Sophie's Throughway

by Jules Smith

  If you haven’t got my point already, then I’ll put it clearer. This school has many people that would like to work in the IT department. It’s one of the reasons I chose this school from others and I’m extremely disappointed finding out that all the years I’ve been here that I’ve been taught the most out of date methods ever. If there’s anything you can do I’d be extremely appreciative. I realize it’s not the schools fault that they haven’t got the budget but I think you could remedy that situation. I have even made a tutorial on how to create websites using CSS and div tags and sent it to the entire class year. This hasn’t made a significant impact but at least I’m trying eh?

  They may not have the biggest budget what with the 6th form center being burnt down and money being invested in other places, but the whole of CS6 – which would drastically improve learning and success rates- is only £800.00. They could pay this onetime fee and install it on their servers during a half term and it would be ready for everyone to learn to use. If they have problems with CS6, which I don’t think they will, why not get CS5? They’re neglecting the schools IT department and whilst most other schools won’t have it, THIS school is based on technology and I don’t see any reason not to pay £800.00.

  Don’t think of it as a program but as something that would increase learning to those interested in IT, designing, etc,- by 10 fold – CS6. Maybe also update their computers, though this is not a necessity because of the massive costs.

  I really do hope you can help and I’ll thank you in advance for just giving your time to read this letter/email.

  Regards, Brendon Rhodes.

  As I read the letter in front of Janice I couldn’t help but snigger at some of the things he’d said and I was quite impressed at the composition of the e mail.

  “It’s pretty good, actually,” I said to Janice.

  “Yes, it is, very well formulated, in fact.”

  “So, what exactly happened then, with Victor Churchman and Mr. Fothergill?”

  “Well, the problem is, Mr. Fothergill feels that if Brendon had issues with the school he should have come to senior staff or himself first. Involving politicians makes problems for him if they think the school is being run inefficiently.”

  Yes, I thought. I bet he didn’t like that one bit. He was all about the SAT’s results and exam passes and becoming the leading school in the area. Now Brendon had made his technology college look like a joke. Particularly since the IT teacher didn’t even understand the methods that Brendon had suggested.

  “Oh. So how does this affect him on governors report? Is this like another black mark against him?”

  “I suppose it depends on the outcome,” she raised an eyebrow. “Mr. Fothergill is none too pleased but it would depend on how the governors feel. However, I have to discuss more on that since last week’s meeting.”

  Ah, the result of the governors meeting. I waited for her to tell me how that had been received after we’d left. I didn’t feel on so much of a high now.

  “After discussing it with Mr. Fothergill, Mr. Locks has decided that we need to put Brendon on an individual timetable plan and perhaps remove him from one or two lessons. Just concentrate on his ten key exams and then have him leave school.”

  “Leave school? What do you mean leave school?” I started to panic.

  “Basically just come in when he needs to for the relevant lessons and then go home. We believe that this is the only way to keep him from being in any more trouble than necessary and from risking expulsion.”

  “What do you mean, remove him from other lessons?” I wondered where this was going.

  “Well there was an incident in Business Studies that we’ve yet to talk about.” She flicked, as usual, through the reports.

  My mouth went dry and I forgot to breathe. All of a sudden the school had made all these monumental decisions in the space of two days.

  She read out the incident:

  Mr. Jenkins – Business studies – Brendon kept asking me to explain a part of the business sector as he said he wanted more information. I asked him to refer to the text book in front of him. Brendon continued to ask me to elaborate stating that the text book was not ‘in depth’ enough and he wanted me to explain certain modules. I told Brendon that this was all we needed to cover for today’s lesson and all the relevant information pertaining to that was in the text book. Brendon said “You’re obviously refusing to explain this to me as you don’t understand business properly. Your job as my teacher is to explain all the concepts.” I told Brendon that my job was to stick to the lesson plan to ensure all pupils covered the exam criteria. Brendon then replied with, “Well, if you understood business properly then you’d be running one and wouldn’t be a teacher on £25K a year”. I found Brendon’s remarks rude and unnecessary and asked him to leave the lesson.

  I winced at his comment to the teacher and couldn’t believe he’d had the gall to say something like that. “Oh no… Why can’t he just keep his mouth shut?” I shook my head at Janice.

  “Look,” she said, “it’s part of the way he thinks but we need to keep him in line. The idea of this plan is that he sticks to main lessons and then is back at home. We’ll keep him on governors report to keep that ‘threat’ up there so he knows it’s the last boundary. Mr. Locks and I would also like you to come in on Mondays and Fridays for reviews so we can work hard together at getting him through and maybe every morning or after school for the first few weeks so we can keep on top of daily incidents.“

  I sat and let this wash over me for a second. How the hell was I supposed to do that and keep my job? “Have you done a new timetable yet?” I asked, “I mean…has all this been put into motion and ready to go?”

