about the acting abilities of John Holmes in his detective movies.

The weekend was a blur. Mara had wasted most of it catching up on boring stuff like the washing, as well as easing her depressive state with red wine.

It was now Sunday night and she felt a spasm of despondency as the prospect of going into school the next day drew closer.

The alarm cried to the sound of pastor Cosmos preaching to his flock. Mara looked outside her bedroom window to see a grey wet street.

‘Great! Crap weather to match the crap day I’m probably going to have,’ she moaned.

It was far too early in the morning but she had to catch the seven am bus. She drearily carried out her morning routine and waited at the bus stop. The journey itself was a visual fusion of tatty buildings, dirt and rubbish. How could people live here? No wonder people turn to drink and drugs, this place reeks of no hope. Jesus, it’s hard to feel happy in this hole. What a way to start the day! She reflected whilst inanely staring out of the window.

As Mara walked in through the gates, Daniel drove in behind her. He beeped and waved. Mara’s half hearted nod in response seemed to go over his head. He jumped out the car and enthusiastically said good morning, followed by chatter about his weekend.

‘Had a great Saturday night, got into a cool bar, managed to blag my way in. Lots of nice chicks there,’

‘Really!’ Mara replied.

Daniel continued talking about how irresistible he was to the opposite sex.

She thought about asking him what happened with Lucy on Friday night and then decided she didn’t really want to know.

To Mara’s relief, he said was heading to the prep room.

‘I’m going to get a coffee from the staffroom.’ Mara replied.

‘See ya,’ Daniel saluted.

In the staff room Mara checked her pigeon hole. The only item was a hand scribbled note from Jim informing her that she had to attend a science professional development course on Thursday. This piece of good luck however was soon eclipsed by the absentee cover list attached to the notice board. She would be teaching a lesson for Mr Manuelle. Steve Manuelle was second in command to Tony in the religious education department and had according to Jeremy mythical status; not many people knew who he was, they just knew he existed as his pigeon hole was never emptied and staff were always covering his lessons. Some teachers would routinely put rubbish in his pigeon hole as a form of retaliation.

An uneventful morning was interrupted by a fight breaking out in Roger’s class room, but according to the laboratory technicians, such incidents were normal, occurring a few times a week depending on how bored the students were.

Mara begrudgingly covered Mr Manuelle’s senior RE class. The work set by him was easy; a simple activity involving cutting out pictures of religious figures like Jesus, Moses, Mary and matching them to a name, such as Jesus, Moses or Mary, then colouring in the pictures. For those who needed extending, they were instructed to learn how to spell the names of those religious figures.

Shit, this work must have taken him ages to plan! Mara thought shaking her head in amusement.

The afternoon was a little more action packed with the fire alarm being set off; a frequent event that no one seemed to take seriously judging from the cheers reverberating around the school. Unlike previous false alarms this time there had actually been a genuine reason. One of the students in Roger’s lesson had stolen his reel of magnesium ribbon, set fire to it and thrown it in his cupboard while another student distracted him. Roger realising his cupboard was smoking, tried to put out the fire with the extinguisher, but the science technician had panicked and broke the glass setting off the alarm. The students reacted by running out the room screaming ‘help’. Despite Roger putting out the fire in his cupboard, the fire brigade had to attend. The whole incident had sent the students into a frenzy, which made the afternoon extremely difficult for all teachers.

Mara welcomed the bell to signal the end of school. Unfortunately there was still a meeting to get through before she could go home.

The staffroom quickly filled with teachers. Roger was amongst the first to settle in a seat and Mara sat next to him.

‘Another day at the office Rog?’ Mara remarked.

‘Oh yeah,’ he chucked, unperturbed by the afternoon’s events.

You’ve got to admire him, Mara thought. He must be pretty thick skinned.

The meeting was predictably mind numbing. Mara drifted in and out of consciousness occasionally looking up to see Joyce scribbling relentlessly on the board, while Jim talked down to the teachers whilst scanning the room trying to catch someone not listening. Floating back in to the room she heard him finishing.

‘Finally! No students should be allowed out of class during lessons, unless they have a note. Oh one more item, Ben Butterworth has been stood down for three days following his activities this afternoon. Meeting closed.’

Thank God that’s over, though Mara.

Thursday’s course for science teachers from the six local schools soon arrived. Professional development was a double-edged sword; it was a chance to escape teaching but the day was always lengthy, tedious, with far too much nit-picking and arguing. Nevertheless she was told she had to go and go she had too.

Mara caught the train to Oak Hill School, the venue for this event. The train was definitely a more pleasant experience than the bus, as it was travelling away from central London, and not packed with commuters.

Oak Hill School was old in the sense it was dilapidated and looked like it was being held together with barbed wire and paint. The reception area was clearly marked with signage instructing visitors to press the button and talk.

‘Bloody hell, all that’s missing is a lookout tower and armed guard’. Mara whispered to herself, as she pressed the buzzer and spoke. The huge door clicked open to reveal a grim faced woman sat waiting for Mara to say something.

‘Good morning, I’m here for the science development day,’ Mara smiled

‘I know you said when you buzzed!’ she replied pointing towards a door at the end of the corridor.

Mara followed the direction of the finger which led to the staffroom. Amongst all the chatter there was a distinct group of people who looked unsure where to place themselves and what to do. They must be the mugs roped into the professional development, Mara decided as she walked towards them and sat down. It wasn’t long before a middle aged woman with dangly earrings came over to them.

‘Hello, are you all involved with the science day?’ she grinned.

All nodded in unison.

‘Jolly good, follow me, were off to the S4, that’s science room four.’ The lemmings followed her to the science room, which was predictably old and tattered; it looked like it had its last refit in the 1950’s. The benches and tables had decades of names etched in, along with comments about Mr Adam’s sexual orientation and various slags and slappers that had attended the school. Daniel strolled into the room shortly after and made a beeline for Mara, pulled over a stool, sat down and simultaneously winked, clicked his tongue and smiled.

I really do hate him. Mara thought.

‘Good afternoon!’ Mara said.

‘Good morning Miss Proficient!’ he replied teasingly.

‘I haven’t seen Gordon yet,’ said Mara, ignoring his wisecrack.

‘He was complaining of Diarrhoea yesterday so he might not be able to drag himself here,’ Daniel replied.

‘Good morning everyone, I’m Pat the science adviser for the Borough of Greenwich. I would like to....’

The classroom door burst open. A short round grey haired woman with glasses fell into the room. Clearly flustered she apologised for being late and walked over to a wall socket, proceeding to plug in her mobile phone and make a phone call.

‘Hello. HELLO. GARY. GARY can you hear me? Could you come and pick me up at three. I also need you to get the papers from the solicitor.’

Her high pitched voice was now drowning the science advisor, who was trying to run through the agenda for the day. Mara found it difficult not to laugh at this woman’s clear inability to recognise she was the centre of attention. Meanwhile sensitive as ever Daniel arrogantly grinned with folded arms; making no effort to hide his enjoyment of the scene. Eventually the woman settled down into a seat still oblivious to the disruption she had caused with her antics.

‘I would like everyone to introduce themselves and say which school they are from,’ droned the science advisor.

One by one the teachers blandly said their name and school. The door opened again and the receptionist walked in unapologetically interrupting a nervous sounding woman who was repeating the name of her school because Daniel had shouted out pardon. Without any kind of explanation, she pointed to the stressed woman that had come in late.

‘Your school just rang, they couldn’t find your register and they have an audit today,’ she said conceitedly.

‘I don’t know where it is either, tell them it’s somewhere on my desk.’

‘They said that they’ve searched your office and your classroom.’

‘Uh, it must be there!’ she rasped, now red faced and looking very self-conscious at the attention she was drawing.

‘So ill tell them it might be under some papers,’ she said contemptuously, walking out with no intention of waiting for a reply.

At this point the science advisor gave the woman a yellow stress ball.

‘I think you might have earned this dear.’

Mara looked at Daniel. He was stretched out and leaning back on his chair beaming; clearly delighted at watching someone else in trauma.

As anticipated, the day was long and drawn out, a small minority of teachers argued over irrelevant issues. One man became quite angry and had to be subdued by a fellow colleague.

Daniel was like a fly on a carcass, he followed Mara around all day. This of course irritated Mara but because she had arranged a lift home with him she had to be both pleasant and polite.

Daniel used the car journey home to talk about himself. Mara’s response to a wholly one sided conversation was to nod, agree and throw in the occasional.

‘Really.’

‘Oh.’

‘How nice.’

‘Mara, why did you become a teacher? I was a computer programmer before this. I realised one day that I had enough of sitting at a desk looking at a screen. I needed to interact with people. I studied psychology at university and I know I don’t teach psychology or anything, but at least I feel like I’m doing something in the realm of science.’

‘Holidays,’ Mara responded.

‘My mate, James teaches at an all girls school in East Dulwich, he says I should go and work there cause some of the sixth form girls are really hot.’

‘Yeah, go for it. You might find yourself a lovely wife,’ she replied lifting her eyebrows.

‘So what do you do at weekends?’ he asked oblivious to her obtuse response.

‘You know if you’ve got nothing else to do at the weekend you could come out with me and my mate James.’

What a revolting prospect. Mara thought.

‘I’m always really busy catching up with friends and that,’ she lied.

Mara didn’t know many people in London, only those she trained with at teacher’s college. Even then she had not kept in contact with them.

She had to now decide whether or not to ask Daniel to drop her off just down the road from her flat or stop directly outside. Part of her didn’t want him knowing where she lived in case he turned up with his mate James. On the other hand she couldn’t be bothered to walk, and it had just started to pelt down with rain.

‘Just here will do, thanks Daniel.’

‘So this is where you live? Umm.’

Daniel pulled into the bus stop, watched her get out, saluted and drove off.

‘God he’s a dick.’

Once inside her flat she cracked open the wine and switched on the television. The wine was like liquid relaxation. Deep down she knew this was probably not a good path to follow, but the alcohol really did ease her despondency.

Watching the news almost unconsciously, the word Thamesmead, got her attention.

‘He was discovered at approximately 6:30 am at Thamesmead Polytechnic School in East London. The unnamed man is thought to have broken in to the school late last night and had some kind of accident while committing a burglary. He was found on the floor with a broken neck. Police believe he tripped and fell down the stairs. Unable to breathe properly he eventually suffocated. Police have not yet confirmed if there is a connection between this latest incident and the discovery of a body found recently at a nearby sewage works,’ said the reporter who was standing in front of the Thamesmead Polytechnic sign on a deserted school site.

‘Police sent students and staff home this morning while they carried out their investigations. Nicholas Hemmingway. BBC one, Thamesmead. South East London.’

‘Jesus Christ,’ Mara blurted. ‘They closed the school on the one day I was out on professional development!’

The thought then occurred to Mara that there could be another day off in this for her. She rang the school to find out what was happening.

There was no answer just a taped message saying that the school would reopen as usual tomorrow. Her heart sank.

After dinner and a couple more glasses of wine, Mara’s mind started to think about who the victim could have been.

‘My God, Gordon wasn’t there today. Maybe he stayed late to do some work? No that would be impossible. He’s usually out the school the second the bell rings; if he could get away with it he would chuck the keys to the kids and ask them to lock up on their way out!’ she said whilst looking in the cupboard for another bottle of wine.

‘But how could the guy have got past the security alarm, and apart from big bulky things like computers there is nothing of real value in the school. I’ll find out more tomorrow.’

 

Chapter Four

4

‘A Vile disease has beset him; he will never get up from the place where he lies. Praise the lord!’

Mara reached for the off button on the radio. Her mind felt foggy.

‘I drank far too much wine last night,’ she grumbled.

‘A couple more minutes and I’ll get up.’

Mara awoke startled; looking at the clock she realised she had missed the early morning bus and would be riding to school with the kids. The cut off time to ring in sick had passed and in any case she wanted to find out what happened yesterday. Rushing around the flat she tied her hair, cleaned her teeth, sprayed deodorant and caked on the make up to disguise her bloated eyes.

‘That will effing have to do!’

She ran to the bus stop with the slim optimism that she may just escape the bulk of the kids. As the bus pulled into the inlet, that slender hope she was holding on to slipped away. It was full of students. The noise on the bus quickly subsided as one by one the kids had realised a teacher had got on. She could feel all eyes on her as she sat down in the only available seat at the front next to the ginger kid, Darryl, who even the staff referred to as victim boy. As the bus roared down the road, the laughing became louder and louder. Mara felt increasingly uneasy. Then it started. Balls of paper were being hurled down the aisle. Not so close as to hit her, but close enough to try and provoke a reaction.

What the bloody hell should I do? Mara thought.

She turned around and glared to show that she was not in the least bit intimidated. This had no effect. The paper missiles resumed once she had turned back, but this time they were hitting victim boy who would shout and swear at random kids. Mara’s nose was beginning to form beads of sweat; if she put up with the paper attack it would undermine her authority in the classroom. As she turned again she saw Emmanuelle Tundie with his arm drawn back ready to throw a paper ball.

‘GOT YOU! Get down here now,’ she shouted.

‘But I wasn’t going to throw it. And I didn’t throw any of the others,’ Emmanuelle whined.

‘You’re the one that’s been caught and you’re the one that I’m taking to Mr Davison.’

Mara got out of her seat and walked Emmanuelle to the rear of the bus. She moved two of the students from the back seat and told them to sit somewhere else. Something she realised she should have done at the start.

The journey seemed to be everlastingly. Mara wisely waited for the kids to disembark before fog marching the felonious child to Jim Davison’s office.

Knocking on the door Mara instructed the boy to sit on a nearby chair.

‘Come in,’ he answered.

She walked in to the office and closed the door behind her. Jim was sitting in a plush swivel chair with his legs outstretched. Because he was so tall, he looked like a stick insect precariously perched on a branch.

‘Hello,’ he beamed as salvia torpedoed out of his mouth.

‘What can I do for you Ms Thompson?’

She then explained what had occurred on the bus. Jim’s response to the situation was what she wanted to hear. He assured her he would deal with the offender and suitably punish him.

However, whilst Mara was in the office the deviant boy had run off.

‘Don’t worry, he won’t get far I’ll catch up with him,’ Jim said grinning as if he was looking forward to the challenge.

Jesus what a start to the morning, how could things get any worse?

Coffee, I need coffee. I feel like absolute crap. She said to herself.

 

Entering the staffroom, it was obvious that people had for once made an effort to be early. Usually morning staff briefing was an afterthought that people rushed to. The topic of conversation on everyone’s lips was of course the body. Looking across the room Mara could see Gordon talking to Tony, who was explaining something which involved waving his arms and hands around. Gordon listened intensely, following Tony’s arm movements and nodding with enthusiasm.

Clearly Gordon wasn’t the victim, she thought as she made herself a coffee. Tony had walked away and Gordon was sitting down looking through papers he had found in his pigeon hole. Mara walked over to him.

‘Hey Gordon. How are you?’ Mara asked.

‘Okay, better than yesterday. I had one of the twenty four hour bug things. I was glued to the toilet.’

‘Sounds nasty,’ Mara replied mildly not really wanting to know any more.

‘Yeah it was. Did you know Tony plays table tennis in his spare time?’

‘Uh. No, wouldn’t have thought he would have the energy.’

Alan marched importantly through the archway followed by his body of people. The room quickly quietened eager for news.

‘Good morning. As you know the events of yesterday were quite unprecedented in the school. Police have not yet released the name of the man found at the bottom of the stairs; there is however some speculation that this was no ordinary burglary as no attempt was made to get into the computer room, which probably has our most valuable resources. There’s only superficial damage to doors and locks. I can’t tell you a great deal as I am as in the dark as much as you are.’

Yeah right. Mara thought.

‘Needless to say, we are aiming to get back to normal as quickly as possible. The cordoned area near the management offices is strictly off limits to everyone; STAFF and students. Please ensure you keep yourselves and pupils as far away as possible from this part of the school, take the long way if necessary.’

That certainly wasn’t worth having a mare of a morning for. Mara thought. I should have rung in sick; said I had one of those twenty four hour bug things and glued to the toilet!

Having finished his speech Alan left the staffroom leaving Jim to read out the notices, while Joyce scribbled on the white board.

‘And finally, no students should be out of the class room without a note,’ ended Jim

Mara walked back to the prep room with Gordon who was now complaining about his year eight classes.

‘Little shits,’ he said clenching his fist. ‘I blame the parents; some people need to be sterilised!’

‘Things not going well then?’ Mara asked.

‘Yeah, Boyo has the same class and he thinks they should be euthanized!’

It suddenly occurred to Mara that Boyo was not at the briefing!

The recent events were the chosen topic of conversation around the school, with most having some kind of an idea about who was murdered and why. Theories ranged from a former student breaking in to trash the ‘stinking place.’ To Muslim extremists, which caused a fight with a group of Somali boys who accused another boy of being a racist and threatened to throw him down the stairs. One girl had in fact pointed out that Mr Boyd was not in school today; suggesting that he probably got drunk and fell down the stairs while looking at a porno mag.

Rampant speculation coupled with the fact that it was Friday, made the day long, hectic and stressful. Mara really needed a drink. But with no Boyo to announce debriefing, she had to search out someone to go down the pub with. Much to her surprise she found Deon in the staff room asking if anyone was going down to the Pig’s Gut for a drink. Despite his neanderthal like qualities, Mara found him harmless and the call of alcohol was strong.

‘I’m not sure if anyone else is going Deon, but I fancy a drink. I can always ask in the prep room if anyone wants to come down.’

Mara half heartedly headed back to the prep room and asked if anyone wanted to join her and Deon at the pub. Both Daniel and Piles were more than keen. Roger said he would come for one. Gordon however was long gone.

‘I’ll see you later; I’m walking down with Deon,’ she said.

The news cameras had disappeared from outside the school building and the police presence much reduced, with only the forensics van in the car park.

As Deon and Mara walked out of the grounds, someone shouted.

‘Wait.’

‘Oh bloody hell it’s the bunny boiler,’ muttered Deon.

‘Oh God ,Steffi!’ Mara whispered.

‘I heard you were going for a drink. I’ll walk down with you,’ she stated.

The walk down was one sided. Steffi talked almost nonstop about her stage performances with her amateur dramatics club and how she regularly played death scenes. When she did engage in conversation it was directed at Deon who responded in monosyllables.

‘Really,’ he said.

‘Absolutely. Dying from a heart attack is very different from a stroke,’ said Steffi.

‘Yep,’ replied Deon.

‘I’ve also been stabbed in the eye; that required a lot of pain!’

‘I bet,’

Bill was behind the bar looking exceptionally grouchy. He was on his own and the pub was full of teachers lined up along the bar, making life difficult for him by ordering different types of drink. His facial expressions would become contorted when someone either changed their mind or ordered something that involved mixing.

It took Bill about fifteen minutes to get to Mara, Deon and Steffi.

‘I’ll have a vodka martini and don’t forget the olive barman,’ Steffi said to Bill, whose face knotted.

At this point she spotted Mat and gave a spectacular wave. His reaction was a less than enthusiastic wave back. Deon looked at Mara and smirked. Once Steffi had her drink, without paying she took the express line to Mat, who was sitting next to a hysterical librarian bobbing her head up and down and vigorously waving her finger.

‘I don’t know whose worse, Steffi or the librarian,’ Mara whispered to Deon.

‘I’ll have a pint of Stella and whatever the lady wants, I’m not paying for that other woman’s drink,’ insisted Deon, to the now very irritated Bill. ‘Oh definitely Steffi,’ he added

‘I’ll have a red wine.’

‘Shall we go and sit by Mat? It’s a bit unfair to make him sit with those two,’ suggested Mara as she watched a disgusted Steffi pull out something that looked like an olive but clearly wasn’t.

‘No way I’m not going near her,’ she’s fucking mad.

‘Alright, then it’s over there with that lot, but I’m not sitting next to the freak Piles,’ she replied.

Mara hurried over and sat between Roger and Daniel, forcing Deon to sit in the empty chair next to Piles.

To her amusement Deon sat with his legs so far apart it looked like he had a pole jammed horizontally between his knees.

Who said cavemen were extinct? They’ve just morphed into PE teachers! She thought.

‘Hi guys. It’s busy in here isn’t it?’ Mara said cheerfully.

‘Yep. It’s been an interesting couple of days. Everyone’s here to gossip about some of the rumours that have been going around,’ Roger replied.

‘Oh do tell more.’

This was of course the main reason Mara came to work today, gossip and she knew Roger was the longest serving member of staff and would probably have all the info.

‘Word is Boyo knows the guy who died,’ Roger said.

‘You’re kidding,’ Deon gasped.

‘How, who, who is it?’ Mara asked.

‘Apparently it’s someone who used to teach here,’ answered Roger.

‘That narrows it down. This school has the highest turnover in London.’ Deon grunted.

‘I heard they were trying to get into Alan’s office, because most of the damage was on his office door,’ Daniel interjected, feeling left out and wanting to get in on the conversation.

The next half hour was taken up with Roger and Piles going through a list of disgruntled past employees. The catalogue included ten people who had left the school claiming that they had been bullied by Jim Davison. The deputy head before Jim Davison had apparently left rather quickly under a cloud.

Roger thought the victim was a former teacher called Bob Parker coming back to exact his revenge.

‘Do tell more Rog?’ Mara asked.

‘This guy was the head of science, but he was also in the senior management team. He was just below a deputy head, even so he was still involved with important decision making within the school. About three years ago there seemed to be a definite rift appearing between Bob and Alan. He would deliberately inform other teachers about issues being discussed at senior management meetings; disclosing information that he knew would cause uneasiness or be unsettling to the staff; like a proposed longer school day and staff appraisals. It was also rumoured at the time he was having an affair with Tess the French teacher, who’s married to the principal’s best mate. Anyway, somewhere along the line, something came to a head and he just resigned. He had an interesting leaving speech. He was very drunk, and I can’t remember word for word what he said but he sort of spoke in tongues. Said that, although he was leaving he would still be around and that a few things would reveal themselves over the next few years. He also said he was happy to be moving on. Now, I worked with him for nine years and he was dedicated to this school, it was his life. He would often stay late, always going the extra mile. He was definitely working his way up to the top job. It didn’t make sense that he’d leave. I thought he’d be here until retirement! That would actually explain the dents on Alan’s door; if you’re going to look for something damaging on the school, you’re going to start in his office.

‘Yeah, and do you remember how tense he was for a few months before he left? I thought it was just stress because we were going through a science inspection by the local authority, something about complaints,’ Piles said.

‘What complaints?’ Mara asked.

‘Parents complaining about poor teaching, I mean, what do they know,’ Piles replied casually.

As the evening rolled along, people drifted away. They obviously had homes to go too; in any case most were driving. Daniel left early declaring he was going to Soho on the pull with his mate James. Deon said he was going home to watch Charlton FC on Sky sport and Roger was playing bridge. By nine thirty all that was left was Mara, Mat, who had now escaped from Steffi and joined the table and Piles.

‘I suppose, I’d better get home. Where do you live Mat?’ Mara enquired.

‘Lewisham,’ he replied.

‘Do you catch the train or the bus?’ she asked.

‘Train, but this time of night I’ll have to catch the bus first’

‘I’ll catch the bus with you Mat.’

‘Yeah, that’s fine, you can never be too careful around here. There’s quite a high rate of crime in this area.’

‘Bye,’ Mara said blandly to Piles, who looked particularly sad sitting on his own with a new pint.

‘You could almost feel sorry for him if he wasn’t so repulsive,’ Mara whispered to Mat as they walked out the doors.

Mat laughed nodding in agreement.

‘Hey do you fancy going into Blackheath for a drink on the way home?’ he suggested.

‘Yeah why not.’

Mara had consumed six glasses of wine already but was still in the mood to drink more and besides, she didn’t have much to go home too; not even a cat.

They found a pub called Shannon’s, which looked more like an Irish pub than an Irish pub. It did however have a good atmosphere.

The evening consisted of five more red wines and a lot of teaching talk. Despite Mara’s tolerance to wine she became extremely drunk, so much so that she couldn’t remember the journey home. But it was good to have a blow out occasionally; the last time she was this intoxicated was on holiday in Portugal and she met someone called Carlos who was a very good dancer. She knew she would regret the excess of alcohol in the morning, but the morning was hours away.

That familiar feeling of dehydration, nausea, and vacancy hit Mara as she woke from her sleep. All she could do was open her eyes and decide if she was capable of moving.

‘No I can’t move! God I can’t remember last night. I hate it when that happens. Shit I feel sick,’ she whined as she ran to the toilet throwing up red acidic liquid, followed by bitter yellow gunk after many deep retches. She had been vomiting so hard that she had started to shake and dribble.

‘Are you alright?’ a voice called from outside the door.

JESUS! I didn’t. Did I? No not Mat. I’m not going to be able to look him in the eye.

‘Yeah, I’m fine. Help yourself to tea, coffee, toast.’

‘Thanks. Do you want a cuppa?’

‘Tea thanks,’ she replied spitting out the last of the yellow stuff she had just quietly thrown up.

Mara crawled over to the sink and pulled herself up to look in the mirror.

‘I look like Barbara effing Cartland!’

How am I going to get rid of him? I just want to die in peace today! I’ll feel the disgrace tomorrow.

Mara wiped the crumbling mascara from under her eyes and cleaned her teeth in a vain attempt to look and feel vaguely of this world.

Mat sat comfortably on the sofa sipping tea and eating toast.

He obviously wasn’t totally out of it last night. Mara thought trying to remember the details of the latter part of the evening.

Despite feeling rough, she did her best not to let it show by chatting casually and trying not to throw up when the urge hit.

Two hours later, Mat got a call on his mobile phone and said he should get home because his landlord was doing a surprise inspection.

As politely as she could, she shoved him out the door and waved goodbye. Relieved he was gone she collapsed on the sofa.

‘I’m such a dick. Why? What have I done?’ she yelled at herself.

The rest of the day was wasted eating junk food and watching TV whilst feeling remorseful and dreading the prospect of Monday.

‘I might call in sick? No, I can’t avoid him forever. No, I’ll definitely call in sick.’

 

 

Chapter Five

5

‘The word of the Lord has meant insult for me. You have seduced me, Lord and I have let myself be seduced. You have overpowered me. You were the stronger. I am a daily laughing stock, everyone’s butt. Each time I speak the word, I have to howl and proclaim, violence and ruin!’ Pastor Cosmos screeched.

Already awake when the radio turned itself on, Mara had had a disjointed night’s sleep. Invariably her thoughts kept going back to the events of Friday night.

‘Do I want to know what happened?’

‘No!’

‘Yes!’

‘No; if I don’t know I can’t feel any shame! Why do I feel awkward?’ she said looking through her wardrobe distractedly pulling out clothes and putting them back in, unconsciously making the decision to go in.

Unfocused and vacant she had no idea what she would be teaching today and spent a few minutes trying to piece together lesson plans for her classes.

‘First period’s easy; Year ten, dot to dot biology pictures,’ Mara said to herself as she flicked through the book self.

‘Year eleven can do a poster on the solar system and year seven can research evolution; they might even recognise some of their ancestors.’

Glancing at the clock, she realised it was nearly time for briefing and headed for the staffroom.

She quickly checked her pigeon hole and scanned the notice boards, while still loosely contemplating going home sick.

Oh great I’m covering for Steve Manuelle again, another free period down the toilet, she thought studying the cover list sellotaped to the notice board.

Next to the cover list were the notices for the up and coming week with a catalogue of deadlines scribbled in different coloured ink. Joyce had written course outlines to be given to her on mauve paper with the mauve word underscored. A staff meeting was scheduled for Thursday after school. PAC tests results were due in today on green paper and BAP’s by the end of the week.

