School Spirit

by Meredith Badger

  Mrs Clarke got us to sit on the mat in a circle.

  ‘Chloe,’ said Mrs Clarke, ‘please bring Snippy and Snappy over here.’

  I felt like saying, Do I have to? but I didn’t think Mrs Clarke would like that very much. So I went over and took the lid off the crabs’ tank. They were crawling around on the rocks. I wished I had a pair of gloves.

  I reached in and picked up Snippy, who went into his shell. Snappy did the same thing when I picked her up.

  It wasn’t so bad carrying them like that but I still walked as quickly as I could.

  Just as I was about to put them down Snappy darted a claw out and nipped my finger.

  ‘Ow!’ I yelled, and dropped her on the ground. She rolled around for a moment and then started running across the carpet, right towards me!

  Maybe it wasn’t the best thing to do, but I screamed and jumped up on a chair.

  I know hermit crabs aren’t dangerous but I still didn’t like being chased by one.

  ‘Chloe is scared of a tiny little crab!’ said Matt, and the whole class laughed at me. Mrs Clarke picked up Snappy.

  ‘Can I hold her, Mrs Clarke?’ asked Dani.

  Mrs Clarke put Snappy into Dani’s hand. I waited for Snappy to nip her, but she didn’t. She just sat there quietly and didn’t even try to run away.

  ‘She’s so sweet!’ said Dani, stroking Snappy’s shell with one finger. I felt a bit cross when Dani did that. It made me look like a chicken.

  ‘Snappy’s frightened,’ said Mrs Clarke. ‘Think what it’s like for her – a tiny little crab surrounded by all these giants.’

  I felt kind of sorry for Snappy then, but I still didn’t want to go near her again.

  ‘Maybe Dani and I could swap monitor jobs?’ I suggested, hopefully.

  But Mrs Clarke shook her head.

  ‘No,’ she said, putting Snappy back in my hand. ‘You’re pet monitor for the week, Chloe. No swapping.’

  I sighed, but there was no point arguing with someone like Mrs Clarke. You’d have more luck arguing with Snappy.

  By the end of class I needed to go to the toilet. I mean, I was really busting! But I didn’t want to ask Mrs Clarke if I could go. Every time I spoke I seemed to do something wrong.

  I knew it would be lunchtime soon, so I just held on. But when you need to go to the toilet time passes very slowly. It felt like hours before we finally heard the bell ring.

  ‘I’ll meet you later,’ I said to Dani, and rushed off to the loo.

  In our building last year the girls’ toilets were on the left and the boys’ were on the right. So I rushed into the toilets on the left without even looking at the sign on the door.

  That was a big mistake.

  At first I couldn’t work out what was going on. There was a boy standing at the basin. We stared at each other. He looked as shocked to see me as I was to see him.

  ‘What are you doing in the girls’ toilets?’ I asked.

  ‘No,’ he said, ‘what are you doing in the boys’ toilets?’

  Then another boy walked in and I realised it was me who had made the mistake.

  I ran out of there as fast as I could, hoping no-one else would see me. But unfortunately on the way out I ran into Matt. He was very surprised to see me.

  Then he guessed what I’d done.

  ‘I can’t wait to tell everyone about this!’ he said, grinning.

  I tried to think what Dani would do.

  ‘You’d better not tell anyone,’ I said, putting on a really mean face. ‘Or else!’ But I could tell Matt wasn’t scared of me.

  I was right. By the time I found my friends everyone knew what had happened. News like that spreads pretty quickly around our playground.

  ‘That must have been so awful,’ said Sarah. ‘I would’ve died!’

  ‘It’s no big deal,’ said Dani. ‘I bet it happens all the time.’

  Dani always made me feel better. But I couldn’t help feeling that the rest of my friends were starting to look at me strangely. Like I was a bit embarrassing to be around.

  So I made a vow.

  No more messing up, I told myself.

  It seemed to work, because I managed to get through the rest of the day without making any more mistakes.

