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Jun. 21st, 2010 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fry_sandhuThe Butterfly stands in front of the mirror, trying to get her hair to fit into a nice plait. She has her primary school uniform on; after much deliberation, she decided this was the safest option.
It's been a tricky few months. Despite taking the entrance exams for five of the private secondary schools (in all of which the boys' equivalent offered Fry a scholarship when he did this aged a year younger than her), she found herself the recipient of four outright rejections and one waiting list place.
Mum was supportive. Said she'd home school her if necessary rather than see her at the scary inner city state schools. But Mum and Dad and Max still wouldn't let her go to Jackson Street with Fry.
Fortunately, yesterday a letter turned up saying that the requisite number of people had rejected their places, presumably having got into the other four schools, and asking her to come to the induction session today.
She slides down the bannister and goes into the kitchen, feeling a bit nervous. Mum smiles at her.
"Good morning sweetheart. Why are you in your uniform, you didn't forget did you?"
"No, but I wore it for the exams so I thought it would be easier. The letter didn't say." She looks a bit worried. "Should I go change?"
"Nah, just say I told you to. Now there was just one thing - I'm very sorry but at such short notice I'm not going to be able to pick you up. But you get out half an hour later than Fry, so I've asked him if he'll do a detour and walk you back. He said he doesn't mind but that he'll still have James with him."
"That's okay." The Butterfly smiles. "I know you've got other things you have to do."
"Good girl." Mum kisses her on the forehead. "Don't keep them waiting if you can help it, in case James starts to wander."
Sticking her Sylvanian rabbit Mopsy into her pocket, the Butterfly follows her Mum into the car and takes the short drive. She's seen the school before on the open day and at the exam, and is very excited, though like the others it was very big and a bit scary.
"Good luck, go make friends." Mum says, giving her a hug before she steps out of the car. Holby High School for Girls towers over her. There's a big girl in the uniform standing near the gate, holding a sign saying 'Induction day!', who smiles and waves her over.
"Hi there! Do you know whose class you're in?"
The Butterfly tells her her name. "My letter said Mr Warren's class."
She likes the sound of the name. Reminds her of bunnies.
"I'll show you where it is. I'm Ruth, welcome to Holby High. I'm your form's sixth form prefect." Ruth starts to lead the way. "I'll be taking your form's register on Thursday mornings when the staff meeting is on, but I'm also here if any of you need help settling in and stuff. Or if you have any problems that you don't want to talk to a teacher about, you can come find me."
The Butterfly likes the sound of that too, and almost skips her way into her classroom. Ruth laughs.
"You're keen! Have fun kid."
The Butterfly grins and waves at her, then looks at her new class. Everyone seems to be looking at her. She realises that she's the only one who came in her school uniform. Oops. Oh well.
"Hi!" She grins at the nearest group of girls and introduces herself. "Looks like I got the dress code wrong, d'oh!"
The girls grin back, and giggle at her for taking her mistake in good humour. She notices the teacher behind the desk smiling too, and goes over to introduce herself.
She offers a hand to shake politely. More giggles from the surrounding girls, but Mr Warren shakes it.
"All right girls, take your name badge and a seat and we'll sort a few things out."
The Butterfly searches on the table for her badge, but it's not there. She goes back to the teacher.
"Oh yes, I just added you to my list, here's a blank one." Mr Warren smiles and hands it to her. She writes her name on and sits in the front row.
"Okay, we need to pick some moniters to keep things running along. We need a Form Captain, a Games Captain, a Board Moniter and a Tidy Moniter."
It is at this point that the Butterfly becomes aware that a lot of her class seem to know one another already, because several of them shout out the same name for Form and Games captain. It was clearly planned in advance; she realises they must go to the primary school attached to Holby High. Glancing behind, she spots that lots of the girls are wearing a single red hair slide on the right side. Some sort of club mark?
Nobody wants to be Board Moniter from the big group, so she puts her hand up at the same time as another girl who doesn't seem to know anyone. Mr Warren smiles, makes the other girl Board Moniter, and gives the Butterfly Tidy Moniter. Well, living with Fry and having a photographic memory of the layout of rooms should make her good at that job.