Out the corner of her eye Mara became aware of Mat coming into the staffroom. She turned back to her pigeon hole and pretended to be engrossed with all three pieces of paper. But it was no use he saw her and walked over. She threw the pieces of paper in the Manuelle’s pigeon hole.

‘Good morning. How are you?’ he asked.

‘Fine, despite having to be here,’ she replied awkwardly.

‘Yeah, I know how you feel, and to make matters worse I’m covering a lesson for that Manuelle guy again.’

‘Me too and I don’t even know what he looks like.’

‘I saw him on the first day. I remembered him because when he introduced himself, he welcomed me to paradise. But I haven’t seen him since,’ Mat replied.

The room had noticeably quietened as Jim and Joyce entered.

Joyce took her position next to the board poised with her marker pen, while Jim started to read from a list.

Mara quickly took the first available seat and Mat followed.

‘Students and staff are now allowed back into the previously cordoned area. Police have finished their forensics work. However an officer will be speaking to some of you during the course of the day. Those people will be told in advance if they are to be interviewed. Staff on duty at morning break please be vigilant as there has been a spate of tagging on the walls. Keep an eye on your board markers and confiscate any large felt tips and spray cans found on students. Sam Humphries is on report for bullying so please pay close attention to his interactions during lessons and those on duty keep an eye on him during break and lunch.’

That’s a point, I must find out what day I’m supposed do duty. Mara thought.

‘Richey Simmons is starting back today, as you know he has been in juvenile detention since last June, so please be aware that he may have a few difficulties readjusting and do not leave sharp objects in his path. Finally, do not allow students out of class during lessons unless they have a note.’

‘Just to add to that,’ Joyce croaked.

‘Remember if you need lesson cover because you are going to be absent, then you need to put in a request on the YELLOW absent teacher form, too many people are using the blue teacher relief form. If you phone in sick please be no later than seven am. Also today I’m incommunicado; I’ve got meetings with my guy Chris.

Leaving the staff room Mara literally bumped into Daniel.

‘Sorry, Daniel, I haven’t quite woken up yet.’

‘That’s okay. Have a good weekend?’ he winked.

‘No, no, the same as usual, what about you?’ Mara blushed.

‘Well me and my mate James went to Soho on Friday night.’

I wish I hadn’t asked about his bloody weekend. Mara thought.

‘Went to a bar which has a self service beer, you sit at a table with beer taps in the middle. When you want a drink you chuck a two pound coin into the slot and stick your glass under the tap. Voila, it fills. It’s the only one in London you know. You should come out with us, bring a friend, as long as the’re as tasty as you.’

Just don’t respond. Mara sighed.

The next few days quickly passed. Mara kept out of Mat’s way by avoiding the staffroom at break and lunch time. The only problem with this was that she had to endure Daniel shovelling baked beans into his mouth and Piles eating his tined tuna which smelt like cat excrement, while Gordon complained constantly about his year eight class.

Jeremy had been absent for two days and was replaced by a Nigerian teacher called Grace. She had taken to praying before lessons for the kids to behave. Mara thought she was joking at first but when one of the technicians slowly shook his head at her, warning her not to laugh, she realised Grace was serious. The kids took full advantage of her broken English and would give her the run around, claiming they couldn’t understand what she was saying.

Boyo arrived back at school on the Tuesday. His arm however was in a cast raised parallel to his nose. He looked ridiculous and the kids had nicknamed him the elephant man. Children would shout elephant man as he walked past, and then pretend they didn’t know who had said it when he turned around; although he rarely turned around. The year elevens who had seen the film the Elephant Man would slur. My nnamme ish chon Merrick. One delinquent had drawn a picture of an elephant on the door of his classroom. Needless to say this name was going to stick!

Mara dutifully attended the staff meeting after school on Thursday. She sat down next to Deon and chatted while waiting for the start. Deon’s level of conversation was limited to football, page three models and getting drunk. Mat had come into the room and sat next to Steffi despite the empty seat besides her. Mara didn’t know why, but she felt a little dejected; she had expected him to sit next to her, she was the one avoiding him after all. Daniel pranced into the room and enthusiastically filled the void next to her. Throughout the meeting he irritatingly scratched his groin, ran his fingers through his hair and bit his nails.

The meeting was long and painful, focusing on raising the current GCSE pass rate of 25%. Suggestions included not entering students who didn’t have a hope of passing and helping kids by drafting their work before it was submitted.

At the end of the meeting Jim walked over to Mara.

‘How are you?’ he asked.

‘Uh, fine,’ she replied.

This was only the second time she had spoken to him.

‘Did you know I’m your mentor and assessor for the year?’ he asked

‘Yes.’

‘Do you have a few minutes; I would like to go through your beginning teachers programme for the year.’

‘Yeah, no that’s fine,’ she replied.

‘Good. Could you come to my office in about fifteen minutes?’

I just want to bloody go home. Mara thought.

‘Yep,’ she replied smiling.

Mara cleared the paper mess in her classroom left by the year elevens before making her way to Jim’s office. She knocked on the door.

‘Come in,’ he called.

‘Hi,’ Mara replied as she walked through the door.

‘Hello Mara, take a seat. Now I’m not going to keep you long but I just need to let you know what’s happening.’

Mara nodded.

‘I have to perform five lesson observations during the year and we have to have at least three mentor sessions. At the end of the year I’ll send the documentation to the Ministry of Education to inform them whether or not you’re fit to teach,’ he grinned.

Mara nodded and smiled unsure whether to laugh at his little one-liner.

‘So I thought we may as well get things under way. I’ll come in and observe a lesson next week. What class would you like me to come and see?’

‘Umm, maybe, I suppose the year seven.’

‘Great,’ he beamed.‘Year seven it is. By the way any problems so far?’ he added.

‘Umm, my timetable is rather overloaded for a first year teacher. I thought I only had to teach seventeen lessons instead of a full load of twenty?’

‘Yes, that’s actually only a guideline. Can’t be helped sorry, you’ll have to do the full timetable. Everybody’s in that same boat.’

‘Okay,’ Mara replied without question.

She left Jim’s office feeling deflated. The school now seemed deserted as everyone had gone home after the meeting. Walking past the admin area she heard muffled yelling from Alan’s office. Mara’s curiosity got the better of her. There was no one around, so she quietly walked up to the door and pressed her ear up against it.

‘You promised you would have it all sorted. They’re getting suspicious,’ a female voice shouted.

‘I’m sorting it, give me time, you can’t rush things like this; otherwise it will be worse in the long run. Anyway, can you imagine if the staff found out?’ replied Alan.

‘I know, but we’ve been planning this for ages. TIME TO CUT AND RUN,’ the female voice continued, now sounding agitated.

‘We need to take things slower, especially with the death of Frank, it’s a bit chaotic at the moment,’ said Alan.

‘But Frank’s death was just unfortunate!’ huffed the voice.

Mara’s bravery had reached its limit; it was like watching a horror movie and questioning why the imminent victim had gone outside the house, when it was clear they were about to be slashed.

Better leave, she thought.

The door flung open to reveal Alan looking equally as shocked to see Mara with her ear to the door.

‘What are you doing here?’ he snarled.

‘I had a meeting with Jim Davison.’

‘Really?’ his tone suggesting he didn’t believe her.

‘Bye,’ Mara said feebly and walking away.

On the way home Mara mulled over the conversation she had heard in her head. What couldn’t be rushed? And that dead guy was called Frank. Alan said in the briefing he didn’t know who he was. What were they planning? How exciting!

When she reached her flat she opened a bottle of wine and micro waved a chicken and spinach curry from the freezer. She was feeling a mixture of excitement and apprehension.

‘There’s something definitely going on with Alan and someone else. But who was the other person? She couldn’t put a name to the voice, but she was sure of one thing, the other voice was a teacher, she had heard her before.

Four roughly measured glasses of wine later, Mara was feeling as confidant as Miss Marple in a villainous country mansion.

‘How can I find out more? I need to find out who that other person was. Perhaps I should linger after school and see who goes into his office,’ she said to herself.

Mara watched the late news for information on the body found at the school, but there was nothing. Just the same doom and gloom with a funny story at the end, involving a dog ice skating in a tutu.

The phone rang.

‘Must either be Brad Pitt asking me out on a date, or Dad telling me to ring Mum? No one else rings me especially at this time of night.

‘Hello.’

‘Hi Mara it’s Mat.’

‘Oh, how are you?’ she replied.

‘Good, good. I was wondering what you were doing Saturday night?’

‘Uh, I’m, not doing anything.’

Why did I bloody say that? Why couldn’t I lie and say I was going out. She thought.

‘Good. Do you want to go out for a meal?’

‘Yeah okay,’ now screwing up her face in annoyance.

‘Great, I’ll sort out the details with you tomorrow.’

‘Okay, bye.’

‘Why did I say yes? Why? Why? Why? I know why. I’m too pathetic and too pissed to say no and now that I’ve slept with him I feel that I have to go out with him. So I won’t feel like such a slut. You stupid cow Mara.’

Mat caught up with her on Thursday and arranged to meet at Lewisham Station at six.

She had now soberly decided that trying to find out more about the body was a stupid plan and she would leave it to the Police. Besides she had other things to worry about; Mat.

Friday passed quickly. There were only a couple of incidents; both involving Roger. A rather obnoxious madam called Vivian called Roger a dirty old man when he tried to teach the class about the female menstrual cycle. The second incident involved Benjamin Maine again. He stole Rogers’s keys and took his Volvo for a spin in the car park, vehemently performing hand brake turns. This incident was far more serious than the magnesium stunt, and would normally warrant Police involvement. However the school didn’t want to draw attention to what was technically a car theft on the premises, especially after recently finding a body on school grounds. So they dealt with it in house; He was suspended for a five day mini break.

Before leaving school, Mara checked her pigeon hole. There was a note from Jim informing her that next week’s lesson observation was cancelled and Alan was now her mentor.

Shit. Why does he want to do my lesson observations? This is not good.

‘Hey Mara. How’s tricks?’ it was Daniel.

‘I don’t turn tricks!’ Mara said defensively.

‘Yeah I know. What’s wrong?’ he asked.

‘Alan is now my new mentor.’

‘Really! What have you done for such special treatment?’

‘WHAT?’

‘Calm down, you sound like you need a drink.’

‘No I’m fine, just frazzled.’

‘I won’t take no for an answer, come and have a drink with me and I’ll drop you home afterwards.’

‘Okay but just one,’ she tentatively agreed.

Mara thought this might be a bad idea but she needed a drink and the lift home was a bonus.

They walked out to the car park and got into his car. He had a blue Citroen which inflated at the rear, when he turned the key.

This car suits him, Mara thought; needs to be pumped up in order to go!

The pub was quiet and Bill looked happy singing along to Elvis playing on the jukebox.

Having got a drink they sat in the corner.

‘So Mara, why has Jim dumped you and the Head taken up your beginning teacher’s programme?’

‘I don’t know! Perhaps he’s bored. Is Jim your mentor?’

‘Yep.’

‘Perhaps he’s got too much on his plate,’ she replied.

‘Maybe! So what are you up to this weekend?’

‘Don’t know.’

‘Well Saturday night me and my mate James and Lucy are going up west, do you wanna come?’

‘Thanks for the offer but I won’t, I’m going out with an old friend from Somerset.’

‘No problem. So what happened with you and Mat?’

‘Nothing, we just caught the train home. Why?’

‘Piles mentioned you went home together.’

‘He catches the same bus. God that Piles guy is a creep.’

‘Yeah he is; I reckon he’s a paedophile.’

As much as Mara disliked the man she would not have gone that far, but Daniel had no bounds.

‘So how’s it all going anyway?’ Mara asked, changing the subject quickly.

‘Excellent, although having a room next to Roger is a bit distracting; it’s bloody chaos in there most of the time. I looked though the window of his classroom the other day and three kids were standing on the benches mimicking monkeys.’

‘Poor Roger, he really does get the brunt of the wicked behaviour,’ Mara replied sympathetically.

‘Yeah, but he’s not the only one that has problems with the kids. Boyo gets hassled a lot, and that guy Tony doesn’t seem to notice that the students pay no attention to him whatsoever. They just laugh at him, and last week I heard Vivian Clapp tell him to shut the fuck up,’ Daniel said with mocking satisfaction.

‘This place definitely has its fair share of fruit loops! Lucy’s sound though. I get on with her quite well,’ he said.

‘So I noticed. How long has she been at the school?’

‘A few years I think,’ he answered blankly.

‘Does she have any idea who the body might be?’ Mara asked.

‘Well this didn’t come from me, but she reckons it’s a guy called Wayne King. Apparently he was a former student.’

‘Why does she think it’s him?’

‘She said she overheard Jim talking to Alan about that dreadful Wayne King incident,’ Daniel smiled.

‘Right!’ replied Mara.

After a couple of drinks Daniel took Mara home. She was again starting to think she may have misjudged him.

Mara awoke early, she couldn’t really sleep. She felt a mixture of apprehension and weariness at the thought of going out with Mat that evening.

Getting ready for the date was a task in itself.

‘What the bloody hell should I wear?’ she said looking through her wardrobe.’

‘This, not too tight, don’t want to give the wrong impression.’

‘Nope, that’s far too low cut; he’ll be fighting with his eyes all night!’

Finally she decided on jeans with a spangle top and black jumper.

‘Casual chic I thinks,’ now trying to find appropriate accessories.

It was time to catch the bus; no amount of clock watching was going to halt time.

The journey felt shorter than usual. Mat was already at the station patiently waiting.

He greeted her by gently grabbing her arm and kissing her on the cheek.

‘Hi Mara,’ he said smiling.

‘Hi, how’s things?’ she replied trying to look just as thrilled.

‘We’ll catch the train to Clapham. I know a really nice bar we can go to before we have dinner,’ Mat Said.

Mara couldn’t fault Mat, he was the perfect gentleman. He was nice, but that spark was missing. There was no chemistry between them, the whole thing felt wrong, something Mat failed to notice as he casually chatted and intimately listened when she answered his questions.

The end of the evening ended smoothly: She kissed him good bye on the cheek before politely pushing him out of the taxi cab.

Sunday vanished and Mara was back sitting on the bus, anxious at the prospect of attempting to teach again.

Daniel’s car was already in the car park.

Why does he come in so early? If I had I car I would be the last one here and the first one gone; or just behind Gordon!

Mara made her way to the staff room to get a coffee and empty her pigeon hole. Daniel was on the computer in the workroom, he was concentrating so hard that he didn’t even notice she had walked up behind him. When he did realise he looked up startled.

‘Morning, what are you doing here?’

‘I always come in early Daniel you know that?’

‘Oh yeah of course,’ he said seemingly uninterested.

‘More to the point, what are you doing here?’ Mara asked.

‘Umm, I like to get work done before school,’ he replied getting up and walking over to the printer to pick up some paper.

Flicking through the papers from her pigeon hole she read a note from Alan.

‘Oh bloody hell; I’ve got a lesson observation on Friday!’

‘Wow. That’s a bit harsh; the last day of half term! What did you do to deserve that?’

More like what did I hear to deserve that? She thought. It’s the year bloody tens and they have nothing better to do than come to school!

Mara left Daniel to his computer and walked over to the notice boards, she scanned the board to see if she had been caught for cover. Quite a few people were absent due to sicknesses including Mat.

He didn’t look sick on Saturday! At least I haven’t been punished with covering his lesson. Oh look, justice! That Manuelle guy is taking Mat’s lesson; serves him right, Mara smirked.

Morning briefing entailed Joyce writing frantically on the board as Jim read out his list.

Mara looked around the room expecting to see an array of supply teachers. There were only three people who gave the impression that they were relieving lessons; appearing stressed, worried and tense about their impending fate. The Nigerian woman who covered for Jeremy was back. She had her hands clasped in front of her praying quietly.

The rest of the week was predictably crazy. The kids seemed to have intensified their bullying of Boyo and were making elephant noises whenever he walked passed. Someone had spray painted an elephant with a distinctly small penis on his classroom window and had written AKA Mr Boyd.

Sickness amongst the staff was still rampant and there seemed to be different supply teachers in every day; most appeared to be from foreign lands, some managing to stick out the day, but most going missing after a couple hours. An Australian teacher left at break time, stating that what he was being paid was not worth the crap he had to put up with. The Nigerian woman was a regular visitor to the school and her dulcet tones were frequently heard trying to control the students. Mara felt sorry for her because she had heard the pupils referring to her as ‘that religious nut’ and discussing different methods of winding her up. She would sit in the staffroom at lunchtime looking vacantly at her hands, like a patient in a lunatic asylum.

What a way to earn a living, Mara thought, as she watched Joyce give her the work for the classes. Talk about mental torture!

Mara spent most of the week preoccupied with the lesson observation she had on Friday. She had however noticed that Daniel didn’t seem to be hanging around the prep room much, and when she had seen him he was glued to the computer in the workroom. Mara had gone out of her way to be extra nice to him this week because she wanted a lift to the train station on Friday, which he happily agreed to do.

‘That’s the last time I do an experiment with that bunch of misfits, thank God it’s Friday!’

Mara complained as she tidied up her classroom from the mini riot that occurred before lunch.

The bell rang signalling the end of lunch. Feeling nervous, she reassured herself that she had done all she could possibly do for her appraisal.

The class came in as expected; excitable, noisy and hanging out for the holidays. She did her best to get order at once but to no avail.

The door opened. Alan armed with a clipboard and pen marched to the back of classroom. Sat down without acknowledging Mara or any of the students and wrote something on his paper. The sounds of the students excited chattering faded quickly into quiet, as they tried to understand what the headmaster was doing in their lesson.

Mara taught the lesson with what she considered good classroom practice: plenty of variety, repetition, differentiation and tasks that catered for all abilities in the class. A positive to the head being in the room was that behaviour was not an issue. Feeling pleased Mara confidently finished the lesson; it was a good period there was no way she could fail that assessment of her teaching abilities. The bell rang, Mara dismissed the class and the students left promptly and calmly. He waited for the room to empty and then informed her he would write up the lesson observation and arrange a meeting after half term.

‘It’s over!’ she whispered with a huge sense of relief.

It was now time to focus on the holidays; she was going back to Somerset for the week long break. Mara had brought all her luggage with her and was leaving directly after school, arranging with Daniel to get a lift to Lewisham station, where she would take the tube to Paddington and catch the Five twenty to Taunton.JHe

Daniel was ready to go straight away and had called into her classroom.

‘All set?’

‘Yep.’

‘How was your observation?’ he asked.

‘Good; I think!’

Daniel appeared to be in high spirits chatting cheerfully throughout the journey, albeit about his nights out with his mate James.

The trip home was straightforward and uneventful; the train to the South West however was jam-packed, smelly, clammy and noisy. Nevertheless she did have a few trashy magazines to read and a CD Walkman to pass away the time. As the train pulled into Taunton Station Mara felt a wave of elation; she was home with the hubbub of London and the stresses of the school behind her.

She spent the week catching up with friends, eating her mother’s cooking and drinking her father’s home made Cider.

Nevertheless it couldn’t last. She had to go back. The return journey to London on Sunday was dismal; the weather grey and wet. When she reached her flat it was cold and damp. The message machine flashed. Mat had left three messages. She had almost forgotten about him, with the exception of occasional pangs of guilt when she was caught off guard.

All Mara could do was drown her sorrows in wine. Not only did she have a bad case of the Sunday night blues, but she also knew she had to do something about Mat before things got too complicated.

 

Chapter Six

6

‘Brothers and sisters rejoice in the faith of God. Hallelujah.’

‘HALLELUJAH. PRAISE THE LORD,’ replied the parishioners.

‘Come on up here my child. Bless you. What was your aliment before the Lord healed you?’ cried the pastor.

‘I had the devil in me – he made me eat, eat until I was so big I couldn’t walk properly,’ the woman wailed.

‘God came to you and said I’m going to help you rid yourself of your demon. Didn’t he my child,’ howled the Pastor excitedly.

‘The Lord has helped me loose 65 Kilo’s,’ said the woman simultaneously laughing and crying.

The crowd clapped.

‘Praise the Lord for he has shown her the path. Bless you my child. You too can be helped by the Lord, join our Parish now. Phone to order our starter packs, only three easy payments,’ bellowed Pastor Cosmos.

‘I wonder if I get one of those starter packs will it get me out of that shit pit they call an educational facility?’ Mara complained as she switched off the radio.

The ordeal of going into school was even more miserable than usual; the dismal weather and the approach of winter meant it was dark in the morning.

‘Only seven more weeks until Christmas,’ she whimpered, stepping off the bus and staring at the school gates. Her legs felt heavy; she didn’t want to go in. Perhaps I could do a runner? Or fake a mental illness and take six months off, although you’d have to be nuts to work here in the first place!

The silent staffroom felt unwelcome and the today board besieged with notices. Mara contemptuously read the messages.

Staff meeting after school – everyone expected.

Great that always a barrel of laughs!

Joyce Crest away for two weeks – hip replacements. Refer all lesson cover to J.D.

Good, annoying old bat.

4 new students in year 8 – unable to speak English – tolerance required.

Tolerance, you need a truck load of it in this place!

TRAF forms to be returned ASAP.

DIC assessments to J.D by Thursday.

What the hell is a TRAF? And the only DIC I know of is Daniel.

Supply teachers are becoming increasingly harder to get. Try not to be sick.

How can you try not to be sick?

Richey Simmons back in Juvenile detention until further notice.

I wonder what for this time?

Mara submissively looked in her pigeon hole and picked up a white envelope with a post it note stuck to the front with the message, lesson observation enclosed, will arrange a meeting later in the week. Alan.

She opened the envelope and began reading the contents.

 

Lesson Observation Mara Thompson

Year 10 science.

Subject knowledge acceptable; although a few basic errors picked up by more able students in the class.

What? There’s no one able it that class! She blurted to herself.

Board presentation average.

Only 20% of students were engaged in the subject matter.

That’s 20% more than usual!

The variety of teaching methods used was limited.

Students were not tested on learning through questioning.

Overall a poor standard of teaching with no inclusion of practical work which is what would be expected from a practical subject.

They can’t do practical work! They’re a safety hazard!

Miss Thompson will need to work of the following areas of her teaching practice.

Using a variety of teaching aids.

Differentiating for both low and high ability students in the class.

Improving subject knowledge.

Oh my God. This is worse than awful. Most of it is a crock of crap. There’s no way I was that bad. With observations like this I’m going to fail my probationary year and I’ll have to do it all again. I don’t think I can face another year in teaching! What am I going to do? She reflected looking bewildered at the sheet of paper, which she was now reading again to see if the contents had changed.

Mara’s eyes were starting to well up and a knot was forming at the back of her throat. She made a quick dash for her classroom so she could hide before anyone saw her; especially Daniel. She still had fifty or so minutes before morning briefing.

In the sanctuary of her classroom distress was soon taken over by rage.

‘Bastard,’ she snivelled as she dried her eyes with a tissue.

‘I wonder?’

Mara walked quickly back to the staffroom and in to the senior management office area. She tried Alan’s office door but it was locked. The anger she was feeling towards Alan had given her a mad shot of bravery.

The secretaries had not yet arrived, but their work area was open plan, so she could look around the desks. Carefully rummaging through draws and on desk tops she found nothing glaringly incriminating. A few faxes had come in over the weekend and lay in the fax tray. One was from a school in France requesting dates for the cultural exchange programme, a second fax was from a teaching agency called A1 teachers listing how many supply teachers were available to work in different subject areas, a third was from a software company outlining filter rejection programmes for the computers.

A loud rustle made Mara’s heart leap. She quickly put down the faxes and raced over towards the entrance that linked the workroom with the offices. She tried to look casual walking back into the staffroom, although the sweat on her nose and adrenaline breathlessness would have been a giveaway that she was up to something. The noise she heard was Daniel looking in his pigeon hole.

Thank God. She thought feeling relieved as her heart started to return to its normal rhythm.

‘Hi Daniel, have a good holiday?’

‘Yeah, what about you darling?’

‘Great, but I can’t say I’m pleased to be back.’

‘Excellent. He’s written me a fantastic lesson observation,’ Daniel blurted.

‘I didn’t realise you had one done too?’

‘Yeah, on the Wednesday before we broke up for hols.’

‘You kept that quiet.’

‘It slipped my mind, besides it’s not that important, it’s pretty easy to pass your probationary year, just look at the crap that’s out there teaching. How did yours go?’ he asked now throwing an empty drink can into the Manuelle’s pigeon hole.

‘Good,’ she lied; it would have been far too horrendous to tell anyone the truth, especially him.

The morning briefing was a little longer than usual. Not because Jim had more to say, but the petite secretary was doing Joyce’s board writing job and was having great difficulty both writing legibly and reaching the top half of the white board. Jim had to keep stopping to allow her to catch up otherwise she would show her displeasure with tuts and sighs then shake her head.

‘Finally, no students should be out of class during lesson time without a note.’

As Mara left the staffroom she saw Mat looking a little lost in the corner.

I’ll have to go and speak to him. She thought.

‘Hi Mat. Have a good holiday?’

‘Yes thanks. Did you?’

Mara felt her heart sink; he looked like a puppy happy that its owner had given it a little attention.

‘Great. Better go, I’ll catch up with you later,’ she said.

With a little less guilt she walked back to the classroom for the start of period one.

By now Mara couldn’t care less what the kids were learning all she wanted to do was get through the day in the easiest way possible. Project type work was always good to ease the pain for a few weeks. She had booked the library and the computer room for the next three weeks for year ten. They had been given a set of criteria to research. Period one and two had been assigned for investigation in the library. The class were extremely happy with this news because it meant they didn’t have to do much work, all they had to do was sit with a pile of books in front of them pretending to research, while quietly chatting. They then could do all their so called work on the computer by cutting and pasting information from the internet.

Mara opened the door to the library and saw the Librarian busy looking busy. However, as the students piled into the room her face became distraught.

‘I’ve booked the Library. Is that Okay?’ Mara questioned, reacting to Anne’s look of distress.

‘Yes, I suppose so, but I don’t want any bad behaviour in here. What are you actually doing with your class?’ Anne asked.

‘Earth and Space, a project about our planet and the Universe.’

‘Well all the books on that are in the science section.’

Where else would it be? She thought.

‘Thanks.’

Mara sat down at a table and started to write down ideas she had about the goings on of the last few weeks.

Man found dead could be - old science head of department

- Someone called Frank

Overheard argument with A. and another woman. – They needed to wait before something could go ahead.

Had a crap lesson observation because A thinks I heard something.

Boyo knows who the dead man is and was away for a few days afterwards. Come back with broken arm?

She gazed up while trying to think about what else to add. Something had just caught her eye. The Librarian was now sitting at her computer with her back directly to Mara. She was wearing a green jumper with a montage of animals knitted on it. Written below the picture were the words Animal Farm. But what had caught her attention were the two pigs.

No way? Mara thought.

She got up and moved over to take a closer look. Sure enough there was one pig mounted on another.

And what the bloody hell is the farmer doing!

‘Anne. I was just admiring your jumper. Where did you get it from?’

‘Oh it’s great isn’t it; my son gave it to me for my birthday.’

‘There, um, quite cleverly made!’ Mara said realising Anne had absolutely no idea the depiction was a piss take.

‘Yes they are rather,’ she said proudly.

‘I must see if I can find one for Lady Chatterley’s Lover!’ Mara quipped as she returned to her seat.

