Notes on a Scandal

TWO €

A week passes quickly and Cate is starting to get used to the reckless teenagers and their antics.

"Everyone quiet down!" She yells over the roaring classroom. Most of the class quiets while some of the more rowdy, frat boys do not.

"Please children! We must start class!" She beckons. "We will start with a simple project." She starts to explain speaking over the students still taking. She goes into detail of the project showing examples of the art that inspired her.

She lets the teenagers get to work on their personal projects. Twenty silent minutes pass before the classroom door opens and Elizabeth walks through.

She's holding a folder of papers and looks sort of awkward and out of place. Cate looks up from the papers she's marking and sees her at the door way.

One of the male students look up and raise an eyebrow at her, "What's the dyke doing here?" He smirks at his offence remark making his friends laugh.

"Mr. Francis!" Mrs. Blanchett yells standing up from her chair, "We do not use slurs in this school!"

"She's a fucking faggot, what can I say, Mrs. Blanchett!" He yells at Cate.

"Do not yell at Mrs. Blanchett!" Elizabeth yells protectively and drops her folder of papers and lunges at Samuel Francis.

Elizabeth wrestles him to the ground, mount his body and throws punches into his face, causing his nose to start bleeding and lip to split.

Cate rushes over to the two and try to pull them apart. Samuel slams his fist into Elizabeth's cheek causing her to buckle over in pain onto the floor.

"That is enough!" Cate yells, the rest of the class is cheering them on to fight.

"Get off of each other!" She yells trying to pull Samuel off of Elizabeth as he knees her stomach. Cate keeps yelling at the two to stop fighting trying to pull them apart. The commotion gets the attention of the same teacher from outside the courtyard.

She swings open the door and yells at the top of her lungs, "That's enough!" Everyone stops and stares at her in fear. She grabs Elizabeth and Samuel by the ears and drags them out of the class room.

Cate quickly follows the teacher with the bloodied students after telling the class to get back to work, the other teacher starts to talk, "What is this all about?" She asks angrily.

"I came to class to drop some art off and this dickhead called me a dyke and a faggot!" Elizabeth defends herself.

"There's no need for profanity." The teacher warns. "Mr. Francis, why would you call Miss. Aird such names?"

"She attacked me over the truth!" He defends himself helplessly.

"Sometimes the truth isn't always what should be said, detention for both of you. Go!" She demands. The two walk away towards the deans office and Elizabeth picks up her pace hitting her shoulder in to Samuel's intentionally after grabbing her folder off the ground.

Cate turns to the other teacher with a grateful look, "Thank you so much for the help." She thanks.

"You're welcome." She says with a sophisticated nod.

"I believe we haven't officially met, I'm Cate Blanchett, I'm the new art teacher." Cate introduces herself, offering a hand to shake.

"Barbara, Barbara Covett, it's nice to meet you. I'm from the history department." She says shaking her hand. Barbara is an older woman, mid-sixties. She's short and sort of stubby with dirty blonde hair tied into a tight bun.

"I really appreciate the help, I don't know how I would have stopped the two from beating each other to a pulp." Cate says.