The Secret Desires of a Gifted Child

The Bobbington Switch

Chapter Five: The Bobbington Switch

I think in the last bit of the last chapter, you can somehow relate to this, and feel the horror of this memory penetrating your every pore. Now, imagine yourself in the situation again, except for Jane and Lucille, it was ten time worse (unless you have a really, really bad memory which trumps this whole sitting-on-lap-scene). Theodore was innocent, and pure, and sure, he flirted with girls, but this was just stooping down to Bruce and Brittney low.

Jane had regressed to moody and quiet, but she could become intolerably obsessive and rude over the smallest sort of things. Meanwhile, Lucille had started to bully pairs onto both Olivia and Jane - pairs that only raked at Jane’s wound - pairs like: Jane and Teddy, then Jane and Kenley, and most often of all, Jane and Bobbington.

Bobbington had become a fissure in Jane’s mind, which was widening itself, cooing softly, “Janey girl, I’m over here!” Mohammed, now renamed Bobbington, seemed to be wherever Jane turned, and she became particularly violent whenever Lucille mention the Jane and Bobbington pair.

On the pair regression, Lucille and Jane had now taken to stalking Alfie, who seemed so innocent that they wished Theodore was still like that. Alfie seemed to notice, because he always seemed to look around with such wide, astonished eyes at them, whenever he turned and Lucille and Jane pretended to act casual while he looked at them for a bit.

One sullen Monday, Jane came to school looking much worse for wear. She had dark lines under her eyes (grey rather than purple, though) and was wearing big, baggy sweatpants.

“What’s happened to you?” asked Olivia, astonished; Jane always attempted to look a wee bit proper in public.

“I’ve decided I don’t care about appearances,” said Jane.

“Well, that’s evident,” said Lucille, eyeing Jane’s ash blond hair tied into a messy bun.

“Remember, though, the science project is due today after lunch!” said Olivia on a totally unrelated note. She pulled out a master diagram of the parts of a cell, and at least three pages of explanation.

Lucille said, “Oh, I need to finish colouring.”

“Me too,” agreed Jane. “I think I’ll have to stay in both recesses to finish.”

As they walked into the classroom, Mrs. Goj had an unwelcome sight to greet their eyes. Over the weekend, she had changed the seating plan, so now they were in a sort of horseshoe.

“Great,” moaned Jane. “I’m near Teddy and Bruno. If Bruno opens his chops, I’ll stab him in the neck. You know, I read in a book that if you stab someone in the back of the neck, at the base, you know, they die quicker; I guess that’s from reading too much Agatha Christie, but I think...”

Lucille and Olivia ignored their babbling friend, who had begun to rant about stabbing people in the backs of their necks.

“I can’t stand that Theodore,” snapped Jane that recess. She had become grouchy and irritable again. “He’s an ass. You know what he said to me?”

“What?” asked Lucille.

“He said, ‘Wow, Jane, you look terrible! Did you sleep at all over the past few days?’ I responded with: ‘No shit, Sherlock, how’d you figure that out?’”

Lucille giggled and Jane shot her a look.

“If you’re going to say, ‘Oh, Jane, he loves you!’ don’t, because he purposely got up and walked across the class to flirt with Brittany when he knew he had my full attention. Back to the conversation - So he said, ‘No need to swear, I was just looking at it in your best interest.’ BEST INTEREST? WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS, JOHN LENNON?” shouted Jane.