The double lesson passed quickly without any incidents, until a couple of girls wanted to get books out. Anne had informed them that they were not allowed to borrow books that were being used for class projects. An argument then ensued between Anne and the students, who kept saying that it was ridiculous that you couldn’t get books out of a Library. Mara suspected that the two girls had no intention of getting the books; they just wanted to infuriate her; knowing which buttons to press, and what reaction they would get. The argument ended with both girls slamming the books on the desk and telling her they didn’t want her stinking books anyway.

Once they had left, an enraged Anne turned to Mara.

‘You know their tarty mothers were at the old Woolwich Poly School and I can see exactly where they get their manners from. They’re like German Shepherd dogs; they don’t know when to let go!’

Mara headed back to the prep room for some caffeine. Roger was sitting in a chair with Gordon and Jeremy standing around him seemingly comforting him.

‘Little bitch,’ Gordon exclaimed.

‘So what happened, Roger?’ Jeremy asked.

‘Vivian was giving that boy Leon a shoulder massage and I told her to stop. She said that Leon was stressed and needed relaxing. I told her to sit down, but she ignored me. I walked over to her, and told her to sit down again. She laughed and slapped my face.’

‘Unbelievable!' Gordon blurted out indigently.

‘I’ll write this down and get Jim to look into it! Jeremy told Roger.

Poor Roger, he really does have a lot of problems with behaviour; although, he brings most of it on himself because he lets them get away with so much. Mara thought as she reminisced, about a boy thumping Roger on his back and saying, olwight Rog. Roger had just let this go unchallenged like so many other things they did to him; as a consequence the kids had zero respect for him. Even senior management had given up on him.

While Roger was being consoled by Gordon, Piles sat eerily in the corner looking particularly distracted. Usually he watched people intensely; something Mara found very uncomfortable, as she would often catch him staring at her.

‘While you’re all here. Has anyone found a disc lying around?’ Piles asked.

Everyone shook their head.

‘Have you lost anything important?’ Jeremy inquired.

‘Just some work sheets I made.’

With the news that no one had seen his disc, he left the prep room preoccupied.

The day passed slowly. Mara had another double period with the year eleven foundation set. These little gems were too educationally weak to do the exam at the end of the year so they did what was called special science; which the other year elevens referred to as cabbage science. Two new students from Iraq who couldn’t speak any English had joined the class. The special needs department in their wisdom had assigned them to this group.

Obviously having learning difficulties and not speaking English were one in the same. Poor sods! Mara thought as she got them to write their names on a piece a paper. At least they’ll behave, well, until they’ve learnt the Thamesmead Polytechnic code of conduct: 1) Thou shall spend all lesson tagging thou AKA name on pieces of paper, 2) Thou must swear and abuse each other verbally and physically. 3) Intelligent talk is sinful 4) Learning is forbidden.

During the last period of the day a nasty boy called Levi lost his temper with Mara and called her a whore; she immediately sent him to Jim’s room with a note.

At the end of the day Daniel arrived in Mara’s classroom bursting with energy.

‘Hey, you know we have staff meeting in ten minutes?’

‘Yes,’ Mara replied, curious by his enthusiasm for the meeting.

‘I’ll walk with you,’ he said.

‘I feel privileged!’

As they walked towards the staffroom, Daniel excitedly asked Mara to guess what.

‘Daniel, I couldn’t possibly guess! Tell me.’

‘You know my mate James, well he’s got a job here next term.’

Mara could see why Daniel was ecstatic. But the thought of another Daniel called James did not fill her with glee.

‘Really. What’s he teaching?’ asked Mara.

‘Art.’

‘What’s happened to the current art teacher?’

‘Had a breakdown.’

‘Oh poor bugger! What was his name?’

‘Haven’t a clue, it was the kids that told me he had a breakdown, I think he had them every few weeks, but recently had one for good!’

When they reached the staffroom Mara could no longer put up with Daniel’s excitable chatter about how great it was going to be when James started after Christmas. She walked away from him and over to her pigeon hole; made a vain attempt to check the contents and scanned the room for somewhere to sit. Meanwhile Daniel had taken his news to Lucy who had just come out of the smokers room, coughing. Tony had already found a seat at the back of the room and was starting to nod off. Deon was studying the notice board with glassy eyes repeatedly reading the notices over and over again.

Perhaps his wires are fusing; too many words, thought Mara cruelly.

Mat walked in to the room, smiled at her and sat down.

I can’t keep avoiding him. Mara told herself as she made a conscious effort to sit next to him and make conversation. This seemed to please Mat who was now wearing his puppy dog look again.

As Alan and Jim made their way through the archway; the rest of the smokers all piled out of the smoking room at the same time, gasping and wheezing in the clean air.

‘There must be an alarm in there,’ Mara said to Mat.

‘Oh they take it in turns to look through the porthole,’ replied Mat sincerely.

‘Good afternoon staff,’ Alan said loudly, so as to swiftly catch everyone’s attention.

‘There’s no way I can say what I’m going to say without saying it. OFSTEAD are coming to inspect us at the beginning of term two.’

With this, a rumble murmured through the room as each person realised what Alan had said. The school was going to be inspected by Ministry of Education representatives. This was unpleasant news for any school. If a school failed their OFSTEAD inspection they could be closed down. The inspectors were notoriously ruthless and it was always a stressful process for everyone within the school.

‘We will of course endeavour to make sure all staff are fully equipped to get through the inspection. Jim has put together a series of professional development evenings which all staff will attend.’

After dropping the bomb shell, Alan left the meeting leaving Jim to read out the notices. This was almost certainly a waste of time as everyone was preoccupied with the impending inspection.

Mat leaned over and whispered to Mara.

‘Well they’re moving in for the kill it seems.’

‘What do you mean?

‘The Government are going to do something about crap schools like this.’

‘Such as?’

‘Close them down.’

Word quickly spread that teachers were going down to the Pigs Gut for drinks. Mara had no choice but to walk down with Mat as he was with her when the head of maths mentioned to Mara about the get together. Luckily for Mara, whilst walking out of the school building Deon caught up with them and said he would walk down. This appeared to put out Mat and he was distant on the journey down.

Piles and Boyo were already in the pub and seated in their usual spot. Boyo looked even more ridiculous than usual with his arm up in the air in the cast.

‘I don’t really want to sit by those two objects,’ Mara whispered to Deon and Mat.

‘Fair enough,’ grunted Deon.

They ordered their drinks from Bill and sat as far away as they could from Boyo and Piles.

‘So have you ever been in an OFSTEAD inspection before Deon?’

‘Na, but I’ve heard they’re pretty stressful.’

‘Especially if you’re a Roger or a Boyo. Shit, they’re never going to get through a lesson appraisal. Did you hear what happened to Roger today?’ Mara asked.

‘Oh, the slap around the face thing?’ replied Deon.

‘Yeah.’

‘But shit like that is always happening to Roger. He’s been here nearly thirty five years! And every kid he’s taught has played up; it’s probably in some Ministry file somewhere that Roger Judd is one of the most useless teachers in the country,’ said Deon.

‘Marvellous, everyone’s here,’ a loud voice projected.

No one needed to turn around to see who had just entered the pub. It was of course Steffi with her little human mouse friend. Both Mat and Deon sighed under their breaths.

‘Shit, I hope that she devil doesn’t come and sit here,’ Deon groaned.

‘Bet she will,’ Mat grumbled.

Sure enough Steffi headed to their table. The next half an hour was very uncomfortable with Deon going out of his way to ignore Steffi by talking to Mara, while Mat was taking the full force of Steffi’s conversation.

‘Did you go away on holiday last summer,’ Mara asked Deon trying to lighten the mood.

‘Yep LA.’

‘Oh Hollywood, Universal studios, I love it, the blue men,’ said Steffi.

‘I dunno about that stuff but I liked Hooters,’ Deon replied earnestly.

There was a brief reprieve from Steffi when she announced that she had to go and sign Boyo’s cast. Boyo lapped up the attention as Steffi wrote her name in a size 70 font, put red lipstick on her lips and kissed the cast several times. He then asked Steffi for a kiss on the cheek which she did willingly.

When Steffi returned to the table no one had the energy to put up with tense atmosphere. Mara was the first to leave, saying she had to call into the supermarket; a genuine reason as she had run out of wine.

Mara reached her flat just after six. She switched the heating to high, popped open a bottle of the wine, found the chocolate and turned on the television. It was the news, more depressing stuff about people being murdered, home invasions and the increasing rate of crime. The National news was then followed by the local news.

‘Police have issued the name of the man who was found dead at a South East London school. The victim’s name is a Mr Frank Frawley from Corydon. He’s thought to have no connection to the school.’

‘So his name is Frank, Alan obviously knew the guy. I wander if he told the Police that?’

She had decided that she was going to get drunk tonight and take the next four days off school. She had had a gut full today; what with the awful lesson observation, the news that OFSTEAD were coming in, her ineffectual handling of the Mat situation, the prospect of putting up with Daniel’s side kick James next term, and the vile child Levi Lambert calling her a whore. This had all compounded to make her feel burnt out and it was only Monday. She did feel a little remorse given that she had only just come back from holidays; but at the end of the day she owed them nothing.

Later that evening, tanked up, Mara rang the school and waited for the answering machine to kick in.

‘Hi it’s Mara Thompson, I’m feeling very sick, feels like flu, I’m taking Tuesday and Wednesday of sick, umm, I’ll keep you updated to when I’ll be back. Bye’.

‘They can give some of my classes to that Manuelle guy,’ she laughed as she put the phone down. Mind you with his track record he won’t be there either!’

Feeling jovial at the prospect of not having to go in until next Monday she poured another large glass of wine.

The problem with being ‘sick’ was that, she couldn’t very well leave the house in case she was seen by someone. Although the likelihood of this was slim, Mara had decided that with her recent luck, being seen by someone was highly probable; choosing to spend the rest of the week lounging around the flat reading books and watching movies. She rang the school Wednesday evening to confirm that she wouldn’t be there on Thursday and Friday. While waiting to record her message the receiver on the other end picked up.

‘Hello, Alan Haigh speaking.’

Mara put the phone down. She really didn’t want to speak to Alan.

‘I’ll ring back later. What the hell is he doing there so late anyway?’

The phone rang.

God I hope it’s not Mat, he’s already left six messages enquiring after my health, could be mum though.

‘Hello.’

‘Hello, Mara is that you? Its Alan here, somehow we got cut off, but luckily we have a caller identification system here and your number has been programmed in. What do you want?’

‘Um, I phoning to say I’m still sick and won’t be in tomorrow or Friday.’

‘So you’re sick?’

‘Yep, I’ve got flu.’

‘What kind of flu?’

‘The kind that makes you feel sick!’

‘Do you know that we’re rather short staffed at the moment?’

‘Uh, but I’m sick, it can’t be helped.’

‘Okay. One more thing I’ve arranged a meeting for us after school next Tuesday.’

‘Okay. Bye.’

‘Oh shit. He knows I’m skiving and to make matters worse I’ve got a bloody meeting with him next week.’

Thursday, Friday and the weekend passed far too quickly for Mara’s liking. Soon it was Monday morning and Pastor Cosmos was screaming about the sanctity of marriage and the wrongs of living in sin.

Mara headed to school, knowing that Alan had not believed she was sick. She was becoming increasingly paranoid that he was going to try and trick her into confessing that she was lying, and then sack her. As much as she hated this job, finding another job was far too much hassle.

Mara purposefully looked for Daniel that morning knowing that he would be in early working on the computer. Sure enough he was sat behind a computer and greeted her.

‘Hello, are you feeling better?’ he asked.

‘I’m fine now thanks. So what’s been happening while I’ve been away?’

‘Mmm let me see, we seem to have been covering a lot of lessons for sick teachers.

Mara rolled her eyes.

I‘ve had take quite a few lessons for that RE teacher, what’s he called Mr Manuel or something. None of yours though; they got some Serbian woman in to do that, the only problem is that the kids couldn’t really understand her.’

‘As if that makes a difference, they can understand what I’m saying and I supposedly speak the same language!’

‘Oh that dead guy’s name was released.’

‘Yeah I heard that on the news.’

‘Boyo confessed to how he broke his arm.’

‘Yeah how?’

‘Got drunk, tried to scale a wall but fell back and snapped his arm in several places.’

‘Why was he trying to jump over a wall?’

‘Said he found himself in someone else’s back garden, heard a guy shouting at him and tried to do a runner thinking he was going to get beaten up,’ Daniel said cynically.

‘Come on Daniel you know more,’ Mara asked picking up on his disbelieving tone.

‘Well Piles said he was probably peeping on some woman.’

‘That’s probably more like it,’ Mara scathed. Anything else been happening?’

‘Not really we’ve just been doing OFSTEAD stuff.’

‘Oh Mat keeps asking me where you are! What’s going on there?’

‘Nothing,’ she answered quickly.

With that, Mara had had enough of Daniel and left to look in her pigeon hole. It was completely full. There were pieces of paper with instructions to fill in forms ASAP, reminders of things that had to be done, adverts from different educational companies, and a note from Alan with the time and date of their meeting on Tuesday and an empty crisp packet.

She threw a third of the paper straight into the bin and walked over to the notice boards.

Bloody hell, my first day back and I’m covering a lesson; is that RE teacher ever here?

Monday flew past. Mat had caught up with her and seemed genuinely concerned with Mara’s lengthy illness. This of course made her feel worse about pretending to be unwell, coupled with the fact that she felt like she was still stringing him along.

Tuesday afternoon soon came around and Mara made her way to Alan’s office. The secretary told her he was busy with someone else and to take a seat. Finally the door to his office opened, and for some reason Mara was surprised to see the human mouse come out.

‘Come in,’ Alan said.

Feeling nervous she walked into his office and took a seat. She had been here once before; her interview but the atmosphere now felt more like a gazelle walking into a Lion ambush.

‘As your mentor I need to touch base with you every term as well a carry out lesson observations. Now did you receive your last lesson observation?’

‘Yes and I must say I was a little shocked, I didn’t think I had done that badly?’

‘Well you did. So we need to start working on your obvious areas of weakness before you have another observation at the end of term.’

Mara knew that this was all crap, and he was picking on her because he though she knew something. However, she couldn’t very well say she hadn’t heard anything, because then it would be obvious that she had and that she was covering up. She was in a no win situation with no choice but to put up with his behaviour, given that she was a beginning teacher and he was the Head of the school. She resigned herself to keeping her mouth shut and playing along.

The week passed by with the usual disorder; the same victims and offenders, including another insult from Levi Lambert who told her she shouldn’t speak until she was spoken to. This was the last straw for Mara and she told Jim she refused to teach him. The staff meeting on Thursday was longer and more tedious than usual in preparation for the inspection. The third week of the term saw the return of Joyce, much to the relief of the secretary. Joyce had the use of a wheel chair until her hips had healed, this meant she couldn’t teach in class, nevertheless she could still carry out all her admin duties. A huge blow for the staff as she now had more time to hassle them about what colour paper to use for what data. Although her mobility was hindered, she still managed to scribble briefing notes with the aid of a crutch and a stool.

Roger suffered more misfortune. This time the kids had decided to repeatedly spray his classroom with fart spray. The smell was so horrific and lingered for so long that the whole lesson had to be moved to a different room. After the seventh attack, Jim had to sit in Roger’s lessons in order to spread the message that this kind of antisocial behaviour was taken very seriously. The plus side to this was that Roger was able to teach as the kids were not going to play up with Jim in the room. Eventually the spraying, lost its appeal when one student was caught with a can of fart spray, and made a scapegoat by being given a two day internal suspension, which involved the individual sitting outside Jim’s office stapling pieces of paper and copying out the school rules.

The days were becoming more wintery as Christmas drew near. Not much had happened in terms of the body mystery. Everyone was busy getting ready for the inspection after Christmas. The Staff meetings were becoming increasingly more laborious and there seemed to be an endless list of things to do.

Mara was consciously spending less and less time in the staffroom at lunchtime; primarily trying to avoid Mat. She had however forgotten her lunch today so made a rare visit to the school canteen.

Chips, chips, pizza, sausage rolls, pies and more chips; no wonder the kids have behavioural problems; they eat this crap they behave like crap. Mara thought as she read the board.

‘I’ll have chips thanks,’ Mara told Gerty the canteen woman, whose large frame suggested she regularly sampled the culinary delights of the menu.

Mara took her plate of chips to the staffroom; she wasn’t going to risk dining in the canteen, as it was more like an animal enclosure.

In the staffroom Tony was asleep across three chairs.

What’s with the RE department; one’s always asleep and the other one is never here! Mara thought as she turned to see Mat sitting in the corner eating his sandwiches and looking very solemn.

I’d better sit with him.

‘Hi Mat, how’s things?’

‘Oh, um not good at the moment.’

‘How come?’

‘Something bad happened yesterday. I’m surprised you haven’t heard.’

Mara shook her head as she chewed on a chip.

‘In history yesterday I thought it would be a good idea to show a video on what life was like for women in the fifties. The only problem was I didn’t bother to look at the video first.’

‘Well, I never bother to watch the videos. No time for that, in any case if it’s in the department then it should be fine.’

‘Yeah, that’s what I thought. It was going okay for the first twenty minutes, then they started talking about being female and gay in the fifties, but it started to get more explicit, next, there were two women naked with a dildo.’

At this point Mara had stopped chewing and had covered her mouth from a combination of disbelief and not wanting to laugh.

‘Oh Mat, did you switch it off?’

‘I had to cause the kids looked really shocked. I tried to cover up by not saying anything and changing the subject. But the damage had already been done. It must have spread like wildfire because this morning all I’ve heard are kids asking me if I’m going to show a porno today.’

‘Does anyone in management know?’

‘Yeah I told Jim just in case parents started ring up.’

‘What did he say?’

‘He just said that it will probably die down in a few days and it was unlikely a kid would tell their parents that they watched a video at school with two lesbians and a dildo.’

‘He’s got a point,’ Mara said resuming her lunch.

Poor Mat. Mara thought.

The bell rang for the end of lunch and Mara’s heart sighed.

‘Back to the grindstone, I suppose.’ Mara said, leaving Mat to wallow in his own misfortune.

Monday of the Last week of term, both students and teachers were hanging out for Friday and the Christmas holidays; they just wanted out!

Mara had still not done anything decisive about Mat. She had just taken the coward’s way out, by being really casual towards him, hoping he would read between the lines.

It was only Wednesday; the days seemed to be dragging. Mara had gone up to the staff room afterschool to use the computer to check her emails. Tony was asleep on the sofa as usual.

I suppose at least he turns up to work! Mara thought as she walked past him into the staff work room. She sat down at a computer and typed in her username and password. Clicking onto Yahoo she logged into her emails and started reading her messages.

Not fair!

Her friend Hazel was travelling around the world and they were going to be in New Zealand for Christmas, and then Fiji for New Year. All Mara could feel was envy. She finished reading her emails and signed out. Then the thought occurred to her. Why didn’t she try a search on the internet for information on the dead guy Frank?

Mara typed in the name Frank Frawley. The search came back with twelve hits. She clicked on the first hit. It was an old BBC webpage which had information on the body that was found at school. Carefully reading the information she found there was nothing new on the page.

The second hit was about an Irish writer called Frank Frawley with no connection to the school or the area.

The remaining web suggestions were just as useless as they were either about someone called Frank or Frawley. Mara then typed in Thamesmead Polytechnic School.

The search came up with a list; the first hit was about the new school building and its architecture. There were a few photos of the school but nothing very interesting. The second hit was a link to the Ministry of Education web site which had statistical information on the school including an old OFSTEAD report.

I may as well have a look at this, she thought clicking the mouse.

The statistical data showed that there was a sixty nine percent level of special needs within the school; the highest in the Borough of Greenwich. This seemed strange to Mara, because although most of the kids she taught were brainless or lazy, there didn’t seem to be a lot of special needs cases. Needless to say Mara understanding of special needs was very limited having missed the series of lectures at University on special needs in the classroom. The lectures had been scheduled at nine o’clock Friday mornings and Thursday evening was always, who wants to be a millionaire quiz night at the Crown public house, making it very difficult to attend the lecture or focus in the lecture.

The OFSTEAD report on the whole was surprisingly good with the exception of Science and Religious Education, which had been categorized as unsatisfactory. The headmaster had a good report for leadership and administrative skills; this of course was contradictory to what she was experiencing. In her eyes he was nothing but tyrant.

There was nothing of interest in these reports. She decided to look at one more site suggestion. The hit read; Old school friend’s of Thamesmead polytechnic school.

‘Who would bloody want to be a friend of this place?’ she whispered to herself.

It was a school reunion website listing past pupils and a message board.

This is worth a laugh, she thought scanning the list of students.

She clicked on a few surnames she recognised thinking they might be the parents of the kids at the school. Most of the former pupils were either banged up in Belmarsh prison or working at the sewage works. She then clicked onto the message board section. This was a whole new kettle of fish; stories about Roger Judd, with students reminiscing about things they had got up to in his lesson.

Even when there was the threat of the cane they still played up. Mara thought.

One former student gave an account of Boyo’s attempts to chat up a nineteen year old girlfriend of an ex-student in the Pigs Gut one night. To Mara’s surprise there was a reference from a former student referring to a Mrs Frawley: I remember masturbating in Roger Judd’s class so I could have a look at my sperm down the microscope. Mrs Frawley caught me and blew her stack .

Although some of the anecdotes were entertaining, she wasn’t finding out anything useful and it was nearly five, which was far too late to be in the school. As she logged off the computer Daniel came into the workroom. He looked bemused.

‘This is late for you?’ Daniel laughed.

‘Oh I’m just checking emails. What about you?’

‘I’ve just got to download some stuff onto a disc. That’s dedication for you!’

‘Is Tony still asleep?’ she asked.

‘Yeah, makes a change! ’ laughed Daniel.

‘Should we wake him and tell him it’s home time?’

‘Nah, he does it all the time, he’s just waiting for his wife to pick him up, and she usually wakes him. Besides I woke him up once by licking his ear and he told me to piss off!’

‘I better go Daniel,’ Mara said shaking her head.

Sure enough Tony was fast asleep on the chair.

Bless his little cotton socks! Mara laughed to herself as she left the staffroom.

‘Thursday. Only one more day after this!’ Mara said to herself as she emptied her pigeon hole into the bin. She found another note from Alan.

Bloody hell, I’ve got an observation tomorrow. On the last day again, I thought he had forgotten! With year eleven this time; shit they’re just as bad as year ten.

Mara looked around expecting to see Daniel on a computer.

That’s odd? She noticed that the tables and chairs had been stacked to one side. She then glanced at the notice boards.

Nothing of interest here! Thank God no cover today.

She walked back to her classroom to do some preparation for the lesson observation.

Twenty minutes later Daniel opened the door to her classroom looking excited.

‘Hi Daniel.’

‘Oh hi. You know after you left, you never guess what happened?’

‘I’m not going to be able to guess, why don’t you just tell me,’ Mara said blandly. She was expecting some tale about geisha waiting by his car.

‘While I was on the computer I could hear Tony’s wife in the staffroom trying to wake him. But she had trouble getting him to come round.’

‘Why?’

‘Cause he was dead!’

‘What?’

‘Yep, no, dead as a Dodo. Looks like a heart attack. He’d been dead all day. No one noticed they just assumed he was napping again, and when he didn’t turn up for lessons the kids were just glad, so they didn’t bother to report they had no teacher.

‘No way! How could a person die in the middle of the staffroom without anyone noticing? Surely someone would have tried to speak to him during the day?’

‘It seems that everyone just ignored him, like they usually did, although Gordon just told me that he did see his arms move at morning break but just thought he was dreaming about table tennis.’

‘Poor bugger. That’s terrible.’

The news that the RE teacher had died in his sleep at school spread rapidly. Although nobody found it strange that he died in his sleep, they were however embarrassed and dismayed that no one noticed he wasn’t breathing and a bit pale. The students on the other hand were overjoyed; they were finally getting a new Religious Education teacher.

Despite the death of Tony, Mara had to focus on preparing for her observation, determined to make her lesson so good that he couldn’t find a great deal to criticise. Deep down though, there was the underlying feeling that whatever she did he would find something wrong.

Period one Friday, Alan strode in to her lesson with his clip board and pen. The year elevens looked up astonished. Mara did her best and the kids were better behaved and slightly more responsive than usual. Alan again gave nothing away when the students left the room; just nodding and walking out.

Well at least its Friday and the end of term. Mara shrugged. Just the staffs Christmas function to get through, then back to Somerset, she comforted herself.

The benefits of being a Government employee meant that staff had to pay for their own food and drink. But at least it was a night out. Something Mara had not had in a long while; apart from dinner with Mat. But that didn’t count!

The bell rang at two fifteen; school was finishing an hour earlier than usual; the Christmas bonus!

A real gift would have been if it rang at nine fifteen. Mara thought sarcastically.

Daniel called into her classroom on his way out.

‘Hiya, are you going tonight?’

‘Yep.’

‘Great. Guess what?’

‘I couldn’t possibly guess?’

‘James is coming. He thought it would be a good opportunity to meet his new colleagues.’

‘Great, I can’t wait to meet him.’ Mara replied.

‘See you later.’

Daniel’s doppelganger! What a treat.

The function was not due to start until seven thirty. Mara decided to have a couple of glasses of wine before she went out to try and get into the party mood. She had however made up her mind to drink white wine instead of her usual red. Her reasoning being that white wine was not as potent as red, and she wouldn’t get pissed so easily!

Getting ready for the dinner was mission in itself, she wanted to look her best but not over the top; she settled on a simple black shirt dress with knee high brown leather boots and a denim jacket.

The Thai restaurant was simple to find and she walked in to the restaurant with alcohol confidence.

The first person she clocked was Jeremy sat at the bar eating peanuts. Piles and Roger were stood next to him but Jeremy’s size seemed to dwarf them out of the picture. She approached the bar and waited to be served. Piles looked her up and down then told her she looked lovely. The complement made her skin Crawl.

‘Hiya Ma.’

Mara turned around.

‘Hi. Daniel.’

‘This is my mate James, our new colleague.’

‘Nice to meet you,’ said Mara stunned.

‘Hi, I’ve heard so much about you,’ he replied.

‘I’ve heard a lot about you too,’ now immersed.

James was not what she was expecting. He spoke with a charming Northern Irish accent; had dark hair just long enough to reach the top of his shoulders, the most stunning blue eyes and a breathtaking smile.

‘So are you looking forward to working at the school?’ she asked trying to sound casual and unflustered.

‘Yeah, should be good, but I think I started at the wrong time, what with OFSTEAD coming!’

Mara continued to chat to James for about twenty minutes. To her annoyance Daniel was also involved in the conversation, but unlike Daniel, James didn’t come out with any crude and annoying remarks.

Why on earth would someone like James hang around with a degenerate like Daniel! She asked herself.

The waitress came out to tell everyone that the tables were ready. Mara knew she was sticking close to this one, even if she had to put up with Daniel. She had managed to seat herself next to James with Daniel on the other side. She had not however noticed Mat sitting on the other side of the table, until he leaned over and said hello.

‘Hi, how are you?’

‘Good,’ she replied.

‘This is going to be an awkward little triangle! Mara thought.’ No. Make that quadrangle’. Steffi had just perched herself next to Mat who seemed to sink with disappointment.

‘Marvellous to see you all,’ she said scanning the table in her usual manner, spotting James and flicking her hair back whilst holding her hand out towards him.

‘My name is Steffi.’

‘James,’ he replied shaking her hand.

Mara felt a pang of jealousy, adding fuel to Mara’s dislike of Steffi.

Everybody had now seated themselves at the tables and Alan stood up to address the staff.

