Chapter 11

The disappointment of the flooded sand village was short-lived. The moment the end-of-lunchtime bell rang, Courtney’s attention shifted to the more important matter. If this were any other day of the week, it would be a depressing time. But today was different.

It was Friday.

Which meant one thing.

It was now Free Time.

The best time of the week.

A time when a kid could run wild with their imagination. It was like lunchtime indoors but with more freedom than a wet-day timetable. The best thing was that there was nothing Mrs Grungle could do to ruin Free Time. She may be an evil monster, but even she wouldn’t go that far. Surely…

But something in her gut didn’t fully believe this. Magpies cawed in the sky as if offering a foreboding warning. Regardless, Courtney was jittery from excitement. The students lined up outside the large red door, waiting for it to part like the Red Sea, allowing them all inside.

The wind slowly picked up, and the overcast sky cast the students in an ominous shadow. Small droplets of rain fell from the sky once more, bouncing off the children’s blue rimmed hats.

Yet despite these gloomy signs, the children clung to the belief of Free Time.

“What do you want to play with?” Leah whispered to Sarah, who was standing in line next to her.

“I was thinking blocks,” Sarah replied.

“We could make a farm,” Leah agreed.

“Ok, but we have to include King Piggy,” Courtney requested, leaning in from behind the other girls.

“Of course! King Piggy is a must!” the two other girls agreed. King Piggy was a recurring character that the girls would make. He was a regular pig figure with a round yellow cone placed on his back.

If the sand city were gone, a block city was the logical next step.

The doors creaked open, and Mrs Grungle stepped out. Her heels echoed on the concrete steps, silencing the children. Her piercing gaze flickered across the children, her cruel smile playing on her lips.

“Enter orderly and sit on the mat.”

The children didn’t need to be told twice. They walked as fast as they could, making sure not to run in the corridor as they placed their hats on the hooks. Afterwards, they quickly made their way to the mat in front of the whiteboard.

The kids awaited with bated breath for Mrs Grungle to set them free.

“Alright, you know what today is.” Oh boy, did they. “I expect noise to be kept to a minimum. You may go and begin Free Time.”

Those were the words they were waiting for. The students raced from the mat to their desired toys. Courtney didn’t even need to communicate with Leah or Sarah.

They all knew their tasks.

Courtney found the block baseplate with a mote for their castle. Leah grabbed the box of blocks, and Sarah reached behind the bookshelf to where they hid a prebuilt King Piggy.

The three girls regrouped with their respective items and sat down on the carpet to begin their build. So focused on their tasks, they didn’t notice the looming shadow behind them.

“Courtney!” Mrs Grungle barked, causing her to jump just as she picked up King Piggy. Courtney performed a half roll on her bum to gaze up at Mrs Grungle, who was hunched over her. She trembled uncontrollably.

“What is it, Mrs Grungle?” Courtney asked with a shaky voice. She could barely utter the words, as if a snake was wrapping around her neck.

“Have you done your homework?” Mrs Grungle asked, her leering eyes suggesting there was nothing she didn’t already know.

Courtney dreaded what answering her would result in, so she cast her gaze at the box of blocks. If she kept her mouth shut, she wasn’t lying.

“Miss Courtney, I’ll ask again, have you done your homework?”

Courtney couldn’t lie to her. If she did, she knew her fate would be far worse.

“No,” Courtney responded earnestly, the fear of lying to Mrs Grungle was too great.

Mrs Grungle didn’t say anything at first; she merely pointed at an empty desk. Courtney looked at the desk, then back at Mrs Grungle.

“Table?” she repeated, confused.

Mrs Grungle flashed her crooked teeth before shaking her head.

“No free time until you have finished all your homework.”

Courtney shot a panicked look at her friends, who were all gasping at the cruelty of Mrs Grungle. How could she try to ruin Free Time? This was a sacred time for a kid.

“But it’s free time…” Courtney tried to reason with the tyrant.

“I know… Free Time is a privilege, not a right,” she responded.

“Please!” Courtney begged.

“You can have free time as soon as you are done with your homework!”

Courtney placed King Piggy on the ground, entrusting him with her friends. She stood up and walked slowly over to the table. A dead girl walking.

She took a seat.

Mrs Grungle slammed a copy of the homework on the desk, placing a grey lead pencil in front of her.

“Good luck,” she muttered, as if to taunt her.

Courtney looked down at the paper. Numbers and words she didn’t understand. How did anyone do this? It seemed impossible.

The laughing of a group playing on the computers caught her attention. A creepy clown flashed on the screen. They must be playing Word Circus. A learning game involving spelling and grammar that was circus-themed. The children all loved playing this game.

It was cruel to force children to do homework whilst everyone else was playing games.

Courtney glanced back at her paper, and the words spun around, incomprehensible. Her brain already began to hurt as she wrote on it. She worked away, ensuring she answered every question so Mrs Grungle wouldn’t get angry.

Once she was done, she made her way over to Mrs Grungle, who was sitting at her desk marking assignments. Courtney presented the paper to her, and she snatched it out of her hands, grabbing a red marker.

One cross.

Two crosses.

Three crosses.

Finally, a zero out of a hundred at the top of the page.

“Were you even trying, Courtney?” she asked with an angry tone.

Courtney had tried her hardest. She just didn’t understand the questions. She didn’t know why truth was spelt with a T and H instead of an F. It was confusing. Almost as confusing as division. It looked just like a minus sign. Why wouldn’t a student think it was a minus? Subtraction was easy.

“Well, I guess you can go play-” Mrs Grungle was cut off by the bell ringing. The end of the day.

Courtney had missed out on the entirety of Free Time.

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End of Chapter 11