Chapter Four

The following morning, I was early. The bus I normally took was cancelled and I had to take the one before. I was just opening my locker to retrieve some books when I heard a familiar voice calling my name.

“Bette!” mr Barney, my history teacher, barked in his Barney-like way. I cringed at the mere sound of it – I was wondering what on Earth I had done wrong. I was always paying attention in his classes – in every class. I never chatted with any of my class mates – they weren’t even interested in that.

“Mr Barney,” I replied, my voice going up at the end.

“Ms Lerner wants to see you before school starts. She asked to have you at her office as soon as possible.”

“Okay. Thank you, mr Barney.”

“No problem, Bette.”

I was even more incertain now. First of all, how did ms Lerner know that I was earlier today? How did she know I was at school already? And more importantly, what did she want to talk about? I was again searching my memory like mad for anything I had done wrong… shit, it was probably the canteen incident! Ms Kennard must have complained about a clumpsy student. The question was why. She seemed so nice and concerned then and she wasn’t the person to be hypocritical like that.

When I finally reached the office, I was so nervous I was convinced that I would make a complete fool of myself. A green light popped on, telling me I could enter the office. I opened the door and was considering whether I should look her in the eye or not when she told me to sit down. Her fingers raced over the key boards and finally, she let them rest and looked at me. She didn’t say anything, which only increased my anxiety. After a couple of minutes where I was fidgeting my fingers and studying them doing so, she said: “Hello, Bette.”

I gave a slight nod. “Ms Lerner.” My voice was trembling and I hated it. She took off her glasses and smiled at me reassuringly – only did that have the opposite effect. There was something to this woman that always made me feel uneasy, as if she were a predator and I an innocent pray.