Authors: Noël Cades
"You must know that it is completely unacceptable for pupils and teachers to fraternise in such a way."
Alice wanted to laugh. She thought of what they had done in his flat together being described as "fraternising". Surely that was what one did with the enemy? But she kept her face straight. Never apologise, never explain. Jules’ advice would stand her in good stead here.
"I should tell you that I have telephoned your parents and requested a meeting with them. Really, Alice, your behaviour this term has been quite shocking. Just weeks away from leaving Fairmount altogether and you choose to comport yourself in this disgraceful and unacceptable way. It cannot be tolerated."
"Days," Alice said.
"I beg your pardon?"
"It’s days. I finish in four days. Do you really think this is necessary?" Alice asked. She was both frightened and furious that they’d bothered her parents over this.
Mrs Paddington chose not to reply to this. "You will go and work quietly in the reading room." The reading room was a currently unassigned classroom used for a range of purposes.
"I can’t go back to class?"
"Under the circumstances I don’t think it is appropriate that you come into contact with other pupils."
So she was some kind of leper. Probably about to be expelled. She followed Mrs Paddington to the reading room and sat down at a desk. She wasn’t at all sure how she could concentrate on any work now but there was little else to be done.
* * *
Sitting by herself in the reading room Alice felt strangely calm. It had had to come out sometime. At least she knew where she stood with Stewart now, that he liked her and wanted to continue seeing her. She didn’t think that exposure this late in the day would make him change his mind. After all what was the point of ending it now? The worst had happened.
She desperately wanted to see him and find out what was happening with him. Would they sack him? She rather thought they wouldn’t because the scandal would be too great. After all it was just a few days and then it didn’t matter any more. Surely they couldn’t be that set on a point of principle?
Alice thought of the boy who had been expelled for drugs not long before his A-levels. Maybe she’d have to sit her own exams in jeans. There were only two papers left, tomorrow’s exam and then the final one on Thursday, so it wasn’t too horrendous a prospect.
There was a knock at the door and it opened. She was startled to see Richard there. He didn’t look furious or disgusted, so that was something.
"I asked to see you before I spoke to your Headmaster," he said. "Are you alright?"
"I’m fine. Did they tell you what it was about?"
"Rather briefly and with odd phrasing over the telephone. I thought I would like to hear your side first," he said.
Somehow Richard made it easy for her to tell him. He was such a factual person. She explained about the dinner. "He’s not actually my teacher, he’s coaching cricket and he only joined this term. He’s a friend of Becky’s boyfriend." This was true but also a much more palatable way to put it, Alice thought.
"Is he rather older than you?"
Alice met his eyes directly. She didn’t want to lie to him. "Yes, he is," she admitted. "And he was very reluctant at first because of that. In fact he kept his distance as much as possible and it was me who kept trying to persuade him."
"I see. Is he the sort of man that your mother would find acceptable?"
This question threw Alice somewhat because she had never really considered it.
"Yes I think so. Not given his age, perhaps. But if she and you were to meet him socially, I think you would both like him."
"Then that should probably be arranged. But for now we’d better go and deal with your Headmaster."
Alice marvelled at Richard’s attitude. She had thought he would at least disapprove or show disappointment in her, but he seemed very neutral. Admittedly he’d never been angered with her or disciplined her as long as she could remember, though she had never really given him occasion to. The minor misdemeanours she got into around the house, such as leaving her laundry in the wrong place or staying out later than she had promised, were things her mother usually dealt with.
"You want me to come with you?" she asked.
"Yes. I don’t think there’s any point them seeing me separately. I have nothing to say on the subject that can’t be said before your ears, and I only know as much about it as you have told me."
He meant they should put on a united front even if he didn’t say it. Having dreaded her parents arriving, Alice now looked on Richard as some kind of champion.
