The Shades of Spring

Statues that can walk. And a headache that can talk

Maths in the basketball court was a terrible idea.
Unfortunately for Sidra, she saw it in hindsight; which infact isn't much of a good sight.

Tommy raced across the wooden floor, tripped on his shoelaces and face planted a little too close to Nouman. Nouman in turn went down dragging Hassan with him.
"Boys! Boys! Back to your seats, your friends are still measuring the court!" the exasperated teacher called.

From the distance, Sidra could tell Tommy had grazed his knee just. It would need a little antiseptic and a plaster. Sidra was fuming over the assistant teacher's absence, wondering how many more skirmishes she'll be facing before the day was through. She searched the court to find someone responsible enough to leave with the second graders until she could make the trip to the nurse's office.
As usual, the big boys were nowhere in the indoor court, preferring to lounge in the bleachers of the outdoor court.

She hefted Tommy to his feet gently and had a quiet word with him to determine that he was not too hurt, then called away the boys measuring the court with their little feet, and holding Tommy's hand, turned to face her class.
"Boys look, Tommy is hurt and I need to take him to the nurse. And I want all of you to be super quiet and play a game. Who's in?"

A loud cheer went up.
"Good! I'm going to count from one to ten and I need you to pay attention. When I say statue! you will become a statue. Okay? The best statue wins a chocolate."
"OKAY!!!"

"One..Two.. Three.." Sidra searched the double doors for any sign of help. At "eight" her knight in shining armour arrived. Except, he was there to bunk a lesson. The unsuspecting teenager inched quietly into the room and emerged between the utility racks when he caught sight of the teacher looking directly at him. He went a funny shade of pale.

"Ten. Statue!" Sidra announced and called out to him, "Son! You! C'mere!"
He looked around to make sure he was the one being addressed and pointed a questioning finger at himself. "Yes, you. Come over."

Caught without a retreat, he strode over to her with whatever dignity he could muster.

"What subject were you having?"
"Geography, Miss."
"Who's the teacher?"
"Mr Sanders." "He's absent," he quickly added.
"Okay. Your name?" He told her. "I'll give you a note to show to your substitute teacher. I need you to watch the...statues for me. I'll be back fast. Need to take him to the nurse."

Relived at the turn of events which could have been much worse, he readily agreed.

__________

Recess was always a big event in the school day. All grades from one to thirteen had the lunch break at the same time in Wisdom International. The lunch area could accommodate over five hundred students comfortably and with the outdoor basketball court and its bleachers, the space more than doubled for the student body.

Sidra sat in her class overlooking the car park, keeping a keen eye on her boys. They were too busy fussing over Tommy's fish plaster to be naughty. She smiled at the way each child exaggerated the implication of the plaster to the point that Tommy started fearing for his life and waited without interfering to see just how far the story would go. From experience with her own cousins, she knew that someone was going to step in and tell the others to shut up and console Tommy instead of scaring him. She was right. A timid child pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and called them out on it. The excited chatter dwindled away into lunch box comparisons.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by a female voice.
"Ms Sidra."
She quickly turned to the source and found a teacher she had only seen and never interacted with.
She closed her lunchbox and stood up,
"Yes, Miss?"

"Miss Sidra, could I have a word with you?"

"Sure."

"Miss Sidra," the lady drawled, "it has come to my attention that you kept back a student from 13D in the geography period I was substituting for. How will you explain this, Miss?"

"Oh that," Sidra answered, "if I may know your name please, Miss?"

She could see the lady's surprise, clearly she wasn't used to not being recognised. "You don't know me?"

"Unfortunately, I have not had the pleasure of your acquaintance, Miss. I'm still new here."

Swallowing her disgust and almost choking in the process, the lady answered, "I am Mrs Blaise Pastor. Head of Department, Geography, in the upper school."

"Nice to meet you, Mrs Pastor," Sidra tried to smile. "As for the student in question, I believe it is Fawaz Kamil, isn't it? Yes? Miss, my student had injured himself and I desperately needed to go the nurse. But I didn't have backup to leave with the rest of the class. Fawaz happened to be down in the court too. I'm truly sorry I caused him to lose a few minutes from his lesson," Mrs Pastor was gauging Sidra's honesty just to be sure she wasn't being patronised. Sidra went on, "I believe he handed you my note of apology?"

"Yes, yes, he did," she placed a dramatic hand on her bosom, "But that begs the question why second graders were getting injured in the courts in the first place."

"Miss, it was a practical lesson, approved by The Principal. What happened was akin to a classroom accident and I assure you, I did not hold back Fawaz a minute too long."

"But still...." Mrs Pastor wasn't easy to shake off. "I am appalled that a student of mine had to watch over a whole class of six year olds. Why could you not find better help?"

Sidra temper began to rise. "With all due respect, Mrs Pastor, there was no one else in sight. Leaving the students and going in search of help would have led to bigger trouble. And Fawaz just happened to be available."
She was tempted to say he was bunking lessons but held back the comments.

"But you'd do better next time to up your responsibility," Mrs Pastor stated in a patronising tone,"I don't mean to be rude, but young teachers are always a little misgiven into thinking they are always correct. I don't mean you, of course, generally, young teachers are slow to conform to the rules and workings of the school system. I'll let that incident slide, as a gesture of goodwill to a new member of the academic staff. But keep it in mind. I don't want others misunderstanding you."
With that she was gone without waiting for a reply.

The young teacher watched Mrs Pastor's back for a few seconds before sitting down.
That was new, she thought.
Surely the conversation should have ended sooner when she apologised and explained her situation. By the looks of it, though, Blaise Pastor simply wanted to assert dominance. Sidra in turn had no desire to get tangled up in the school politics, so made a mental note to avoid the woman unless necessity arose.