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Jan. 31st, 2019 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fry_sandhuFry had half expected that starting secondary school would involve just being thrown in at the deep end on the first day, and was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong. Even though he wasn't starting until September, the school started organising transition days right away.
Lenny, his 'School Brother', became a friend very quickly, even though the friendship mostly involved playing a lot of Fortnite and not a lot of talking about school. He hadn't met Lenny in person yet, though he had invited the boy over when he found out Lenny was still at school at Christmas. Lenny had declined the invitation, saying he had a whole day of gaming planned, but thanked Fry all the same.
Making friends with Lenny through a screen suited Fry just fine for now. He got the feeling Lenny felt the same way.
"I've got a day with the gits tomorrow." He told Lenny one evening, as they played Minecraft. The students referred to the Gifted and Talented program kids as the 'gits', and kids like Fry who would spend some time with the program were 'half-gits'. Lenny was a half-git too, but he was several years older.
Lenny didn't wish him good luck, because neither of them thought luck would have anything to do with it.
"Look for the R to Zs." he said.
"R to Zs?"
"Kids with surnames from R to Z. There's twenty five gits doing their Year 6 at school this year. When the rest of you start in Year 7, they divide the gits up and put six or seven in each class. Your last name is Sandhu so you'll be in Upper Third R, or UIIIR. The numbering system is a little weird round here."
"So I definitely won't be in Joram's class." Fry said. "Because his last name is Al-Bayati."
"Nope, he'll definitely be in UIIIA."
"Is the cutoff definitely R? George's last name is Runt."
"Not always, but it is this year, I've checked." Lenny said. "So George will be in your class. Is that good?"
"Don't know." Fry said. "I mean, I don't like her, but at least I know her."
"Eh, most people don't stick with their primary school mates anyway." Lenny said. "I had to come in for some practice days too before I started, it's a good way to get to know a few people. They're also looking to see whether they should put you in any more of the advanced classes."
"What other advanced classes could I be in?" Fry asked. "I mean, which ones do the gits do separately from the rest of us apart from maths?"
"English, science, ICT, sometimes the foreign languages but it depends how many they've got. If there's only a few people who are really advanced at a language they'll usually try and put you in one of the older classes instead. Apparently the timetable is a nightmare."
***
The next morning, Fry met Lenny at the school gate, in person for the first time. Lenny was very tall, even for fifteen, and grinned at Fry and Dad.
"Hi! I'll show you where you need to go." he said. "Hello Dr Sandhu, I can take Fry from here."
Dad gave them both a nod, and Fry followed Lenny, who was chattering excitedly about the Large Hadron Collider. As they made their way down a corridor which was now starting to look familiar, a formidable-looking teacher stopped them.
"Leonard Fortescue! Shirt untucked! Shoes unpolished! And hair a mess!"
Lenny frantically tucked his shirt in.
"See to it that you are presentable by your first class." the teacher said severely, striding on down the corridor.
"Who was that?" Fry whispered.
"Mr Stamford. He's the deputy head. Don't worry, the rest of the teachers are pretty cool, he's just the strict one." Lenny said, licking his hand and attempting to flatten down his hair. "He's been known to send students to the needlework room to iron their shirt."
"What does he teach?" Fry asked.
"Maths."
Fry relaxed. He was good at maths, so Mr Stamford would probably not be a problem.
"Fry!"
Fry looked around and saw two more boys his age coming down the corridor towards him, both of whom he recognised. One was Patrick Witherspoon, his arch nemesis. The other was Maurice, a very nervous boy he had met when they previously came for an educational needs assessment. Patrick looked triumphant to be there. Maurice looked like he wanted the floor to swallow him up and hide him until it was all over. After a brief introduction to Lenny, Lenny took the three of them out of the main building to a small side building with a little playground attached to it. Fry was surprised to see that it had swings.
"This is the yard." Lenny said. "It's meant to be for Year 6s and 7s, but they turn a blind eye to the rest of us going on the swings so long as we're not knobbing around." He went to a side door and tapped a code in. "And this is the Year 6 class, Lower Third A."
The noise was so loud when they entered the classroom that Fry clapped his hands over his ears, and Maurice flinched. However, almost immediately the kids quietened down; for a split second, they mistook tall Lenny for a teacher.
"Hey, these are new kids for next year." Lenny said. "Fry Sandhu, Maurice Russell and... I forgot his name."
"Patrick Witherspoon." Patrick said, slightly indignantly.
"And him. Who's your form captain?"