‘Merry Christmas all. First I would like to say a few words about Tony Rottenfinger who passed away yesterday at school.

Shit, I forgot about him. Was that his last name? Mara thought guiltily.

‘Tony has been at the school many years and was a good teacher who was dedicated to his job, always willing to do what was required for his pupils.’

The perils of teaching! I don’t want to be a good teacher and dedicated to the job if that’s what I’ve got to look forward to; dying at work with nobody noticing or even giving a shit! Mara thought.

‘We feel for his family and have passed on our condolences.’

Alan raised his glass and said.

‘To absent friends.’

With this everyone raised their glasses and mumbled absent friends.

‘This term has been an unusual one,’ Alan continued.

‘We have had two tragedies in the school, and have been informed about an OFSTEAD inspection in term two, which will indeed be stressful for all of us. So I hope everyone tries to relax this Christmas and comes back after the holidays refreshed. I would also like to introduce a new member to our team. James Roper,’ he then gestured his hand to where James was sitting. James smiled, nodded and raised his hand.

Alan sat down and immediately the waitresses came around to take orders.

Mara swigged more wine but made a mental note not to get drunk; she had to create a good impression in front of James.

Remember what happened last time! She reminded herself.

Feeling a little remorseful for paying no attention to Mat she made the effort to talk to him while James was conversing with Daniel.

‘Hey Mat, what’s been happening, I’ve been so busy this term that I’ve not really spoken to you.’

This was a blatant cop out; she was avoiding him.

‘Things have been a bit up and down this term I’ve had a few things to contend with,’ he replied heavily.

‘Oh Mat dear. I’ve been meaning to talk to you to see if you would like to do some cross curricular stuff between history and Media studies; a drama production of some sort. It would be just marvellous if we could do something like that,’ Steffi had just returned from somewhere.

Although Steffi’s rudeness always annoyed Mara, she was glad of the distraction from Mat. Mara smiled at Mat and turned back to talk to James, who was to her surprise, already looking in her. This made Mara’s stomach jump. Daniel was now thankfully being entertained by Lucy, which meant that Mara had James all to herself. She chatted to him easily for most of the dinner. Occasionally Mara found herself glancing at Mat who was now completely dominated by Steffi. She did feel sorry for him, but at the end of the day it wasn’t her fault?

After dinner people started to disappear from the restaurant, wishing each other a Merry Christmas as they left. Daniel then had the most sensible idea of his life and suggested going for a drink in a pub around the corner. It was only ten thirty and they could get another drink in before last orders.

Daniel, Lucy, James, Mat and to his irritation Steffi with subordinate Emma in tow, walked to the Pub.

The bar was congested with smoke, noise and people. Somehow they managed to find a corner to stand and talk in.

‘So Mara, what are you doing this Christmas?’ James asked.

‘Back to Somerset. I shall just chill for two weeks and forget about work. What about you?’

‘I’m going back to Belfast for just over a week then I’m coming back so I can do some preparation for this OFSTEAD thing.’

‘Oh okay. Where do you live?’ she asked

‘Lewisham. What about you?’

‘A few minutes down the road from here.’

‘That’s not far. Perhaps we should go out for a drink sometime before we start back?’ said James.

Mara couldn’t believe her luck. Thank you Lord! She thought.

‘Yeah, that would be great. I write down my number, perhaps we could go out on the Saturday night before we start back,’ she suggested.

‘Perfect,’ he replied smiling at her.

She now felt inebriated and for a change it wasn’t because of the wine.

Daniel irritatingly interrupted the conversation by asking Mara questions about her Christmas plans, unfortunately allowing Steffi to move in on James and talk to him about art.

‘Oh marvellous. You know I’m a rather artistic person myself,’ she babbled, ‘I belong to an amateur dramatics club and I often get the lead roles.’

‘Mara, how did your assessment go today,’ Daniel asked quietly.

‘Okay. But to be honest I can’t be bothered to think about it.’

‘Alright. Hey, what do you think of James?’

‘He’s really nice.’

‘Yeah, bit of a charmer though.’

Mara didn’t really know what to make of this comment; she just put it in the basket with all his other remarks, after all Daniel was a prize jerk.

The call came for last orders. The bar filled quickly with people trying to get another drink to chuck down their throats in the twenty minutes before closing time.

‘I think I’ll get a taxi home, anyone want to share?’ asked Lucy.

‘James and I may as well,’ Daniel answered.

‘Emma’s driving me home,’ Steffi said firmly.

She’s like a bloody servant to you! Mara thought.

Mat asked Mara how she was getting home.

‘I’ll just get a cab.’

‘I can drive you. I haven’t been drinking because of the antibiotics.’

‘Antibiotics! Are you okay?’

‘Yeah, yeah, I need to tell you on the way home.’

Mara didn’t know what to think. Firstly should she let him take her home? Secondly, what were the antibiotics for and what did he have to tell her?

After wishing everyone a Merry Christmas they all went their separate ways. Mara and Mat walked to his car.

The journey back to the flat felt awkward for Mara but Mat just talked freely. Apparently the antibiotics were for a foot infection.

The car stopped outside Mara’s flat.

‘Mara can I come in there’s something I need to talk to you about.’

‘Sure,’ Mara replied uneasily.

She made some tea and asked Mat what was on his mind. Although she had an idea of what he was probably going to say.

‘I really want to start a proper relationship with you,’ Mat blurted out.

Mara’s gut wrenched. She knew that no matter how gently she tried to let him down he would be upset.

‘Look that night you stayed here was probably a mistake and that’s not how I would want to start a relationship.

‘I slept on the sofa,’ he answered.

‘I know,’ Mara said, now trying not to sound like she hadn’t forgotten the later part of the evening. But I have to be really honest with you Mat I can’t see myself with you.’

Mat looked truly hurt. Which made Mara feel like a heartless bitch, but she couldn’t keep stringing him along. Enough was enough.

Mat got up from his chair and slammed the door on the way out. He didn’t say a word.

‘Jesus. I didn’t sleep with him! Thank God!’

 

 

Chapter Seven

7

 

Mara opened her eyes. Ah Christmas Eve, she thought.

No school, no London and no crap flat and James asked me out for a drink.

She got out of bed and put on an old dressing gown she had when she was a teenager; it was a bit tatty but gave her a comfortable feeling. She could hear her mother’s voice in the kitchen singing to the Cliff Richard’s song Mistletoe and Wine playing on the radio. Mara’s mother loved Cliff Richards and would regularly go to his performances with her friend Mo Binding who lived around the corner.

‘Merry Christmas Eve dear,’ her mother said.

‘Merry Christmas eve mum. Mmm fresh coffee, smells good, I’ll definitely have a cup.’

‘Your Dad’s just gone up to the church to put flowers on the graves, he’ll be back around twelve and said if you want to go for a drink at the Bell end you can walk down with him.’

‘I said I would go down with Samantha for a pint at lunchtime. Do you want a hand with anything before I go?’

‘No, it’s okay, I’ve got it all under control, you go and sit by the fire.’

‘I won’t argue with that,’ she replied.

Mara parked herself by the fire and sipped her coffee flicking through the newspaper. This was the first time she had truly felt relaxed since September. She was back at home with her family being fussed over by her mum; secretly loving it despite repeatedly telling her mother to stop fussing. She was almost mentally free of the Polytechnic which gave her a huge sense of liberty.

Looking at the Christmas tree randomly flashing different coloured lights at three second intervals, Mara felt nostalgic, back to a time where she thought she had no stresses.

Loads of prezzies, she thought looking at the new pile that had appeared overnight. Plainly conscious that most were for her brother’s little boy Declan, who was four and always the centre of attention; the boy couldn’t fart without being lavished in affection. The excess of affection poured over Declan got on Mara’s nerves and she could see he was probably going to end up being a spoilt little brat, just like his dad.

Mara’s only sibling Ángelmí; pronounced anhelmme; Spanish for my angel, was four years older than Mara and worked overseas in Hong Kong as an engineer. Ángelmí and the mother of his child had split up a few years ago and she was now living with her new boyfriend in the next village. So when Ángelmí came back from working in Hong Kong he would have custody of the boy, and luckily for Mara’s mother and father, Declan’s mum freely allowed him to spend time with them, although judging by Declan’s behaviour his mother was probably glad to get rid of him. Mara’s mum doted on Declan nearly as much as she doted on Ángelmí. Thankfully her father was a little more sensible and wouldn’t indulge the boy quite so much.

Her brother was due back in Somerset today; he had flown in a couple of days ago and was staying with friends in Cardiff. Mara’s mother was busy in the kitchen making his favourite meal and preparing some of the food for Christmas Day. Ángelmí had arranged at the last minute to have his son on Christmas Day so was now at a loose end for Christmas Eve. He had accepted an invitation out with Mara and her friend Samantha, who had grown up in the house across the road and was home from Bristol for Christmas. They had arranged an action packed evening at the British Legion club. Although not members themselves, Samantha’s father was going to sign them in on his membership. First she had arranged to go for a pint that afternoon with Sam.

Wrapping herself up with a warm scarf, gloves and a hat she strolled across the road to Samantha’s house and rang the bell which played, We wish you a Merry Christmas.

‘Hi Sam, how are you?’ she said giving her a hug.

‘Good and you?’

‘Good, well today I am, anyway. I’ll tell you over a pint.’

‘Good idea, I’ll just get my coat,’ replied Sam as she moved the giant Santa out of her way. ‘Mum still really likes Christmas!’ she added, moving the Santa back.

They took a leisurely walk down to the local pub casually avoiding the dog faeces on the pavement, whilst gossiping about the fortune of former schoolmates.

The village itself was reasonably big; with a small grocery shop, post office, a couple of tourist shops, café and six pubs. It had a mixture of old cottages and new buildings as well as a an old yarn market, which was the centre piece of the tourist industry, and also doubled up as a meeting place for bored teenagers chewing gum and trying look disaffected.

The old wooden door of the pub creaked as Mara opened it to reveal an open fire belting out yellow flames and the waft of beer and hot chips. This was indeed the warm and inviting feeling that she missed living in the Capital.

‘I’ll get the pints in if you want to get a seat near the fire,’ Mara said.

The barman was a hundred times friendlier than Bill and enquired what she was doing with her life.

‘So Sam, how’s it going up in Bristol?’ Mara asked

‘Great, I love the night life; it’s a really happening City. The job’s okay, but it’s just a stepping stone until I find something else, something to do with my degree. Dealing with people and benefits is bloody hard work; there are certainly some special people around!’

‘Yeah I know I usually meet them on the bus.’

‘How’s London? And the school?’

‘Were do I start, I live in one of the poorest postcodes in London, surrounded by council tower blocks litter and concrete, in a crap flat, cause that’s all I can afford on my pathetic salary. The school is a shit pit, the kids are bloody awful and I’m being bullied by my boss. Oh and I feel depressed eighty percent of the time and miserable for the other 20 percent.

‘Bullied by your boss?’ Sam asked.

‘Yep, it’s a long story but he thinks I overheard something I shouldn’t have, so now he’s got it in for me.’

‘What did you overhear?’

‘Nothing really, well nothing that makes any sense. It’s something to do with a guy that they found dead at the school.’

‘What, some guy was found dead! Murdered?’

‘Yep, also a teacher died in the staff room last week, but it was just a heart attack, he sat there all day cause no one gives a rats arse in that place.’

‘Shit Mara, sounds exciting!’

‘Exciting,’ exclaimed Mara.

‘What about your love life Mara?’

‘Oh God, that started badly; I had this guy sort of in love with me and I had to let him down but it didn’t go to well and he seemed very upset last time I saw him. On the other hand I’ve met this gorgeous Irish guy and he asked me to go out for a drink with him when I get back to London.’

‘Uh Mara, sounds like an episode of Eastenders.’

‘What about you?’

‘My love life? Nothing’s happening there, I’m waiting for your bother to sweep me off my feet.’

‘I wouldn’t bother, he’s a mummy’s boy and besides if you married him you’d be tied to the kitchen sink and darning his socks; taking care of his every need and pampering him like my mum does!’

‘Is he coming out with us tonight?’ Sam asked keenly.

‘I think so, he said he was in his email, but he might find something more appealing than us two and the folks at the British legion club.’

Mara and Sam had a few more pints and a good chat about how their lives were going and reminiscing about their school days. The barman shouted for last orders before afternoon closing. They put on their coats hats and scarves and walked back through the village. It was starting to look overcast and wintry again. Thankfully the colourful Christmas decorations took the edge off the grey daylight. Mara was looking forward to getting back and sitting next to the fire. No one was in when she got home, so she put the television on and watched Lawrence of Arabia which was just starting, eventually falling asleep at some point in the film.

‘Hey sis. Wakey wakey. Your big brother is back.’

‘Hi, Ángelmí,’ Mara replied feeling groggy and hugging him.

Ángelmí was standing over her smiling. He looked older, more sophisticated and more masculine since the last time she had seen him about twelve months ago.

They sat and chatted about what he was doing with his life. Apparently he was in love with his job, being paid extremely well, had great living conditions complete with a maid, and was enjoying the expat life style. Mara didn’t even touch on the details of what was going on in her life. The contrast was too depressing.

The chat was interrupted when Mara’s mother came in through the front door with her best mate Mo. Predictably she fussed over him and true to form he laid on the charm. While he was doing this, Mo was probing Mara on when she was going to find a nice man, settle down and have kids before it was too late.

‘I’ll think I’ll go for a bath! Ángelmí are you still coming out with Sam and I?’ Mara said, clearly fed up with Mo’s enquiries.

‘You bet, but first I'm going to spend some time with my favourite mum!’

‘How many mums have you got!’ Mara replied sarcastically as she left the room.

Mara could hear Mo asking her mum if her daughter was always so aggressive, and this was probably why she didn’t have a husband yet.

Although it was only going to be a quiet Christmas eve at the British Legion club with her brother and friend, she was still going to make the effort to look presentable.

‘It’s definitely an evening for spangles,’ she said putting on a purple sparkling top, fitted jeans, silver shoes, and silver hoop earrings.

‘That should get me a husband Mo!’ she said applying a rich dark plum lipstick.

As she sprayed herself with perfume, she called out to Ángelmí to see if he was ready. He replied he had been ready an hour ago.

‘Are you ready now?’ he asked impudently.

‘Wow, who are you trying to impress, Jed Clampet? You’ll give him a heart attack!’ said Ángelmí, as Mara put on her coat and wrapped her scarf around her neck.

‘Cut the crap, ready?’ replied Mara

‘Well I must say, she’s certainly not lacking in the looks department, can’t understand why she’s having problems attracting a man,’ said Mo.

‘Are you still here?’ Mara replied snottily as she put her gloves on.

Ángelmí laughed,

‘Now Mara she has a point,’ he said putting on his coat and kissing his mother goodbye.

‘That woman seems to have two things on her mind; marriage and Quiff Pilchard!’ Mara remarked crossing the road.

‘She’s harmless,’ Ángelmí grinned.’

They collected Samantha and briskly made their way to the British Legion. Samantha’s Dad was already at the club and had signed them in. They bought drinks at the bar and sat down at a table.

‘Can you believe the price of those drinks, so cheap,’ Mara said.

‘Yep, the good old British Legion,’ Ángelmí replied.

Mara noticed Samantha seemed to lap up everything Ángelmí was saying.

God she has not gotten over that crush she had on him at school. Mara thought.

The evening was not as dull as they had expected. They saw a few people that they had gone to school with and had fun commenting on how much they had let themselves go. Mara spotted a boy she had a adored at school and couldn’t believe how unappealing he now looked. He had become chubby and wore a cardigan with tweed buttons.

‘I can’t believe I fancied the pants off him,’ Mara said to Samantha.

‘Mum told me he’s got three kids, to three different mothers!’

Ángelmí had spotted an old female school friend and went over to talk to her. Mara could see he was turning on the charm and the girl had fallen for it hook, line and sinker. Samantha tried to show she didn’t care, but it was clear she did. The disco seemed to be a tremendous hit with the regulars and Dave the Milkman who ran the disco, was doing a good job catering to all the age ranges in the club. Eight large wines later Mara and Samantha were on the dance floor dancing to Tina Turner and Bryan Adams. Ángelmí watched on in amusement in between chatting to a guy he had also been at school with. Dave then announced that the karaoke was going to start in ten minutes. Mara and Samantha drunkenly decided it would be a great idea to write down their names for the Foreigner song, I want to know what love is. They returned to their table to consume more cheap wine before their turn was up on the Karaoke.

Ángelmí was now in full conversation with his school friend, but stopped to watch as Mara and Samantha got up on the stage.

The intro started and both girls swayed to the music waiting for the words to start.

‘I gotta to take a little time.’

‘A little time to think things over.’

‘I better read between the lines.’

‘In case I need it when I’m older.’

‘Oooowowoh.’

‘This mountain I must climb, feels like a world upon my shoulders.’

‘Through the clouds I see love shine.’

‘It keeps me warm as life grows colder.’

Ángelmí was now gazing at Mara and Samantha. Not only were they singing completely out of tune, but they were zealously waving their hands in the air to what they thought was the rhythm of the music.

‘In my life there’s been heart ache and pain.’

Sam then clasped her hands around her heart as if to express heartbreak.

‘I don’t know if I can face it again,’

‘Can’t stop now. I’ve travelled so far, to change this lonely life.’

The two of them belted out the chorus.

‘I wanna know what love is.’

‘I want you to show me.’

‘I Wanna feel what love is.’

‘I know you can show me.’

Completely oblivious to the gawking patrons Mara and Sam sang the whole song.

They sat back at their table feeling elated and pleased at what a success their stage act had been.

Ángelmí had dragged himself away from his former school mate and looked at them with amusement.

‘Bloody hell you two, that is quite possibly the worst karaoke I have ever seen!’

‘Why don’t you bugger off back to your friend!’ slurred Sam.

The two of them had a few more drinks and staggered back to their parents homes singing the chorus to as many eighties rock hits they could remember. Ángelmí was nowhere to be seen and at some point during the evening he disappeared.

‘Oh Man! Oh Christ! My head!’

Mara had woken up with a throbbing head and a hazy sense of her existence. She could hear Cliff Richards on the stereo downstairs.

I’m not moving. She told herself.

There was a knock as the door opened.

‘Wake up Pat Benetar!’

It was Ángelmí’s attempt at humour. He smirked as he opened the curtains to let in the dull winter sunshine.

‘What are you talking about, piss off will you, I ate something that disagreed with me,’ Mara retaliated.

‘Yeah right, you’re coming downstairs and joining the rest of us for Christmas bucks fizz.’ You’ve got ten minutes to sort yourself out or I’m sending Declan up with his new light sabre.’

As crap as she was feeling the last thing she wanted was the spawn of the Satan jumping around challenging her to do battle.

‘Alright I’ll be down in a minute. How did I get home?’

Mum said she heard you and Sam in the garden looking for badgers. Then when you eventually came in you collapsed on the coffee table and Dad carried you up to bed. There was a kind of smug satisfaction in his voice, as if her antics had somehow distracted from his own behaviour.

‘Bloody hell! Where were you anyway? And why didn’t you look after me?’

‘I was otherwise indisposed, besides you told me to bugger off!’

With a tapping sensation against her skull Mara walked downstairs trying to look healthy. Her parents pretended that nothing had happened and her mum made her a cup of tea and placed it on the mantelpiece as there was now no coffee table.

Declan was jumping up and down shouting star wars lines, while everyone else laughed, commenting on how cute he was.

Mara managed to get through Christmas Day, feeling better after a shower and some food.

After dinner, the adults opened their presents and Declan ripped open more of his presents. Ángelmí had bought expensive gifts for everyone, which made Mara feel quite the pauper. He gave her a Gucci watch, his dad a Tag Heuer watch, although the brand name meant nothing to him and their mother a diamond necklace. This made Mara’s gift of a Cliff Richards calendar and a box set of lynx toiletries look positively feeble.

‘Ooh, he looks quite sexy in his tennis gear you know. I can’t wait to show Mo,’ said her Mother.

Declan’s mother came and picked him up early that evening. Mara was glad to see the back of him, although she had noticed that Ángelmí looked lost when he had gone and she felt sorry for him.

She fell asleep during the James Bond movie, her dad waking her up and telling her it would be better if she went to bed because she was snoring.

The remainder of the Christmas holidays pasted quickly, with Declan a frequent visitor to the house. Samantha had called around and given an account of her Christmas Day which was very similar to Mara’s without, the demon child. Ángelmí still had a few more weeks left in the UK and said he would come up and visit her in London before he flew back to Hong Kong.

Mara caught the train back to London on the Saturday before the start of the second term. When she got back to the flat she was hoping there would be a message from James. There wasn’t.

‘Maybe he’ll ring later, she convinced herself.

James didn’t ring.

 

Chapter Eight

8

 

The radio crackled as it switched itself on; Pastor Cosmos was passionately giving a sermon to his flock.

‘Do not judge or you too will be JUDGED. For in the same way you will be JUDGED, with the measure you use, it will be measured to grow. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye; when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

YOU HYPOCRITE, FIRST TAKE THE PLANK OUT OF YOUR OWN EYE, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Hallelujah, praise the Lord.’

‘At least if had a bloody plank in my eye I wouldn’t have to go in to work!’ Mara groaned as she dragged herself out of bed.

‘DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?’ the pastor bellowed.

No one in his flock seemed to reply.

‘LOOK AT HOW YOU BEHAVE BEFORE YOU JUDGE OTHERS ON THEIR BEHAVIOUR!’

‘He seems to be in a shouting mood this morning! I don’t want to go in,’ she moaned turning off the radio as the pastor was in mid-bellow.

The turbulent preaching of the pastor had at the very least been successful in getting Mara out of bed. As well as dreading the prospect of school she was also feeling despondent that James had not rung her for that drink he promised.

‘It’s no biggie,’ she said flicking her hair and tugging at her collar,

‘Perhaps he got tied up with something else, besides he has a lot on his plate; starting at a school with an OFSTEAD inspection,’ she reassured herself checking her hair and makeup again.

It still felt like the middle of the night when Mara left the flat. The rain bombarded her umbrella and the wind pulled and tugged at the material blowing it inside out as she battled her way to the bus stop.

‘Bollocks,’ she yelled as a car drove past and splashed her new aqua blue coat, covering her from head to toe in grimy road water.

She was the first one in the building, apart from the caretaker who had switched on the lights and heating. She went straight to the toilets to assess the mess she was in having spent the bus journey looking at her reflection in the window and swearing continually.

‘Why did I even bother getting ready this morning? I look like a wet effing poodle with an Alice Cooper makeover,’ she said trying to patch up the damage.

In the staffroom the boards were full of notices; Joyce had obviously been in on Sunday to write them up.

That woman’s got no life! Mara thought, reading the notes with half hearted disdain.

OFSTEAD inspector’s next Monday ­ Friday.

Like we need to be told that! That’s all everyone been harping on about for the last six weeks!

Memorial service to Tony in assembly on Wednesday; anyone wanting to Speak, see JC.

I wonder is that Joyce Crest or Jesus Christ?

HOD’s hand in BUG forms to JC.

All Staff to attend staff meeting Thursday (v. imp).

List with new student teachers in p.holes of teachers affected.

I hope I get one, so I can palm off some lessons.

All FUC data written on pale pink forms.

Library is closed for the week – cleaning.

How much cleaning can you do in a Library?

Mara riffled in her pigeon hole hoping for the piece of paper informing her she had a student teacher.

Excellent, she said to herself grinning.

‘What are you smiling about?’

It was Daniel.

‘I’ve got a student teacher.’

‘What’s happened to your hair?’ asked Daniel.

‘I wonder if I’ve got one too,’ he said looking in his Pigeon hole.

‘Looks like I have. How was your Christmas?’

‘Good and yours?’

‘Great.’

Daniel took this as a cue to ramble on about what he had done over the holidays. Meanwhile Mara continued to look through her pigeon hole. It was basically full of junk. There were a few pieces of paperwork to fill in. A generic framework for lesson plans and a memo informing staff to change their passwords and not let students see them type in the passwords.

Curtly finishing her conversation with Daniel Mara left for her classroom; she had a lot of work to do this week in preparation for next week’s scrutiny of her teaching. She might even have to do the unprecedented and take work home with her! But such measures were drastic and she was hoping to get everything completed by Friday.

Mara returned to the staffroom for morning briefing, feeling edgy as she knew James would be there and was uncertain how to approach him; should she act as if she had forgotten about their drink and it was no big deal, or look slightly aggrieved that he had not phoned.

Mara caught sight of Mat and averted her eyes; he was staring right at her. Looking away she saw James.

All is forgiven, she thought.

She took a seat next to Gordon, who now looked like he was balancing precariously on the edge of life; he had lost weight, his skin was pallid and he looked deflated.

‘Are you alright?’ Mara asked.

‘My nerves are shot to pieces cause of this place!’ he answered.

Alan paraded in through the archway, shadowed by Jim pushing Joyce in a wheel chair. He coughed loudly to broadcast that he was ready to start. Once he had everyone’s attention he gave a speech outlining what teachers should be doing to make sure lessons ran smoothly. This was then followed with Jim’s long list of commands which carried on past the bell. Joyce then informed the staff that she would be out of action for the day because her man Chris was doing something to her programme.

‘I bet Chris is actually her gimp and she’s got him strapped to her desk! Mara whispered to Gordon.

‘Gimp?’ asked Gordon puzzled.

‘Never mind,’ Mara replied, realising Gordon was too tense to recognise humour.

As a result of the briefing over running teachers were late back to lessons causing restlessness amongst the students, who were hoping that their teacher was absent, so they could spend the period misbehaving and if they were really lucky, have a supply teacher to aggravate.

During morning break the door to her classroom opened.

‘Good morning Miss,’ James said smiling.

‘Hi, how were your holidays?’ Mara asked casually.

‘Good but unfortunately I didn’t come back early enough, I ended up getting the ferry back late yesterday, because I missed the plane on Saturday, and there were no other available flights until tomorrow. How was your holiday?’

‘Excellent. Come in,’ now elated at the fact he had a genuine reason for not calling her.

‘How’s your first day going?’

‘Not too bad, but because I did nothing over the holidays I’ve got a shit load to do now.’

‘I know the feeling!’ remembering her first week here, when she vaguely gave a dam.

‘Listen are you still up for that drink?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, of course.’

‘Well this week is out because of the stack of stuff I’ve got to do, and I’m going to have to work all weekend, plus I promised Daniel I would go to Soho with him Saturday night; he seems to have taken a liking to the bar with the self service beer. But how about the weekend after that?’

‘Yeah, sounds good.’

‘Great,’ he glowed. ‘I better get back to the art room; I’ve still got to plan lessons for this afternoon.’

‘Art teachers plan stuff?’ she mocked.

James laughed as he shut the door.

This put her in a good mood for the rest of the day; even the kids noticed she was happier.

‘Are you okay miss?’ a student asked.

‘Yes why?’

‘You’re smiling!’ he replied.

‘It’s the joy I get from teaching you lot!’ she said sarcastically, ‘now get on with your vegetable word find and remember cabbage starts with C!’

The next few days were hectic in preparation for the inspection. Mara had spoken to James a few times during the course of the week but both were so busy she hadn’t seen much of him at all. She saw Mat at the morning briefings and did her best to avoid his obvious gaze.

Mara was not the only one coming into school early. Quite a few teachers were showing up trying to get work finished, Joyce was amongst these early starters and to Mara’s total irritation would always ask if she had completed various forms that had been left in her pigeon hole. True to form Daniel was in early every morning umbilically attached to the computer. He would however habitually walk over and talk to Mara, asking her how she was. His friendship with James meant she was now finding him more agreeable. However one morning Daniel reverted back to his usual crudeness.

