Bad Company(10)

I pointed to the grated cheese. ‘Are you keeping that for later … or do you intend to spit that all over me as well?’

I heard Diane giggle. But she was the only one. The rest of the class fell silent, except for an initial, communal gasp.

Murdo’s face went even redder than usual. The anger seemed to leave him immediately. He closed his mouth and I realised in a moment that shamed me that he was embarrassed. Embarrassed and surprised.

‘Stay behind after class,’ was all he said, turning from me. ‘You and I are going to have a little chat.’

No one in the class even glanced my way as I shambled back to my desk. They all kept their eyes downcast. Murdo was bad-tempered, and disgusting. But he was just about the most popular teacher in the school. Always striving to get the best out of us. Always pushing us to realise our potential.

Even Ralph, who sulked his way through most of his other classes came alive for Murdo.

Then I looked at Diane. Her eyes flickered across at me and they smiled. From under her desk she gave me the thumbs up, and I didn’t feel bad any more. I knew I’d done the right thing.

As long as Diane understood.





Chapter Six


January 30th

Murdo kept me back after class. He didn’t shout. He didn’t lose his temper. But a little nerve in his cheek kept throbbing all the time he lectured me in his low, steady, rhythmic Highland voice. And do you know, that was worse than any shouting.

‘I’ve seen you snubbing people because you think you’re better than they are, Lissa, which you’re not. I’ve seen you patronising people because you think you’re cleverer than they are … which you sometimes are.’ He paused for a while after he said that. Studying me as if I was some biological experiment he didn’t approve of. ‘But I’ve never known you to be deliberately hurtful.’

I could feel my cheeks go red when he said that.

‘What you said to me was cruel.’ He waved that away. ‘But I can take it. I have no prrroblems.’ He rolled the ‘r’ around his tongue for an age. ‘Prrrroblems.’ ‘Although you will never do it again,’ he ordered me. ‘But lately I’ve heard you being cruel to other people. Harry Ball, for example. Laughing at him. You’ve never really done that before.’ He hesitated again. He always does that when he wants to make you think about what he’s saying. ‘Before Diane Connell came into your life.’

That got my back up. All Diane’s done for me so far is make me enjoy my life for a change.

I asked him if he was blaming Diane. He shook his head furiously and his hair went wild. I’m sure Murdo’s hair has a life of its own.

‘You know better than that!’ he snapped at me. ‘You don’t blame anyone else for what you do wrong. Take responsibility for your own actions. I want you to think about that in future. Think before you do something just to please someone else.’

I might have done just that if, right at that moment, I hadn’t heard a shuffling behind me. I looked round quickly and there was Ralph Aird. He was smirking and I wondered how much he’d heard. Too much probably.

He held out another of his cut-out figures from literature to add to the collage draped along the wall of the class.

Murdo immediately forgot me. He beamed a big smile at Ralph.

‘Captain Ahab!’ he yelled. ‘That’s brilliant, Ralph.’

Who on earth Captain Ahab is, is anybody’s guess. But he comes with a whale. Ralph had made that too. Murdo was delighted as he took it delicately from Ralph’s hands and studied it. ‘Your best ever. This is the prizewinner if ever I saw one.’

I didn’t want to spoil his moment, but I’m sure Ralph got it wrong. Wasn’t it Jonah who came with a whale?

Anyway, I was shooed away, totally forgotten and I left them attaching Captain Ahab and his whale to the collage, just like a couple of daft schoolboys.

Faithful Diane was waiting for me outside the classroom and she was furious.

‘He’s got no right to keep you back like that, you know. Not by yourself. Someone should be with you. A witness. Why he could say anything and who’d believe you if you complained? I mean, whoever’s going to believe a pupil against a teacher?’

That is a very good point. She’s really bright and smart, and best of all, she cares what happens to me.

When I look back, Diane made my life more than bearable over the next few weeks. I spent all my time with her during school and after school too. She invited me to her home, a big roomy house in the west end of the town. On a tree-lined street. It had a conservatory and a television room, a dining room and a morning room. Her father even had a wood-panelled study all to himself. I didn’t meet him then. He was always off on business. But I met her mum. She was very efficient-looking, a businesswoman too. She was stick thin and elegant and wore expensive silk scarves and lambswool sweaters.