“That’s it you cry you baby, you can never take the truth can you?” She edges up to Mari’s face “Can you?”
“No….no I can’t but….but….Hannah can.” What, I think to my self she’s landed me in it for good now. I start to scramble myself out of bed and into the washing room before all hell breaks lose.
“Oh, so you think you can handle it do you? You think you can handle me?” She edges closer, closer again until she comes up to my face, we make eye contact what do I do? If I hit her I’ll get into trouble but, on the other hand if I don’t do anything no one will. All eyes in the room are on us.
“Well come on then, hit me if you think you’re hard enough.” My eyes drive into hers, do I or don’t I? “Didn’t think so, you’re nothing but all mouth, all words but no action. Well let’s hear what the head thinks about this.” My palms are getting sweaty, my fists are getting tighter. Do I or don’t I?
My heart races, my stomach feels as if it’s riding a roller-coaster I edge forward, my emotions take over and the next thing I see is Tina on the floor holding her hand over her face.
“You’ll pay for that, no one gets away with that!” She sobs; I go in for the kill.
“Awww. That’ll teach you for being a bitch to everyone. You think you’re Rocky do you? Well I don’t think so. For years you’ve been making us cry, let’s see how you like it!” Oh my God what have I just done! My head spins round the room, and suddenly it comes to me, THE REVOLUTION.
“Angharad, Rhiannon, Ffion quick lock the door.” I command, and before I can turn round THE REVOLUTION has begun. This is our chance to make a difference; I run to the window and see the head run into the main school building. She must’ve heard all the commotion up here from the other prefects in the room next door. I climb over Tina who is now sitting on the floor leaning on the wall guarded by Mari. I grab some socks and tie Tina’s hands and legs together, and then I stuff her mouth full of smelly hockey socks.
“Hannah what are you doing?” Rhiannon screams whilst holding the dorm key, I look at her then indicate to the rest of the girls to come close to me.
“Girls, the time has come. For years we’ve been talking about what things we would change if we had the chance to take over this school. Well, today that chance is here. Just think no more punishments, no more hockey in gale force winds, no more tears before bedtime, no more…….”
“Ok, we get the point. So what do we do next?” Mari interrupts.
“We wait Maz; we’ve made our first move it’s up to them now. All we have to do is wait and get ready to fight!” As I look around I see the girls’ faces, it’s as if I’m looking at a box of Allsorts; accept there’s no sweets, just a mixture of expressions.
As precious minutes bass by a loud noise can be heard from the other side of the door.
“Open this door at once! This is no way for young ladies to act now come along, enough of this nonsense or I will be forced to ring your parents. Hannah Davies, are you behind this act of stupidity? It won’t surprise me!” The head demands. How the hell does she know I’m behind this? I hate it when people do that it gets right up my nose.
“Right, gather up” I whisper “It’s time to make the next move. We’ve got one hostage but she’s not valuable enough. We need a teacher or better still the deputy head! Girls have any of you got any idea of how we can do this?” The room goes quiet; every girl looks at each other “Well?” I ask.
“I’ve got an idea, but it’ll need a hell of a lot of planning” Leigh commands
“What’s the plan then?” I say in anticipation.
“The Head has her lunch break at quarter past two right! What’s the next thing she does?” Silence fills the room “I’ll tell you what she does, she goes down to the deputy Heads office to drop off the post which takes about five minutes. Then, she leaves the building at around twenty past two and goes through the tunnel.” Silence occurred “Come on girls, a reaction would be nice”
“What are you getting at?” I say “Do we attack her or something?”
“No, we mug her. We have enough allies to help us, all we have to do is get her back in the main office and we can take it from there.” She breathes heavily, not knowing what to say or do next.
Could this actually work? Could we really pull this off? What will my parents say? I suppose I can just say that I was dragged into it although, that has never worked in the past. No! I mustn’t be thinking of that right now, the future of this school rests on my shoulders. There’s only two hours left until the Head takes her lunch break; so we all get busy by making weapons out of wood (from the wardrobe), and using the heals of our shoes as mallets.
