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Oct. 3rd, 2014 10:06 pm"Just ignore them." Teddy tells Fry, as Tommy hisses 'snitch' at him when he goes past.
Ever since Fry asked Mrs Pink whether it was okay for Bradley to borrow his homework as he asked, and Mrs Pink docked Bradley a star, Fry has become aware that there is a sub-clause to the rule that if someone does something wrong you should tell a teacher. Apparently there is a subdivision between 'telling tales' and 'reporting' which he had not previously understood.
And still doesn't understand, if he's honest. The fact that Tommy, Jamal and Bradley keep hissing 'snitch' at him does not actually bother him very much. As far as he's concerned, he won the encounter, because Bradley lost a star and didn't get to copy his homework, and it was his own fault for trying to in the first place.
Teddy, ever concerned for his little friend, tries to keep Tommy and Jamal distracted during morning break with football, and Kasha plays word game with Fry. But at lunch time Teddy and Kasha get called off to Speech and Drama group, leaving Fry wandering around on his own.
"Hey Fry." Bradley comes up to him, with Tommy sidling along with him. "Want to play a game?"
"What kind of game?" Fry asks warily, following Bradley over to the tall windows near the nursery class.
"Hangman, it's a word game." Tommy says.
"The normal kind of hangman?" Fry checks.
"Oh yeah, but we get to use board pens." Bradley says, holding them up. "We write on the window, and they wipe off."
"Are we allowed to do that?" Fry asks.
"There's no rule saying we can't use board pen on the window." Tommy says, writing on it and then wiping off to show it works. Then he draws three lines on the window and hands Fry the other pen.
Something about this doesn't quite ring true to Fry, but he gives the others the benefit of the doubt. It's an easy word. As soon as he's worked his way through the vowels he's left with _OO.
"POO!" he writes it in. "That was a bit easy."
"Yes it was." Bradley says, taking the pen back. "See you."
Fry blinks as Bradley takes off, and Tommy wipes the window with his sleeve, all except Fry's letters. Fry tries using his sleeve to wipe his letters off... and they don't budge.
POO
"We tried to stop him, miss." Bradley says behind him.
Fry looks around. Bradley and Tommy are standing with the playground lady, who looks extremely angry.
***
"You aren't going to prison." Mrs Patel, the headmistress, tries to say over the noise that Fry is making in the office. "But you know that you mustn't write on things with permanent pen, we've talked about that, Fry."
Fry continues to scream loudly, but it's mostly out of frustration. He knows that somehow, even though he did physically write the letters, that he's been tricked. Frustrated, he decides the best option is to shut out everyone talking to him and think, so he wedges himself underneath the school secretary's desk and puts his hands over his ears.
Mrs Patel gives up trying to get anything more out of Fry until he's calmed down, so he sits quietly under the desk until he's had some time to think. Bradley has clearly set him up, and got him into trouble with a trick. The only decent thing for Bradley to do is to confess, and tell the truth.
"Come on poppet, it's time to go back to your lessons soon." the school secretary says, trying to lure Fry out from under her desk with a biscuit. Fry opens his eyes and looks at her, then emerges from the desk. She looks relieved and retrieves her handbag from where he'd been sitting, then gives him a tissue.
"You were tricked, weren't you?" she says, softly. "Mrs Patel thinks so too, she just needs to know what happened."
Fry thinks about this for a moment. If he tells her, is that 'snitching' again? He stores away the option. Perhaps he can get Bradley to confess first, and then he won't need to snitch. Glancing around the room, his eyes fall on some pretty blue paper on the desk, which he picks up and looks at.
"What's this?"
"Carbon paper." the secretary says. "You put it under normal paper, and it makes a copy. You can keep that one if you like." she adds, relieved that he's talking again.
Mrs Patel comes out of her office and crouches next to Fry.
"I'm not going to punish anyone until I know exactly what happened." she says. "So don't worry. Come and tell me when you're ready."
