The Drumbeat Years (girlxgirl)

19

19

15th. March 1977

Tina sat on the chair, outside the Headmistress' office, swinging her legs and watching as her scuffed shoes and ankle socks appeared and disappeared. She couldn't let her hair fall across her face, due to the cute slide that her mother had put in her hair that morning. Instead, she kept her eyes lowered, avoiding the occasional glance from the Headmistress' secretary.

Picking at the embroidered flowers on her dress, she cringed every time she heard her mother's voice raise within the office. She could hear everything they said, through the thin, rippled glass of the office door. Even the shuffling of feet and the shouts, calls and the occasional shriek of playful screams that came from the hall, where her fellow First School students passed by on their way to the next class didn't hide what Tina could hear in the office.

She would rather sit in her class, ignored and whispered about, than to sit here, feeling embarrassment at her mother's righteous indignation. Better to feel ignored than have the secretary try to catch her eye to give her a comforting smile while she ground away shavings in the pencil sharpener on her desk.

"She came home in tears! Do you have any idea what that's like? Seeing your daughter crying like that?" Again, Tina's mother raised her voice. "She thought she was being punished. Punished for being good at reading! What kind of school is this?"

"Mrs Wentworth, you're being overdramatic." The calm voice of the Headmistress trickled beneath the inch, or so, gap beneath the door. "Tina misunderstood. There are twenty other boys and girls in her class. A teacher only has so much time during a lesson."

"It's not the first time, either. You know what it's done? Do you?" Tina could imagine her mother leaning forward, gripping her handbag in fury. "She refuses to read, now. She's always loved reading, but now she pretends she doesn't understand the words, because your idiot of a teacher helps every other child in class, but tells Tina to stop bothering her because 'she already knows it'!"

"Tina is a very bright girl, she doesn't need the help like the other children. A teacher has to prioritise those children that do need help." The sound of a lid clicking into place on a pen. It seemed to echo and magnify as Tina felt her cheeks burning. "Isn't it a little selfish? Wanting to take time from the other children when she doesn't need it?"

The sound of chair legs scraping across parquet flooring caused Tina to jump and tremble. Her mother had the sweetest disposition in the world, until someone broke her anger, then she would become a very different person. Bulging eyes and veins throbbing in her neck. Cheeks flushing. Breath running ragged.

"Selfish? Selfish? She's six years old!" A hand, or a fist, hit a table with each of those four words. "No, she doesn't need help, but, sometimes, it's nice to get a little attention. She's a six year old girl that sees other children getting praised and congratulated, a little attention that makes their day. But, oh no, not Tina. Tina's too smart for teacher to give her a little attention. A little comfort."

"Mrs Wentworth, there's no reason to be upset." Another chair scraped back. "I'll discuss it with Tina's teacher, but she mustn't be so sensitive. Perhaps you could take up the slack at home? Give her more attention yourself?"

"I beg your pardon?" Those cold words hissed from her mother and Tina's hands gripped her dress. Her mother had become far too polite. "We do give her attention and don't you ever imply we don't. If she comes home like that one more time, I'll be on the phone to the Board of Education every single bloody day until you and this teacher are fired. I will not let you marginalise my child. I will not!"

Tina jumped as the door to the Headmistress' office slammed open, the rippled glass shaking and reverberating. Dragging her handbag over her shoulder, Tina's mother stormed from the office. She gave a cold look at the secretary and then looked down to Tina, her face softening as she held out her hand. Tina saw the Headmistress stood in the doorway. Long, corduroy skirt and stiff shoes coming into Tina's lowered eye-line.