It was my idea ,I guess ,in the first place. "Let's put a hate note in someone's locker." I said to Mary, half as a joke. We were waiting for biology class to begin. She smiled and raised her eyebrowns ." Another one of your great ideas, Elisabeth? Whose locker do you suggest we put it in ?"
I looked around the room."Oh-Jane." It wasn't really- I mean really- hated Jane. That is ,we both said" Good morning" to her and "See you tomorrow." But she was just - well, different. In spite of the fact that she was pretty,with long , black hair and a graceful figure,she wasn't popular. Jane always kept to herself. Besides that ,she wrote poetry-that weird ,free verse kind that nobody can understand.
That was how it began.
~×~
The next morning, Mary and I arrived at school early. We planned to write a note and put it in Jane's locker,number 666." What should we say?" I asked. I held my pencil over a piece of notebook paper.
"Something simple. How about 'You stink'?" I printed the message in large, untidy letters."There", I said,handing the paper to Mary. "I don't want it. You take it." She pushed the note back." I'm scared."
I didn't want to,but I took the paper. My hands trambled as I walked down the hallway, I heard the loud clack of my footsteps on the linoleum. As I came near locker 666, I looked around to make sure nobody was watching. There was only Mary, peeking around the corner of the hall. I opened Jane's locker. The books were neatly piled on the metal shelf. A notebook with " Jane Laker" written on it was beside them.
I placed our note on her notebook,where she would be sure to see it. I closed the locker door and walked away,with a pleasant feeling of relief. We stayed in the hall almost 15 minutes, waiting for Jane to arrive. Then Mary whispered," Here she comes."
Jane went directly to her locker." Look",Mary whispered." Look at her face". We burst out laughing. It was clear that Jane had seen the note. Her face looked as if she had been hit with a wet dish rag. Mary and I fled,giggling,to the rest room.
After that it was easy.
~×~
The next day,we arranged an open plastic bag of marbels in Jane's locker. When the hundreds of marbels went bouncing and clattering down the hallway, I wonder how she explained it to the principal. He was standing nearby when it happened.
After that, Mary got the idea of making a voodoo doll of Jane. I must say we did an excellent job.
We used a large carrot for the body and a small onion with black yarn for the head. After we draw the face on ink,we stuck a huge hat pin through the onion. Then we hang a tiny sign on the doll that said"Jane".
I thought it looked rather cute on the shelf of Jane's locker.
~×~
We reached a new high the next day. Mary had a petition to change the school dress code. It had been signed by almost our whole class, but it hadn't been given to the principal yet.
We are undersigned,do hereby dectare that Jane Laker is weird and do hereby announce that we hate her.
Mary put that little gym in Jane's locker,just before biology class.
We waited in the biology room for Jane to come in. We wanted to see how she had taken our last surprise. The bell rang but Jane still hadn't come.
"Maybe she isn't here today." Mary whispered to me." She's never been late for a class before."
The period was almost over when we heard the rescue squad arrive at school. Our teacher left the room to find out what had happened. I could hear him talking to another teacher in the hall.
"What's all this about?"our teacher asked.
"Oh,some girl - last name is Laker. I think- locked herself in the EC room. She turned on the gas from all four stoves. They got her out just time."
"Did you hear that?" I asked Mary. She nodded in amazement." Well." I whispered. "I always knew that anyone who wrote poetry would come to a bad endlich."
We began to laugh...
~END~
-Janosch 🤘