Fry puts the paper in his pocket and goes back to his classroom. He goes straight up to Bradley and Tommy, who laugh.
"That was a mean trick. Are you going to confess, or are you a coward?" he demands of Bradley.
"No." Bradley says. "Serves you right for snitching."
"Well that served you right for trying to copy." Fry says.
"Stop bullying him, Fry." Tommy says.
Fry goes back to his seat, fuming. When the lesson has got going, he gets out a piece of paper, and writes a letter. He folds it very carefully when he's done. Today is Thursday, so he knows that at afternoon break Mrs Pink is going to send around a sign-up sheet for who wants to take home the class cuddly toy bear for the weekend. At the end of the lesson he approaches Mrs Pink and volunteers to take the list around.
***
At the end of afternoon break, Bradley and Tommy are called into the school office.
"I appreciate your confession, but this stops right now." Mrs Patel says, sternly, to the pair of them. "Thomas, you are over a year older than Fry, you should be ashamed of picking on someone so much younger than you. Bradley, Mrs Pink tells me that you have tried to trick Fry several times. We do not tolerate bullying in this school."
"Fry's the bully, not us." Tommy protests.
"Apart from the time Fry pushed Bradley, which he apologised for and said was a misunderstanding, what has Fry done?" Mrs Patel asks.
The boys hesitate.
"He's well annoying." Tommy says. "And he's weird."
"That doesn't make him a bully." Mrs Patel says.
"What confession?" Bradley asks.
Mrs Patel picks up the piece of paper on her desk.
"'I confes that I tricked Fry to make him get in trouble on porpoise by telling him the pen wood wipe off and that I call him a snitch and a weerdo.' It's signed by both of your names." She turns the paper around to show the names written in the boys' handwriting at the bottom. "You will both say sorry to Fry and nobody will do any more tricks, do I make myself clear? I will be keeping a very close eye on the three of you and if there's any more trouble I'll be calling in your parents."
Fry sits outside the office, munching his second biscuit happily, and carefully tucks his piece of carbon paper back inside his notebook.
Ever since Fry asked Mrs Pink whether it was okay for Bradley to borrow his homework as he asked, and Mrs Pink docked Bradley a star, Fry has become aware that there is a sub-clause to the rule that if someone does something wrong you should tell a teacher. Apparently there is a subdivision between 'telling tales' and 'reporting' which he had not previously understood.
And still doesn't understand, if he's honest. The fact that Tommy, Jamal and Bradley keep hissing 'snitch' at him does not actually bother him very much. As far as he's concerned, he won the encounter, because Bradley lost a star and didn't get to copy his homework, and it was his own fault for trying to in the first place.
Teddy, ever concerned for his little friend, tries to keep Tommy and Jamal distracted during morning break with football, and Kasha plays word game with Fry. But at lunch time Teddy and Kasha get called off to Speech and Drama group, leaving Fry wandering around on his own.
"Hey Fry." Bradley comes up to him, with Tommy sidling along with him. "Want to play a game?"
"What kind of game?" Fry asks warily, following Bradley over to the tall windows near the nursery class.
"Hangman, it's a word game." Tommy says.
"The normal kind of hangman?" Fry checks.
"Oh yeah, but we get to use board pens." Bradley says, holding them up. "We write on the window, and they wipe off."
"Are we allowed to do that?" Fry asks.
"There's no rule saying we can't use board pen on the window." Tommy says, writing on it and then wiping off to show it works. Then he draws three lines on the window and hands Fry the other pen.
Something about this doesn't quite ring true to Fry, but he gives the others the benefit of the doubt. It's an easy word. As soon as he's worked his way through the vowels he's left with _OO.
"POO!" he writes it in. "That was a bit easy."
"Yes it was." Bradley says, taking the pen back. "See you."
Fry blinks as Bradley takes off, and Tommy wipes the window with his sleeve, all except Fry's letters. Fry tries using his sleeve to wipe his letters off... and they don't budge.