* * *
A formal and awkward meeting was held in the Headmaster’s office, with both Mrs Paddington and Mr Francis present. Alice and Richard sat opposite them, Richard having drawn out a chair for Alice with his usual courtesy. Mr Francis would have expected her to stand but he could hardly ask her to do so now. It would look absurd after Richard’s gesture.
"I thought it would be useful for both Alice and I to attend this meeting and resolve this matter," Richard said. Alice had never seen Richard in a situation like this. He took a quiet command in a way that clearly disconcerted the two teachers opposite them.
"So the issue before us is that Alice was seen having dinner on Friday night with a member of your teaching staff?" Richard said.
"As you must be aware," Mr Francis said, desperate to regain ascendancy, "inappropriate relationships between pupils and teachers at Fairmount - at any school - are unacceptable."
"And it is your view that having dinner constitutes an inappropriate relationship?" Richard asked.
"Fraternising in private with a member of staff is absolutely inappropriate."
"I see. So with just four days of Alice’s time at Fairmount remaining, what course of action do you propose?"
Mrs Paddington glanced at Mr Francis. Alice could tell they were both furious but also uncomfortable. This was thanks to Richard.
"In the normal course of events Alice should face immediate expulsion," Mrs Paddington said.
"Which could not of course preclude her from completing her exams, even if other arrangements were required," Richard said. Alice wasn’t sure how he knew this. "How many classes do you have left, Alice?"
Having now missed the today’s session she had only one class left, an Economics revision class on Wednesday morning. The more she thought about it the more absurd this whole situation was, Alice thought. Why on earth didn’t they just overlook it and let it go?
"Arrangements can be made for teaching notes from that class to be sent on," Mr Francis said.
Richard frowned slightly. "Might it be reasonable to suggest that Alice’s exclusion from Fairmount might distract other pupils at a time when you would doubtless prefer their full attention to be focused on their studies?" he said.
"I’m not quite sure what you mean," Mr Francis said.
"And the publicity that so often results from these situations, always a considerable disruption throughout the school and wider community," Richard continued.
He had hit their weak point. Bad publicity was the last thing they wanted.
"Alice has, as I am sure you would agree, been an exemplary pupil at Fairmount as her future career plans demonstrate. Without wishing to employ the cliché of mountain and molehill, surely the most sensible course of action, given no actual illegal act has occurred, would be to allow her to finish her exams and farewell the school in due course."
Mr Francis shifted in his chair. He really was a weaselly little man, Alice thought. Mrs Paddington’s lips were set in a tight line.
"I think Mrs Paddington and I will discuss this between ourselves," he said. "If you would care to wait outside for a short while, we will inform you of our decision as quickly as possible."
Alice knew she and Richard had won. But Mr Francis wanted to present their victory as his idea and his judgement. They returned to the reading room.
"This should take all of five minutes," Richard said, looking at his watch. They sat there in companionable silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
Sure enough within ten minutes Mrs Paddington reappeared. "If you will come this way once again," she said.
Alice’s hopes were realised. Mr Francis uttered a stuttering, pompous little speech about exceptional circumstances and granting Alice the special privilege of being allowed to remain at Fairmount, with the condition that she was to have no contact with the male member of staff in question within or outside school until the school term was complete. Which, Alice calculated, was in about seventy-two hours time.
Alice walked with Richard back to his car. She may as well have gone home now since there was only lunch and an unsupervised revision session that afternoon. And tennis, but most people skived off now with the excuse that they were revising. The games mistress had finally given up on them.
And it was a glorious day. The kind of day for not being in school, stuck in a classroom.
"Thank you so much for everything you did," she said. "I am very sorry, I really didn’t want to upset you and Mum."
Richard turned to her. "Naturally your mother is somewhat shocked and anxious, Alice. For my own part I was surprised but all things considered, I have every confidence in you. You have always been responsible and excelled throughout school, and there doesn’t appear to have been any disruption to your exams."
Alice felt both uplifted and slightly ashamed by this, as she hadn’t been upfront with them about a lot of things recently.
"I’d never jeopardise that."
