Whilst Natalia sat stunned from being told not to go to Maths, Neill threw a cigarette into his mouth and rose to the window to light it.
‘Don’t worry, I’ll let the teacher know. It’s Noble, isn’t it?’
‘Not really.’
‘Really what?’
‘Noble to bunk off?’
‘Mr Noble, smartypants.’
She smirked.
‘That ok?’ he half-turned his scrunched, fag-holding face.
‘Erm, yes?’ She was surprised but how could she say no?
‘More tea?’
‘Ok. If you’re busy keeping your arm out of the window, I don’t mind making it?’
‘Ha! Very good. There’s no tap in here obviously, I fill the kettle from the bottle.’
She glanced to him as she poured. ‘I think you need to be careful with smoking, sir. Alarms going off, fire engines and all that?’
‘Sure sure, don’t worry about it,’ as he stretched further out of the window.
She sat down again as the kettle boiled up, thinking now on the topic he’d broached.
‘Well, about teachers. I hadn’t mentioned yet one of the main reasons I truanted—’ She leaned over to check he could actually hear.
‘Yes?’ came his voice slightly distant from the outside air.
‘My worst lesson is the one I just came from, PE. Well, I had an excuse note this time. The combined horrible experience of being amongst the girls, and the teacher, Mrs Luxton, feels’ - she watched him peering back at her from the window - ‘considering you don’t mind me being brutally honest, and won’t mistake it for petulant exaggeration, like hell itself.’
He did that face, from the window - the kind of knowing smirk combined with a stare and half a raised eyebrow - that seemed to push a button somewhere in Natalia.
‘Tell me more please,’ as he puffed.
‘Well, I may be the deep-studious-introspective-whatever loner that you can’t do anything about’ - he smiled - ‘but, quite frankly the way the other girls treat me - or anyone else who is not in their awful bullish clique - is to mock and belittle them through a game or match or whatever we’re playing, whether it’s rounders or netball, and make me feel like anything but endorphins and team spirit. Mrs Luxton’s just a tease herself, condescending rather than diplomatic, never able to help but rather exacerbate the situation, someone I think is simply… past it.’
Neill smoked out of the window as he listened intently, clearly digesting it, seeming to enjoy it. Natalia was pleased. Who’d ever given her this attention for unbridled critique, let alone someone who wanted to do something about it?
As the kettle again reached its climax and started bubbling, he exhaled with two words:
‘Fire Luxton?’
The kettle clicked off. Natalia was just in the act of standing to go pour the water, when she stopped in her tracks.
‘Er, I wasn’t suggesting anything like that! I just—’
YOU ARE READING
The Headmaster's Flame
RomanceA virgin schoolgirl is about to have a rude awakening! Almost everyone at Thornwood High is charmed by the boisterous alpha Neill, one of the youngest Headmasters in the country at the age of 37. But as he sets about revamping the school, there's on...