‘Hey Jeremy I’m guessing I shouldn’t shove a tennis ball in the mouth of any kid who smart mouths me while OFSTEAD are watching?’

Disturbed by Daniel’s comment Jeremy agreed it probably wasn’t a good idea, just in case he ?was actually considering it.

‘What about spanking?’ Daniel added.

He can’t help himself, Mara thought as she put her hand over her eyes.

Gordon bore the appearance of a sick rabbit and was willowy and jumpy. Mara was sure he was going to phone in sick for all of next week. The person Mara was expecting to be shitting himself the most was Roger, but he seemed calm and unaffected by the prospect of a government inspection. Piles was noticeably distracted and repeatedly asked if anyone had seen his disc.

Alan appeared through archway in the staffroom for the after school meeting duly followed by his deputies. Joyce had now swapped her wheelchair for Zimmer fame and took her place by the board ready to write, whilst Jim uncharacteristically sat down.

‘Good afternoon. This will be the last meeting we have before Monday, so it’s a time to get the final bits and pieces sorted out. It is vitally important that you rest this weekend, after all we don’t want anyone phoning up sick on Monday,’ he chuckled hesitantly.

Alan talked unbrokenly for another twenty minutes, superseded by Jim with his notices.

‘Richey Simmons will be starting back on Monday, apparently he’s on some kind of juvenile remand order and we have to accommodate him. However he will be going straight on report and I will be dealing with him directly. If there are any problems with Richey, send him straight to me with a note.

Please be extra vigilant with your computer password, a student or students, have managed to get a couple of teacher’s passwords and have been looking at unsuitable material on the internet. Students are probably trying to watch you when you type in your password. Be careful!

Finally, it is imperative that students are not allowed outside of class unless they have a note. Please do not let them go to the toilet during lesson, as there has been another spate of faecal tagging on the toilet walls. Good luck on Monday. Meeting closed,’ said Jim.

Mara eyes felt itchy and heavy. She had done a lot of work this week and it was now starting to affect her. Rubbing her eyes she looked over at the pigeon holes and blinked in disbelief. A guy was empting the pigeon hole below hers.

That must be the elusive Mr Manuelle. She thought. I wonder if I should go over and introduce myself as the other RE teacher, considering I’ve covered so many of his bloody lessons. Mara watched him look around and then throw all the contents of his pigeon hole in the bin.

I suppose there’s little point him reading that bumf; he’s never here to do anything about it. If he misses any deadlines then he can blame it on being absent. Mara thought sarcastically, as she watched him walk over to the notice boards and make a vain attempt to be interested in what was written up, then warily scan the room and walk out.

Grabbing her coat and bag off the seat she said good bye to James and Daniel and walked out of the staffroom and down the corridor.

‘Mara, hold up.’

She turned around it was Mat. Her heart jumped. She hoped he would never talk to her again.

‘Hello Mat, how are you?’

‘Fine, Fine. I just wanted to speak to you about that night after the staff dinner.’

‘Look there’s no need.’

‘Yes there is every need, I have to apologise for my actions, and I shouldn’t have walked out like that.’

‘Really Mat no need.’

‘Look do you accept my apology. I would feel better is you did.’

‘Okay.’

‘Thanks, still friends?’

‘Yeah of course.’

I feel uneasy about this? Mara thought watching Mat walk away. No, it’s nothing, he’s just trying to rectify things she further reassured herself.

 

Chapter nine

9

 

Mara switched off the radio alarm before Pastor Cosmos had a chance to preach. It was five thirty, she couldn’t sleep and kept looking apprehensively at the clock.

‘I might as well bloody well get up,’ she told to herself. ‘It’s a morning for bacon and eggs and plenty of coffee.’

Changing into her clothes it was evident she had drunk to much coffee.

Bloody hell I hope this wears off before lessons, she thought, as she sat on the bus shivering. The briefing was short with Jim emphasising that students should not be allowed out of class.

Mara spent the first lesson still on a high from the caffeine; she couldn’t focus probably and her lesson delivery was appalling, she assumed no inspectors would visit her class this far into the lesson, so gave up the pretence of teaching.

By the end of the period the effects of the caffeine had worn off and Mara continued to teach the rest of her lessons without an inspection. Keen to find out if anyone had been seen, Mara called into the prep room after school. Gordon had indeed been observed by an inspector and to add insult to injury it was his unpleasant year eight class.

‘It was bloody awful! Those little shits messed about all lesson, they even started throwing pieces of potato at the inspector when she wasn’t looking,’ he said submissively. ‘I shouldn’t have done an experiment!

Jeremy and Piles had also had a call. Jeremy saying all was fine, while Piles shrugged and asked if anyone had come across at disc with his name on it.

Day two, Mara’s luck had taken a turn. As she started her lesson the door opened.

Why did it have to be year eleven discards? She sighed, smiling at the short hefty woman who had walked in. Mara confidently executed the lesson as planned, however she had not anticipated Levi Lambert’s outburst.

‘Miss Thompson doesn’t usually teach us anything, she’s such a dog.’

Mara sent Levi straight to Jim without even entering into a conversation. She had reluctantly agreed to him being allowed back in class on strict conditions and calling her a dog had broken the terms of the agreement.

The next three days saw two more lesson assessments both of which Mara was pleased with. During the course of the week Daniel had raved about his observations; saying that he wouldn’t be surprised if he were recommend for teacher of the year. Piles still gave nothing away and Gordon didn’t fair to well again and was seemingly going downhill health wise. As expected, Roger had had a rough week. One inspector ran into the prep room asking for assistance, as the kids in his opinion were out of control and he was afraid someone would get hurt. Mara saw the same inspector that came to see her leaving Roger’s room looking shell shocked and shaking her head.

Rumours in the staffroom reported Boyo having difficulties too, with one inspector taking control of the class until help arrived. Other staff had said they spotted OFSTEAD inspectors hiding behind doors, or suddenly appearing when there was an incident at break or lunchtime. By now the inspectors had gained a reputation, probably unjustly, of looking for things to find wrong and appearing out of nowhere like ghosts.

Friday arrived and the Inspectors packed up and left the school. All the teachers breathed a sigh of relief and drinks had been arranged in the staffroom after school. Mara needed a wine; she had gone without since Sunday night, due mainly in part of her realisation that she drank too much and needing to keep a clear head for the week.

Alan was in the staffroom standing behind the makeshift bar that had been erected. He was handing out plastic cups filled with wine and cans of beer. Mara didn’t want to speak to him directly, so asked Daniel if he would get her a red wine. She talked to James with the expectation that he would ask her out for a drink at the weekend, now that the inspection was over. He didn’t!

She went home via the off licence. Friday evening consisted of getting drunk, phoning her friend Sam and asking her what was wrong with her.

Monday suddenly appeared; Feeling dejected and hung over Mara reluctantly went to work instead of taking a sick day. She read the notices, bad tempered and short of patience.

He’s a Git, perhaps Daniel was right, he’s just a charmer! Bloody hell another free period take away, why don’t they just get a long term supply teacher for that guy!

I hate this fucking place! Mara said to herself now reading a note from Alan asking her to attend a meeting on Wednesday after school in his office.

Like a lamb to the slaughter she went to Alan’s office after school for their meeting.

‘So Mara, how did your inspection go?’

‘Okay I think.’

‘Well I’ve had the feedback from the inspectors. They have expressed serious concern about your teaching abilities.’

‘Uh, oh, like what?’

‘Lots of things, anyway the crux of the matter is that you will have to be put on a special programme for failing teachers; if of course you have any intention of passing your probationary year?’

Mara just felt numb, she responded with an accepting nod.

Alan spent the next thirty minutes outlining her short comings and the steps that would have to be taken in order for her to be deemed fit for teaching.

‘I thought you only had to have at least one limb to be fit for teaching? Mara replied angrily.

‘You don’t seem to be taking things seriously young lady! Alan snapped back.

She left Alan’s office frozen and wounded. She didn’t even notice James calling her name down the corridor.

‘Mara, Mara, Wait!’

‘Hi James,’ she said heavily.

‘Are you okay?’

She nodded.

‘No,’ she blurted, crying and screwing her face.

James put his arm around her shoulder.

‘It’s okay, tell me what’s wrong?’

‘Well, heeemhmh, ic, picic, mhmh on meeee.’

‘Perhaps we should go somewhere else!’

She nodded.

‘I’ll take you for a drink at the pub up the road; not the Pig’s Gut, it’s on the way back to Lewisham, I’m using my mate’s car at the moment.’

James drove to another pub a few minutes up the road.

‘So are you going to tell me what happened?’ he asked.

His voice and his words were soothing; she just wanted to tell him everything and she did, despite how odd and sometimes illusory the story sounded.

‘Mm, that’s quite some predicament you have yourself in. Why don’t you get the head of science to do some lesson observations on the quiet for you?’ James suggested.

A very sensible idea thought Mara now feeling calmer. James dropped her home and said that they should go out for a drink this weekend; he would call to see what she was up to.

The person that had left the Alan’s office earlier on was a different person to the one now lying on the sofa drinking a glass of wine; she was now in a more optimistic frame of mind and even managed to get through Thursday and Friday with a smile.

Mara waited by the phone all Saturday, she even went to the gym early so that she would be back at her flat at a reasonable time should the phone ring.

It was four thirty. No phone calls.

The phone rang.

‘Hello,’ she said expecting James.

‘Hi Mara, how’s it going?’ It was her brother.

‘Oh hi. How are you?’

‘Good, listen, I’m flying back to Hong Kong next Sunday. I was going to come and spent the weekend with my favourite sister.’

‘How many sisters do you have?’

‘You’re a card! Anyway do you want to meet up in the city or should I come directly to Afghanistan?’

‘Yeah, come here and you can dump your stuff and we can go from there.’

‘Okay, it’s arranged, see you on Friday, bye.’

‘Bye,’ she replied and put the receiver down.

The phone immediately rang.

‘You forgot to get directions to Afghanistan?’

‘Why would I want to go to Afghanistan?’ it was James.

Mara was sure he had stood her up.

‘Sorry I thought you were my brother.’

‘Ah. Well, would you like to go for a drink and some dinner tonight?’

Would I! Thought Mara?

‘Yeah, that would be good. When and where?’

‘Do you want to get to Lewisham and I’ll meet you at the station, we can go into the city from there.’

‘Great. Half seven okay?’

‘Perfect. See ya later.’

Now in an excited frenzy she raced around the flat looking for a suitable outfit.

‘Must be smart, but casual, glam but not over the top,’ she said throwing clothes onto the bed.

Sitting on the bus the butterflies were making her feel nervous. She kept checking her face in the window. Not even the drunk who sat next to her stinking of booze and dribbling could dampen her spirits.

Mara got off the bus and walked to the train station. Sure enough waiting in front of the station was James looking striking with a blue shirt that perfectly matched his eyes.

‘Hi, you look lovely,’ James complimented.

They caught the train to Clapham chatting easily about James’s home town and vice versa. James suggested drink at a nearby bar before dinner.

‘Yeah, sounds good,’ Mara replied.

The two of them walked into the bar, ordered drinks and found a seat.

‘Beats the Pig’s Gut!’ Mara joked.

‘Hey James, Mate. Fancy seeing you here?’

It was Daniel, with Lucy hanging off his arm giggling and smiling.

Why the bloody hell does he have to be here. Mara thought donning a fake smile.

James looked just as surprised as Mara. Nevertheless he invited them to sit down.

Mara was annoyed that Daniel had interrupted her date with James, and to add insult to injury, Daniel proceeded to invite himself and Lucy to dinner as well. The evening was now a foursome, with Daniel spouting crap and Lucy giggling like a bimbo at his drivel. The evening ended with them all catching the Train back to Lewisham and Mara catching a cab to her flat.

Sunday afternoon Mara received a phone call from James who apologised, saying he had no idea that Daniel was going to that bar, what’s more he would rather have spent the evening with her, and could they try again next weekend. She said she would love to, but wasn’t able because her brother was staying with her before he flew out to Hong Kong.

‘Maybe another night Mara, speak to you tomorrow.’

Monday morning brought with it the usual chaos in the corridors, kids had escaped from Roger’s classroom and were running around laughing. Characteristically lethargy dogged Mara’s students. She attempted to teach the year elevens about particle theory.

‘Is the space between liquids smaller or bigger than the space between gases?’ she questioned

‘Anyone? Anyone?’ she asked.

‘Give an example of a solid?’ she asked again.

‘Anyone? Anyone?

Exasperated she said to the class.

‘You know this reminds me of a line in that film sixth sense.’

‘What’s that miss?’ asked a boy who looked like he had a seeded potato for a head.

‘I see dead people!’

‘Ha, ha, very witty, you’re not allowed to dis us like that, I’m going to tell the headmaster and you’ll get the sack.’

‘Be my guest,’ Mara replied dryly.

Tuesday saw Joyce absent again and the secretary seconded to do her note writing job, which she took every opportunity to display her displeasure at; huffing and breathing loudly every second line as if Jim was going too fast and not making any sense.

Within the school the senior management team were busy going through the preliminary report given to them by the inspectors. They informed the staff that on Thursday after school they would report the findings to the whole school, and then each department would have a meeting to go though the department report. Jim also reminded teachers that parent teacher interviews were the following week and all staff were contracted to attend.

The school seemed to quickly fall back to normal as if inspectors had never visited. Roger was away sick for the week and Grace came in to replace him. Gordon looked tired and fed up. He seemed to have lost his appetite and was clearly losing weight. In contrast Jeremy appeared to be eating more; his clothes were tight and he had taken to wearing trousers with an elasticised waist. Mara hadn’t seen much of James; he had told her that he was snowed under and was working though break and lunchtimes. Knowing that James would not be in the staffroom at lunch time and the prospect of seeing Mat solemnly eating his sandwiches, she opted to eat in the prep room. The downside to this was that she had to content with Piles and Daniel, who would talk persistently about anything and everything that entered his head.

‘Piles what that crap you’re eating? ’Daniel asked shamelessly.

‘Tuna in tin, I had a heart attack a few years ago,’ he replied shoving more food through his beard.

‘Smells like cat shit! Mara interrupted insolently.

‘That’s what my wife says, I have to clean my teeth before I kiss her,’ he replied unaware of Mara’s rudeness.

‘With six kids under your belt you must do a fair bit of shagging?’ laughed Daniel.

‘Yeah, my wife’s a bit of a nympho’ Piles replied.

This was all the conversation Mara could listen to. She left to finish lunch in her classroom.

Thursday Morning Mara walked into school with her usual muted enthusiasm. Hearing a car she looked around expecting to see Daniel drive in behind her, but it was Joyce in what looked like a new Mercedes.

Joyce hobbled out of the car with the aid of a walking stick.

‘Good morning Mara.’

‘Morning.' New car?’ Mara asked.

‘Yeah, it’s an automatic; I can’t drive a manual easily because of my hips, so I thought I would invest in a nice automatic from the money I inherited from my father,’ she replied.

‘Oh I’m sorry to hear about your father,’ she apologised not realising that Joyce had had a death in the family, and perhaps that was another reason she had been off work a lot recently.

The anticipated staff meeting was eagerly attended by everyone. Mara had managed to bag a seat next to James, who was looking a little dishevelled, but in a sexy way. Alan despondently walked through the archway marked by Jim and Joyce. The expression on his face said it all; the news was going to be bad.

‘Afternoon,’ greeted Alan.

‘For the past few days we the senior management team, have been going through the preliminary findings of the inspection report. I’m afraid to say it’s not good. We indeed have been put into special measures. This means that although we have not failed, we have been categorized as severely under achieving. Needless to say some areas of the inspection were good but most were poor. The outcome of this is that we will be given objectives and goals to fulfil within a time frame. We will of course undergo another inspection, most probably at the start of term three,’ he paused. ‘We have been assigned an advisor from the Ministry of Education, Bob Parker, he will endeavour to guide and steer us in the right direction.

‘The whole report has not been finalised yet, so will not be made available to all staff until the final draft has been completed. However heads of departments have each been given a copy of their report. Which, as a group you will read and discuss. From this you will be expected to use the findings to construct goals and introduce changes. That’s all for now.’

Joyce had nothing to write and Jim didn’t even go through his list. Alan dismissed everyone and told departments to meet and go through their reports.

The staffroom very quietly disbanded. Mara followed a despondent Jeremy back to the science block. Looking at him from behind, she couldn’t help but notice that he was confidently bursting out of his clothes; the waistband of his trousers wounding his middle with huge rolls of fat trembling from side to side as he walked.

The science department, minus Roger met in Jeremy’s classroom. He gave them all a copy of the report. Quietly Mara read the document.

Department of science.

Thamesmead Polytechnic School.

 

Number of teachers in department: 6.

The department is made up of a mixture of beginning teachers and experienced teachers.

Mara sped read the document until she got to the Summary.

In conclusion, there are serious weaknesses within the science department, with flimsy leadership by the head of science.

The quality of teaching is varied. One teacher in particular showed a good level of teaching ability, while two were satisfactory. However the remaining teachers displayed unsatisfactory teaching with one teacher having showed a diabolical standard of teaching.

Moral within the department is low and newly qualified teachers receive little support in what can only described as difficult circumstances in a difficult school.

It is recommended that the science department receive serious assistance from the senior management team, to deal with rectifying such weaknesses.

The follow up inspection will endeavour to examine the areas outlined above, most significantly addressing the quality and standard of teaching.

Mara’s mouth had fallen open after the first line and stayed open throughout the summary. She knew it was going to be bad but not this awful.

Poor Jeremy! Mara thought. He really has come under fire and as expected Roger got a roasting. Mara now felt as despondent as the students in her cabbage science class.

Chapter Ten

10

 

It was Friday and she had her brother coming to stay for a couple of days. Ángelmí phoned to say he would get an armoured Cab from Paddington straight to Mara’s flat. They planned to go into the City and meet up with their cousin and two of Ángelmí’s friends from University. One of whom worked in the City doing something that Mara thought sounded exciting and had the word banking in it. The other was a Detective in the Police, while her cousin worked in IT for a financing company.

‘Hi sis, how’s things?’ asked Ángelmí.

‘Okay.’

‘Only okay?’

‘Things have been a bit wearing at work lately,’ Mara replied.

‘Of course, you had that inspection. How did it go?’

Over a bottle of expensive wine that Ángelmí’ had bought for her, she told him about what a pile of shit the science department was and why.

‘Sounds like you need another job. You know they’re always looking for teachers in the Hong Kong international schools, plus its good pay and conditions. Do you want me to look into it for you?’

‘Nah, I’ve got to finish my probationary year and qualify as a teacher first, and then I need to find another career, or marry someone rich.’

‘Careful now, use the word marriage and mum and Mo will have you looking for wedding dresses. At least you’ll put pay to her suspicions.’

‘What suspicions?’

‘That you’re frigid!’

‘WHAT. Why does she think that? It can’t be because I’m single. Ángelmí, have you been stirring?’

‘Course not. Anyway in that village if you’re not married with three kids by the age of seventeen you over the hill and in need of electric shock therapy!’

‘What time are we meeting the others?’ changing the subject before it moved on to her current love life, which Ángelmí’ always asked about.

‘Eight.’

Mara and Ángelmí caught the train to Soho and waited in a mock English tavern for the others to arrive. The friends greeted each other with a rugby tackle embrace followed by grunts and slaps on the back. They all sat at a table catching up on old times and drinking pints of beer, except Mara who stuck to the safer white wine option. While Ángelmí and his friends talked about that night they met up with a visiting Californian volleyball team in the student union bar, Mara chatted to her cousin.

‘How’s life in the big smoke Adam?’

‘Good, I’m being paid well but I’m working twelve hour days. I’m not sure it’s worth it. The cost of living is so high that earning more doesn’t necessarily mean you’re better off, and you spend more to live in a better area and there are all the trimmings.’

‘Yeah, I agree, although can’t say I get many trimmings. What exactly do you do with computers?’

‘To put it simply, I analyse data, financial and commercial.’

‘Hey Mara did you know that Mark here was investigating that body they found at your school and the sewage works?’ Ángelmí said, while holding his pint in the air ready to take a swig.

‘Really?’ Mara replied now focusing her attention on Mark.

‘I didn’t know someone else was killed close by?’

‘That’s actually not unusual in your neck of the woods, but I’m not supposed to discuss it, besides we never really found anything, no evidence or link to the body at the sewage works and the only connection with the victim at the school was an ex. The case is stagnant at the moment.

‘An ex?’ Mara asked.

‘I’ve probably said too much already.’ Mark replied now realising that this was probably unprofessional of him.

‘Enough about crime, who’s up for dinner?’ Ángelmí said boisterously.

They moved onto a restaurant which looked expensive, Mara was thankful that Ángelmí was paying. She was enjoying the evening but still itching to know what Mark could tell her, and at the back of her mind she wanted to tell him what she heard outside Alan’s office. They moved onto another bar in Soho for more drinks. Mara seized the opportunity, offering to help Mark carry the drinks back to the table.

‘Mark, I know you can’t disclose information about that case that we talked about earlier.’

‘What case?’ Mark answered, clearly drunk.

‘The body they found in my school, Thamesmead.’

‘Oh yeah.’

‘Well I overheard something in school which I think is connected to the body.’

She then explained what she had heard and consequently her treatment by Alan. Mark showed interest in what she had to say, but knew this wasn’t the time or the place and gave her his card saying that he would contact her again and talk to her properly.

Mara thought she would be cheeky and ask Mark if he could tell her who the connection was.

‘I can’t Mara, but if you really wanted to know you could find out by looking at past employees.’

‘How would I do that?’

‘Ask someone!’

With the topic of conversation closed the rest of the evening carried on until two am. Mara and her brother caught a cab back to the flat. Ángelmí pumped up the airbed and collapsed on it.

The next morning Mara was woken up by Ángelmí bringing her a coffee in bed.

‘Wake up sis.’

‘Uh, uh, thanks.’

‘Are you up for a little retail therapy this afternoon?’ he asked.

‘Yeah why not.’

‘Good cause I thought I would take you up west and get you an early birthday present.’

After a breakfast cooked by Ángelmí, they caught the bus to Lewisham. While waiting at the station a voice shouted.

‘WHORE, PROSTITUTE, BITCH.’

‘Shit what’s that!’ asked Ángelmí clearly shocked.

‘Sounds like Levi Lambert,’ Mara replied.

‘He’s warped and he hates me, but the feeling is pretty mutual and I refuse to teach him.’

‘What kind of school is it? A school for delinquents?’

‘Pretty much,’ Mara sighed.

Predictably the West End was busy but Ángelmí said he wanted to take her to a particular jeweller where she could look for something.

‘Oh no this shop is far too expensive, I’m only your sister!’ exclaimed Mara, as they approached the shop door.

‘Don’t worry about it, anyway I need to get a watch.’

‘The watch you have there looks pretty good?’ Mara said looking at the pricey Cartier watch on his wrist.

‘Yeah, but I need something a bit dressier.’

‘Dressier!’

Mara looked at the jewellery on display through the pristine glass cabinets while Ángelmí tried on watches. There were indeed some beautiful pieces with price tags to match. She settled on a simple diamond necklace that wasn’t too expensive, as she didn’t feel comfortable picking something costly.

‘It’s very nice, why don’t get the earrings to match,’ Ángelmí suggested as he put he necklace around her neck.

‘No, no, the necklace is enough,’ she replied.

‘I’ll go and pay for everything.’

Mara continued to browse, looking at other necklaces, some of which were half her year’s wages.

‘Come on I’ll take you for a drink then we can go out for an early dinner. We won’t have a late one because my flight tomorrow is early.’

Dinner and drinks were indeed much quieter than the previous night but very enjoyable. Mara relented after being quizzed several times and told Ángelmí about James, while trying not to sound too smitten with him. To Mara’s surprise he was quite supportive and didn’t make any jokes.

Ángelmí left Sunday morning getting a cab straight from her flat to Paddington to catch the Heathrow express. Before he left he told her to think about coming out to Hong Kong to work and said that he missed her. Sitting in her flat Mara felt empty and lonely, she realised how comforting it was having company. She later found a box left on the kitchen bench. They were the matching earrings for the necklace Ángelmí had bought her. With a note saying, be yourself, choose your life, happy birthday sis. Love Ángelmí.

Since her talk with Mark, Mara had been thinking about how to find out the connection to Frank Frawley. She had gone into school early and logged onto the computer to search the school intranet system. She found nothing. She tried the internet, this time looking to see if there were any public records online listing teachers employed in Greenwich Borough; there weren’t.

This is bloody useless. Mara thought as she logged off.

Password! She said to herself. If I can get the code to Alan’s office I can get in a look at his records and search around. I’ll do what the kids do when I’m in the computer room; watch to see what password I type in. I’ll think of some excuse to see him as he’s going into his office, perhaps I can turn on the water works and he’ll ease up a bit. It’s worth a go, I need something on him if my going to pass my probationary year, I can’t face another year of teaching.

The staffroom was now filling with teachers for morning briefing. Mara searched for James but she couldn’t see him so sat down in an empty chair. Meanwhile the only surviving RE teacher was staring at the cover list on the notice board looking very annoyed.

He’s obviously got caught for cover and is not happy, smirked Mara. He then looked around the room and left before the briefing started.

That’s odd behaviour even for a teacher. Mara thought.

To Mara’s repulsion Piles came in and sat next to her frantically scratching his beard.

‘Ello,’ he leered.

‘Hello,’ Mara replied pulling her shirt collar up in reaction to his roving eyes.

‘I had a dream about you,’ he said looking her up and down.

‘Oh really, good was it!’ now trying to think of an excuse to move.

‘Yeah, I dreamt that me and you were kissing in the prep room and we started to get a bit more loving so I said I would lock the door but the other teachers were looking in cheering and......’

She immediately leapt up before he could say anything else and walked over to the kitchenette.

What a horrid disgusting creature, she thought as a chill ran up through her spine. She made a cup of tea and looked for somewhere else to sit. By now James had come in and sat down so she went over and joined him.

‘Hi James, nice weekend?’

‘Yeah and you?’

‘Yep had a couple of good nights.’

James seemed somewhat distant and he didn’t sparkle like he usually did.

Alan started the briefing forcefully.

‘Good morning, only a couple of things from me. Firstly the Police contacted me yesterday, a detective would like to come back to the school and interview a few people. I will let those people know this morning along with your interview times.’

Mara now felt a rush of blood to her face and her nose was starting to sweat. Had she caused this re interviewing?

‘Secondly, we have set up a retraining programme for those teachers that were outlined in the inspection as having serious weaknesses. These teachers will attend special classes on various days after school; again I will notify those staff involved.

That will definitely be Roger. Mara thought.

Jim read his usual instructions and Joyce dutifully scribbled them down. The bell rang for period one.

Mara learned later that morning that Daniel was absent. His lessons were being covered by other teachers including the mysterious RE teacher. Out of curiosity she nipped into the prep room to look through the adjoining door to Daniel’s classroom. The Manuelle teacher was sat in a chair reading a book while the students were colouring in a poster.

At morning break she opted to go to the staff room because she wanted to avoid Piles in case he felt the urge to tell her more intimate hallucinations. Looking in her pigeon hole she found two notes. The first message informed her that she had an interview with the detective at one thirty in her classroom. The second note was from Alan instructing her that she was in the special needs class for teachers.

WHAT! NO WAY!

Now fuelled by anger, she was determined to let Mark know everything she could think off about Alan’s activities. The time for prudence had passed.

