The Trouble of Taboo

I couldn’t believe I was finally a year 10, so close to finishing high school and going onto bigger and better things. It was finally time for the important exams, which would help determine the rest of my life; no pressure or anything. I smiled to myself. I would miss this place really, it’s been my life support for three years, and there were some truly great memories.

“Paige! Paige! Oi you deaf bat. PAIGE!” I looked up to see my best friend waving her arms madly in front of me.

“Hay Ali. You’re doing a great windmill impression. Is that for performing arts?” I teased her gently, as we hugged warmly. It had been a hard summer, for both of us, but we were the freaks that actually got cheered up by going to school, because we’re just so cool. She whacked me around the arm and then smiled.

“So, how are you?” She asked me, and I shrugged.

“Okay, glad to be back here. I just want to submerge myself in some GCSE work. You?” I replied, my voice full of longing at the idea of just thinking about GCSE’s and getting out of this shit hole.

“Yeah, I’m good.” I smiled at her, my favourite brush off word was “okay” and her’s “good”. To anyone else it’s being positive, for us that we were surviving. “I meant to ask, what GCSE’s are you taking?” She asked me. I looked over at her as she brushed her hair out of the way, she was in all terms stunning but she just didn’t have the confidence to pull it off, and was too alternative for the “populars” of our school; plus it didn’t help she wasn’t a complete bitch, she got on with pretty much everyone.

“I’m taking, English, o’ course, Maths; kill me now, Applied Science, Child Development, Food, Applied ICT and Art. Not too bad overall, except Maths, and possibly Science. What about you?”

“Oh, English, Maths, Applied Science and ICT, Child Development, Food and Performing Arts. So yay, we should be together for most things. Science will only be bad depending on who we get; if we have Mr Barley I’ll jump off the bridge after this, I can’t be doing with his big head for another year, he’s just so damn annoying, always flirting with anything in a skirt but Mr Pearls would be fun. Although, I’ve never actually had him as a teacher, he sounds pretty cool, have you ever had him?” She asked me, as I finished laughing at her perfect description of Mr Barley, the man couldn’t be more self-obsessed or vain.

“Mr Pearls, no I’ve never had him, I don’t even know which one he is. Does he keep to himself or something? It’s kind of hard to not know a teacher here, we don’t exactly have many.” I asked her, curious about this Mr Pearls, although I doubted anyone could make me like Science, applied or not.

“He’s relatively new I guess, came last year. He doesn’t really leave his room much I guess; maybe he’s still settling in but everyone says he’s a cool teacher and not strict or anything, really funny apparently.” She informed me as we walked toward the school building. I was surprised it was still standing; it’d been built in the early 1900’s and was really pretty, just the small town we lived in didn’t have much money to restore or look after it, but still it was in good shape for a nearly 100 year old building.

“Well he sounds better than Mr Barley anyway. I want to know who we’ll have for Food, after all Mrs Shores left last year, so we’re one teacher down and it’s a really popular subject apparently. They’re going to have to get someone in, but according to mum they haven’t found anyone yet, which should be fun.” I told Ali my knowledge; my mum was a teacher at the other school in the town: the boys’ school. So, we have segregated schools but they are only next door; the schools are separate but the buildings not, just to truly show the town’s weirdness. We do get to see the boys at break time, so it’s not all bad. Well not if you know any of the boys there, which we don’t really.

“Well that’s true St Helens’ way isn’t it? Can’t be too organised and have enough teachers at the start of term, that’d be silly. Will mean cover until someone does turn up, how to screw up our education.” Ali ranted and I nodded, as we walked into our form room and placed the register, which we’d picked up on the way, onto the desk; just like we had done for the past three years since we were thrown together in Year 7 to be the Form lackeys. Basically, we did most of the stuff our Form Tutor was meant to do but couldn’t be asked; Mr Wine never really left his room, he preferred to stay away from any other part of school, and only talked to other members of staff in the ICT department.