"I am sure you wouldn’t." Richard stopped to talk to Alice before he opened his car door. "It’s an unusual time, the end of school. Legally you are of course all adults but remain constrained within the school environment. I’ve often wondered if a less structured approach would be more appropriate. Easier perhaps for both teaching staff and pupils to strike a balance between rules and freedom."
Alice agreed. "Last year wasn’t so bad. But this year it seems that we do a lot of things for the sake of doing them."
"I suppose the school needs to keep some form of order and routine. Don’t worry about your mother, I will assure her that everything’s fine."
He drove off leaving Alice feeling rather stranded. She didn’t really know what she should be doing. She didn’t really want to show up half way through the Economics revision class to a load of inquisitive eyes.
She was relieved that Richard had saved the day but also strangely deflated. It was as though she had been offered a sudden glimpse of sheer freedom which was now snatched back. If they had expelled her she could have gone anywhere, done anything right now. As it was she had to go back to school and keep her head down.
Still, just a few more days and she would finally be free.
* * *
Jules and Becky cornered her at lunch, wanting to know what had happened. They were shocked when Alice told them.
"I wonder who can have seen you?" Becky asked.
"Someone prepared to sneak," Jules said. "Most likely a teacher I would think. I can’t imagine anyone else reporting it except for someone like Maddy."
Alice thought the same. "I don’t think it was Maddy though because she would have given me looks earlier today and she didn’t. I’m sure it was a member of staff. I suppose they had to report it if they saw us."
"What’s happened to him, has he been fired?" Becky asked.
Alice had been worrying about this. "I have no idea. I haven’t seen him all day."
"I bet he won’t be," Jules said. "After all, he’s not quite a teacher, is he? And they need him for the cricket, the First Eleven are doing amazingly. It would be such a scandal if they fired him. They couldn’t hush it up because parents would ask where the coach was."
It was true that Stewart Walker had transformed Fairmount’s cricketing fortunes. For a school that took pride in sport this made him very valuable.
Alice considered how awful it would be for him if the cricket team found out. He’d been annoyed enough when the Gloucester team were having a go. But if the boys he actually coached knew he was seeing one of their classmates it would be far worse.
"I shouldn’t worry. He’s pretty tough, he’ll just brush it off. Besides they wouldn’t dare make remarks like Graeme and the lads do," Jules said.
"I hope so." Alice was getting a better idea of why he had held off for so long. She hadn’t really considered the consequences seriously enough. Exposure for him was far worse than for her.
"I just can’t believe Richard came good for you like that," Jules said. "He always seems so detached."
"He notices more than you might realise," Alice said. She had only started realising this herself recently. Richard gave the impression of being removed from mundane things but he was still very observant and aware of what was going on.
"Anyway, I’m absolutely banned from going anywhere near him - Stewart - for the next few days. So I daren’t even find him to ask him if he’s ok."
"If you’re banned from seeing him then it’s all the more likely he hasn’t been sacked," Jules said.
Becky suggested that they could go and find him on Alice’s behalf.
"Better not, he’ll probably want to keep well away from us all for now," Jules said.
The conversation moved on to other things. There was a leaving party being held at Gas, a local nightclub, on the Friday night, not just for Fairmount but for school leavers from other schools too. Becky was keen for everyone to go as it would be the last time that many of their other school friends were all together. Jules had reluctantly agreed as Leafy apparently hadn’t made any arrangements with her for that night.
Alice was torn between going and seeing Stewart.
"Do both. Go to his place afterwards," Jules suggested.
"You can’t miss it," Becky said. "I know it’s only Gas but everyone will be there."
They were also planning what they would do with their time after next week. Alice would be working more shifts at the veterinary surgery throughout the summer to save more for her gap year trip. Becky’s father had got her a part time job in a nursing home. Jules was angling for a job in a bar but these were rare and hard to get at this time of year, since university students were returning home for the holidays and usually grabbed them all.