Mark came to her room at one thirty and greeted her warming.

‘How are you doing Mara?’

‘Good.’

‘Did Ángelmí get off okay? I do worry about him.’

‘Yeah no problems, why are you worried about him?’

‘Uh, he’s having a few problems at the moment.’

‘Problems?’

‘I’m sure he’ll tell you. As you’ve guessed I didn’t forget about what you said on Friday. We’ve decided to perhaps look into it a further.’

‘You didn’t tell the headmaster what I said. Did you?’

‘No off course not! But I wanted to go through it all with you again officially in a statement, which I can take now.’

Mara told Mark everything she could think of, even about being unjustly picked on. Mara wasn’t sure if he believed her as he suggested talking to Alan and clearing things up. Mark thanked her for the information and said he would try and keep in touch.

Mara thought about what Mark had recommended and decided that this might be good advice; she would go and see Alan, speak to him about her assignment to this cabbage class and if all else fails, see if she could find the code for the door. After lunch she walked to the admin area and asked the secretary if Alan was available.

‘He’s away at a meeting, try again later,’ she replied.

Mara attempted to see Alan again after school but he still wasn’t back.

She asked one of the secretaries if she could make an appointment with him. After rummaging around her desk she said she would have to go and get his appointment book from his office.

Of course! The secretaries are going to know the combination, in case he meets with an unfortunate end! She realised, watching her open the door. She could just make out a 2599, or was it 1599. The secretary disappeared behind the door. Meanwhile one of the other secretaries was sighing and mumbling trying to send a fax.

‘Margaret this bloody fax machine is playing up again, do you wanna have look?’

‘There’s no point asking me, the thing is always chucking a spaz. The person to get it going is Doug’

‘I’ve got to get these figures to Ministry before three thirty, I’ll have to go and find another fax machine.’

‘What’s so important that it can’t wait until tomorrow?’

‘It’s the list of long term supply teachers we have had; the school gets refunded on the cost if they are covering a teacher for more than seven days, and according to these figures we’ve had quite a few; it’s all about money. If I don’t get the info to them today then there’s a two week delay and Joyce won’t be happy.’

The secretary returned from Alan’s office apologising that she took so long, saying she couldn’t find his appointment book and that he must have it with him.

‘I’ll try tomorrow,’ replied Mara, consciously running over the numbers in her head so that she wouldn’t forget.

It was Tuesday and Mara had the special needs class to look forward to after school. She felt humiliated at being put into the same teaching category as Roger. Daniel had come back from his sick day and told her he saw her in a jewellery shop trying on necklaces.

‘What else are you supposed in a jewellery shop Daniel lap dance?’ she asked him mockingly.

‘Can you lap dance?’ he grinned.

Mara was just glad he didn’t come over to see her; how could she explain this moron to her brother.

The new student teacher arrived at school keen and enthusiastic, something Mara vaguely remembered from first week of teaching college the previous year. The only enthusiasm she had for the job these days were the weekends and holidays.

He seemed to have a nervous twitch which Mara knew would immediately be picked up by the kids and cruelly used to taunt him. However he was taking a couple of her classes which freed her up.

A note arrived via child post during the day from Jim informing her that training was to be in the art room at three thirty.

Mara submissively walked to the art room for the cabbage course. She was the first one to arrive and saw James clearing away equipment.

‘Hi Mara, sorry I’m not going to be able to chat I’ve got incompetent teachers coming in here to be retrained,’ he joked.

Feeling mortified Mara told him she was one of those hopeless teachers. James looked blankly at her, apologised and left the room without finishing his tidying up.

‘Bloody great! I can’t even blame this on Alan as it was OFSTEAD inspectors who assessed me!’

Roger came into the room and Mara felt a sense of relief; imagine if he didn’t need retaining, it would mean that she was a worse teacher than him. Next came Piles, followed by the Manuelle guy, Mat and six other teachers who belonged to various other departments, all had their heads hung low as if they had been repeatedly beaten on their foreheads with a rolled up newspaper.

Roger sat next to Mara and appeared to be a little vacant but in good spirits.

Jim was the last to enter the room exposing his colossal incisors as he beamed at his subordinates.

‘Good afternoon everyone, as you all know you’ve all been chosen to participate in the retraining programme. You shouldn’t feel worried or embarrassed; it’s just another form of professional development.’

Jim spent twenty minutes talking about strategies to manage poor behaviour, to which Roger nodded obediently, frowning intensely as he concentrated on Jim’s advice. Mara felt like this was obvious stuff that she already did, thus reinforcing how incensed she was that she was even here. The door flung open, it was Gordon looking flustered and apologising for being late saying he thought it was going to be in the staffroom.

Well that concludes it; the science department has the most representatives. She thought, resigning herself to sitting through another twenty minutes of Jim talk.

‘Enough from me, lets role play!’ he grinned eagerly.

‘Now I have some specially written scripts for you all to practice in pairs. There’s only dialogue for the student; the teacher’s dialogue is blank. Whoever is playing the teacher, will have to fill in the dialogue as you go along. The idea of this is for you to try out behavioural management techniques in the safety of a kid free zone,’ Jim smiled.

‘So for example I have a scene here where the student is chewing gum, swinging on the back of his chair and refusing to work. Mat, will you read the dialogue for the student and I’ll be the teacher.

Mat shyly agreed to read and started to speak.

‘What.’

‘Leon I asked you to put your seat down put the gum in the bin and get on with your work,’ Jim replied, in a mock kid voice.

‘I’m not chewing gum.’

‘I’m not going to repeat myself or there will be consequences.’

‘God it’s like a concentration camp and I can’t do the work.’

‘You haven’t looked at it.’

‘Yeah I have, just can’t do it.’

‘Okay, what we’ll do is go over it again and you can finish it for homework if you don’t finish in class.’

‘I’ll have a go.’

‘Good lad.’

Jim looked up and spoke to the group explaining the strategies he used and how it had worked to make the boy decide to give up arguing and work.

Yeah in an ideal world, but in this shit pit, the arguing would have carried on for longer; eventually the teacher giving up and the little gobshite victoriously tagging his exercise book. Mara thought.

‘So, I want everyone to practice these scenes and swap roles, I’ll come around and see how you’re getting on. Jim ordered.

Mara didn’t know if this was a good or bad thing but she was paired with Roger. Their scene involved a girl repeatedly calling out and interrupting the teacher. Mara felt uncomfortable playing the girl because Roger was doing a bad job trying to stop her from playing up. The script had notations for the reader to either comply or keep misbehaving unless key words or phrases were said. All Roger had to say was if you keep interrupting me you will have to leave the room. Instead he would try to reason with the girl or keep asking the girl to stop talking. Mara resisted the temptation to improvise and become really difficult as Roger was now becoming flustered. She was answering Roger with a no, when Jim came around and stopped them.

‘Now Roger, how many times has the girl said no?’

‘About ten or eleven,’ Roger replied.

‘See there lies the problem, she now knows that you don’t mean what you say and there are no consequences for her refusing to listen to instructions. A good rule of thumb would be to accept no more than two no’s and send her out or give her a detention for poor conduct,’ suggested Jim.

It was now Mara’s turn to be a teacher. Her scene involved a student who had not done their homework for the third week running and was refusing to stay in at lunchtime to complete it.

Roger started to read.

‘No, can’t got things to do at lunch time, and I told you it wasn’t my fault my gecko died and the funeral took it all out of me.’

‘I’m sorry to hear about your gecko, however this is the third time you’ve not done your homework, and if you don’t come back at lunchtime then I will write your name down for an after school detention. No second chances,’ Mara replied.

‘Okay,’ Roger said.

‘You’re quite good at this Mara, why are you here?’ a perplexed Roger asked.

‘I don’t know.’

The remainder of the training session consisted of some of the teachers showing their role plays and Jim pointing out the rights and wrongs.

Feeling totally deflated Mara left the room and caught the bus home.

The rest of the week did nothing to improve Mara’s mood. James had barely said two sentences; when she did speak to him he always needed to be somewhere else.

Mara stayed back after School on Thursday with the rest of the teachers for parent teacher interviews. She joined a few other science staff for dinner at the noodle house near the Pig’s Gut. It was a predictable hour; Jeremy ordering a meal for three, Piles vulgarly eating noodles and food getting caught in his beard, Daniel prattling on about which parents he wanted to see and what he was going to say, at which point Jeremy swallowed a mouth full of food and informed him that the parents he would most like to see won’t come. Gordon was all set to inform Mr Simmons that his boy was a shit head and Roger just chuckled saying he wondered how many parents would actually turn up this year.

Parents were to visit each teacher while the teachers waited in their class. There was an allocation of 10 minutes per parent to avoid queues.

Mara nervously waited in her room; this was her first parent teacher interview and she didn’t really know what to say to any parents that turned up, apart from the usual: Satisfactory, could work harder, no problems, easily distracted student, I don’t actually know who your kid is?

Interviews started at 4.30 and Mara looked at the clock it was now 5.30.

What’s the point of being here? She thought.

She then heard voices. A Man in his forties walked in with his identical but smaller son.

That’s helpful, the kids’ in tow, now I know who to talk about. Mara thought as she greeted the parent with a handshake.

‘Hi, I’m Miss Thompson.’

He introduced himself and both he and his son sat down. Mara gave a spiel about how Kevin needed to apply himself; both father and son looked blankly at her. He then said thank you and left.

Waiting outside was another parent who seemed very cheerful considering who his daughter was. He came in an asked how Density was doing at school.

Mara informed him of her lack of effort, work and general rudeness.

‘Oh well just keep taking the Prozac,’ he said getting up and leaving.

The next hour saw only a smattering of parents, of which Mara had nothing much to say to them except they were doing well. It was obvious that the parents with the worst kids didn’t bother to turn up.

Feeling like she had completely wasted her evening she headed home via the off licence.

Mara had all her free periods taken up with cover during the course of the week; this meant she was behind on some of her photocopying.

Well this is sad, she said to herself, Friday and I’m in this dog house photocopying dot to dots and word finds!

The staffroom and work room were deserted. One by one she fed the paper in to the photocopier and collected the duplicates out the other end. Casually looking up she saw Alan walk out telling the secretary to have a nice weekend. Ten minutes later the secretaries had all left. Mara sat down at one of the computers and checked her emails; Ángelmí had written to say thanks for the good weekend.

This could be my chance thought Mara boldly. Everyone’s gone and I think I know the code to his office. She took a few minutes to check the staff room, the smoker’s room, corridor, and a quick look out at the car park; only two cars were left and one of these was the caretaker’s white van. The adrenaline was now starting to pump around her body. She walked back to the office area looking around and glancing back repeatedly. Turning her head side to side for one last check she then quickly punched in 2599 pulling down slowly on the handle; nothing. She pushed 1599 on the keypad, this time the handle clicked as it unlocked. Mara tiptoed in closing the door behind her and releasing a breath. The office was dimly lit from the fading daylight flowing through the window. She immediately looked around on his desk; there were brochures advertising holiday homes in France and some signed papers which meant nothing to her. She looked in his draw being careful not to disturb the contents.

‘Zilch,’ she whispered.

Now feeling increasingly anxious she scanned the room.

‘Bingo, filing cabinet and the keys are in it!’

Her eyes widened as she searched the labels hoping for something to jump out at her.

‘Budgets.’

The documents were a procession of numbers which didn’t make any sense.

‘Try again Mara.’

Riffling through the documents she picked up a folder titled cultural exchange funding. Opening the document she could see a sheet with figures that obviously showed a set of accounts. There were also receipts attached which looked like they were for accommodation and supplies; although Mara’s French was poor it was evident the bills were expensive.

‘Bloody hell that’s some cost for accommodation? I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s making over the top claims or even falsifying receipts. The brochures!’

She flicked through a brochure on his desk. It had properties, mainly farmhouses for sale; they seemed to be in the same general location as the receipts

‘I’m going to photocopy these, may as well copy the budgets too, if I can get something on him then he might leave me alone and I can qualify in peace and not have to attend that retard group after school.’

Closing the filing cabinet she walked towards the door but was stopped in her tracks by the sound of voices close by; one of whom she knew was Alan. Mara looked around the room in a panic searching for a place to hide.

The only option was to jump behind the sofa in the far corner of the room. The buttons beeped as they were being punched into the panel. The door handle turned and Mara sat curled up in the tightest ball she could form whilst trying not to breathe loudly.

Alan had come back and he was not alone.

‘Look I haven’t got long I’m expected back for pre dinner drinks with Jane’s mum and dad,’ said Alan

‘It’s okay, I‘ve got to get back too, Phil is expecting me,’ a woman replied.

It was that same voice again. The one she had overheard when she was listening outside Alan’s office.

To Mara’s alarm they both sat on the sofa. She was sure she would be discovered.

‘I’ve missed you, you know,’ Alan said.

‘It won’t be long now Al and we’ll be in France away from everyone and this bloody place,’ she replied.

Mara could hear noises that sounded like kissing and she became very uncomfortable as the panting got louder. Alan’s shirt had now been flung over the back of the sofa, followed by his trousers and underpants.

Oh shit if I get caught now I’ll surely get the sack! She grimaced.

Mara screwed her eyes up; she couldn’t take it anymore she was now listening to Alan and this mystery woman having sex on the sofa and when they finished it just made Mara shudder.

Soon both Alan and his woman were breathing normally again.

‘I love twiddling your chest hairs Al,’ the woman whispered seductively.

‘Oh T, it will be great when we don’t have to sneak around behind Jane and Phil’s back,’ Alan said.

‘It won’t be long now, we’ll have the last of the money collected soon,’ the voice replied.

Something moved. Alan had pulled his clothes of the back of the sofa and was now dressing himself.

‘I really have to go T. She’ll blow a stack if I’m late again.’

‘Yeah, I better get back too.’

‘Look you go on cause I’m going to have to set the Alarm tonight, the caretaker was taken home at lunchtime cause he was sick, I’ve already locked the school up, I just need to put a message out over the loudspeaker and do a quick check, make sure everyone has gone, although I’m pretty certain the place is empty, besides what looser would stay late on a Friday?’

Shit if I don’t get out before he sets the alarm and leaves, I’m stuck here or I’m going to be arrested trying to get out.

The door closed as the woman left. Alan put a message out alerting anyone in the building that they needed to leave immediately; he then phoned his wife to tell her he was on his way. Mara heard him lock the filing cabinet and switch of the lights. The rush was on she had to leave via a window or fire exit before Alan set the alarm and she still had the files that she wanted to photocopy, she couldn’t put them back and quickly contemplated leaving them in a draw but decided on taking them with her.

Oh bloody hell I don’t have my bag and it’s got my house keys in it. She panicked.

Things are going from bad to worse! She thought standing by the door and listening to see if he had gone. Deciding there was no noise Mara opened the door to the dark. She groped her way down the stairs and along the dully lit corridor. Now breathing rapidly and loudly she rushed to the science room where she grabbed her bag and raced to the front door. Perhaps she still had time; after all he had to do a quick check of the school. The door looked locked and a red light flashed above the exit sign.

‘Bollocks he’s set the Alarm and gone.’

At the same time she could hear a car driving off.

‘It’s no use I’m going to have to go out through a fire door which will set off the Alarm, I’m just going to have to peg it across the car park and hope I’m not seen.’

She waited another twenty minutes, hoping that Alan would be well and truly gone and that the six twenty five was on time for a change.

Mara took in a deep breath in preparation to run. She pushed open a fire exit door located near the science block and ran towards the gates. Sure enough a loud whaling noise erupted. She felt like she was having a heart attack as she ran for the bus stop. When she reached the deserted bus shelter she tried not to look so guilty; rubbing the sweat from her forehead and trying to slow down her breathing.

Bright lights turned around the corner; the bus was on time.

Thank God, she thought as she held her hand out. Luckily there were only a couple of people on the bus and both looked inebriated. Her breathing started to return to normal as the bus moved away from the yelling alarm in the background. Ten minutes into the journey Police cars with flashing lights and sirens roared past towards Thamesmarsh.

I think I’m safe? I need a fucking big drink! She said to herself as the bus turned away from the area and towards Lewisham.

Mara consumed some very large drinks that night and for the next two evenings. She felt a mixture of relief and worry; she still might have been seen by someone.

Over the weekend Mara looked through the file she had stolen. As she had first guessed the receipts for accommodation and expenses corresponded to the places in the housing brochures.

‘I bet he’s been holidaying in France and looking for houses under the guise of doing something for the school’s cultural exchange programme and getting the board to pay for it. I’ll photocopy this stuff; I might be able to use it against him somehow. The budgets mean nothing to me; perhaps I should get my cousin to have a look. Then all I have to do is sneak the bloody files back somehow?’

 

Chapter 11

11

 

Monday was greeted with a mild hang over from Sunday night.

‘I’m going to have an alcohol free week!’ Mara said herself as she walked though the school gates.

Daniel was predictably bonded to the computer in the work room.

‘Hi Daniel, good weekend?’ Mara asked automatically, as she looked through her pigeon hole.

‘Yep, James and I went out on the pull in Camden, he’s a real hit with the ladies.’

‘Oh yeah,’ Mara replied with gritted teeth.

‘I better go, some of us have work to do!’ she said leaving the staffroom quickly.

‘Did we get out on the wrong side of bed?’ Daniel called out.

She made her way back for morning briefing hoping nothing would be said about the alarm.

Jim entered the staffroom coughed loudly and began to read the messages while Joyce wrote on the board. There was no mention of the alarms or Police.

They probably thought it was a falsie, she reassured herself.

Mara still had the files she stole from Alan’s office. Throughout the day she came up with various plans to get them back. In the end she decided that she would put them under a pile of papers in his secretary’s out tray and hope that the she put them back without thinking too much of it.

At the end of the day, when everyone had gone, Mara hung around the workroom and waited for an opportunity to place the files in the out tray.

Mission completed! She told herself as she put the files in the tray.

‘Mara,’ it was Jim.

‘Hi,’ Mara replied uncertain if he saw her.

‘How are you going with your classes?’

‘Oh fine, I think.’

‘Do let me know if there’s anything I can do to help,’ he said walking over to the secretary’s desk with a folder in his hand.

The run up to the half term holidays was fraught with the usual chaos, Roger and the Elephant Man receiving the brunt of it. Mara was also expecting another note informing her of an assessment, but that never eventuated. James’ elusive behaviour was starting to exasperate Mara. Daniel was making more of an effort to behave like a human being and seemed overtly happy. The classes for dysfunctional teachers were becoming increasingly intolerable with ridiculous flow diagrams, charts, tips and endless role playing.

‘I already do that!’ said the Manuelle teacher.

‘Perhaps you don’t do it enough and that’s why your here,’ replied Jim firmly.

‘This is crap, I’m off, my throat’s too sore again to play teachers,’ he rasped leaving the room.

Well that’s done it; he’s in Jim’s bad books now! Not a place I want to be. Though Mara.

Mara had contacted her cousin to ask if he could look at some data for her and see if there were any anomalies. He had looked over the photocopies she sent and said that as far as budgets go they were pretty standard. He suggested that if she wanted to find anything out of the ordinary, then she needed to compare the general outgoings with what she could see being spent at the school. However with no knowledge of the day to day financial running of the school it would be unlikely that she would pick up on anything.

Mara attended Friday drinks at the Pig’s Gut out of boredom and the slight chance of seeing James. Mat had turned up with Steffi giving Mara the impression he was trying to make her jealous. She was aware of him looking over at her in between giving Steffi the attention she needed. She didn’t know whether to feel sorry for him or relieved he was out of her hair. No one deserved Mademoiselle Steffi’s special treatment.

She sat next to Roger and chatted to him for a while, the conversation turned to Joyce’s incessant note writing on the board.

‘Has she always done that? Mara asked.

‘No, but it got worse after she split from her husband, she just buried herself in the place. She was always good with discipline though; very strict, they used to call her creepy crawly Frawley,’ giggled Roger, ‘because she always seemed to be lurking around trying to catch kids doing something wrong.’

‘Frawley did you say?’ Mara asked.

Yep that was her married name, but she went back to her maiden name when she split from her husband about ten years ago.

‘What was his first name,’ asked Mara.

‘Dunno.’

It had just dawned on her that Frank Frawley, the dead man found at the school was probably Joyce’s ex husband.

A bit of a coincidence. Mara thought.

‘Roger, has Joyce always dealt with the supply teachers?’ Mara asked not really know why she was asking, just going with her gut feeling.

‘No she’s only done it for a few years, Jim used to do it before her, but there was some restructuring and she took over,’

‘Did you know her father died recently?’

‘I thought her father died years ago, or was that her brother? But I know her mother is still alive because she’s in the same nursing home as my wife’s mother.

‘She must be pretty old?’ Mara said, now realising that her question could be construed as being rude.

‘Yep, my mother in law is a real trooper; just keeps going!’

‘What are you up to these holidays Mara?’ Roger asked.

‘I’m going to Bristol to visit a friend and celebrate my birthday, then on to my parents,’ replied Mara, still preoccupied with Joyce. ‘I better go Rog got to be up early.’

Back at her flat Mara looked through the photocopied documents of the budgets’

‘There it is. That cost looks high for supply teachers, even in that shit hole! Besides I don’t see that many supply teachers because we’re always covering lessons and it’s always the same few masochists that come in.

‘I wonder!’ she said picking up the phone book.

‘Al teachers, that’s what I saw in the fax tray,’ she said running her finger down the page.

‘There it is. I’ll phone later on in the week, see what I can find out?’

The radio clicked. She was awoken by a religious rock band singing about their saviour.

Mara changed, packed her bag, locked the flat and rushed to the bus stop. At Lewisham station she waited for the train.

‘Hi.’

Turning around she saw Mat.

‘Hi Mat, where are you off to?’

Just into the City to meet a friend.

‘Oh yeah, Steffi?’ Mara replied regretting what she had just said.

‘No.’

‘Mind if I sit with you?’ he asked

‘That’s fine,’ she replied, inwardly whishing he would piss off.

‘Where are you going,’ he asked?

‘Paddington.’

‘Oh that’s where I’m going to.’

The train seemed to take a long time to get to their destination and she felt uncomfortable making small talk with Mat, who looked intensely focused on asking her questions about the everyday things that she did.

Finally the train pulled into the station and they said their goodbyes. Mara waited for the Bristol train with an uneasy and unexplainable feeling.

Sitting in the carriage she mulled things over in her mind, Joyce, Alan, James and Mat. The confusion irritated her; why couldn’t life just be simple?

Perhaps I should tell the Police my suspicions about Joyce; I can just tell Mark so I don’t sound like a lunatic or amateur private eye. James is pissing me off, one minute it’s all go then it’s nothing! As for that dick head Alan, I need to think about how I can use that information to get him to leave me alone, so I pass my probationary year in peace. Mat I just don’t know!

The train came to a halt at Bristol Temple meads and Mara picked up her bag, stepped off the train looking around for Sam; who was rushing towards her waving and smiling.

‘Good to see you Mara,’ she said hugging her friend. ‘How are you?’

‘Good I think! Over a drink perhaps?’ Mara suggested.

‘Of course, there’s a pub just up the road, it’s a bit grubby but it will do for a first drink.

Although grimy, it made the Pigs Gut look like Winsor Castle.

‘Sam,’ Mara blurted. ‘I seem to have got myself into more of a mess since Christmas.’

‘It can’t be all that bad?’ Sam asked.

‘I’m on a list for the most incompetent teachers in the school, in very real danger of failing my probationary year. I just found out about a possible murderer, my love life is just pitiful and I think I have a stalker! Perhaps stalker is a bit dramatic; over enthusiastic admirer.’

‘Shit Mara why can’t my life be as exciting!’

Mara just raised her eyebrows.

‘Okay enough about me, what have you been up to Sam?’

‘Job’s shit, my flat’s shit, I have no boyfriend and I don’t seem to be doing anything with my life and your brother turned me down big time.’

‘Sam you’re not still holding out for Ángelmí are you? What do you mean he turned you down?’

‘That night in the British Legion, I told him how I felt; he said that he proposed to someone else.’

Mara nearly choked.

‘What? This is news to me; he never even said anything about being with someone! Sorry Sam.’ Mara said now realising that this probably wasn’t what she wanted to hear.

‘Look enough about men, let’s get rat arsed and regret it tomorrow,’ Mara said.

‘Agreed,’ Sam replied. ‘Oh happy birthday.’

They spent the evening and early hours drinking far too much, flirting far too much and laughing a lot.

Despite the thumping heads the next day they still managed to do some shopping in the City centre and drink sensibly at Sam’s local that evening.

The next day Mara caught the train to Somerset feeling drained both emotionally and physically.

Whilst in Somerset Mara phoned the A1 supply agency.

‘Hello A1 teacher, Steve speaking,’ a distinctly coarse voice answered.

‘Hi, I would like to register as a supply teacher,’

The voice on the phone informed Mara that she needed to make an appointment and bring in all her documentation.

‘What schools do you tend to send teachers to?’ Mara asked.

‘Usually schools in South East London.’

‘Do you send a lot to Thamesmead Poly?’

‘Uh we do, why do you ask?’

‘I know someone who works there?’

‘Oh yeah who?’ inquired the voice.

‘Joyce Crest,’

‘We deal with her for the supply work.’

‘Okay well I’ll come in and register next week,’ said Mara.

‘Great, what’s your name?’

‘My Name?’

‘Yep, what people call you by?’

‘Beris.’

‘Beris what?’

‘Beris Clement’

‘Okay Beris Clement we’ll see you next week!’

‘That was a strange conversation and I didn’t really learn much,’ she thought.

Back in London the flat was cold and uninviting. The light on the answering machine flashed.

Mara opened a bottle of wine and pressed the play button on the machine.

‘Hi. This is Mat, just wondering if you would like to catch up?’

‘Hi Mat again, called around earlier and no answer, wondering if you would like to go for a drink?’

Clunk.

‘Hi this is Mat could you give me a ring.’

Clunk.

Clunk.

Clunk.

Mara stood gobsmacked

‘This is not normal behaviour!’

‘Shit he could be outside,’ she said checking the door was locked and now feeling freaked.

Just as she did this the phone rang.

She hesitated and decided not to pick up.

The message machine clicked.

Hi Mara, it’s James.

Mara quickly picked up the phone.

‘Oh Hi James just ran out of the bath.’

‘Having a good break?’ he asked

‘Yes I’ve been away in Somerset.’

‘That explains why you haven’t been in when I phoned; anyway I was wondering would you like to catch up for a drink tomorrow if you’re not busy.’

‘Would love to,’ she replied.

‘Great, can I come to you?’

Mara gave him directions and said she would see him at seven.

This definitely lifted her mood; she had almost forgotten about Mat’s messages and carried on drinking her wine, whilst grinning ridiculously to herself on the sofa.

Mara spent half the day cleaning and tidying her flat and the other half with head to toe self maintenance and repairs.

The bell on the intercom rang.

Oh he’s keen, she thought.

‘Hello.’

‘Hi Mara it’s Mat.’

‘Uh, Mat what are you doing here?’

I’ve come round to see you.’

‘No Mat I’m really busy and am expecting friends. Look I’ll talk to you another time.

‘Just let me in for a minute!’

‘No Mat please go,’ Mara said firmly shutting off the intercom.

She sat on the sofa feeling a bit shaken.

‘This must be stalking?’

The intercom rang again. Apprehensively she answered.

To her relief it was James.

He brought with him a couple of bottles of wine.

‘Thought we’d have a few drinks here’ said James.

‘Great. Have you eaten?’ asked Mara

‘Yep. Had some dinner with Daniel. What about you?’

