I'm actually writing this on Saturday but I wanted to keep things in some sort of chronological order ... who knows why?
We're supposed to have 34 for Ancient History but 8 haven't turned up. I suppose it's not everyone's favourite subject and it's certainly not easy. My off-sider is a white-haired, grandmotherly lady called Nancy, surname Dear. It suits her perfectly and it's hard to avoid referring to her by her full name.
"Nancy, Dear, would you check the roll, please?"
While the students were gathering outside the classroom, she caught sight of a girl dressed like someone out of Sound of Music: long-sleeved, orange blouse, black waistcoat, full black patterned skirt. She had her hair in long pigtails. Nancy was enchanted.
"Isn't it nice to see that some girls still dress in the old-fashioned way?" she gushed.
"Can you see the pattern on the skirt?" I asked her as the girl came closer. Nancy realised it was covered with skulls.
"Oh, I thought they were flowers," she said.
There's a boy in front of me who's clearly transitioning to female. What a hard road he faces and I wonder how his classmates are responding to it. I hope that they are supportive.
There's another girl dressed all in black, with a very white face and black lipstick. Do they still call them Goths? Otherwise, it's a pretty standard bunch of very well-behaved, motivated teenagers.
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