  She bought it out of the folder and I glanced over it week by week. There was a whole day that he wasn’t even in school and others where there were just one or two lessons starting around 10 am. If I wasn’t there to make him get up and go to school then I knew he probably wouldn’t bother. Brendon truly believed he could pass his exams with no effort and saw revision and course work as an unnecessary pain.

  “Janice..I’m going to have to seriously consider this. You have to give me a few days because it will affect my life massively.”

  “I understand,” she replied, “but if there are ways round it then I really think it’s for the best. The best way forward for Brendon. To be honest…” she paused, “I don’t think the school are going to give you any other option. If you want him to make it through this last hurdle and get through his GCSE’s then this is going to be the only way.”

  She printed me off a copy of the revised timetable that they wanted to implement after next week and a copy of his letter to Victor Churchman for posterity before going to fetch Brendon so we could all have a discussion together. He came in and gave me a big hug. “I love you Mommy.” He sat down next to me and began drumming his fingers on the table.

  “Brendon,” Janice started, “We need to discuss a couple of things, the first one being an email you sent to the MP Victor Churchman?”

  “Oh yeah. His secretary replied back to me the other day and said he’d look into it.”

  “Well, he actually came into school the other day to see Mr. Fothergill.”

  “And?” said Brendon, wondering what the big deal was.

  “Well, do you not think it would have been better for you to address these problems with senior staff like Mr. Locks or Mr. Fothergill before you went directly to your local MP?”

  “Err, No. Since when do they EVER listen to me? Besides, I’ve probably done this school a favour now and they’ll get better software.”

  To be honest, as I sat and listened, I really couldn’t come up with any argument against his justification. Janice and I looked at each other in silent agreement.

  “And Business Studies,” she continued, “what you said to Mr. Jenkins about him being a teacher because he hasn’t the ability to be in business?”

  “Well it’s true,” he stated.

&n
bsp; “Whatever you may believe Brendon, that was a hurtful and disrespectful comment that has no merit.”

  “Mr. Jenkins has never explained anything to do with business, EVER. He hasn’t got a clue and all he does is refer you to a text book. That’s not teaching. I can read a book at home.”

  Whilst I recognised his rudeness, part of me agreed with his argument. I was beginning to wonder if Aspergers was catching.

  Janice went through the proposed new timetable with Brendon, explaining that I would be coming in if I could, on a daily basis. He didn’t really seem to be bothered either way apart from the fact he got a whole day off and could use that to play on his computer. Aspie kids didn’t revise at home. I’d been told this by the SEN team when I’d been struggling to get him to do homework. Home is for home and work is for work and never the twain shall meet.

  Brendon said he had to go because he was hungry and needed to get to the canteen before his next lesson. He ruffled my hair on his way out and disappeared.

  “I’ll let you know what I can do in the next few days.” I said to Janice as I stood up to leave.

  She rubbed my shoulder. “I know it’s hard. You know where I am and we’ll talk soon.”

  I drove home wondering how the hell I could manage Brendon’s new timetable, daily school meetings and stay at work. It wasn’t possible. It would be easy to say no to the school but if I didn’t accommodate them would they see that as neglect on my part? Would they have further excuses to get him out? Besides, I’d spent four and a half years fighting his corner, I couldn’t just give up at the last hurdle. This was the time he really needed me so he could have something to show for the brilliant mind that he had and finish school with decent qualifications.

  I got back and decided I should talk to Karl. He would help me decide what to do or give me some alternatives. Plus he needed to know the next stage we were at since the governors meeting. His phone rang a few times and I was expecting the Bond style answer machine to kick in when it was answered by someone else.

  “Hello…” said a young female voice at the other end.

  It floored me a little.

  “Err.. hello, is Karl available please?” I asked the girl. The girl I recognised as Sarah.

  “No he’s indisposed at the moment and he’ll be busy for most of the day. Can I take a message?”

  Indisposed. Really.

  “Can you ask him to ring Sophie, please?” I replied politely, biting extremely hard on my lower lip.

  “Who, sorry?” She schmoozed. I really wasn’t in the mood for this little game.

  “SO-PHIE.” I replied loud and clear. “And when he’s finished being indisposed please tell him I need to speak to him as a matter of urgency because I’ve just received a letter from the clinic and it looks like he’s contracted a sexually transmitted disease.”

  Chapter 16

  Within two hours of me arriving home and munching through the family sized bar of chocolate I’d bought at the garage on my way back, I got the phone call from Karl.

  I knew he was going to be pissed off. Quite frankly I didn’t give a toss.

  “Rhodes, Sophie Rhodes.” I answered, just to be extra childish.

  “So, apparently I have an STD? That’s a nice professional message to leave with one of my reps, Soph,” he said flatly.