‘Yes,’ she lied.

Not a good mix; wine and an empty stomach, thought Mara, better watch how much I drink.

‘This is a bit unexpected James? I got the distinct impression you were ignoring me?’ That was a bit forward, thought Mara kicking herself.

‘Yeah sorry. I was being a bit um vague, but I’ve been talking to Daniel and he confessed to making up a few things.

‘Making up things?’ she asked

‘He told me he saw you with another guy in a jewellery shop and that it looked like you were seeing him.’

‘What Ángelmí? uh my brother?’

‘Oh that’s who it was?’

‘I did say he was coming to stay that weekend and why didn’t you just ask? Why did he say that?

‘He has issues. Anyway last week he saw how gutted I was and decided to tell me the truth.’

Mara didn’t know whether to be fuming at what Daniel had done, or overwhelmed that James had said he was gutted.

She decided to be pleased that he was gutted and leaned over to kiss him. James responded with a kiss back. Mara felt the rush of some kind of hormone kicking into action.

Finally, she thought.

Sunday morning didn’t feel as gloomy as it usually did as Mara had the prospect of Sunday lunch in the City with James to look forward to.

The phone rang.

‘Mara, can’t believe you blew me off for that Irish git?’ Mat shouted.

Things had gone too far now, Mara decided as she slammed down the phone. She thought for a few minutes.

Shit this is not right, what should I do? I know I’ll ring Mark, ask him for advice.

Mara fetched her purse and pulled everything out looking for the card Mark had given her. She rang the number.

‘Hello.’

‘Hi Mark its Mara, Ángelmí Sister.’

‘Hi, Mara how’s things?’

‘Well not so good.’

She then explained what had been going on with Mat and asked for some suggestions.

‘Well first of all you need to tape all phone calls, just use your answering machine; every time the phone rings press record before you pick up. You also need to write in a diary all interactions. Look, I’ll pay him a visit and see if we can nip this in the bud now. Okay?’ Mark said reassuringly.

‘Thanks Mark, I really appreciate it.’

‘That’s fine. How is Angelmi?’

‘I haven’t heard from him since he left but I presume all is okay, do you know anything about him getting married?’

‘Um no not really, look I have to go, I’ll keep you informed. Bye’.

Feeling better Mara got ready for lunch with James.

It was a good afternoon and they talked almost nonstop. Mara chose not to tell him about Mat; it was too much baggage. She did however confide in him more information about Alan’s bullying, preferring to leave out the part where she sneaked into his office heard him having sex with another member of staff, stole files and set off the alarms.

 

Chapter Twelve

12

‘Jesus said to his disciples, when they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel....’

‘Oh God, another day in Hollywood!’ groaned Mara as she stretched out and switched off the pastor mid-sentence. As least I’m with James she beamed to herself getting ready to go to work. Nothing could dampen her sprits this morning she thought to herself walking though the school gates. Then she saw Daniel who looked at her, looked down and scuttled away like a centipede.

Mara made her way to the staffroom and looked though her pigeon hole. The thought suddenly came to her that no one was around and she could have quick look in Joyce’s pigeon hole.

Mara rifled thought the papers but could find nothing incriminating, just pieces of different coloured paper.

‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING?’ cracked Joyce.

Shit, thought Mara.

‘I’m just looking for a piece of paper I put in your pigeon hole by mistake; I put it on the wrong coloured paper, oh there it is,’ said Mara, randomly picking up a piece of paper.

‘I’ll go and write it on the correct coloured paper.’

Joyce squinted as Mara walked away.

Another wave of adrenaline hit Mara as she raced to her classroom. I wouldn’t believe me either, she thought.

Lessons that day were predictably like a rollercoaster, but Mara had too many things on her mind to really care. She had decided this term she would try and sort out her probationary year. She asked Jeremy to do some lesson observations for her, which he agreed to do.

The student teacher was taking Mara’s year seven class and she sat at the back writing her school reports on the department laptop. She could hear him nervously trying to instruct the class how to dissect the kidneys they had in front of them. Perhaps if I leave for a while he’ll be able to teach a bit more confidently, besides they only have scissors so it should be safe enough, she thought.

Mara picked up the laptop and quietly left for the prep room. She continued to cut and paste the school reports, making sure to change the name, him to her and he to she.

It’s so much easier when all the students are the same, thought Mara.

She looked at the clock, only ten minutes until break, she told herself. There was a knock on the prep room door. Mara opened it and looked down to see one of the children from the year seven class gasping for air.

‘Miss come quickly there’s a riot in the science room,’ the child panted.

Mara ran back to her room and opened the door; all the children were out of their seats yelling, laughing and throwing pieces of kidney at each other. One boy was up on a table with a meter rule pretending to shoot people. The student teacher was running around screeching at the kids to stop but he was being drowned out by the noise.

Mara yelled at the class to sit down. The students immediately stopped what they were doing and rushed back to their seats. The student teacher was clearly shell shocked so she told him to go to the prep room.

‘This is disgraceful behaviour and you’ll be spending the break time cleaning up the mess,’ she shouted.

Mara hadn’t had a chance to speak to the student teacher but Jeremy informed her at lunchtime that he had gone home because he had developed a rash.

The alarm clicked on to the dulcet tones of the pastor.

‘Passion is the evil in adultery. If a man has no opportunity of living with another man's wife, but if it is obvious for some reason that he would like to do so, and would do so if he could, he is no less guilty than if he was caught in the act.’

Of course that’s it thought Mara as she lay in bed.

Alan! I’ll just tell him I know he’s having an affair and to piss off and transfer my probationary year back to Jim. I won’t go in to the realms of blackmail cause that’s crossing the line. Shit Cosmos must be having an effect on me!

Easier said than done, thought Mara on the bus into school. How do I actually tell him? She asked herself.

I suppose I’ll just come out and say it. Or I could leave a note in his pigeon hole, it’s the cowards way out I know, but. No I’ll tell him face to face in around about way.

As Mara walked into school, she saw Alan getting out the car.

May as well do it now or I’ll just chicken out.

‘Alan,’ called Mara as he took his briefcase out of the car.’

He looked surprised.

‘How are you she asked?’

‘Fine.’

‘Look. I thought I would ask if you could transfer my probationary back to Jim Davison.’

‘Why would I do that?’

‘Because I know why you’re trying to fail me.’

‘What?’

‘Cause I know about the affair you having with T,’ Mara said, not quite believing she could be so barefaced. She also knew it was probably not a good idea to wait for a response and walked away with a mixture of elation and apprehension.

It was Friday afternoon and she had a fee period because the year tens had gone on careers field trip to the sewage works. Mara took the opportunity to finish her reports on the department laptop in the teacher’s workroom.

‘I suppose I better save this on disc, knowing my luck it will be wiped of the hard drive.’

She searched her bag and found a blank disc. Trying to put the disc into the laptop she noticed there was already a disc in the slot. She took it out. Written on the front were the initials S.Piles. That must be the disc he was looking for, she said to herself. Not being able resist, she put the disc back in to the computer and opened it. The only file listed had the title Babes.

‘I bet its porn,’ she said loading the file. Pictures of mannequins came up on the screen, mannequins with underwear and some with nothing on. This is to weird, thought Mara, it must be some sort of phillia?

‘Mara.’

Mara turned to see Jim beaming at her like a donkey who’s just seen a juicy carrot.

‘Hi Jim,’ she said clicking over the screen on the laptop.

‘I’ve just been speaking to Alan and he says that he’s underestimated his workload and can’t continue with your probationary year assessment, he’s also lost all the documentation. This means we’ll have to start again. Unless you have copies?’

‘Uh no, I lost them, accidently dropped them in the Thames,’ Mara replied; trying not to cheer.

‘Okay; well sort something out next week. Have a nice weekend,’ said Jim as he walked away.

Finally things are starting to go my way. She grinned to herself.

She remembered Piles’ disc still in the machine and took it out to return it to his pigeon hole.

I have a better idea; I’ll put it in Jim’s pigeon hole she said to herself mischievously. That will serve him right, the filthy pig, if anyone’s going to take him to task it will be Jim.

Mara shot out of the building hoping to catch the bus before any kids got on. She knew there was a bus that left fifteen minutes before the end of school; this meant she could get back to her flat at a reasonable time and relax.

She had decided to have an alcohol free night tonight as she was going out with James tomorrow. However the left over wine from the night before was too tempting and she couldn’t let it go to waste.

The first week of the second term had probably been the best week there so far, there were only five weeks until Easter break and then shortly after that the year eleven students would be finishing for study leave. It was then just a waiting game for the end of the school year.

A couple more weeks passed and Mara and James were getting on well. Daniel was returning to his old foul habits and customs but this didn’t seem to bother Mara as much. Jim had done a couple of assessments which had gone well. She no longer had to go to the retaining classes for incompetent teachers as Jim said that he rechecked the inspector’s reports and she was deemed a satisfactory teacher, so it was not necessary for her to continue. Mat seemed to be keeping a low profile after she had talked to Mark.

Unfortunately Mara was teaching her year seven class again as the student teacher had decided not return to the school and had left his teaching course.

Mara was now starting to think about what to do next year. There was no way she wanted to stay in London and was adamant that she would be putting in her resignation. Hong Kong may have been an option but now that James was in the picture decisions were harder to make.

The school had just received notification that after Easter they would have another inspection. Unlike the first inspection Alan’s was not as enthusiastic with his leadership and staff generally didn’t seem to have the heart to put in the effort required; There seemed to be a quiet resolution that it would probably be better to close the school.

Gordon had gone on permanent stress leave and the Nigerian teacher Grace had taken over full time from him. This meant that the science department was even more chaotic than usual.

The surviving RE teacher seemed to be at school more often, however he would still disappear at least once a week.

The only upset was the sexual harassment claim against Piles and Boyo by Steffi; but most of the staff just raised their eyebrows at the news and put it down to yet another attention seeking exercise. Although Mara was inclined to believe Piles was capable of this kind of perversion, she was convinced Steffi probably moved around too much for his liking. The head of science’s waistband was increasing exponentially. He was now having problems walking, getting in and out of chairs and falling asleep in lessons.

Mara had made the decision not to pursue the Joyce issue; she had had enough drama for one year.

The Easter holidays came around quickly and although there was still some stress associated with the looming inspection it was nothing on the scale as the first one.

Mara was now spending a lot of time with James who had also asked her if she wanted to come and stay with him in Belfast during the Easter holidays. She had never been to Northern Ireland before and said yes with a mixture of delight and apprehension; checking with James about the regular news items concerning bombs and terrorism. James assured her that it was fine and he lived outside of Belfast, so the risk of being kidnapped was slim. So it was decided they would catch a flight to Belfast on the first Monday of the holidays.

There were Friday night drinks at the Pigs Gut as usual, Mara went to fill in time, as James was going out with Daniel, apparently Daniel needed cheering up.

Boyo and Piles were propping up the bar when Mara got to the pub. Bill served Mara with his usual finesse. She took a seat next to a smiling Roger, as the choice of talking companions was pretty limited and there was no way she was going near Steffi or Mat.

After talking about the usual topics of conversation Mara started to probe Roger again about Joyce. He didn’t have much to add and Mara didn’t really care anymore, after all things were looking up for her.

Looking around the pub, Mara could see Steffi dramatically getting up from her seat and waving what looked like a tampon in her hand. Then loudly telling a red faced Mat she was off to the powder room. At this point Mara decided it was time to go home.

‘Love is patient; love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offense. There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope, and endurance. In a word, there are three things that last forever: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of them all is love,’ said a gentle female voice. It was ten o’clock Monday morning. Pastor Cosmos had obviously finished his preaching and it was the turn of another priest.

That’s actually quite lovely thought Mara, feeling excited about flying out in the afternoon. She had had two alcohol free nights so was feeling full of energy. Mara was meeting James at Lewisham station and they were going to get the train to Heathrow. The flight was a six in the evening.

They arrived at the Belfast airport and caught a cab to James parents’ home mid-evening. As the taxi slowed and pulled over. It suddenly occurred to Mara that they might have separate rooms, as she knew that his mother was quite religious.

Arriving at the house they were greeted by James’ mother, father, older sister and younger brother. All were welcoming and made her feel very comfortable. That evening they stayed in for a family meal at his parents’ place.

Mara woke up before James and looked out the window; she hadn’t seen much of the area as it was starting to get dark when they arrived. The estate was as you would expect from urban British architecture, uniform, mono, bleak and unimaginative. There were the usual mixture of people taking pride in their homes and others not caring. The only real difference between here and the mainland were the pockets of red white and blue union flags and obvious protestant graffiti.

Nice Mara thought as she read ‘Protestant Sunnylands’ sprayed on a nearby fence.

James took Mara to Belfast City centre for a look around. They had lunch at one of the oldest pubs in the city. It was a remarkable building and definitely more authentic than the Irish bar in Blackheath, which still made Mara shudder; remembering the after events.

During lunch James said to Mara that while he was in Belfast he wanted to get some hurly bats.

‘What are they?’ Mara asked.

It’s an Irish game. I was thinking of taking it up again when we get back to London, I know someone who plays and said I would get him a bat as well.’

‘Yep, no worries,’ said Mara.

‘It’s just the place were going is a bit different from where my parents live and the city centre.’

‘Yeah that’s fine; this Guinness is great I wouldn’t mind another one,’ she replied.

James just smiled.

‘I’ll get a couple more, you may need it!’ he said quietly.

‘What was that?’ Mara called after James.

‘Do you want peanuts?’

‘No thanks we’ve just eaten!’

Mara had drunk four Guinness and was feeling a little tipsy.

‘So, we’ll go get those bat things now?’ she said putting on her jacket.

‘Yep, it’s a short walk to the bus stop.’

Mara didn’t pay much attention to what he was saying as this was his home town and she just wanted to be a tourist.

The bus pulled in to the inlet and James got on followed by Mara. It then drove in and out of areas coated with either red white or blue, or green white and gold. The bus turned up a road which was heavily clothed with green, white and gold and various frescos plastered on the sides of buildings, even the kerb sides and lampposts were painted green white and gold. Mara could sense that this street was a little different from the other roads which only tended to have smatterings of colour.

‘Uh James where is this?’ Mara asked quietly.

‘The falls,’ James said casually.

‘What like that falls road we always see on the news with people in balaclavas throwing petrol bombs?’ Mara whispered.

‘Yep, but were probably a bit early to see the petrol bombs! Why are you sinking in your seat?’

‘It might have escaped your notice but I don’t exactly blend in!’

‘You’ll be fine’, said James, ‘we’ll say you’re from South America,’ he said mockingly.

‘I can’t do a South American accent!’ Mara replied.

‘Look it’s our stop soon,’ James said pressing the button.

Mara followed James closely as they got off the bus. He almost seemed to be enjoying himself.

‘We’ll walk down here and it’s just there on the right,’ he said grabbing Mara’s hand.

The street itself was not busy and the place James was looking for was close by. The shop was dusty and untidy and looked like an offshoot of the workshop behind, which had an array of bats. Mara had never seen hurly bats before, she thought they looked like hockey sticks with a large flat club shaped end. A normal looking man in his forties came out and greeted them with a warm smile.

James talked to him for a few minutes and he went out the back. He returned a couple of minutes later with two bats.

‘Where are you going?’ he asked.

‘Carrifurgus,’ James replied.

He raised his eyebrows saying he’d better wrap them up well.

James laughed in agreement.

The man covered the bats with newspaper and black plastic and then tightly taped the plastic.

He asked Mara where she was from.

‘South America,’ Mara answered.

The man started to talk about the struggles of the native Indian populations against the colonisation by the Spanish.

‘We know how they feel; the injustices we have to suffer at the hands of our repressors,’ he said as handed the bats to James.

Mara smiled and nodded in agreement.

Smiling, James said goodbye, opened the door for Mara sensing she was very ready to leave. They walked back to the bus stop and caught the bus back into the city centre.

‘We have to walk a bit to get to the train station,’ said James

As they walked, a police car slowed and drove gradually alongside them for a few seconds then drove away.

‘James, those bloody bat things look like friging rifles wrapped up in plastic bags!’ exclaimed Mara, now realising the situation; walking through Belfast with something rifle like wrapped up in black plastic.

‘Look the flat part of the bat is like the stock of a rifle and the handle looks like the muzzle,’ she panicked.

James looked at the bats.

‘Yeah it does a bit.’

‘Shit James we could be arrested or taken out by snipers!’

‘Calm down Mara, the IRA and the Loyalist paramilitaries are not so blatant to walk though the City centre with fire arms, no one is going to take us out.’

‘Shit, I can’t wait till we get back to your parents.’

On the train James put the bats on the floor under his seat. Out of sight and out of mind seemed to be working as Mara watched the City go by on the train.

It was late in the afternoon when they returned to Carrifurgus. Walking back they passed a short skinny man in his thirties with a shaved head and bomber jacket walking a dog that looked like it had some kind of pit bull in it.

Mara looked down, while James nodded as he went past.

When they were well enough away Mara asked James if he knew him.

‘Bunter Clawson, he’s a local thug, albeit a stupid thug, sure I think he even shares brain cells with that dog of his, even the UVF wouldn’t have him, but he’s also a relative on Dad’s side, thankfully distant.

‘Can’t wait for the treats you have in stall for me tomorrow! Mara said sarcastically.

‘I thought about visiting the Shankhill Road tomorrow, wearing a tee shirt of the pope, followed by the delights of Carrifurgus Castle!’ he said laughing.

The rest of the week was taken up with trips around the area staying with friends and relatives of James thanks to the loan of his mum’s car. It was definitely the break she was in need of. On the last evening they went for a quiet drink in a local pub and chatted.

‘Mara can I tell you something that you can’t repeat’ James said obviously putting a lot of trust in her.

‘Of course.’

‘Well when Daniel told me about what he had said about you being with another guy, I was pretty pissed off with him. We actually had a really big argument, anyway it came out that he was jealous of us getting together.’

‘Shit, so he fancied me and he didn’t want you going out with me.’

‘Not quite, he fancied me!’

Mara stopped mid drink.

‘What but he always acts like a hot blooded male constantly chasing women.’

‘I know but it’s all a facade.’

‘Jesus, and it’s not...’

‘No it’s not mutual!’

‘So I take it you’re still friends, just off limits to him sexually!’

‘Mara!’

‘Sorry.’

‘Underneath all that bravado he’s a really good guy and over the years he’s helped me out a lot and what you see is different to what I see.’

‘He was never your best Man was he?’ asked Mara.

‘No, why?’

‘Nothing. I suppose he was so worried about being outed, especially as a teacher that he was wearing a disguise so to speak,’

‘I actually feel a bit sorry for him. Did he try to kiss you?’

James didn’t answer.

‘There’s actually more’.

‘More?’

‘Yep, he’s got himself into a bit of trouble at school. You know that we keep being asked to be careful about our passwords, and that there’s been a student accessing unsuitable sites.’

‘Shit it was him; that’s why he comes in so early and always seems to be on the computer.’

‘Yep.’

‘But how did he get caught?’ she asked.

‘The day Tony died in the staffroom; Daniel was using his password to look at porn.’

‘I can guess it wouldn’t be the heterosexual soft stuff,’ said Mara

‘I didn’t ask. Anyway senior management were very suspicious and decided to install cameras in the teacher’s workroom. And that’s how he was caught.’

‘So what happens now?’

‘Some kind of disciplinary hearing, but it’s a bit all in the air because putting cameras in the workroom without teachers knowing is very dodgy.’

‘So he might get away with it?’

‘Yep; but you must not tell anyone.’

‘No, you can trust me.’

The evening continued with more talk of school which they had mostly managed to avoid throughout the holiday, but Daniel’s indiscretions seemed to have opened the flood gates on school talk.

That night Mara woke up sharply, it suddenly dawned on her.

Cameras! Bloody cameras! What if they had filmed her getting into Alan’s office and all the other stuff? Sweat formed on her nose, her gut felt tight. James moved next to her wrapping his arm around her, she now just felt hot and wanted to get out of bed and cool down, but she didn’t exactly have anywhere to go she was in someone else’s house. She didn’t sleep much after that and just kept thinking about where the cameras were and what they would have caught on film.

Daylight hadn’t come quick enough and she was glad to get out of bed and into the shower, she felt clammy and sticky from the stress.

‘Are you okay,’ James asked.

‘Fine, just feeling a bit fluey. I’m probably coming down with something,’ she replied whilst grabbing her shower bag.

The shower seemed to have made her feel better giving her a clearer head and she started to rationalise. She hadn’t really done anything wrong and if she had to tell the truth to the Police she still hadn’t done anything wrong, so she really did have nothing to worry about.

Mara and James said good bye to his parents and caught a cab to the airport.

As they sat in the airport lounge drinking cider Mara decided to confess to James about breaking and entering Alan’s office, what she had heard and the prospect of the cameras picking it up. After all a problem shared is a problem halved.

James just looked at her stunned.

Mara couldn’t tell if he was shocked at her behaviour or disgusted.

‘You loon!’ he said laughing.

His laughing was a welcome relief.

James put his arm around her still laughing

‘I wouldn’t worry about the cameras they were only fixed on the computers so you won’t have been caught on film snooping. But what possessed you?’

‘I thought I might be able to find something out that would get Alan off my back.’

‘And did you?’ he asked

‘Yes, he’s having an affair with another teacher.’

‘Oh; what is it with that school? Did it help you?’

‘Yep, I told him what I knew, and he transferred my probationary year back to Jim.’

‘Oh Mara, you’re mad!’

 

Chapter Thirteen

13

‘Staying in bed and shouting oh God does not constitute going to church.’

‘Good to hear your voice again pastor!’ Mara said switching off the radio.

Another day at the poly! She thought, trying to decide what to wear. The weather had changed; spring was here, the sunshine and warmth definitely lifting her frame of mind. Choosing a hot pink shirt and Jeans she sang along to the Boy Zone CD she bought in Belfast, much to James’ disgust. Even the thought of OFSEAD coming in again this week wasn’t going to dampen her mood.

‘At least today’s a teacher only day and the children of the corn will still be in the fields,’ she laughed.

Arriving at school she noticed that Daniel’s car was not in the car park.

I suppose he has no reason to use the computers anymore she shrugged to herself.

The staffroom was abuzz with people looking in their pigeon holes and talking with each other.

Mat was hanging around the kitchenette and seemed to ignore her.

Obviously Mark’s little chat worked, she thought.

She decided to check her emails and double check that the cameras would not have caught her going into Alan’s office. There were just little holes in the ceiling.

Another email from Hazel; she was in Thailand now!

I should do that; just take off travelling. She thought to herself as she deleted all the new emails sent from the school office.

The morning meeting started with Jim welcoming everyone back after Easter and talking about the ominous inspection while Joyce scribbled on the board. There was no Alan but no one seemed to notice or even care.

Mara turned to see both Daniel and James coming in late, James smiled at her and Daniel looked down.

Jim ran though the programme for the day.

‘We have a brief staff meeting to outline the week, and then you will divide up into your subjects. Lunch will be provided by our delightful dinner ladies. After lunch individual teachers will be able to prepare lessons etcetera, the retraining group will meet in the library and the senior management team will meet in my office. All clear he beamed looking decidedly cheerful considering the school was on the brunt of another government inspection it would probably fail.

Mara had been sat next to Steffi, not by choice but because Steffi had chosen to sit next to her. Mara suspected this was due to the fact the Deon was seated the other side of her. He had rolled his eyes when Steffi sat down, making no attempt to hide his annoyance at her being in the vicinity. The meeting was predictable and Mara sat and scribbled on her teacher planner occasionally looking up to see what other people were doing; some were actually listening, some pretending to listen. Roger was smiling at Jim and Steffi tutted every time she heard something she didn’t like, occasionally challenging Jim on certain issues, thus extending the length of the meeting much to the annoyance of the other teachers who were becoming fidgety.

Jim finally dismissed everybody and Mara made her way back to the science prep room, choosing not to go and talk to James as he seemed to be in conversation with the Manuelle teacher who was shaking his head, laughing and throwing empty chocolate wrappers out of his pigeon hole straight into the bin.

Back in the prep room the mood was noticeably dismal; Roger and Piles were definitely the cogs in the science machine. Jeremy seemed to be overwhelmed at another spectacular failure, especially considering Gordon was on permanent sick leave and Grace had taken over his classes. Daniel was noticeably quiet. Mara couldn’t help but wonder if Jeremy new about hi pornographic activities.

Despondently Jeremy trolled through the list of strategies, must and must not’s when OFSTEAD are around. Roger smiled obediently, confirming Mara’s theory he was he was on some sort of medication because no one could smile that much at the situation.

The bell rang for lunch and Jeremy gave some words of advice.

‘Remember OFSTEAD are here to make us better educators not run us in to the ground!’

Mara met up with James at lunch time in the school canteen. The choices available were limited to the usual, sausages chips, pies, fish fingers, beans, quiche and something fried and twisted that no one recognised.

Asking the dinner lady for quiche and chips Mara winced as she glanced at Jeremy’s plate. James was equally offended by the food offerings but had got around this by pre ordering a lasagne and salad, which the dinner ladies had specially made for him.

‘How did you get that?’ she asked James.

‘Gerty made it especially for me,’ replied James, as he smiled at Gerty, who was now giggling and smiling back at him.

‘Come on we’ll sit by Daniel,’ James said.

Although Mara would have preferred not to, she didn’t want to look bad, so agreed.

The afternoon was spent preparing for the week unless, you were in the teacher’s cabbage class, which Mara had smugly cracked jokes about to James who quickly reminded her that it wasn’t so long ago she was one of their teammates.

The first day of the inspection didn’t seem to go to bad, the students were subdued after the holidays and there was no shocking news on the grapevine.

However the rest of the week did not pan out quite as well. Some students decided to have a mini riot in the library while Boyo was teaching his English class. The Librarian had refused to let the same girls take out any books which provoked an argument between the Librarian and the girls. The girls had decided they were going to take the books out anyway and when the Librarian tried to physically stop them, they pushed her back and started throwing books around, all in view of an inspector.

Steffi had also been up to mischief and had asked for a meeting with an inspector so she could voice her concerns over issues in the school. Although no one knew exactly what she had said, it would have been reasonable to assume that it would have had a sexist angle.

The science department did not get of lightly either, as expected chaos was rife in Rogers’ classroom with senior management being called to the room by an inspector when she became frightened; the kids were doing a dissection practical which involved the use of scalpels and scissors. Graces lesson was also frenzied; the children taunted her until she cried. Piles completely forgot to turn up to teach one of his classes and the inspector had to go looking for him. Although Jeremy’s teaching wasn’t an issue, his health now was. Because of his colossal weight he wheezed constantly and was sat in a chair all lesson even nodding off to sleep at one point, something the inspector had picked up on.

Mara had done an average job but had to put up with Levi Lambert being integrated back into her class. Levi couldn’t control himself and called her a scanky ho and had to be sent out. The rest of the school had been a mixture of good, satisfactory, bad and appalling, while the kids had gone about their usual socially dysfunctional business.

The end of the week brought a huge relief for the school and there were drinks at the Pigs Gut on Friday, however the atmosphere was noticeably glum.

 

Chapter fourteen

14

 

Monday morning’s briefing was greeted with Jim walking through the archway with a serious look on his face.

‘I’m afraid we’ve had some bad news.’

Shit who’s died now? Mara Thought.

‘Alan has been stood down as Headmaster of this school and is currently suspended. In the meantime I am acting head of the school, with the lead OFSTEAD inspector Mr Parker as a consultant to help us get though this phase’

A silent shock wave raced around the room, Mara looked at James who looked at her as if to ask if she knew anything about this.