A red-haired boy puts his hand up.
"Ah, there you go." Lenny said, nodding to the three visitors. "That's Keith Teeth, he'll look after you. See you later!"
Keith Teeth grimaced, and came over.
"Hi. First things first, call me Ginger." he said. "Let's see if we can find the other R to Zs, and I'll introduce you, and then you can get to know the others later." Ginger took them around the classroom, picking out the kids with the appropriate surnames.
"That's Cassie Zawadzki." he pointed out the window to a girl arriving on a skateboard. "She's cool. Plays footie for Farmede Rovers. And the really tall guy coming out of the Boarders' Block is Tyson Ross."
"Is he really only our age? He's huge." Patrick tactfully observed.
"Really truly. His mum and dad are both in the armed forces, so he boards." Ginger said. "He doesn't say a lot, I think he has a lot on his mind."
He turned away from the window and came to a boy frantically scribbling down some homework.
"This is my best mate and co-founder of the 'Our Parents Gave Us Stupid Names' club, Branston Small, affectionately known as 'Pickle'."
Pickle raised a hand in greeting and continued scribbling with the other.
"Pickle has an unusual way of arranging his things." Ginger continued. "Do not move his things. He will not be able to find them."
"That's code for 'Pickle is the untidiest person you will ever meet'." Cassie chipped in, coming into the classroom.
"I'm going to defend myself from this onslaught of lies and slander right after I finish this geography which is due in in four minutes." Pickle said.
"Yeah, we'll come back to Pickle later." Ginger looked around for the next person on his list, and then pointed to a very neat, pretty Indian girl reading in the far corner.
"That's Sunita Sandhu. Oh hey, she's got the same last name as you." Ginger said to Fry. "Any relation?"
Fry looked over at the girl. "Not that I know of. We're not really in touch with my dad's family. But Sandhu is a really common Indian surname so probably not."
"Anyway, that's Sunita. She's very serious, but very sweet. Who's left? Oh yes." Ginger went over to a small boy and tapped him on the shoulder. He then started to sign as he spoke again.
"This is Oliver Warren. He's really good on the drums. He's also deaf, but he can lipread if you don't sign so please look at him when you talk to him."
"Hi." Oliver said, giving them a wave.
"I sign." Fry said, with the appropriate sign.
"Awesome." Oliver said. "You can help me teach the others."
"And last but not least, Bronwen." Ginger pointed to a girl just coming into the room. "Who is trying to set a record for the most school clubs you can be a member of at the same time."
"How many is that?" Patrick asked.
"At the moment, eight." Bronwen said. "But only because netball club trains three times a week. If Mum would let me get the bus I could get it up to ten by coming to a couple of before school clubs."
"Most people don't join as many as that, but the school encourages you to join at least one that isn't academic." Ginger said. "So it's worth checking out the list and seeing what you like. You can't join the 'Our Parents Gave Us Stupid Names Club' though, because none of you have stupid names."
"So who's the smartest?" Patrick blurted out.
Ginger blinked at him, as though confused. Pickle launched himself forward and slapped his completed Geography homework book on the front desk.
"Twenty eight seconds to spare!" Pickle declared.
"Mr Pickle." Ginger said. "Are there any smart people here?"
"Smart people?" Pickle said, seriously. "Oh no, I don't think we have any of those."
"None whatsoever, last I checked." Ginger said.
"Oh bum, did we have Geography homework?" Bronwen asked, looking at the pile of books on the desk and then turning her satchel upside down to look for her book.
Ginger patted Patrick gently on the shoulder. "In answer to your question, I have no idea. We don't really worry about that here. You don't need to either."
Fry managed not to laugh at Patrick's face.
***
He was relieved to find that the Year 6 teacher was not anything like as terrifying as Mr Stamford. At break time, Ginger took the three of them to the art block, to meet Miss Cartwright, who would be their class teacher in September. Miss Cartwright was young and jolly, and fun, and Fry liked her right away. She spoke to each of them alone in her office for a few minutes.
"You'll get to meet Mrs Carter, our SENCO, nearer the time when you start." She said to Fry. "And I'll make sure you get a gold pass."
"What's a gold pass?" Fry asked.
"It's a key card. We have a couple of doors that we reserve for people who need more space." Miss Cartwright explained. "You'll be able to get into the canteen and the assembly hall via the side doors rather than having to go in with a big crowd. You can skip the lunch queue with it too, just show the prefect on lunch duty. It tucks in the back of your student ID badge out of sight when you don't need it."
