The Smell of Rebellion

Chapter Eight

Class the next day started off as usual. Hortensia took her seat adjacent to (ha, vocabulary word!) Mia and she waved to Holly, who was waving at her enthusiastically. She smiled brightly at her just to make her feel comfortable and took out her pencil.

She heard Mia sigh in relief and mumble, "Someone brought their stationary today."

Hortensia grinned at her and Mia rolled her eyes.

Olivia entered the class, and because she was a prefect, stood straight by the door and greeted the teacher, "Olivia Deverell is present, Miss. I have to attend to some matters with the Trunchbull with the other prefects in the class to attend to and I will not be present for most of the morning classes." She stood there, eyes straight ahead and scarily blank as Miss Plimsol said, "Yes, of course. You are excused."

Hortensia watched as Olivia nodded stiffly, turned on her heels, and marched out.

Sure enough, Henry and Anna weren't here, either, their chairs empty.

Kids streamed in for the next few minutes. Hannah and Liam had sour expressions and glared at each other as they took their seats.

They look like they just drank lime juice. What could they possibly be bickering about at 8 in the morning? Hortensia mused to herself, tapping the end of her pencil on the wooden surface of her desk.

Lila reached the classroom soon after, and the two friends greeted each other with a dip of their heads and a smile. Hortensia watched with a smile as she took her seat.

A few minutes later, when almost all of the seats were filled, the bell started ringing. This time, the Trunchbull didn't spit threats to get kids in class, so Hortensia assumed that she was busy with a meeting or everyone was present.

"Alright," Miss Plimsol started, "I'll be calling attendance now."

There were a few whispering kids but Miss Plimsol started, "Sarah Adams?"

A rather short girl raised her hand and called, "Present." Her curly hair rested against her shoulders and she brushed it out of her face.

"Ollie Bogwhistle?"

Her eyes snapped to him, and she watched as he raised his hand and said in that annoying voice of his, "Present." Her eyes lingered on him. His nose had bandages on them, for sure, and it looked crooked in a way. Did he break i--

"Hortensia Buckets?" Miss Plimsol made a face at her name, dragging Hortensia out of her thoughts, and she smirked as she raised my hand and called, "Hortensia Buckets is present!"

She looked unamused as she looked at her roll and called, "Hannah Clark?"

Hannah raised her hand half-heartedly and turned her attention back to her book, not bothering to say anything.

"Chloe Cranston?"

"Here, Miss!" Chloe raised her hand. Hortensia didn't know what to think of Chloe. She was nice one day, and then a mean-girl the next. Hortensia made sure to keep her distance from her, so she opted to talk to other kids in her class instead.

"Olivia Deverell?" Miss Plimsol paused, then wrote something down while muttering, "Right." She looked up and called next, "Mia Jenkins?"

Mia raised her hand and said, "Here." Then, she went back to drawing on her desk.

"Liam Muldowney?" Miss Plimsol made a sour face when she saw him raise his hand and smirk, "Present and on-time." She wrote something down on her paper.

"Holly Pool?"
"Here! Present– I'm here!" Holly exclaimed, smiling brightly. Her energy was almost contagious, because a few of the kids smiled back. Holly had that energy.