“Hannah, Mari’s ill. Her asthma has kicked in again and her inhaler is in the deputy Heads office. What are we going to do now?” Angharad panics
“Ok, don’t panic!” I look out of the window and see my class mates. This is the only chance I have to show the rest of the girls that I make a great and powerful leader. I peer through the window and get Cara’s attention. I signal to her (with great difficulty), our position and tell her to meet me behind the old bike shed in ten minutes.
“Right girls, I’ve sorted out Mari, but there’s a catch. You’ll have to mug the Head on your own, but don’t worry there’ll be more allies on the first floor to help you. Angharad, until I retrieve Mari’s’ inhaler and make it back to base. You’ll have to be section leader and Leigh you’ll be the second in command.” As I walk over to Mari, Tina is crying like a baby. Good, I think to my self it’s what she deserves after all she’s put us through.
“Mari, Mari look at me” she looks at me gasping for air “Listen to me Maz, you’re going to be all right. Help me here, try to concentrate on you’re breathing, can you do that for me?” Mari nods whilst I empty out a brown paper bag and put it to her mouth.
“Hannah, we have a problem!”
“What?”
“What are we going to do for food? The girls need some energy to mug the Head you know!” Leigh orders.
“Try not to think about that right now. We should be concentrating on taking the Head hostage and driving the other teachers away!” I say, not thinking about that important detail right now.
“OK. But Han, what do we do about Tina? We can’t leave her here she might try and escape.” I look at Tina, she looks at me. For some reason she doesn’t look so mean, she looks small and helpless like a lost puppy. Look at me what am I doing? I didn’t like it when Tina tortured me, and now I’m doing the same thing.
I look at my watch. It’s action time! “Get into position” I yell “Now girls, you know what you have to do. Does every one understand what they have to do?” I look around the room, Rhiannon puts her hand up.
“What don’t you understand?”
“What do we do again?” I swear if I have a bullet in my possession I know what I’ll do with it. She’ll be my prime victim.
“Ok, I’ll go through it one more time. Now listen carefully Rhi, first of all you’ll meet up with our allies on the ground floor. Then, Angharad will command the mission. In other words she’ll tell you what to do. If any thing goes wrong Leigh will take over Angharad. You’ll then take over the main office, driving the teachers away. I have to meet up with Cara to get Mari’s inhaler, I will rondevue with you lot in the main office. Do you get it now?”
“Yes I get it!” S he barks in a sarcastic tone.
“Good. Now get on with it! GO go go!” As I see the room empty I make sure Tina is tightly fastened and Mari is still breathing before I leave with her to get the inhaler.
“Hannah, I can’t do this. My mum is under enough stress as it is without me adding to it. We’re not the bloody Special Forces; we’re grammar school teenagers for Christ sake! My heart sinks. I can’t believe my best friend is saying this, we’ve dreamed about this day for years. And now it’s finally happening she’s backing out? Well not today! It’s too important. I gradually help her to her feet and begin to hobble down the corridor to the rondevue point with Cara (who is eagerly awaiting my arrival)
“What took you so long? I’ve been standing here for over ten minutes” She rants
“Sorry, I had to scramble down four flights of stairs, avoid the enemy whilst supporting her! So excuse me for being a little late.”
“Look, don’t rant at me. I’ve done you a massive favour by getting this you know! It hasn’t been an easy job. Here, give it to her quickly I think she’s starting to turn a funny colour!”
As I help Mari take her inhaler I notice it has gone extremely quiet. It’s as if I’m standing in a morgue not a playground. I apologise to Cara for shouting at her,
“It’s ok; it’s been a hectic day! Han, can I tell you a secret?” She whispered
“Yeah sure! What is it?” I question.
“Get as far as you can away from here. They’re plotting against you both; they’re in the office trying to decide how they’re going to evict you from NEP”
“The NEP, what are you on about?” As I look into her eyes I see hatred burning inside. My heart races, my throat feels as if it has rings around it trying to suffocate me.
“Take my advice; get out of here as soon as possible. Take Mari with you. God knows what Commander Angharad will do to her if she steps into the office. Go Hannah, you must leave now!” I look around trying to figure out where I’ve gone wrong.
“Get them” Angharad commands “She must not live here in our community, get her!” I’m running, God knows where Mari and I end up. Heaven I suppose.