Plan B

Chapter Six

It was a relief for Fran to finally receive her school uniform at morning break on Monday.  A number of people appeared to have heard about the girls’ uniform incident, but she ignored it as best she could.

“It looks like there’s been an outbreak of Mad Hyena Disease,” Mathilda commented loudly as a group of second year girls passed by, caught sight of Fran, and started snickering.  “Do you think it would be best to call the zoo or a vet?”

“Hey, Francesca!” called a lower sixth boy passing the other way.  “Apparently you look totally sexy in a skirt!”

“At least it’s a certainty I’d beat you at a beauty pageant!” Fran yelled, but Mathilda caught her arm.

“Ignore them.  They’re idiots.”

“Sure that uniform’s yours?” asked Joey’s voice.  Fran whirled around and found him walking along beside her, smirking broadly.

Mathilda had to restrain Fran from physically attacking the boy.

“Oh, hiding behind friends again,” Joey mocked as Mathilda wrestled Fran out of the way and backed her up into the wall, trapping her there.  Fran wriggled furiously.

“Joey, grow some,” Mathilda snapped.  He laughed and disappeared into the milling crowd of students in the corridor.

“I’m going to kill him,” Fran fumed as Mathilda let her go.  “The absolute—”

“Relax,” Mathilda sighed.  “He’s just a b—  I mean, he’s an idiot.”

Still fuming, Fran allowed Mathilda to grab her by the wrist and drag her in the direction of the history corridor.  History, thankfully, was one of the few lessons that she didn’t share with Joey, while she shared all of her classes with Mathilda.

There were more sniggers and jeers in the classroom and comments like “I heard Joey found you a nice uniform”.  Fran had had enough.  She climbed up onto the teacher’s desk.

“Oi!” she yelled above the noise.  “You could give Joey the credit if he actually did it and then I wouldn’t care so much, but it was Simon and Kevin’s plan, for God’s sake!”

The laughs continued, but then the classroom door opened and silence fell.  Fran swivelled around to see their history teacher standing there, one eyebrow raised and tapping a foot against the floor.

“Ah… sorry, sir.”  She hopped down.

The teacher sighed.  “Provided you didn’t mess up any of the work on there, we’ll let it go this time.  Now sit down.”

Fran scurried over to a spare seat next to Matt.

“Dude, you need to take a chill pill,” Matt whispered as they all took out their history essays to hand in.  “Joey’s a prig, but he’s a popular one.”

“Nerds can get popular in this school?”

Matt shot Fran a look that told her she was several miles outside the loop.  “Of course.  There’s nothing wrong with being smart.  Especially when the girls think you’re hot.”

“So that’s what I’m missing out on.”  Fran glanced up at the interactive whiteboard, squinting to find the textbook page number they were supposed to be on.  “A little bit of hotness.  Although, apparently, I make a darn cute girl.”

“I can see that, actually.”  Matt grinned.  “Just give you long hair and—”

“Continue and I will disembowel you.”

Returning to an empty room at the end of the day was, in Fran’s opinion, the biggest relief in the world.  She knocked up a few miles on Brookie’s rowing machine, took a shower, smoked a couple of cigarettes out of the bathroom window, and then slumped down on her bed, wondering what to do.