I wonder if this has got anything to do with Frank Frawey? Mara Thought.

Despite this being the topic of conversation amongst the staff, no one actually knew anything about why or what was going on with Alan. Most people were indifferent to Alan but agreed that he was better than Jim, who now had reason to behave as if the school was a part of his empire. Mara was probably one of the few who were glad he was gone.

As the weeks passed by the half term loomed and the year eleven students plus the six remaining year thirteen students had left the school on study leave. This also coincided with an increase in the rate of petty crime in the area. The rest of the students in the school could smell the end of the school year and were basically not giving a shit.

Piles was absent for a week; rumours circulated that he had been suspended without pay and was attending a teachers disciplinary hearing for conduct unbecoming of a teacher. No one knew exactly what it was but Mara suspected the images on the disc had something to do with it.

She had not decided what she was going to do at the end of term; she had to either hand in her resignation or commit to staying. Things were a little harder now that James was on the scene but she would talk to him over half term. He had agreed to spend the week in Somerset at her parent’s place.

 

Chapter 15

15

 

‘Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adultress will hunt for the precious life.

‘Mara what are we listening to?’ James asked curiously.

‘Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?’ continued the pastor.

‘It’s some religious station I use to get me out of bed.’

‘So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.’

‘Not exactly romantic is it? In fact it’s very off putting,’ said James switching off the radio.

It was the first day of the half term holidays. Mara and James caught the train to Taunton followed by the bus. Mara though it would be good for James to see a little of the scenery, she also wanted to show him off by walking through the village and was especially hoping to see her Mum’s friend Mo.

When they reached her parents home, her mother was looking after Ángelmí’s spawn who was so glued to the television he had not noticed they had arrived.

Mara’s mum fussed over James like she fussed over Ángelmí which he seemed to lap up too.

The week was spent doing day visits to different places and visiting friends.

They also caught up with Sam who came back to visit and see the village carnival on the Saturday afternoon.

Mara took James across the road to Sam’s house and rang the door bell.

‘Hi Sam new tune?’ it was the song Danny Boy.

‘I know!’ Sam replied rolling her eyes.

‘This is James,’ proudly introducing him to her friend.

The three of them walked down into the village to find a good spot to watch the Carnival.

‘This will do,’ said Sam. ‘I haven’t seen the Carnival for years, I think the last time was when we were in year nine.

‘Yeah, year nine. It was quite good though,’ Mara said to James who was vigorously wiping dog mess of his shoe.

‘Yep, I’m looking forward to it; people around here seem to rave about it. The woman in the newsagents said it was one of the village’s draw cards.’

‘Don’t expect it to be on the scale of Rio de Janeiro,’ said Mara.

‘Oh the first float is coming around the corner,’ pointed Sam.

The float was a three-wheeler car painted pink with a pig nose and a pig tail. The two people in the front seats were dressed as butchers, trailing this was a group of brownies dressed as gnomes, followed by the village dieters club dressed up as cup cakes. There was a gap for a couple of minutes then a tractor turned the corner pulling a float which had loud music playing the birdie song and people dressed up as different types of poultry.

‘That turkey looks pissed,’ said James watching a man in a turkey suit sway energetically to the music.

A couple more children’s groups and the town crier followed the tractor before another break.

‘I hope they hurry up, I want to go get a pint,’ said Sam.

Five minutes passed and then the small crowd started to disperse.

‘Is that it?’ asked James.

Both Sam and Mara looked embarrassed and baffled.

‘Must be!’ replied Mara.

‘I think it’s probably gone downhill a bit since we last saw it. Let’s get a pint,’ suggested Sam.

They spent a couple of hours in one of the local pubs talking about the spectacular failure the carnival was this year and how they wouldn’t bother going again.

While James was learning to play skittles from one of the locals called ‘three teeth’, Sam told Mara that he was gorgeous in every way and not to let him go missing. When Mara asked about how things were going with her it was clear that she was now starting to realise that Ángelmí was pretty much a pointless exercise and had started seeing someone in Bristol.

The evening was spent having a few drinks at home and Mara’s mother had invited Mo over.

‘Oh Mara you finally have a man!’ she said.

James just grinned at Mo.

‘Yes it took a bit of persuading but she agreed to go out with me,’ James said sitting next to Mo. He had been pre warned by Mara about Mo incessant babblings concerning Mara’s single status.

‘Well we were starting to worry about her you know. It’s not normal a girl that old being on her own; even thought she might be like that female tennis player; Martini Pavlova.’

At this point Mara had had enough and interrupted by asking her if she wanted another gin and tonic.

‘Yes please and don’t forget the ice and lemon,’ replied Mo unable to take her eyes off James.

‘Would anyone else like a drink?’ asked Mara.

Both her mum and James said they would.

James seemed to find Mo amusing and like Ángelmí, nonsensically charmed her until she was giggling manically at his quips and jibes.

They said their goodbyes to Mara’s parents and caught the train back to the stark contrast which was home.

James said he really didn’t want to go back to his flat because it felt empty and the thought of going back to school made it feel even more depressing.

Mara suggested staying with her. It would also give her the chance to talk about what he was planning next September. She didn’t have to the heart to bring it up while they were in Somerset for fear it would ruin the break.

After dinner Mara brought up the subject.

‘James what are you planning to do after this year is out, I mean in terms of teaching and London?’

‘I hadn’t really thought about it, I suppose I’ll just stay on here, I sort of wanted to give London a go for a few years then move on,’ he replied.

‘What about you?’ he asked her.

‘Um well I thought about leaving, but that was before, when my life was a mess and I was in danger of being a failure as a teacher. I’d been thinking about overseas,’ she replied apprehensively.

‘What about now?’ he asked quietly

‘Well now I don’t know, but I don’t know how long I can stomach that school and this part of London.

‘To be honest James, I don’t really know,’ she added.

‘I see,’ he said.

‘I see what?’ Mara questioned.

‘Food for thought I suppose,’ he replied.

‘Have you thought about us moving in together and giving the school another year then looking at going somewhere else, chances are that we’ll be made redundant when they close the school and we get a payout,’ suggested James.

‘You’re hoping! If they close the school where do all the students go? The juvenile unit at Belmarsh won’t take that many kids! I suppose if we do what you suggest it will give us a little longer to decide where to go,’ said Mara, now smiling within herself realising she might actually be in a serious relationship going somewhere, unlike her previous relationship at College of Education which was doomed from the start.

With that brief conversation, it seemed to be decided. Another year at the Poly!

It was different running the gauntlet into school with James. He couldn’t understand why she went in so early. However when she recounted the story of how she was late one morning and ended up travelling with the kids and the consequences of such a journey, he agreed that it was probably a good idea to avoid the stress.

Jim had now appointed an acting deputy to take over his job while he ran the school. It was her first day; Steffi was now temporary deputy head. Deon seemed to be in a state of shock. He found it difficult to communicate at the best of times but now he was completely dumb struck and had succumbed to mumbling. As for the rest of the staff they couldn’t believe how she had managed such a deed, the only possible explanation was the tete a tete she had had with the inspectors and the sudden disappearance of the sexual harassment claims against Piles and Boyo.

Jim couldn’t resist dictating to his minions as he briefed everyone on the new order of the school.

‘This place just gets worse,’ Mara muttered to James.

‘Tell me about it I’m not sure I can work under Cruella De Vil!’ he whispered back.

Steffi took her place on the podium next to Joyce who wrote on the board as Steffi read a list of orders one of which was to inform staff of the meeting after school.

Back in the science prep room the atmosphere was equally as pessimistic. Jeremy was now on long term sick; apparently he had been diagnosed with sleep apnoea as a result of his obesity. No one could find a long term replacement for Jeremy so the department had to make do with daily supply teachers and the work would be set by Piles who was back from suspension, and had taken it upon himself to stand in for Jeremy because no one else could be bothered. Roger seemed to be unaffected by what was going on and would often be seen laughing and giggling in his room. The technicians were staring to think he was clinically mad. The science department was now officially a shambles.

The thought of working here another year seemed even less appealing as the day drew on.

Mara left for the meeting after school via the art room to pick up James who seemed the most despondent she had ever seen him; usually the goings on at the Poly were like water of a ducks back to him.

‘Are you okay James?’ Mara asked.

‘Oh yeah, just had a tough day today, feeling quite vacant actually.’

‘Welcome to my world,’ Mara exclaimed.

Everyone attended the meeting even the Manuelle teacher who she rarely saw after three in the afternoon if at all.

Jim came into the room looking very serious.

‘Ladies and gentlemen I regret to inform you that OFSTEAD have come back to us with their findings from the last inspection. Regrettably we are still under special measures and as a school we have been given a series of objectives to fulfil if we are to remain open. We have three more inspections next year in which to prove that we can succeed. I urge people not to panic and to see this as an opportunity to turn around our school.’

Bullshit, you just don’t want the rats to desert the sinking ship, though Mara.

‘Now we still have Six weeks of school left let’s make the most of it.’

It was a short meeting followed by everyone quietly dispersing and going home.

Mara said goodbye to James as he was going back to his own flat as he needed to sort a few things out.

Mara had some real thinking to do; yesterday’s decision to stay was completely blown out of the water with the events of the day.

 

Chapter Sixteen

16

 

After the shock of the first week things were not about to slow down for Mara, the phone rang.

It was Mark the Detective.

‘Hi Mara how’s it going?’

‘Good. What’s wrong Mark?’ Mara asked not really knowing what to expect.

‘Do you mind if I come and visit you this evening?’

‘No not at all.’

‘It’s nothing to worry about I’ll see you in a couple of hours, bye,’ he said putting down the phone.

Mara now started to wonder what this was about; was it Ángelmí or Mat?

There was a knock at the door. It was Mark with another man.

‘Hi Mark,’ she said hesitantly.

‘Don’t look so worried.’

‘Sorry, look can I get you tea or coffee?’ she asked.

‘No I’m fine,’ he replied and the other detective shook his head.

‘This is Detective Inspector Shaw, he’s my Boss. Look I’ll get straight to the point. We need your help.’

Mara could only sit and listen to Mark.

‘You obviously remember the body found in the school.’

Mara nodded.

‘Well we’re in a corner. We think we know who the culprit is but have no real hard evidence to back this up or make an arrest. We need to put someone with a wire into the school to either get the evidence we require or to lead us to what we need.

‘AND THAT WOULD BE ME? Mara asked bewildered.

‘Yep, now it’s not dangerous because we wouldn’t ask you to do anything that would put you in danger and you’d be monitored at all times.’

At this point his boss interrupted.

‘It’s a big ask for a civilian and we wouldn’t do it unless we didn’t have any other avenues, you’re perfectly entitled to refuse.’

‘Okay I’ll do it’ Mara replied not really thinking about what she was agreeing to, just reacting to thoughts in the back of her mind telling her this could actually be exciting.

Both detectives looked relieved and grateful and informed her of all the pros and cons of the operation, and gave her another chance to back out. She was also told not to tell anyone what she was doing. Once sure that she would be good to go, Mark told her that the suspect she was helping to ensnare was Joyce Crest.

‘I knew it,’ Mara said.

Mark’s eyebrows lifted.

‘Yeah, she’s been charging the school for supply teachers that don’t actually turn up.’

‘How do you know this?’ Mark asked.

Mara told him about what she had found out concerning supply teachers falsely employed by the school and Joyce’s suspicious behaviour when she caught Mara looking in her pigeon hole. She did however omit to tell them how she came across this information.

‘Well, I’m not sure why you were snooping in her pigeon hole, but it actually gives us an avenue in. If she thinks you already know something, we can work on that,’ Mark said.

The inspector and Mark left, informing her that early next week they would be in contact with the finer details.

‘Oh how exciting,’ Mara said to herself as she opened a bottle of wine.

‘I said I wouldn’t drink tonight,’ she chastised herself, as she poured a glass of wine.

 

Chapter seventeen

17

 

Time was running out for the poly, there were only a few weeks left of the term and news was spreading like wildfire that people were putting in their resignations. So far the body count was three. However it was rumoured that more would send in their resignations after they had broken up from school. Thus avoiding the wrath of Jim, who was becoming more and more scathing of those teachers he considered not working for the team.

Mara received news that she had in fact passed her probationary year along with Gordon, who was still away on sick leave. Daniel on the other hand had not passed and was disciplined by the Teacher’s Council for his pornographic conduct and informed he would have to redo his probationary year again.

As expected, the end of the term brought pandemonium as both students and teachers could no longer be bothered. The upset to the school through being failed again and the high volume of supply teachers, only added to the anarchy.

Preparations were being made for the end of year function which was being organised by Steffi. Most staff grumbled about having to pay for an end of year leaving function. Steffi had informed everyone that she was making preparations for a ‘marvellous do’ and all would be revealed soon, once everyone had paid their twenty five pounds.

Mark had contacted Mara informing her that she would no longer need to wear a wire as the information that she had given them about Joyce siphoning off money was enough to investigate and arrest her. She had confessed to accidently killing her ex husband Frank because he was blackmailing her. Mara was free to tell all but Mark asked that she keep it quiet, as only the head teacher and board of trustees knew.

Despite her promise she did tell James the whole story. Yet again he was surprised with Mara’s world, asking her if her life was always this exciting. On reflection she agreed she probably had had the most interesting year of her life.

Mara crossed off another week on the diary.

‘Two more weeks,’ she smiled.

Another weekend passed. James was now spending more time staying at Mara’s place; Daniel had been living at James flat because he had been evicted from his own flat for aggravating his neighbours.

 

Chapter Eighteen

18

 

The alarm clock clicked.

‘Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?’ Pastor Cosmos sighed.

‘Mara I’m not sure about this radio station,’ groaned James, ‘it’s a bit depressing.’

‘I suppose. Tell you what at the end of the school year I’ll change it,’ she replied.

‘Nine days left,’ Mara said to James as she was changing; pulling clothes out the wardrobe, trying them on and putting them back in.

‘Having trouble finding something to wear?’James smirked.

‘Mara I’ll be late tonight, I promised to go for a drink after school with Daniel, and besides I’ve got to set up the art room for tomorrows year ten assessment but I can’t do it until the class for useless teachers has finished.

‘Is that still going?’ Mara asked self-righteously now that she didn’t have to attend.

That afternoon Mara left school early; she didn’t have a lesson last period now that the year elevens had finished. She decided to potter around the flat as she knew James would be late back. While tidying she found James’ key under one of the cushions.

The news had just started.

‘I can’t be bothered with the news, think I’ll have a bath.’

There was a knock at the door.

Typical just as I was about to get in the bath he decides he going to come back. Mara opened the door.

To her surprise it wasn’t James, it was Mat.

‘Uh Mat what are you doing here?’ Mara asked now starting to feel frightened.

‘I’ve come to see you’, he said, as he pushed his way in through the door.

‘I want you to leave,’ she said firmly.

‘No’ he replied. Then pushed the door shut.

Mara was now scared; James could be very late especially if he went out with Daniel.

The phone rang and Mat immediately lifted it slightly, put it back down and put it on the bench. She could hear the receiver beeping.

Mat had a glassy mad look in his eyes and she could smell alcohol.

He grabbed her without saying a word. Mara lashed out at him trying to get herself away but it was useless he had managed to twist her arm behind her back and push her on the sofa, he then reached into his pocket and pulled out some plastic cable ties; tying her arms at the wrists. She couldn’t free herself and was breathing furiously, exhausting all her energy trying to fight him, her face was pressed against the sofa and she gasped for air.

Mat grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her onto the sofa.

She decided that she couldn’t talk or fight her way out of this, so should say nothing and wait for him to make the first move.

He sat silently for five minutes as if trying to compose himself.

‘Why?’ he said.

Mara didn’t reply. She didn’t know what to say.

‘Why didn’t you want to be with me,’ his tone suggesting that this wasn’t actually a question.

‘You led me on, yes you did and then you dumped me,’

‘Mat I didn’t lead you on,’ Mara said softly

‘SHUT UP. SHUT UP. SHUT UP. YOU DID. I KNOW YOU DID,’ he shouted.

‘I loved you!’ he said regaining his composure.

Mat spent the next five minutes touching Mara’s face and grabbing her hair, crying and kissing her on the forehead and lips.

‘You know if I can’t..’

He turned quickly, there was banging against the door and it was pushing free from the lock. As the door flung open James burst in, looking around he saw Mara on the sofa and Mat standing behind her.

‘Move away Mat,’ James said calmly.

‘I’LL HURT HER,’ Mat shouted.

‘No you won’t, you’re not that kind of person; you’re just confused and you made a mistake but we can sort it out.

Just as Mat grasped Mara by the neck three policemen rushed in behind James, two seized Mat and one making a dash at Mara. They pulled Mat to the ground. The third Policeman who had gone for Mara, now helped the other two with Mat who was fighting to free himself. James rushed to Mara and pulled her out of the way then out through the door.

‘Are you alright?’ he said wrapping his arms around her.

She nodded clearly shaken by the ordeal.

They stood watching as the three policemen walked a handcuffed Mat to the Police car. Two policemen drove off with Mat while the third Policeman and a Policewoman walked over to Mara and James.

‘Are you alright?’ the Police woman asked.

‘No, not really,’ Mara replied.

‘We’ll get you checked out at the hospital and take a statement there,’ she said.

As Mara regained her composure and got into the car, she noticed that people were blatantly and unashamedly ogling at the drama taking place, as if watching an episode of The Bill.

‘I’ll just arrange for your neighbour to keep an eye on your flat until the locksmith gets here to secure things for you,’ the police woman assured Mara.

Mara nodded.

‘I just want to get away, some people are so barefaced,’ Mara said to James.

As the Police car drove through London, James comforted Mara in the back.

‘You’re safe now.’

‘How did you know?’ Mara asked.

‘I went back to set up for tomorrow’s assessment after having a drink with Daniel and I saw a diary on the floor under one of the chairs. I just assumed one of the teachers from the retraining group had dropped it, I looked through just to see who it belonged to, so I could put it in their pigeon hole. But photos of you dropped out and they looked like photos that had been taken without you knowing. So I started reading and it was pretty disturbing stuff, the last entry must have been written while he was in the session, cause it just said must do this tonight or I’ll never get the courage to do it.’

‘Do what?’ Mara asked,’ horrified at what he might have had in stall for her.

‘Don’t know it’s just mad scribbling. I tried to ring but the phone just hung up and then was engaged, that’s when I rang the cops and came straight here in a cab. Anyway don’t worry, it’s okay now.’

‘You made it here before the cops!’ Mara whispered.

At the hospital, while they were waiting for the Doctor, the Policewoman took Mara’s statement while the Policeman took James’ statement. He had also told them that he left the diary in the art room so they could go get it.

The Doctor checked Mara over and said she was fine to go.

‘James I don’t think I want to go back to the flat tonight can we go back to yours?’ Mara asked.

‘Yeah that’s fine; I’ll just let Daniel know because he’ll have to sleep in the broom cupboard,’ James replied.

The Police had arranged for a car to take them home. On the way back a call came through on the cell phone of the constable driving.

She turned around to Mara.

‘I’m sorry I have more bad news for you. It seems that your neighbour didn’t keep much of an eye on your flat while you were away, and before the locksmith got arrived persons unknown burgled your flat.’ It’s all secure now but it seems they have cleaned you out.’ You can check it tomorrow and someone will come around and take another statement.’

‘It doesn’t rain but it pours! I suppose at least I’m insured,’ said Mara, now feeling miserable.

They reached James’s flat to be greeted by Daniel who was wearing leopard print pyjamas.

Daniel had not known much about the events of that night only a brief outline James gave him on the phone. But he sensed that he shouldn’t probe further and should retire to the broom cupboard.

‘James I need a big drink of any kind of spirit then bed. And I’m fucking phoning in sick for the rest of the week,’ Mara added.

‘Fair enough,’ said James as he poured out two large brandies.

Chapter Nineteen

19

 

Mara asked James to phone in sick for her and to just give the briefest of reasons. James had to go in because the year ten had their formal assessment. Mara didn’t want to be alone but it was a choice of going into school spending the day with Daniel who had offered to keep her company or to be on her own.

The Police had phoned Mara to tell her that Mat had admitted to everything and they would be throwing the book at him. He would be held on remand but the chances were high that he would be let out on bail.

This news was a relief in one sense, as she would not have to go to court and testify but the thought of him out on Bail made her feel uneasy.

James came home early after the assessment to check Mara was okay and let her know about the rumours circulating around the school. Apparently Joyce’s arrest had almost eclipsed Mat’s arrest because it had been on the news. It was also rumoured that Jim Davison had informed the board of trusties about Alan’s affair with Tess.

Mara repeated to James what the Police had told her about Mat.

‘Mara perhaps we should think about moving on after the end of term?’James asked

I couldn’t agree more; the job’s shit, I’ve been stalked and kidnapped, bullied and burgled. Why would we want to stay?’

‘Okay, what shall we do? Were shall we go?’ asked James.

‘Ever fancied backpacking around Europe?’ Mara questioned.

‘I’ve thought about it’ replied James liking the idea immediately.

‘Well let’s do it, leave this crap behind,’ Mara said.

‘Yep lets,’ agreed James.

Chapter Twenty

20

 

‘Gather together and pray, you shameless nation. Gather while there is still time,

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.’

‘Well pastor Cosmos this is the last day I listen to you. Because it’s the last day I get up to go to the Poly. That feels good; the last day at the Poly!’ said Mara as she lay listening to the Pastor’s sermon.

James laughed.

‘I’m sure he’s brought you some insight in your troubled times, and listening to him now I can’t help wondering if this isn’t some kind of prophecy for tonight’s end of year function.

‘Maybe, the end of the Poly world,’ Mara laughed.

The feeling that this was the last day was wonderful, Mara couldn’t stop grinning.

Although they had not formally told the school they were deserting they had decided that was their intention.

In true Poly style the children reaped havoc around the school and were sent home at lunchtime.

What was left of the science department met up for drinks in the prep room.

‘So Roger what are you doing over the summer? Mara asked sipping her wine.

‘I think I’ll take the caravan to...’

The door to the prep room exploded open, four Police men in riot gear with weapons rushed in shouting the order to lie on the floor. Two more Police followed and immediately grabbed Roger handcuffing him and bundling him to his room. Mara and the other teachers were told that everything was fine and they just had to remain where they were. Mara could see Roger with his head down crying. He took them over to a cupboard and unlocked it. More police entered Roger’s room by the other door and took him away.

Mark the Detective came into the prep room and asked everyone if they were alright.

Mara along with the others nodded. Piles sat down clutching his chest while Daniel comforted him.

‘What was all that about?’ she asked Mark.

‘We believe Roger has been cooking drugs in his science room and selling to a local dealer who we found dead at the sewage works.

‘Shit he killed someone?’ asked Mara.

‘No, no, another drug dealer did that; we caught that guy, who led us to Roger. He’s responsible for a new drug that’s hit the street called nonstop.

Mara frowned.

‘It gives you to a longer hit!’ Mark said.

‘Is that why he’s always smiling? Mara asked.

‘Probably, people who manufacture the stuff usually sample their produce. I better go, got lots to do; Mr Judd needs to be interviewed. I’ll probably be seeing you soon, no doubt Ángelmí has told you. Bye Mara,’ Mark said as he left the room.

What’s my brother up to? I haven’t a clue what’s going on! She thought.

Most teachers met up at the Pigs Gut for drinks due mainly to the events of the afternoon in the science department, before dispersing around three to go and change for the grand finale that evening. Steffi had organised a Thames boat dinner event.

Mara had decided that she would make the best effort she could to look stunning that evening, she wanted to hold up her head with pride. She had spent the last week watching her colleagues avoiding her eye and obviously feeling sorry for her but not knowing what to say.

The teachers met at Embankment Pier where they were going to await the boat that would be taking them for a tour. Dinner was provided by the school and entertainment in the form of Steffi’s amateur dramatics club. None of which was told to staff until all had paid their money.

Mara looked at James and thought he just looked stunning and she was glad to have him.

‘Mara you look hot to night darling, I see I’ll have to keep my eye on you,’ James said

‘I wouldn’t worry there’s not much competition!’ she said looking around at her soon to be former colleagues. Being cowards they had posted their resignations on the way to embankment.

Down the Thames came an elegant looking boat softly lit.

‘Oh that looks lovely said Steffi that must be the Donna Campbell,’ she exclaimed.

‘Uh, no’ said Deon.

‘The Donna Campbell behind it,’ he added.

Sure enough the plush looking boat carried on and in chugged the Donna Campbell.

A few Jaws dropped, most notably Steffi’s, while others sniggered, particularly Deon who made no effort to hide his amusement. Mara looked at James and smiled as if to say typical.

Whilst the teachers embarked, the boat staff loaded large silver trays, bottles of wine, beer and what looked like stage props.

Mara tried to mingle with some off the teachers if only just to put on an, I’m fine, front. She chatted to a few of her colleagues she had never really spoken too while at school including the Manuelle teacher.

‘How long have you worked at the Poly Steve?’

‘Three years, it’s a shit pit,’ he said with a raspy voice she recognised.

‘Do you work for a supply agency?’Mara blurted out.

‘Yeah I need the second income, I’m training to be a funeral director; course fees are pretty high, but that little earner has disappeared cause they closed down the company. I have to admit it was a bit dodgy,’ he laughed.

‘How come?’

‘The office was a horrible room over an Indian takeaway, never saw the owner just an office manager. But they paid me so I didn’t give a shit, although did feel a little bad sending teachers to the Poly. That place really pisses me off; my bloody pigeon hole is always full of crap!’

‘Ladies and gentleman dinner is served,’ announced Steffi, please help yourselves to the buffet provided at the rear.

‘The buffet should have stayed at the rear,’ said the Manuelle teacher as they all lined up with the paper plates and plastic knives and forks.

‘Yep I see the dinner ladies have out done themselves this time, we have six different pies to choose from,’ Mara said sarcastically.

After dinner Steffi announced that there would be entertainment provided by herself and her companions from the amateur dramatics club, then a presentation from Jim Davison, followed by leaving speeches.

‘Can’t wait,’ whispered Mara to James.

Indeed the entertainment was entertainment. It was largely Steffi reciting scenes from Gone with the wind.

‘Mammy, here's Miss Scarlet's vittles,’ she cried.

This could only be described as a one woman show with two others, one of whom seemed to be running around after her with props and the other occasionally appearing with one liners.

Deon could be seen rolling his eyes and shaking his head like a thunderbird puppet.

After Steffi’s performance, there was a pitiful applaud. Jim quickly stepped up to the platform with a tyrannous grin.

‘Well what a year you’d have to agree. We have definitely been challenged through our teaching, professional relationships and in some cases personal relationships....’ Jim said turning to Mara with the later part of the sentence.

Jim continued to gloss over the events of the year focusing on the positives and the future.

He’s definitely in his element. Mara thought.

As he talked the teachers could be seen commenting and sniggering to each other.

‘Most are probably absconding,’ said Mara to James.

After the leaving speeches from those who had the courage to resign before the end of term Jim dismissed his minions.

‘Have a good summer everyone.’

‘So that’s the end of the Poly year,’ Mara smiled at James

Both Mara and James didn’t even bother to say adios, they got off the boat at embankment and walked arm in arm along the pavement.

‘Well Mara Thompson we have another adventure in Europe to look forward to now and somehow I think travelling with you won’t be boring.

 

 

The end

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lektorat: carol Armstrong ans samatha Woodberry
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 21.04.2013

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Of course I dedicate this book to my family. Thankyou Samantha and Carol for your help