Mr Warren goes around handing things out. The first is a welcome booklet, containing information. The second is a bound copy of the school rules, with the instruction to glance through it later. The third is a sheet of coloured paper.
"Everyone write your name on your paper, and your hobbies, and then draw us a doodle of yourself. Then we'll read them out and stick 'em on the wall to help you all get to know each other."
The Butterfly writes her name and draws a caricature, emphasising the glasses and drawing her hair in its usual bunches. Then she writes down her hobbies - 'Making storys, singing in my borther's band'. She spots the girl next to her suddenly hiding giggles - these kids sure giggle a lot - and then looks up to see Mr Warren peering over her shoulder.
"Ah, yes, I have some more letters for you after we finish." he says in a low voice, gently telling her what the spelling mistakes are. "Do you want another sheet?"
"It's okay thanks." She crosses out the wrong words and writes them again neatly underneath. "Beethoven and Eunstein were dyslexic too, it's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Quite right!" Mr Warren says, straightening up.
She finds she likes Mr Warren a lot. The form prefect, Ruth, seems nice too. At lunch break though, the girls from the same school who all know each other take off somewhere, along with some obviously 'popular' kids from other schools. Everyone around her seems to be going off in little groups. In vain, she looks around for the Board moniter, but she seems to have disappeared.
Not to be deterred, she follows the others to the dining hall, gets lunch, and sits down in the middle of the red hair slide group. They all stare at her again, but she's not sure why.
"Hi Tidy Moniter." One of the girls says. The others laugh in chorus.
The Butterfly grins and tells them her name.
"Yeah, it's on your badge." The girl replies. "We were just congratulating you on your new title."
They chat, whisper and giggle among themselves about the latest bands and fashions. On closer inspection, she can see now that they're all wearing make-up too, something she'd never have considered doing to school. She eats her lunch and listens. They might as well be talking another language right now, and nobody is directing their conversation at her anyway. She makes a mental note to seek out the Board moniter and see if she's more up for making friends.
"Did you see that kid who took the Board Moniter job?" One of the girls at the table (her badge calling her 'Heidi'), suddenly says. "What a dork!"
"I know. And her top! If I had that shirt, I'd wear it only for painting."
"Give her a chance, we don't even know her yet." The Butterfly says, looking around again for the girl. Is she skipping lunch or did she get lost somewhere?
All eyes are on her again. A few eyebrows are raised, then the subject is changed. But none of the group engage her in conversation.
After lunch, vowing not to be discouraged by the clique, she wanders off to explore and see if she can find the Board Moniter. She eventually finds the girl in the beautiful old library, tucked behind a bookshelf, reading. She jumps when the Butterfly finds her.
"It's okay." The Butterfly whispers, going around the other way to sit next to her. "What's your name?"
"Zara Petunia Fergerson." The Board Moniter says. "Don't tell the others you found me here, will you?"
"Promise." The Butterfly agrees, smiling. "Nice to meet you Zara. Why are you here though, rather than getting to know our class? Was someone mean?"
Zara hesitates, perhaps deciding if she could trust the Butterfly.
"No, they weren't mean. I just like small quiet spaces and the smell of books. I need a bit of quiet time when I'm around so many people at once. Don't tell anyone." Her eyes look down at the Butterfly's skirt. "There's a white ear sticking out your pocket."
"Oh, that's Mopsy. Don't tell that either. Now we both have a secret so we're even." She gets Mopsy out to show Zara. The other girl smiles, looking at the delicate stitching on the hand made dress.
"She's lovely." Zara says, handing her back. "Don't let other girls see her, you'll get teased. I took a panda like that to my primary school but someone saw him and was mean."
They stay whispering quietly until the warning bell goes, then try to find their classroom again. This time they sit together, and although Zara says very little, they exchange email addresses at the end.
***
Fry gets to the school five minutes early, and sits on the wall outside with James. James hums and sways slightly, tapping his feet. There are a few parents in their cars nearby, otherwise the area is pretty deserted.
As the bell goes, the large group of red hair slide girls from the Butterfly's class spread out into the area outside the school. Some of them peer at the two boys with interest, then sidle over.
