The Rejects Club

Chapter 22 - First Words

When you study great teachers... you will learn much more from their caring and hard work than from their style. - William Glasser

Monday 21st January

Jeremy swore that he was going to buy the heaviest padlock one day and lock that damn storage cupboard up forever, preferably with all the kids trapped in there.

This morning it was the two youngest boy's who were spending their time in the cupboard, likely stuffing their faces with candy if what Kirstie said was true. He had tried to catch them in the act a couple of times but one of them must have always been keeping lookout through the keyhole.

Of course Jeremy knew he could always lock the cupboard but didn't fancy dealing with the unstoppable riot afterwards. Some things could just not be changed.

Before he had to shout at them to get out, Scott emerged from the cupboard and a second later there was a very loud crash.

"Kevin..." the young teacher groaned.

"Scott did it!" Kevin yelled like it was a reflex.

"Scott's in here."

There was a pause as the young boy clearly tried to think of his next move. "Oh...um, hang on!"

Scott grinned cheekily at Jeremy as they heard a lot of muffled rustlings coming from behind the door. Jeremy shook his head at him in disapproval. He'd go and assess any damage later.

The blond boy sat himself at a desk as far from Kirstie as possible - recently the two had been particularly going out of their way to goad each other into an argument, for reasons still unknown to Jeremy - and looked around in confusion.

"Where's Mitchy?" he asked, clearly expecting to find the teen here already.

"I don't know Scott, he'll turn up soon I'm sure."

"But he always arrives before me!"

It was true, it was strange. Mitch was never usually this late. Quite the contrary, his arrival time had been greatly improving to being nearly on time every day.

Jeremy checked his watch, "If he doesn't come in by half nine I'll give his mom a call."

"She won't answer. You know that."

That was most likely true but Jeremy saw no reason to worry too much just yet. He was in regular contact with Lottie, the professional Mitch had been speaking to at the hospital, and while she revealed nothing of their private conversations, she had promised to let Jeremy know if she had any concerns Mitch had gone downhill.

After a few more bangs and rustlings, a certain eleven year old reappeared looking quite frazzled.

"Care to tell me what that was all about Kevin?"

"No," Kevin curtly replied. "I was just tidying up is all," he explained when Jeremy gave him a warning look at his rude reply.

Scott raised his hand. "Mr L, we should probably go and look for Mitch," he insisted.

"No, you should probably stay here and do your work young man."

"But that's not fair!"

Jeremy sighed. It was never an easy day when his two most hyper students were in their talk-back moods. Eating sweets this early probably wasn't helping with their behaviour either.

"Scott, I'm sure Mitch'll turn up later," he tried to reassure the blond.

The boy wasn't having any of it. "I'm gonna leave and you can't stop me!" he proclaimed, standing up with his bag and making his way to the door.