School Days

I am 6 or 7 years old. My sister lets me sleep in until 6:30 am. She irons my pinafore for me. It is winter and I am cold. I dress under the bed clothes. Mother has put our black leather lace up shoes in the oven to warm.

Navy blue underwear. Uniform regulations. White socks. White collared shirt. Navy blue pinafore with three pleats front and back. I've cut my fringe again when no one was looking. It is raggered and unkempt. My short hair never sits tidy. All the other girls at school have long hair. They won't talk to me. They say I have germs.

Mother drives us to grandma's house. The bus stop is on the road outside the shed next to her house surrounded by sugar cane fields.

There are five of us. Myself and my little brother travel in the boot of the station wagon. Rust has eaten away at the wheel trims. In wet weather we have to make sure we don't get mud splattered on our clothes.

Grandma takes me with her around her garden. She cuts me flowers to take to my teacher. We wait at the bus stop.
I am scarred of the other kids on the bus. They go to the state school. It is so much bigger than my school. Hundreds of children. They are loud and boistrous and outgoing. I protect the flowers.

The bus seems to travel for ages. So many stops. So many children. There are only about twenty children in my grade/class at school. Crowds scare me.

Once we had to crawl between the legs of the kids standing in the aisle to get out. The bus driver yells for them to be quiet. His face purple.

We get to school and I place my port (the flowers next to it) on the rack. We have been told any child whose port is not on the rack will get the cane.

It is Tuesday. We have assembly on Tuesdays. I wander about until the bell rings.

When the bell rings three times I report to assembly. We line up in our grades. Girls separate from boys. We are supposed to stand one arms length from each other.

It is double arms length around me. They say I have germs.

The flag is raised. Announcements made. We are dismissed.

Girls and boys must form orderly, separate lines outside class.

I have nobody to talk to. No delays. I collect the flowers on the way and am first in line.

There is an arms length gap before the other girls line up behind me. I have germs.

We go into class. I give the flowers to the teacher. She puts them in vase on her desk. I sit at my desk. No one talks to me or looks at me.

At lunch time I buy raisin bread with butter at the tuckshop and wander about the grounds and church until the bell calls us back to class. I am first in line. There is an arms length gap before the other girls line up behind me. Nobody talks to me. Nobody looks at me.

At big lunch I am hungry but only buy an icycup from the tuckshop. The girls who won't talk to me or line up behind me, smile nicely to me and ask to borrow money. I give it. I am polite. In my mind this is my moment of triumph. The moment when I prove how much better I am to them. But I know they don't care. They just want icecream and chips. We go back in to class.

People are called to the principals office. I am one of them. Our ports weren't on the rack. I am given two strokes of the cane on the back of my legs.

School ends and I catch bus with brothers and sisters back to grandmas house where the bottom vegetable crisper of the fridge is filled with chocolate and lollies for us. We are allowed two bottles of lollywater (softdrink) a day between us. Uncle Sidney stocks crates in the garage. Sarsaprilla is our favourite. Uncle Sidney says it is made from beetles blood. Grandma times it so the cake she has baked is taken from the oven as the bus pulls up. She ices it while it is still hot and cuts us slices. Uncle Sidney bought a milkshake maker so he could make us milkshakes when we are there. We watch cartoons and videos (beta) and sometimes duck under the fence and down to the river to leap from rock to rock like goats. There are books piled all over at the house. Uncle Sidney has them stacked in towers on top of the bookcases, cause they are all full. I play cribbage with grandma. I don't know how to play or how to add up the cards. She looks at my hand for me and tells me how many pegs to move. I win a lot.

I never want to wake up in the mornings.
I never want to go to school.
My sister lets me sleep in.