Anyone Else But You

Chapter 11 - The Last Straw

Jack Johnson – Better Together

Maddie had never been in trouble at school before, she’d never had a detention, never been sent to the silent room, never even been shouted at by a teacher. Yet here she found herself sat in the head of sixth form’s office with her tutor Mr Donaldson on her left, Ali on his other side and a purple bruise flourishing above her left eye. She’d never been in this office before and found herself looking around the room; at the books on the shelves behind the desk, the degree certificate framed on the wall and finally an angry Mrs Franklin.

Maddie’s mind wandered back to the incident in the common room 20 minutes earlier. It had all started when Miss Hooper had asked her and Japer to stay behind after the lesson to talk to her. Neither had any idea why she would want to see them but happily stayed behind after the bell had rung and lunch had started. They both perched on the edge of the table in front of the teacher’s desk and waited for her to finish cleaning the whiteboard.

“Okay I just wanted to talk to you two about this project partnership. Is there something going on that I should know about?” Miss Hooper sat in her desk chair and leaned her arms on the desk looking expectantly at the students in front of her. Maddie felt her cheeks flush with heat and immediately looked down at the ground, she heard Jasper clear his throat next to her.

“What I mean to say is, is everything alright between the two of you? Are you working well together or do I need to split you up and make you work by yourselves?” She raised her eyebrows and moved an arm so that she could rub her chin in a private eye kind of way. Maddie’s head shot up and glanced towards Jasper on her right, he looked as confused as she was and just shrugged at her.

“As far as I know Miss we’re fine. Maddie have you got any problems?” Maddie looked at Jasper as he said her name and shook her head smiling before looking back at their teacher.

“No I haven’t got any problems with Jasper, he can be annoying at times, very annoying but nothing to make me not want to work with.” Miss Hooper frowned at them looking confused herself. “What gave you the idea that there was something wrong Miss?”

“Just something one of your classmates said, but it doesn’t matter if you two are happy working together. You can go to lunch now.” She smiled at them and stood up. Jasper walked towards the door but Maddie remained unmoved on the table, she watched as Miss Hooper walked to the third row of seats and bent down to pick up some scraps of paper. “Those year 7s are a menace when it comes to working on paper, honestly.” She tipped the scraps in the bin and sat in her chair again.

“Who told you that we weren’t getting along?” Maddie crossed her arms as she stood up straight. She had a pretty good idea already but she wanted to make sure before she went off to confront them.

“I’m not going to tell you, the person came to me in confidence and I’m going to respect that.” Maddie shook her head smiling, just not out of pleasure. Her arms dropped to her side and she moved round to the side of the teacher’s desk.

“It was my so-called best friend wasn’t it. It was Ali.” When Miss Hooper didn’t reply, Maddie knew she was right and swivelled on the spot, striding out of the classroom full of purpose. “I am going to kill her.” She muttered under her breath as she walked straight past Jasper and up the corridor towards the stairs and the route up to the sixth form common room.