"Do you come here?" One of them asks, flirtatiously. The attempt is lost on both.
"Of course not, this is a girls' school, and our uniform is clearly different." Fry says, looking at the girl's name tag. 'Heidi'.
"Are you looking at my breasts?" Heidi says. The girls around her giggle.
"No, I'm looking at your name badge. You don't appear to have any breasts to speak of." Fry replies, truthfully.
The girls go 'Ooooooh!' in chorus.
"How rude!" Heidi says, indignantly.
"I'm waiting for someone, have you seen her?" Fry says, giving them the Butterfly's name.
"Oh, you must be her 'borther'." Heidi says, with finger quote marks. The girls burst into hysterical giggles. Fry and James exchange a look. Girls are weird.
Then Heidi leans forward.
"She never said you were so cute!" she says, reaching out and ruffling Fry's hair. Her teasing is undetected by the boys.
"Stop it!" Fry yells, in alarm. When she doesn't, and the other girls start too, he screams loudly. They all jump back and go 'Oooh!' again, then carry on.
James suddenly decides he doesn't like this at all, jumps off the wall, pushes through them and legs it before Fry can get close to him. Shit. James is really fast too. Once he legs it, there's no catching him.
"Stop touching me!" he shouts loudly at the girls, looking around for a teacher. "I have to phone his mum."
In despair, he scrambles off the wall and curls into a ball on the ground with his hands covering his hair. Now the girls start to back off, but they're still giggling.
"Hey, stop that!" Mr Warren is coming out of the school with the Butterfly, having given her the necessary details about her Dyslexia classes. She rushes over to him.
"Fry, it's okay, it's just me. Let's go!"
She turns to the staring girls, suddenly angry.
"He told you to stop it, stop laughing and don't be so mean!"
They're not laughing now. Everyone except Heidi is looking just a little bit guilty. She notes this.
"That's better." she says. "See you in September."
She takes Fry's hand and leads him away from the school towards home. He is quiet for a moment, then asks sheepishly.
"Have I caused you social difficulties?"
She looks at him.
"Nah. I'm pretty sure I did that myself." Beat. "Where's James?"
"He ran off, I need to call his Mum." Fry remembers, getting his phone out.
It's been a tricky few months. Despite taking the entrance exams for five of the private secondary schools (in all of which the boys' equivalent offered Fry a scholarship when he did this aged a year younger than her), she found herself the recipient of four outright rejections and one waiting list place.
Mum was supportive. Said she'd home school her if necessary rather than see her at the scary inner city state schools. But Mum and Dad and Max still wouldn't let her go to Jackson Street with Fry.
Fortunately, yesterday a letter turned up saying that the requisite number of people had rejected their places, presumably having got into the other four schools, and asking her to come to the induction session today.
She slides down the bannister and goes into the kitchen, feeling a bit nervous. Mum smiles at her.
"Good morning sweetheart. Why are you in your uniform, you didn't forget did you?"
"No, but I wore it for the exams so I thought it would be easier. The letter didn't say." She looks a bit worried. "Should I go change?"
"Nah, just say I told you to. Now there was just one thing - I'm very sorry but at such short notice I'm not going to be able to pick you up. But you get out half an hour later than Fry, so I've asked him if he'll do a detour and walk you back. He said he doesn't mind but that he'll still have James with him."
"That's okay." The Butterfly smiles. "I know you've got other things you have to do."
"Good girl." Mum kisses her on the forehead. "Don't keep them waiting if you can help it, in case James starts to wander."
Sticking her Sylvanian rabbit Mopsy into her pocket, the Butterfly follows her Mum into the car and takes the short drive. She's seen the school before on the open day and at the exam, and is very excited, though like the others it was very big and a bit scary.
"Good luck, go make friends." Mum says, giving her a hug before she steps out of the car. Holby High School for Girls towers over her. There's a big girl in the uniform standing near the gate, holding a sign saying 'Induction day!', who smiles and waves her over.
"Hi there! Do you know whose class you're in?"
The Butterfly tells her her name. "My letter said Mr Warren's class."
She likes the sound of the name. Reminds her of bunnies.
