Page 11 of Kiwi Sin
The answer was (A), obviously. Everybody knew that.
After that, the questions got worse, because you actually had to write your answers, and the words were swimming in front of my eyes now. My breath started coming too fast, and the sweat was popping out on my brow.
Focus. Try.
I did. I tried. I read the questions, read them again, and tried to think. I was only able to answer a few with confidence: the ones about the first humans and how the creatures had developed. On some of the others, I guessed what the answer might be, and on five or six of them, when I didn’t even understand the question, I wrote,I don’t know.I considered adding,I’m sorry,but teachers didn’t want to hear you were sorry, not if you were meant to have done something and you hadn’t.
It was finding out where we were, Mr. Smith had said. Well, where I was, was … not very far along the path, apparently.
The rest of the day was more of the same. There were only two good parts: eating lunch with Frankie, during which time she had her head in a Chemistry book full of symbols—oh, no. That was worse than Biology! That was at leastwords—and P.E. I didn’t know anything about sport, either, but I’d discovered during my first disastrous bout of schooling that I was stronger than most girls. They rode around in cars, and probably hadn’t grown up cleaning for hours or carrying toddlers or working in the laundry. Besides, P.E. was swimming at the moment, and I knew how to swim. At least I didn’t need to know the rules of some game I’d never heard of.
Maths was bad, because Ihadbeen babysitting and weeding the garden instead of catching up like Frankie had, which had clearly been a mistake. I’d have to ask Frankie to help me tonight, or maybe Gray would do it, if I made him a sweet for after dinner. Gray liked sweets. A thin pear tart, maybe. That was easy, because it took puff pastry, which you could buy in a shop, but it looked and tasted like it had taken effort. I could …
For the rest of class, I thought about different fruits you could use in a tart. I made it with pears after all in the end, because the pears were perfect right now. I mixed vanilla ice cream with cinnamon and made a caramel sauce to drizzle over the top, because caramel sauce made everything better. Graydidhelp me with my maths afterward, and Gray was more patient than Frankie. I understood a bit better after we’d finished, so maybe tomorrow would be easier.
When tomorrow came, I was in the same spot in the corner of the Biology classroom, trying to stay optimistic for Day 2 and pretending I didn’t notice when somebody in a group of girls said, “Hi, Obedience,” and they all laughed, and there was the teacher at the front of the room again with a stack of those stapled papers beside him.
He said it was just to find out what we know,I told myself.It’s all right that I don’t know. I learnt the maths last night, after all. I’m not actually thick, I’m just not as clever as Frankie, but almost nobody’s as clever as Frankie. I can learn.
The teacher stood up there, silent, after the bell, and I could tell he was cross. He picked up a single set of papers from the top of the stack and said, “I must admit, I’m impressed. I don’t think I’ve ever had a pupil go to the effort to get all but two questions absolutely wrong, out of forty. Impressive. Much as I appreciate a good joke, though, when I tell you that an exam is for practice, or for me to assess your knowledge, that doesn’t mean it’s your chance to have it on. I’m the only comedian in this classroom, is that clear?”
Some muttered “Yes, Sir’s,”and I thought,At least I’m not the one in trouble.Which was when he started reading off questions and answers, his tone getting more and more sarcastic, and I realized that the paper he was mocking was mine.
Everybody laughed. I stared down at my desk in shame and fear, extended my hands on the cold surface, and waited, trembling, for the flexible metal ruler to crack down hard on my palms.
It wasn’t the pain I feared. It was the humiliation. I’d never been punished in school, and I’d hardly ever even been punished at home, because I knew how to behave, and I took care I did. Now, I didn’t even know that. I’d got it all so wrong. How?
The blow didn’t come, but when the teacher said, “Suppose you take over and explain to us, Oriana, how the dinosaurs became extinct, since you enjoy your joke,” that was even worse.
I said, still looking down, hearing the tremble in my voice, “They drowned in the flood, sir,” and everybody laughed. That wasright,though.I knew it was right. I’d learnt it in Year One!
He said, “We can’t hear you. Please project. And look at me when I’m speaking to you.”
I was so frightened, my legs literally shook. I tried to look at him, but I couldn’t. How could this be the rule, that youhadto look at a man, to gaze into his face as if you were defying him? Yourteacher?
I repeated, “They drowned in the flood, sir,” and went on in desperation, “because they couldn’t fit in the Ark.” I hadn’t saidwhichflood. Maybe that was it.
More laughter, and my face was burning.
“Huh,” he said. “I’ve always imagined the Ark had magical expanding properties in order to fit every species. Dinosaurs too big for God after all?”
I looked down again, felt my chin wobble, and didn’t say anything, because I had no idea how I was meant to answer.
I wanted to ask Daisy, that night—or maybe Gray, who was kinder than any man I’d ever known—what I’d done wrong, but I didn’t want to admit I’d got in trouble in school. In the life I knew, if somebody—always a boy, because girls knew better—got a hiding at school, they got another hiding at home. I knew Daisy wouldn’t give hidings, and Gray would be horrified at the very idea, but surelysomethingwould happen to me when they found out.
Nobody said anything, though, so the teacher must not have told.
Write everything down,I told myself that night, sitting at the table in the yurt across from Frankie, staring at the Biology textbook as my eyes blurred from the hot tears I was trying to hold back.Read the textbooks twice over. Do the problems again at home instead of making special things for dinner.And, most of all,Figure out what the teacher wants you to say, and say that.In that, it was no different from Mount Zion.
I could do this. Ihadto do this. Why else had Daisy got us out?
6
CHARCOAL EGGS
Gabriel
Things were going along better by the Monday that marked the start of my twelfth week working for Gray. When I climbed out of Drew’s car at the jobsite, because he’d given me a lift this morning, I thought back to my first morning waking up Outside and realized that while I wasn’t exactly a suave urbanite yet, I wasn’t quite such a babe in the woods as I had been.
