The devil's heart - Joseph Descamps Mixte 1963 [ENG]

Chapter 2

Voltaire high school - 1963 

     Lorene was discovering public high school and its very own characteristics, the constant background noise, and most of all, the school's trouble makers each class counted in its ranks. In the private high school for girls she came from, discipline was almost military, the uniform couldn't be personalized or shortened. Shameful behavior was a reasonable motive to be punished. The high school retributions were dreadful, similar to the ones Mrs. Giraud would give to the risk-takers if she was allowed so. Lorene had heard of those girls who had to stand in a corner, a book on their hands held out for a whole hour, if not more. Heads hit with rulers, or the small fingers which wrote insults, drew or stained notebooks and overalls, whether it be voluntarily or not, for that matter. Even more, once the lines to copy and essays to write were over, they were torn up in front of the girl being punished. Finally, they could be punished to run around the playground in patent shoes, without socks or thighs on -which caused bleedings and painful blisters that had to be endured for the rest of the day.Hadler was watching her steps, her back straight. She knew teachers appreciated a correct behavior. This didn't miss, as Mrs. Giraud looked at her with less disdain than the other girls here -who started imitating her.

     And then came the latin class that still didn't allow them to relax as Mr. Douillard was demanding - and a chauvinist on top of that. His patronizing tone, his full attitude betrayed a profound disdain towards the girls who recently joined the school. His opinion on diversity in high school was obvious.Lorene kept a friendly, smiley face, which didn't fool her schoolmate. Annick Sabiani wasn't delighted to share her table with a walking toothpaste ad. She had attempted to chat with her in-between classes. The clever blonde was coming up with the simplest and shortest answers possible without asking questions back, her social skills completely throwing off Lorene. She thought she could become friends with her classmate, but it didn't look like it. The behavior of the boys at the school was only average, they weren't as polite as she had pictured. Their looks were either morally dubious, or cold and unpleasing. Lorene was torn between her wish to make a good impression, to make the most of this day and a deep discomfort that she could feel from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. She didn't feel like she belonged. It got worse when a note got intercepted. Michèle and a tall slender guy, Laubrac, got kicked off the classroom. Hadler didn't know what happened, she didn't dare look back, Mr. Douillard could be watching her every move and kick her out as well.

     The lunch break was finally there and Lorene left the classroom among the last teenagers, trying to listen the conversations - to understand the others' hobbies, to guess who she should be friends with to be highly thought of. The list she was keeping in her mind since the beginning of the day was considerably short, at least for the people she would tolerate. On the contrary, a group of her classmates was starting to threaten her deceitfully perfect mask. They were annoying her, and at cafeteria, it didn't get better. Their table was several feet away from Michèle, Simone and the other girls'. Hadler was holding her tray, approaching to sit next to them. Pichon was walking ahead of her. The scene that unfolded in front of her eyes made her lose her temper. While one of those idiots -the ones on top of her hate list- pushed the young Henri, she saw red and as the disoriented boy was shyly apologizing to Annick. Lorene seized the immature and stupid speccy four-eyes' tray and threw it across the room. The sound of the impact made everyone quiet. 
« Go eat among pigs since you're incapable of behaving like an intelligent human being. »
She hammered him with this scathing sentence, her glare fixed in his, feeding the boy's white hot anger. Mr. Bellanger screamed behind her as Joseph Descamps stood up looking her up and down, smirking. The general custodian asked for explanations, irritated by the recent events and utterly shocked by the doings of such a polite young girl. Hadler got her lunch, that she had put away before her little misbehavior, back. She straightened her dress with her handed cleared her throat, answering she did a friend justice. Descamps, straight as a die, remained silent. Once the Bellanger storm cleared, he hurriedly went to pick another lunch up, happy that the general custodian had ordered this shrew to clean up the mashed potato mess once she was done with her lunch.Once she sat down, Simone and Michèle shared their thoughts. One of them thought she was brave, the other one thought she was low-key reckless. She could have received detention. 
« Between his mediocre drawings, his stupid smile and his vile sentences - I'm ready to spend every Saturday here if it can teach him an ounce of decency and respect. We're studying with them, whether they like or not. The negotiations are long over and it doesn't seem like their opinion was sought when they were happening. » she said loud enough for the boys to hear, especially Descamps who was returning to his table. His smirk changed to a face painted with disgust.