Special Treatment – July 2008

“Good afternoon, Meredith. Please, take a seat,” said Carmichael, motioning to the slightly uncomfortable chair on the other side of his desk. Of course the district couldn’t afford to lend laptops to the students and convert all of the textbooks accordingly, but it sure could buy the comfiest-looking chair in town for the principal. I suppose it’s cheaper for the district to have the parents float the doctors’ bills for scoliosis screenings and treatments than to do something beneficial for the students, or some cock-and-bull reasoning like that.

“I assume that you know perfectly well why you earned a summons to my office instead of heading to your ninth period class?” he asked as he looked at me. I felt like he was looking at me like a vulture focusing on its prey. God, is he still holding a grudge about those damn cookies?

“Actually, not really. I thought I would be sent to Mrs. Malvado instead. Isn’t this her department? According to the green slip, that is,” I said. That had been bugging me ever since I left the classroom. Why am I getting the “special treatment?”

“You know, you can drop the British accent. It’s getting old.”

“First off, I’m English. I used to live in foreign countries where this ‘accent’ is normal. Even after all this time, everyone here has an accent to me. No offense, but your voice sounds idiotic to me. And second, say English. British sounds grammatically incorrect and makes you look stupid.”

“Whatever.” He rummaged around in a filing cabinet for an envelope – which he found almost too quickly – and slammed it onto the desk. “Do you know what this is?” he asked in what I think was supposed to be a menacing tone. I wanted to laugh, but I contained myself.

“Yes, Mr. Carmichael. I have seen enough episodes of Doug to have a general idea,” I said coolly. I’m not gormless; I knew he had my permanent record in front of me, practically one of the only things to follow me from place to place.

“Let’s see now…” He skimmed through the envelope and found a paper with Disciplinary Actions typed on it. “Isla Meredith Pennington –” I cringed. When Taylor said my name, it sounded musical, but when it came out of Carmichael’s mouth, saws ran against steel.

“Isla.”

“What?”

“You said my first name wrong. It’s EYE-LA, not IZ-LA. If you are about to reprimand me for every crime I have ever committed against the regime of public education, at least have common decency and pronounce my first name correctly.” He ignored me and continued to read the paper with great interest. A small smirk appeared on his face; I could tell he was having a field day.

“Age four, threw a chair at Parker Pennington; cut will leave a scar near the right eye…Age six, pushed Parker Pennington off of playground equipment; Parker was slightly traumatized but physically unharmed…Age eight, pegged a football at Parker Pennington in physical education; you claimed he was not paying attention…My, my, Meredith. You sure have a history of beating up Parker.”

“Parker is my brother. What do you expect us to do, get along? And I bet you can’t look me straight in the eye and tell me that you have never gotten into a row with any of your siblings.”

“We are not focusing on me – and that is beside the point!”

“Are you really going to hold something I allegedly did ten years ago against me?” I asked quietly. “I know that the public school system is more of a dictatorship than a democracy, but I thought it was in the Constitution that it was illegal to try someone twice for the same crime?”

Okay, that’s not fair. This again goes to my thoughts that our system is faulty. All three of those incidents Carmichael mentioned happened because I stood up against Parker and protected my friends. In preschool, he made fun of Freya for her name; yes, I suppose Freya is a bit of an odd name, but of course anything that isn’t the norm is completely ostracized. On the first day of first grade, he made fun of Taylor for staying back and for crying about Áine. He also pushed Taylor off the playground equipment, but I never saw him punished for it. And how can he frown upon what I did when Parker made fun someone for getting upset at losing someone close to him? Sure, Parker has the emotional range of Steven Seagal, but you think he would have an ounce of compassion. And the other girl? Parker couldn’t comprehend that people can suck at sports and made her cry.

Okay, Parker is a bully. With all of this character education brainwashing the students, you think they would applaud that I’m standing up for others and not watching like a bystander, but no, we have to try to talk it out. Well, that just doesn’t work with some people – lunatics with dangerous and potentially lethal weapons comes to mind – and Parker, who is incapable of having a slightly civilized conversation with anyone, is one of those people.

“Now that we are finished with that most illuminating trip down memory lane,” he said, swiftly swooping down on me. “Let’s talk about last period.”

“What about it?” I folded my arms together and stared him down, refusing to turn away until he blinked.

“It says on here that you punched Parker in the face in the middle of English class.”

“Allegedly,” I muttered. Carmichael ignored me.

“What do you have to say about it?”

“I’ve been having a rough week and was provoked. End of story.”

“I find it hard to believe that Parker Pennington is anything less than a delight.” He looked down at me again “And don’t you think that just because you brought a criminal to justice that you can expect special treatment. I see you just as I see every other student in this school.”

“Yeah, except Parker Pennington. And just because he went and won you one bloody state championship, you’re giving him the red carpet treatment, and don’t even deny it. He could walk around and give half his first period black eyes and you wouldn’t blink an eye. He can wear as many hats, muscle shirts – hell, he could even go starkers – and you’d turn the other way. If you could find a way to get away with it, you would program straight-A’s into his dismal report card; believe me, I’ve seen it and it’s not pretty. Everyone’s view on athletes, like they’re celebrities or something, it makes me sick. You’d think that in a day when we have all these opportunities to discover so much and geeks can make life better for humanity that people would notice, but no.”

I got out of my seat and started pacing. “And oh, you would be surprised to see exactly how delightful Parker can be. He is a bully, a cowardly simpleton, and by God I hope that you do take offense that how you, this school, and even Bill and Julie worship the very ground he walks on is utterly pathetic. Are we done here?”

I don’t think a student has ever really talked to him like that before. He was stunned and completely forgot what I was in there to begin with, so all I got as punishment was a week’s worth of detention. I should have gotten suspended, but I got lucky, plain and simple. And to my luck, the detentions were with Kook. As it turns out, once you take him out of English with all of the shenanigans, he’s a pretty decent bloke. I was supposed to spend detentions in silence, but we ended up spending a few of those days discussing the various books I brought to pass the time. He felt bad about turning me in, but he didn’t have a choice.

“I’d’ve lost my job once your father complained,” he explained.

“He’ll never know. Bill will blame it on Mark Peterson for jealousy – and even with the overwhelming amount of evidence against me he’ll say it’s all a conspiracy theory (he doesn’t think I am capable of doing that) – and Parker will never admit to it. He’ll most likely claim a freak accident while practicing for the upcoming baseball season.”

My cell phone went off at five o’clock. I cracked my neck and got up from my seat.

“Same time tomorrow, Meredith,” he said, glad to finally go home to his wife and daughter.

“You bet, Leslie.”

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Author’s Note: Well, here is my first true excerpt of NP. According to my size-12 Garamond font with Justified one-inch margins, this here is your (probably first) look at the last two pages of Chapter 25. While searching through the NP archive I wanted to choose an excerpt that did not reveal much but showed a good bit of my current writing. This bit in particular was written during the frantic summer before I left for college when I typed my heart out to deliver four chapters, even if not many people have yet read them from the failed attempt at a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-esque mailing system.

I’d say the only revealing piece is that Meredith is in fact her middle name (with Isla as the first), but this is something I reveal in the novel a chapter prior. The plot bit about Meredith punching Parker, however, was one of the earliest plot points I had come up with and told the few friends I had conversed with about NP, so for the most part I did not see that to be plot-revealing. Come on, how much justice would anyone get if he didn’t receive his upcommence? But, as you see from the excerpt, I do not reveal why she punched him, and that is something you’ll have to get your hands on a copy of NP for.

So, what do you think? As always I willingly welcome all compliments AND criticisms. I hope you enjoyed it. =)