"I'll show you where it is. I'm Ruth, welcome to Holby High. I'm your form's sixth form prefect." Ruth starts to lead the way. "I'll be taking your form's register on Thursday mornings when the staff meeting is on, but I'm also here if any of you need help settling in and stuff. Or if you have any problems that you don't want to talk to a teacher about, you can come find me."
The Butterfly likes the sound of that too, and almost skips her way into her classroom. Ruth laughs.
"You're keen! Have fun kid."
The Butterfly grins and waves at her, then looks at her new class. Everyone seems to be looking at her. She realises that she's the only one who came in her school uniform. Oops. Oh well.
"Hi!" She grins at the nearest group of girls and introduces herself. "Looks like I got the dress code wrong, d'oh!"
The girls grin back, and giggle at her for taking her mistake in good humour. She notices the teacher behind the desk smiling too, and goes over to introduce herself.
She offers a hand to shake politely. More giggles from the surrounding girls, but Mr Warren shakes it.
"All right girls, take your name badge and a seat and we'll sort a few things out."
The Butterfly searches on the table for her badge, but it's not there. She goes back to the teacher.
"Oh yes, I just added you to my list, here's a blank one." Mr Warren smiles and hands it to her. She writes her name on and sits in the front row.
"Okay, we need to pick some moniters to keep things running along. We need a Form Captain, a Games Captain, a Board Moniter and a Tidy Moniter."
It is at this point that the Butterfly becomes aware that a lot of her class seem to know one another already, because several of them shout out the same name for Form and Games captain. It was clearly planned in advance; she realises they must go to the primary school attached to Holby High. Glancing behind, she spots that lots of the girls are wearing a single red hair slide on the right side. Some sort of club mark?
Nobody wants to be Board Moniter from the big group, so she puts her hand up at the same time as another girl who doesn't seem to know anyone. Mr Warren smiles, makes the other girl Board Moniter, and gives the Butterfly Tidy Moniter. Well, living with Fry and having a photographic memory of the layout of rooms should make her good at that job.
Mr Warren goes around handing things out. The first is a welcome booklet, containing information. The second is a bound copy of the school rules, with the instruction to glance through it later. The third is a sheet of coloured paper.
"Everyone write your name on your paper, and your hobbies, and then draw us a doodle of yourself. Then we'll read them out and stick 'em on the wall to help you all get to know each other."
The Butterfly writes her name and draws a caricature, emphasising the glasses and drawing her hair in its usual bunches. Then she writes down her hobbies - 'Making storys, singing in my borther's band'. She spots the girl next to her suddenly hiding giggles - these kids sure giggle a lot - and then looks up to see Mr Warren peering over her shoulder.
"Ah, yes, I have some more letters for you after we finish." he says in a low voice, gently telling her what the spelling mistakes are. "Do you want another sheet?"
"It's okay thanks." She crosses out the wrong words and writes them again neatly underneath. "Beethoven and Eunstein were dyslexic too, it's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Quite right!" Mr Warren says, straightening up.
She finds she likes Mr Warren a lot. The form prefect, Ruth, seems nice too. At lunch break though, the girls from the same school who all know each other take off somewhere, along with some obviously 'popular' kids from other schools. Everyone around her seems to be going off in little groups. In vain, she looks around for the Board moniter, but she seems to have disappeared.
Not to be deterred, she follows the others to the dining hall, gets lunch, and sits down in the middle of the red hair slide group. They all stare at her again, but she's not sure why.
"Hi Tidy Moniter." One of the girls says. The others laugh in chorus.
The Butterfly grins and tells them her name.
"Yeah, it's on your badge." The girl replies. "We were just congratulating you on your new title."
They chat, whisper and giggle among themselves about the latest bands and fashions. On closer inspection, she can see now that they're all wearing make-up too, something she'd never have considered doing to school. She eats her lunch and listens. They might as well be talking another language right now, and nobody is directing their conversation at her anyway. She makes a mental note to seek out the Board moniter and see if she's more up for making friends.
"Did you see that kid who took the Board Moniter job?" One of the girls at the table (her badge calling her 'Heidi'), suddenly says. "What a dork!"
"I know. And her top! If I had that shirt, I'd wear it only for painting."