"Oh, that would be useful, thanks." Fry said.
"No problem. We'll try and make this as smooth as possible, okay?"
Lenny, his 'School Brother', became a friend very quickly, even though the friendship mostly involved playing a lot of Fortnite and not a lot of talking about school. He hadn't met Lenny in person yet, though he had invited the boy over when he found out Lenny was still at school at Christmas. Lenny had declined the invitation, saying he had a whole day of gaming planned, but thanked Fry all the same.
Making friends with Lenny through a screen suited Fry just fine for now. He got the feeling Lenny felt the same way.
"I've got a day with the gits tomorrow." He told Lenny one evening, as they played Minecraft. The students referred to the Gifted and Talented program kids as the 'gits', and kids like Fry who would spend some time with the program were 'half-gits'. Lenny was a half-git too, but he was several years older.
Lenny didn't wish him good luck, because neither of them thought luck would have anything to do with it.
"Look for the R to Zs." he said.
"R to Zs?"
"Kids with surnames from R to Z. There's twenty five gits doing their Year 6 at school this year. When the rest of you start in Year 7, they divide the gits up and put six or seven in each class. Your last name is Sandhu so you'll be in Upper Third R, or UIIIR. The numbering system is a little weird round here."
"So I definitely won't be in Joram's class." Fry said. "Because his last name is Al-Bayati."
"Nope, he'll definitely be in UIIIA."
"Is the cutoff definitely R? George's last name is Runt."
"Not always, but it is this year, I've checked." Lenny said. "So George will be in your class. Is that good?"
"Don't know." Fry said. "I mean, I don't like her, but at least I know her."
"Eh, most people don't stick with their primary school mates anyway." Lenny said. "I had to come in for some practice days too before I started, it's a good way to get to know a few people. They're also looking to see whether they should put you in any more of the advanced classes."
"What other advanced classes could I be in?" Fry asked. "I mean, which ones do the gits do separately from the rest of us apart from maths?"
"English, science, ICT, sometimes the foreign languages but it depends how many they've got. If there's only a few people who are really advanced at a language they'll usually try and put you in one of the older classes instead. Apparently the timetable is a nightmare."
***
The next morning, Fry met Lenny at the school gate, in person for the first time. Lenny was very tall, even for fifteen, and grinned at Fry and Dad.
"Hi! I'll show you where you need to go." he said. "Hello Dr Sandhu, I can take Fry from here."
Dad gave them both a nod, and Fry followed Lenny, who was chattering excitedly about the Large Hadron Collider. As they made their way down a corridor which was now starting to look familiar, a formidable-looking teacher stopped them.
"Leonard Fortescue! Shirt untucked! Shoes unpolished! And hair a mess!"
Lenny frantically tucked his shirt in.
"See to it that you are presentable by your first class." the teacher said severely, striding on down the corridor.
"Who was that?" Fry whispered.
"Mr Stamford. He's the deputy head. Don't worry, the rest of the teachers are pretty cool, he's just the strict one." Lenny said, licking his hand and attempting to flatten down his hair. "He's been known to send students to the needlework room to iron their shirt."
"What does he teach?" Fry asked.
"Maths."
Fry relaxed. He was good at maths, so Mr Stamford would probably not be a problem.
"Fry!"
Fry looked around and saw two more boys his age coming down the corridor towards him, both of whom he recognised. One was Patrick Witherspoon, his arch nemesis. The other was Maurice, a very nervous boy he had met when they previously came for an educational needs assessment. Patrick looked triumphant to be there. Maurice looked like he wanted the floor to swallow him up and hide him until it was all over. After a brief introduction to Lenny, Lenny took the three of them out of the main building to a small side building with a little playground attached to it. Fry was surprised to see that it had swings.
"This is the yard." Lenny said. "It's meant to be for Year 6s and 7s, but they turn a blind eye to the rest of us going on the swings so long as we're not knobbing around." He went to a side door and tapped a code in. "And this is the Year 6 class, Lower Third A."
The noise was so loud when they entered the classroom that Fry clapped his hands over his ears, and Maurice flinched. However, almost immediately the kids quietened down; for a split second, they mistook tall Lenny for a teacher.
"Hey, these are new kids for next year." Lenny said. "Fry Sandhu, Maurice Russell and... I forgot his name."
"Patrick Witherspoon." Patrick said, slightly indignantly.
"And him. Who's your form captain?"
A red-haired boy puts his hand up.
"Ah, there you go." Lenny said, nodding to the three visitors. "That's Keith Teeth, he'll look after you. See you later!"