  “Well, maybe your reps should be a touch more professional themselves when they answer your phone.” I broke off another piece of Galaxy chocolate and shoved it into my mouth.

  “I’m away at an exhibition and left my phone on the table whilst I was at the bar.”

  “And Sarah kindly answered it for you. She’s such a sweetheart.”

  “I don’t have time for this crap, I’m busy. I’ll talk..”

  “WAIT!” I said loudly, “before you go off and get indisposed again, I have to go through something important. It’s about Brendon.”

  “Make it quick. You have five minutes.” Whilst I seriously had the urge to tell him to go to hell, I knew that wouldn’t help. I hated how he spoke to me like a subordinate.

  I explained the incident with the MP coming in and told him how they wanted to change Brendon’s whole timetable and remove him from certain lessons where he was proving most difficult.

  “The thing is, they want me to go in on a daily basis and I’d need to be at home on his part time days or I wouldn’t trust him to go in. I don’t know what to do…I need to help him but if I do, it means I can’t do my job anymore.”

  I’d thought about this for the last couple of hours, trying to find ways I could make the two marry together. It was impossible. This was one of those hideous dilemmas that even a coin toss couldn’t decide.

  “Well you can’t just jack your bloody job in. This is the problem with that school, they make inchoate plans without any thought on how it’s going to affect anyone else.” I heard him cover the mouthpiece of his phone and whisper to someone.

  “Hello?” I called through my mobile.

  “Sorry, like I said, I’m busy.”

  “I know it’s not that simple Karl but I have to do what they say or everything I’ve done or you’ve done for him in the past has been for nothing. It’s like I have no choice. I may have to go part time but that will affect me massively, financially.”

  He wouldn’t like that because the house I lived in was still half his and he’d always viewed it as a major investment. My earnings being reduced might mean it would have to be sold too early and put pay to the nice chunk of cash he would get if it was held on to for a few more years and gained more capital.

  “This is ridiculous. You can’t make snap shot decisions like that. The house needs to be paid for or neither of us will benefit.” I heard the mellifluous tones of Sarah saying something to him in the background.

  “I need to go..we will have to talk about this later.” He hung up and I was left no nearer to a decision than before I’d spoken to him and to be honest it was looking like one I’d have to make alone.

  I got the red leather notebook that I’d sullied last week with my phone box ideas and decided to make a for and against list. This could now become my stupid ideas and dilemma book. The process of writing things down usually made the route obvious; unless it was about shoes. In that case buy them all.

  I drew a line down the centre of the next new page. Reasons to help Brendon and reasons to not. I took a deep breath and began to fill in the columns.

  After I’d completed the pro’s and con’s I decided to take a break and come back to it later with fresh eyes. I felt weary and confused with nobody around to help me and my problems seemed insurmountable. I went to my word game for reprieve. An escape to the ether where my ubiquitous issues couldn’t penetrate. I hurried to ‘The Voice’ as I hadn’t been to play since he’d said “It’s perfect” to my picture.

  SOPHISTICATION: Well that’s good. I aim to please.

  I didn’t really know what else to say. I scrolled back through our previous chat messages and felt a warmth and peculiar fizz. I hadn’t felt that feeling in a long time and it unnerved me a little.

  He was online.

  THE VOICE: You pleased me.

  Oh God. I did? There was that feeling again.

  SOPHISTICATION: Well I’m glad of that.

  Well at least I was pleasing someone, which made a bloody change.

  THE VOICE: Well I’m glad you’re glad.

  SOPHISTICATION: Ok, enough.:)

  The back and forth awkward conversation was becoming more puerile than that of a pair of year seven pupils.

  I tried to concentrate on the actual play a bit more as I recognised I was just placing anything on the board to get to the chat quicker rather than be competitive. That was usually so unlike me.

  THE VOICE: Texting in these little bubbles can be annoying sometimes don’t you agree?

  What did he mean by that? He didn’t want to talk anymore? I felt a sudden surge of fear.

  SOPHISTICATION: What, you don’t want to talk any
more you mean?

  I pressed send before I had chance to review the message. It sounded a tad desperate.

  THE VOICE: Yes. That’s exactly what I want to do. I want to talk.

  I really didn’t understand what he was on about. Was I missing something?

  SOPHISTICATION: Well, isn’t that what we are doing?

  THE VOICE: No. I want to actually talk to you. I prefer real time conversations.

  I suddenly went into free fall panic. Did he mean like real talking? As in ‘on the phone’ or something? I couldn’t cope with that right now and I didn’t know what to say. I was scared; terrified of not living up to the player behind the virtual board. At least on there I had a modicum of control. What if I was flummoxed or too nervous to talk? I mean this wasn’t just anyone, this was ‘The Voice’. It was HIM.