The day started off the same way as it always had, in true first day of the year style we got given all the junk we’d supposedly need to last the year: a planner, a timetable, a notebook and a pen, all with the school logo on. The form sat in silence as we all concentrated on copying our timetable into the designated part of our planner; we could have been robots with the way we just sat down and did it all. It didn’t seem a bad timetable this year: Friday’s last three periods were for Food or the other subjects picked then, because some were off campus at the local college, and most days we had double science, which was good only because Ali and I had this Mr Pearls guy, so that should be interesting, and on Tuesday’s last two periods was PE, usually torture but this year we got to pick what we did so it wasn’t too bad, no more hockey or cross country. The rest was just our other subjects in different orders. Already I knew this year was going to be better than the past three, or I hoped I knew anyway.

The day passed quickly, it was already the last two periods of the day: double science, and we’d finally get to meet this Mr Pearls guy. I was in two minds. Everyone said he was funny and an awesome teacher, but could a teacher really be that good and teach you things, or did they just like him because he didn’t really teach anything, which is fine for them but not for me, I needed to do well to get out of this small town living.

We were lined up outside the room, all chatting away about random things.

“Oh joy, look who’s in this class” I whispered to Ali, pointing my head in the direction of not only Kate: the most popular girl in the school but also Sophie: the drug leader of the school; the two girls that hated Ali and I the most. They had made our lives nightmares for the past three years. Ali rolled her eyes.

“Great. This should be fun.” She said and I grimaced at her, already imaging the hell that’s going to ensue during these lessons. It seemed to me that all fun that could have been had in these lessons had just gone out of the window.

“Can we just move classes?” I asked her, not really whispering anymore.

“Well I hope not. Please give my class a go before you want to leave. I understand that Mr Barley has a way with girls, but my lessons are not that bad.” A voice came from behind me, scaring the shit out of me causing me to jump. I turned around to see the owner of this voice. My breath hitched in my throat.

“No, sir. That’s not what we meant and we really hate Mr Barley’s teaching style” Ali answered for me, as I regained my voice.

“Well, all of his style really.” I added, my hatred for Mr Barley breaking through my nerves.

“I am glad to hear of it. So perhaps you will give my lessons a chance?” Mr Pearls asked.

“Of course.” I answered just as he finished saying chance and not even thinking about what I was agreeing to, just wanting to please this man in any way possible. He smiled and I felt myself blush bright red, so I moved my fringe in front of my face as I looked at the floor. Ali looked at me weird. I heard him move away to open the door and usher us through.

“Are you okay?” Ali whispered as we neared the door, and Mr Pearls. I could feel his gaze on me but turned to Ali and nodded. She squeezed my hand and I smiled, turning my face to the front and meeting Mr Pearls’ eyes straight on for a second before I looked to the floor again.

We all went in and found seats; I convinced Ali that a seat at the tables near the back were best, especially as Sophie and Kate had sat on the rows nearer the front, telling her this way we were out of their eye line and, hopefully, out of their minds. When everyone was sat down Mr Pearls headed towards the front of the class, passing Ali and I as he walked in between the rows and our square table, usually used for experiments. I kept my eyes down until he reached the front and cleared his throat. I looked up and he smiled.

“Hello class, I am Mr Pearls, and I will be your Science teacher for the next two years. Well this is Applied Science, which means lots of coursework and one exam; obviously, the best way to do Science.” He smiled as some of us laughed; he seemed to have gained the respect of the whole class in about a minute, which was pretty amazing in this school. “Obviously, you will have realised that the top four colour groups have been mixed, so we are going to have to figure out a system so that everyone learns to the best of their abilities.” I smiled at him, he obviously cared very much about us students and not just about getting good grades, it was rare to find teachers who actually wanted to help students further themselves. His eyes met mine and I noticed they had a slight twinkle to them when he smiled. “So yeah, today will basically be about getting to know the course layout, each other and making sure everyone’s comfortable being in this class with this kind of Science.” His eyes landed on Ali and I as he said that and I smiled, relaxing into my chair, I was more than comfortable with staying in his class, and I could easily convince Ali that we’d be safe, but then I didn’t need to “I also want to let you all know, I will not tolerate any bullying or nastiness in my classes. This is going to be a friendly, safe environment for all students. No matter what ability, race or clique you belong to.” Ali turned to look at me and I smiled a bigger smile than I thought was possible. As I looked into his light green eyes, I was a goner.