Keith Teeth grimaced, and came over.
"Hi. First things first, call me Ginger." he said. "Let's see if we can find the other R to Zs, and I'll introduce you, and then you can get to know the others later." Ginger took them around the classroom, picking out the kids with the appropriate surnames.
"That's Cassie Zawadzki." he pointed out the window to a girl arriving on a skateboard. "She's cool. Plays footie for Farmede Rovers. And the really tall guy coming out of the Boarders' Block is Tyson Ross."
"Is he really only our age? He's huge." Patrick tactfully observed.
"Really truly. His mum and dad are both in the armed forces, so he boards." Ginger said. "He doesn't say a lot, I think he has a lot on his mind."
He turned away from the window and came to a boy frantically scribbling down some homework.
"This is my best mate and co-founder of the 'Our Parents Gave Us Stupid Names' club, Branston Small, affectionately known as 'Pickle'."
Pickle raised a hand in greeting and continued scribbling with the other.
"Pickle has an unusual way of arranging his things." Ginger continued. "Do not move his things. He will not be able to find them."
"That's code for 'Pickle is the untidiest person you will ever meet'." Cassie chipped in, coming into the classroom.
"I'm going to defend myself from this onslaught of lies and slander right after I finish this geography which is due in in four minutes." Pickle said.
"Yeah, we'll come back to Pickle later." Ginger looked around for the next person on his list, and then pointed to a very neat, pretty Indian girl reading in the far corner.
"That's Sunita Sandhu. Oh hey, she's got the same last name as you." Ginger said to Fry. "Any relation?"
Fry looked over at the girl. "Not that I know of. We're not really in touch with my dad's family. But Sandhu is a really common Indian surname so probably not."
"Anyway, that's Sunita. She's very serious, but very sweet. Who's left? Oh yes." Ginger went over to a small boy and tapped him on the shoulder. He then started to sign as he spoke again.
"This is Oliver Warren. He's really good on the drums. He's also deaf, but he can lipread if you don't sign so please look at him when you talk to him."
"Hi." Oliver said, giving them a wave.
"I sign." Fry said, with the appropriate sign.
"Awesome." Oliver said. "You can help me teach the others."
"And last but not least, Bronwen." Ginger pointed to a girl just coming into the room. "Who is trying to set a record for the most school clubs you can be a member of at the same time."
"How many is that?" Patrick asked.
"At the moment, eight." Bronwen said. "But only because netball club trains three times a week. If Mum would let me get the bus I could get it up to ten by coming to a couple of before school clubs."
"Most people don't join as many as that, but the school encourages you to join at least one that isn't academic." Ginger said. "So it's worth checking out the list and seeing what you like. You can't join the 'Our Parents Gave Us Stupid Names Club' though, because none of you have stupid names."
"So who's the smartest?" Patrick blurted out.
Ginger blinked at him, as though confused. Pickle launched himself forward and slapped his completed Geography homework book on the front desk.
"Twenty eight seconds to spare!" Pickle declared.
"Mr Pickle." Ginger said. "Are there any smart people here?"
"Smart people?" Pickle said, seriously. "Oh no, I don't think we have any of those."
"None whatsoever, last I checked." Ginger said.
"Oh bum, did we have Geography homework?" Bronwen asked, looking at the pile of books on the desk and then turning her satchel upside down to look for her book.
Ginger patted Patrick gently on the shoulder. "In answer to your question, I have no idea. We don't really worry about that here. You don't need to either."
Fry managed not to laugh at Patrick's face.
***
He was relieved to find that the Year 6 teacher was not anything like as terrifying as Mr Stamford. At break time, Ginger took the three of them to the art block, to meet Miss Cartwright, who would be their class teacher in September. Miss Cartwright was young and jolly, and fun, and Fry liked her right away. She spoke to each of them alone in her office for a few minutes.
"You'll get to meet Mrs Carter, our SENCO, nearer the time when you start." She said to Fry. "And I'll make sure you get a gold pass."
"What's a gold pass?" Fry asked.
"It's a key card. We have a couple of doors that we reserve for people who need more space." Miss Cartwright explained. "You'll be able to get into the canteen and the assembly hall via the side doors rather than having to go in with a big crowd. You can skip the lunch queue with it too, just show the prefect on lunch duty. It tucks in the back of your student ID badge out of sight when you don't need it."
"Oh, that would be useful, thanks." Fry said.
"No problem. We'll try and make this as smooth as possible, okay?"