POO
"We tried to stop him, miss." Bradley says behind him.
Fry looks around. Bradley and Tommy are standing with the playground lady, who looks extremely angry.
***
"You aren't going to prison." Mrs Patel, the headmistress, tries to say over the noise that Fry is making in the office. "But you know that you mustn't write on things with permanent pen, we've talked about that, Fry."
Fry continues to scream loudly, but it's mostly out of frustration. He knows that somehow, even though he did physically write the letters, that he's been tricked. Frustrated, he decides the best option is to shut out everyone talking to him and think, so he wedges himself underneath the school secretary's desk and puts his hands over his ears.
Mrs Patel gives up trying to get anything more out of Fry until he's calmed down, so he sits quietly under the desk until he's had some time to think. Bradley has clearly set him up, and got him into trouble with a trick. The only decent thing for Bradley to do is to confess, and tell the truth.
"Come on poppet, it's time to go back to your lessons soon." the school secretary says, trying to lure Fry out from under her desk with a biscuit. Fry opens his eyes and looks at her, then emerges from the desk. She looks relieved and retrieves her handbag from where he'd been sitting, then gives him a tissue.
"You were tricked, weren't you?" she says, softly. "Mrs Patel thinks so too, she just needs to know what happened."
Fry thinks about this for a moment. If he tells her, is that 'snitching' again? He stores away the option. Perhaps he can get Bradley to confess first, and then he won't need to snitch. Glancing around the room, his eyes fall on some pretty blue paper on the desk, which he picks up and looks at.
"What's this?"
"Carbon paper." the secretary says. "You put it under normal paper, and it makes a copy. You can keep that one if you like." she adds, relieved that he's talking again.
Mrs Patel comes out of her office and crouches next to Fry.
"I'm not going to punish anyone until I know exactly what happened." she says. "So don't worry. Come and tell me when you're ready."
Fry puts the paper in his pocket and goes back to his classroom. He goes straight up to Bradley and Tommy, who laugh.
"That was a mean trick. Are you going to confess, or are you a coward?" he demands of Bradley.
"No." Bradley says. "Serves you right for snitching."
"Well that served you right for trying to copy." Fry says.
"Stop bullying him, Fry." Tommy says.
Fry goes back to his seat, fuming. When the lesson has got going, he gets out a piece of paper, and writes a letter. He folds it very carefully when he's done. Today is Thursday, so he knows that at afternoon break Mrs Pink is going to send around a sign-up sheet for who wants to take home the class cuddly toy bear for the weekend. At the end of the lesson he approaches Mrs Pink and volunteers to take the list around.
***
At the end of afternoon break, Bradley and Tommy are called into the school office.
"I appreciate your confession, but this stops right now." Mrs Patel says, sternly, to the pair of them. "Thomas, you are over a year older than Fry, you should be ashamed of picking on someone so much younger than you. Bradley, Mrs Pink tells me that you have tried to trick Fry several times. We do not tolerate bullying in this school."
"Fry's the bully, not us." Tommy protests.
"Apart from the time Fry pushed Bradley, which he apologised for and said was a misunderstanding, what has Fry done?" Mrs Patel asks.
The boys hesitate.
"He's well annoying." Tommy says. "And he's weird."
"That doesn't make him a bully." Mrs Patel says.
"What confession?" Bradley asks.
Mrs Patel picks up the piece of paper on her desk.
"'I confes that I tricked Fry to make him get in trouble on porpoise by telling him the pen wood wipe off and that I call him a snitch and a weerdo.' It's signed by both of your names." She turns the paper around to show the names written in the boys' handwriting at the bottom. "You will both say sorry to Fry and nobody will do any more tricks, do I make myself clear? I will be keeping a very close eye on the three of you and if there's any more trouble I'll be calling in your parents."
Fry sits outside the office, munching his second biscuit happily, and carefully tucks his piece of carbon paper back inside his notebook.