"Give her a chance, we don't even know her yet." The Butterfly says, looking around again for the girl. Is she skipping lunch or did she get lost somewhere?
All eyes are on her again. A few eyebrows are raised, then the subject is changed. But none of the group engage her in conversation.
After lunch, vowing not to be discouraged by the clique, she wanders off to explore and see if she can find the Board Moniter. She eventually finds the girl in the beautiful old library, tucked behind a bookshelf, reading. She jumps when the Butterfly finds her.
"It's okay." The Butterfly whispers, going around the other way to sit next to her. "What's your name?"
"Zara Petunia Fergerson." The Board Moniter says. "Don't tell the others you found me here, will you?"
"Promise." The Butterfly agrees, smiling. "Nice to meet you Zara. Why are you here though, rather than getting to know our class? Was someone mean?"
Zara hesitates, perhaps deciding if she could trust the Butterfly.
"No, they weren't mean. I just like small quiet spaces and the smell of books. I need a bit of quiet time when I'm around so many people at once. Don't tell anyone." Her eyes look down at the Butterfly's skirt. "There's a white ear sticking out your pocket."
"Oh, that's Mopsy. Don't tell that either. Now we both have a secret so we're even." She gets Mopsy out to show Zara. The other girl smiles, looking at the delicate stitching on the hand made dress.
"She's lovely." Zara says, handing her back. "Don't let other girls see her, you'll get teased. I took a panda like that to my primary school but someone saw him and was mean."
They stay whispering quietly until the warning bell goes, then try to find their classroom again. This time they sit together, and although Zara says very little, they exchange email addresses at the end.
***
Fry gets to the school five minutes early, and sits on the wall outside with James. James hums and sways slightly, tapping his feet. There are a few parents in their cars nearby, otherwise the area is pretty deserted.
As the bell goes, the large group of red hair slide girls from the Butterfly's class spread out into the area outside the school. Some of them peer at the two boys with interest, then sidle over.
"Do you come here?" One of them asks, flirtatiously. The attempt is lost on both.
"Of course not, this is a girls' school, and our uniform is clearly different." Fry says, looking at the girl's name tag. 'Heidi'.
"Are you looking at my breasts?" Heidi says. The girls around her giggle.
"No, I'm looking at your name badge. You don't appear to have any breasts to speak of." Fry replies, truthfully.
The girls go 'Ooooooh!' in chorus.
"How rude!" Heidi says, indignantly.
"I'm waiting for someone, have you seen her?" Fry says, giving them the Butterfly's name.
"Oh, you must be her 'borther'." Heidi says, with finger quote marks. The girls burst into hysterical giggles. Fry and James exchange a look. Girls are weird.
Then Heidi leans forward.
"She never said you were so cute!" she says, reaching out and ruffling Fry's hair. Her teasing is undetected by the boys.
"Stop it!" Fry yells, in alarm. When she doesn't, and the other girls start too, he screams loudly. They all jump back and go 'Oooh!' again, then carry on.
James suddenly decides he doesn't like this at all, jumps off the wall, pushes through them and legs it before Fry can get close to him. Shit. James is really fast too. Once he legs it, there's no catching him.
"Stop touching me!" he shouts loudly at the girls, looking around for a teacher. "I have to phone his mum."
In despair, he scrambles off the wall and curls into a ball on the ground with his hands covering his hair. Now the girls start to back off, but they're still giggling.
"Hey, stop that!" Mr Warren is coming out of the school with the Butterfly, having given her the necessary details about her Dyslexia classes. She rushes over to him.
"Fry, it's okay, it's just me. Let's go!"
She turns to the staring girls, suddenly angry.
"He told you to stop it, stop laughing and don't be so mean!"
They're not laughing now. Everyone except Heidi is looking just a little bit guilty. She notes this.
"That's better." she says. "See you in September."
She takes Fry's hand and leads him away from the school towards home. He is quiet for a moment, then asks sheepishly.
"Have I caused you social difficulties?"
She looks at him.
"Nah. I'm pretty sure I did that myself." Beat. "Where's James?"
"He ran off, I need to call his Mum." Fry remembers, getting his phone out.