  Dani and I caught the bus home and got the same seats we had in the morning. No-one said anything about it this time, either.

  ‘Do you want to come over for a swim?’ I asked as we got off the bus.

  Dani shook her head. ‘I’d better not,’ she said. ‘We’ve got that maths homework to do.’

  I’d forgotten about that.

  ‘We could go for a swim first,’ I said, ‘and then do the homework together. It wouldn’t take long.’

  But Dani had made up her mind.

  ‘See you tomorrow!’ she said, opening her front gate.

  I went straight to my room and put my bathers on. I couldn’t wait to dive into the pool. Diving always makes me feel better. Mum was in the loungeroom.

  ‘No homework?’ she asked as I headed outside.

  ‘I’ll do it later,’ I said. I decided I would just do a few dives and then I would do my homework.

  But once I started diving I forgot all about my maths homework. I did a normal dive and then a couple of backwards ones. Then I did some somersaults.

  It felt good plunging into the cool water over and over again. I stopped thinking about Mrs Clarke and about walking into the wrong toilets.

  I stopped worrying about being pet monitor. I even stopped caring about being moved down a grade. I just thought about keeping my toes pointed and my chin tucked in.

  When I woke up the next morning I felt sick. Not properly sick though, just worried sick. It was because of the maths homework.

  Last night it’d seemed like a good idea to not do it. Now I wasn’t so sure. I got up and found the questions in my bag. Maybe they would be easy, and I could get them done before school.

  I tried. I tried really, really hard. But I just couldn’t do the problems.

  None of my answers looked right and every time I tried again I got a different answer. It was hopeless. I would never be able to work them out, even if I kept trying for a hundred years.

  Dani knows me pretty well. When we got on the bus together she could tell that something was wrong.

  ‘Did you do your maths homework?’ she asked.

  ‘No,’ I said, pretending I didn’t care. ‘I didn’t feel like it.’

  Dani stared at me. ‘You’ll get in trouble when Mrs Clarke finds out,’ she said.

  That made me cross. She was right but I didn’t want to think about it. When I get cross sometimes I say nasty things. I don’t mean to – they just pop out.

  ‘So what?’ I said, shrugging my shoulders. ‘Only goody-goodies do homework.’

  ‘I did my homework,’ Dani said.

  ‘Well, then, you’re a goody-goody,’ I replied.

  ‘No, I’m not,’ she said.

  ‘Yes, you are,’ I said. ‘You’re the favourite. You’re the teacher’s pet.’

  Dani went red.

  ‘I am not!’ she said. She was almost yelling.

  ‘Teacher’s pet. Teacher’s pet,’ I chanted.

  I knew I was being mean, but I didn’t care.

  Callum turned around. He’d heard what I was chanting, and even though he didn’t know why I was saying it, he started saying it too.

  ‘Teacher’s pet. Teacher’s pet.’

  Before long it seemed like everyone on the bus was chanting. Dani put her hands over her ears and screwed up her eyes. It got so loud that finally the bus driver yelled at everyone to be quiet.

  Dani took her hands off her ears but she wouldn’t look at me.

  I started to feel terrible. I knew I’d really hurt her feelings.

  We went the rest of the way without speaking. I sat there trying to think of what I could say to make it up to Dani. But everything I thought of sounded stupid.

  I thought about pretending it h
ad all been a joke. That wouldn’t work though – you don’t play mean jokes on your friends.

  I knew that I should tell her how sorry I was and hope she’d forgive me.

  I decided I would apologise to her as soon as we got off the bus. But I didn’t get a chance. The moment the bus doors opened, Dani jumped up and ran off.

  ‘Dani! Wait!’ I called.

  But she didn’t hear me. Or maybe she just didn’t want to hear me.

  I knew what Dani would do. She’d go and find the others and tell them what I had done. Then they would all be mad at me. I knew I should find her as soon as possible to try and make things right, but I was supposed to go and look after the hermit crabs before class.

  Great! Things were just getting better and better. I couldn’t believe that a couple of days ago I had been actually looking forward to going back to school.

