NO LOOKING BACK – SCHOOL’S OUT AND LIFE BEGINS (Pt VI)
CHAPTER 3 – 1968 – 2nd Year
Another fantastic holiday over and it was time to return to the school for 2nd Year – Year 9 as it now known, I think. This year, we were allocated beds in the dormitories in the second wing of the new boarding house. To give the staff some credit, I think by this time they had realized that I was not popular with the girls in my year group so they did try to put me with those girls who weren’t quite so ‘nasty’ toward me.
I think this was the year when I tried for a few extra-curricular subjects and sports teams including hockey, as mentioned earlier. Also perhaps for the running race on sports day. Both glowing failures. I was always looking for something else to do at that school, but knew how much of a failure I had already proved myself to be with running, hockey and piano – I felt I was running out. I know I continued with my writing and drawing as much as I could.
Second Year was also the year we went to dancing classes. There were boys at the classes as well but I have no idea where they came from. All I know is that I did not enjoy them and was not sorry when we stopped. The people were trying to teach us ballroom dancing and it just did not work – not for me.
Our school grounds were not large enough to allow for our own swimming pool bat as there was a new olympic sized pool a short drive away, we used to be taken there to swim. At one stage, the school purchased a huge house with a pool on the opposite side of one of the roads that bordered the school. Obviously we used that but we sold the house almost as quickly as it had been purchased. So that was the end of that pool.
There was one little thing that was beginning to bother me. It didn’t matter what I did I could not get an award at the last assembly in the school year for any of the six years I was there. Academically, I didn’t have a chance in heck, but there were other sorts of awards. Citizenship and others. I was never awarded one but thought I might have a chance of receiving a citizenship award. I just had to think what you had to do to earn it. Each and every year I was at that school I did this. There wasn’t a list of criteria that you had to meet or excel in to get one of those jolly awards. So I started doing little things, things that I thought might help the staff and/or the girls. Not all the girls, only those who I thought mattered and who might have a ‘say’ in the award recipients. These were the senior girls, the prefects of those days. I think they are called ‘head girls’ (or boys) these days. And I think I might actually have been on the right track except for one thing – you do need to either do the correct thing for the right person or make sure that one of those people is watching you. While I thought I was doing the right thing, all that happened was that it made me look more of a ‘goody-goody’ than ever.
And yes, that was one of the reasons that I was bullied. Because, apparently, I was a ‘goody-goody’. I never did any of the naughty things that most of the other boarders did. And there were two reasons for this – one was that I simply wasn’t interested. And the second, I was absolutely terrified of reprisals from the staff and then word getting back to my parents. I was also extremely quiet and that didn’t go down well either.
I even got into trouble with the boards for one particular thing that I did achieve and was so proud of, to say nothing of stunned. I have mentioned that the one subject I did excel at throughout those years was English. I was good at it – very good. It is funny which memories stick in your mind. Most of mine from those days are anything but good – but this one was good and I can recall it vividly.
We had had a spelling test. An ordinary little spelling test. And I knew that I was good at spelling – well, I was in those days. We did the test – 50 words – and I promptly forgot all about it. A few days later and it was English again. The teacher walked in, we all stood and greeted her accordingly. But we also noticed that there was something ‘funny’ about her – she had an odd smile on her face apart from anything else. Then she stood in front of the class and announced that she had the results of our recent spelling test. Suddenly there was a lot of groaning in the room. The teacher then told us that one person had achieved 100%. More groaning but the girls started looking at each other, trying to work out who it would be. I just sat there, waiting to hear. I know I was OK at English but not even I could achieve 100%.
The teacher picked up the top sheet from the pile of tests and gave it to me. I didn’t take it – I just looked at it. My initial reaction was how horrible she was, showing me how good a 100% pass mark looked. But then she told me that I was the top achiever. I got the 100%. Gobsmacked? Stunned? Shocked? I have no idea how I felt. I just looked at it and then at her and back again. She had the biggest smile and shook the paper at me, telling me to take it and congratulating me! I thanked her (at least I think I did) and took it and then became aware of the noises in the room. A couple of ‘How in the heck did she do that?’ and other negative comments. While I was exceedingly happy and excited – the third thought that hit me, a bit like a brick, was the flack I was about to get from the other girls.
I guess this was another negative of being a boarder – an unpopular boarder. I didn’t really have anyone I could brag to. I was very happy about it, enough to put up with some of the nasty and very negative comments that were thrown at me by some of those boarders for the rest of the day. One of my day bug friends told me to ignore them, that they were just jealous. Be that as it may, it’s a heck of a lot easier said than done. That girl was probably right in that they were jealous, but it did put a dampener on my feelings.
There was one other things that I did seem to be good at, that surfaced during this year. When we were asked to trace things for homework, I never did. I don’t think I have ever traced anything in my life. When we have been asked to trace – I have always done freehand. I’m not sure that this would have been noticed had I not apologized to the teacher that I didn’t have any tracing paper and had to do it freehand. I think it only happened a couple of times during my years at that school but I know ‘word got around’ throughout the staff and it was actually considered very clever on my part. Of course, the other boarders also heard about it – another black mark against me! Ho hum…
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