  I knocked on the classroom door. Mrs Clarke was sitting at her desk.

  ‘Excuse me, Mrs Clarke,’ I said. ‘I have to look after the crabs.’

  ‘Go ahead,’ she said, without looking up.

  She sounded grumpy, as usual.

  I tried to imagine Mrs Clarke laughing. Or even smiling!

  There was an ice-cream container next to the tank to put the crabs in while their water was changed. I decided to pick up Snippy first. He disappeared into his shell straight away. Then it was Snappy’s turn. As my hand came closer she started waving her claws around like she couldn’t wait to nip me again.

  ‘She’s only doing that because she’s scared of you,’ said Mrs Clarke. She was watching me from her desk.

  Well, I thought, I’m scared of her, too. And I don’t have great big claws.

  Mrs Clarke came over and picked Snappy up.

  ‘Look at her shell,’ she said.

  I looked closely at Snappy for the first time. Her shell was really beautiful – smooth and white and curled up like a spiral. I hadn’t noticed it before.

  ‘Hermit crabs don’t have shells of their own,’ explained Mrs Clarke. ‘They just walk around until they find one that they like the look of.’

  ‘Like going shopping!’ I said.

  It was funny to think of crabs shopping. It made them seem like people.

  Mrs Clarke nodded.

  ‘Exactly,’ she said. ‘When she’s too big for this shell we’ll put some new ones in her tank and see which one she chooses.’

  I started thinking about the shell I’d choose if I were a crab. Something really pointy, with yellow stripes, maybe.

  Mrs Clarke put Snappy back in the ice-cream container.

  ‘If I were a hermit crab,’ she said, ‘I’d choose a pointy shell with yellow stripes.’

  I stared at her in surprise. ‘Me, too!’ I said.

  ‘We must have the same taste in shells,’ said Mrs Clarke.

  And then something really weird happened. Mrs Clarke actually smiled at me.

  The bell rang. I finished cleaning the tank as quickly as I could.

  Dani arrived and sat down without looking at me. I had forgotten about our fight. Now I felt awful all over again.

  The first class was maths and Mrs Clarke put some problems up on the board. They were the same sort as the ones she’d given us for homework, but even harder.

  Mrs Clarke showed us how to do the first one and I listened carefully. I thought that maybe this time I understood.

  ‘Work through the rest of these,’ said Mrs Clarke, ‘and put up your hand if you have trouble.’

  Everyone started working quietly.

  I looked at the first question. But even though I had listened carefully, I couldn’t do it. I looked around the room to see if anyone else was asking for help. No-one was so I didn’t want to put my hand up either.

  I started feeling really worried. So I did the same thing I’d done the day before – I just wrote down any old numbers.

  All that was bad enough, but things got worse. At the end of class Mrs Clarke came around and collected our homework. When she got to me she stopped.

  ‘Where’s yours, Chloe?’ she asked.

  ‘I didn’t do it,’ I said.

  Mrs Clarke raised an eyebrow. ‘Why not?’ she asked.

  I thought about saying, I didn’t feel like it, like I said to Dani. But I knew that wouldn’t be such a good idea.

  ‘I don’t know,’ I mumbled, staring at my desk. Everyone was staring at me. ‘I just didn’t.’

  ‘Please stay back at lunchtime, Chloe,’ said Mrs Clarke, quietly.

  And then she walked away.

  The next class went really slowly. All I could think about was what Mrs Clarke was going to say to me at lunchtime.

  Everyone left when the lunch bell rang. Everyone except for me. I stayed in my seat. Dani left without looking at me.

  Suddenly the room was very quiet.

  It was so quiet that I could even hear the sound of Mrs Clarke’s pen scratching on her page as she worked at her desk.

  My stomach felt strange again, like I had the whole ocean swirling around inside me. There were little fish darting around in there, and a shark that kept bumping into my chest.

  Outside the window I could see my friends practising their dance routine. They were getting pretty good at it.

  I wished I was out there with them. In fact, I wished this whole morning had never happened.

  Finally, Mrs Clarke came over and sat down beside me. I was pretty sure I knew what she was going to say. She would say that I couldn’t stay in her class anymore. She might even send me to the headmistress because I hadn’t done my homework. But the weird thing was, I didn’t really mind.

  I didn’t even care about being moved down a grade. Last year I really liked school. The work was easy and I felt smart.

  This year all that had changed. And my friends would hate me once they found out what I’d said to Dani. If I got moved down a grade, I might be able to start all over again.

  So when Mrs Clarke asked me why I didn’t do my homework, I decided to tell her the truth.

  ‘Because I didn’t know how to,’ I said.

  I showed her the page I had worked on that morning before school. It was a mess of numbers and crossed-out lines.

  I waited for Mrs Clarke to get cross. I thought she might tell me it wasn’t hard, and that all the other kids could do it. But she didn’t say that at all.

  Instead she nodded.

  ‘This type of maths can be hard to understand,’ she said. ‘Not everyone can do it straight away. Let’s go through it together.’

  Then she started explaining it again. But although I really wanted to understand, I just didn’t. Mrs Clarke was wasting her time.

  ‘Does this make sense?’ she said, after a while. I shook my head.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘I still don’t get it.’

  ‘Which bits don’t you understand?’ asked Mrs Clarke. She didn’t say it in an angry way, though. She said it in a kind way.

  I think it was because she was being nice that I started to cry. Yes, I burst into tears right there, in front of Mrs Clarke.

  I couldn’t help myself.

  ‘I don’t understand any of it!’ I said. ‘I’m not smart enough. I want to go back to my old class.’

  It was a big relief just to say it out loud.

  Mrs Clarke gave me some tissues.

  ‘Everyone finds some things hard, Chloe,’ she said. ‘You find maths hard, but you find other things easy.’

  I shook my head.

  ‘I don’t find anything easy,’ I said.

  Mrs Clarke put a piece of paper in front of me. It was my story from yesterday. There were two big ticks up the top!

  ‘This is a really good story, Chloe,’ said Mrs Clarke. ‘In fact, I want you to read it out at assembly next week.’

  I kept staring at the two ticks. Ashley had told me that Mrs Clarke never gave anyone more than one tick.

  But writing wasn’t like maths.

  ‘Anyone can write a story,’ I said.


  Mrs Clarke shook her head.

  ‘No, lots of people find it really difficult. Just as difficult as you are finding this new maths.’

  I’d never thought that I might be good at writing. It made me feel a bit better. But I still felt mostly bad.

  ‘I don’t think I’ll ever understand this maths,’ I said.

  Mrs Clarke pointed to a sentence in my story.

  ‘You wrote here that you like diving,’ she said. ‘I bet you found that hard when you first started.’

  I was going to tell Mrs Clarke that was not true at all. It felt like I’d always found diving easy. But then I remembered what it was like in the beginning. I did lots of belly-flops that really hurt.

  Once I slipped on the edge of the pool and got a blood nose.

  And then I remembered what it was like when I did my first proper dive. I knew even before I jumped that this time it wouldn’t be a belly-flop.

  It felt great!

  Was it possible that the same thing could happen with maths? I didn’t really think it could, but perhaps it was worth trying.

  ‘Can you show me again, Mrs Clarke?’ I said.

  She nodded. ‘Of course,’ she said.

  So Mrs Clarke explained the maths again, right from the beginning. And this time, finally, I understood! The moment I got it, the ocean inside my stomach disappeared, like someone had pulled out a plug and the water all drained away.

  But there was still something I wanted to know.

  ‘Mrs Clarke, were you going to put me into another grade if I didn’t work this stuff out?’

  Mrs Clarke was surprised.

  ‘No! I hadn’t thought about doing that at all,’ she said. ‘I knew you would understand it in the end.’

  ‘But Annabelle heard you say that someone would be moved if they didn’t settle in soon,’ I said.

  Mrs Clarke looked puzzled for a moment. And then she laughed.