This scene fits between chapters 3 and 4 in the published book. The first draft took much longer to reach the point where Simon finds out that Zac is a magical teddy bear. Since that's one of the most important parts of the story, I cut several scenes that came before it. Most of them weren't particularly interesting, but I was pleased with this one, which establishes that Miss Elliott isn't what she appears to be.
The next lesson was History. They were learning about the Vikings, which Simon found quite interesting. So Simon was startled to see come into the classroom, walking behind Miss Montgomery, the tall lady who'd rescued him and Yasmin from Derek and his friends. She removed her coat and hat and hung them on the coatstand in the corner. Underneath, she wore a blue and red checked shirt, blue jeans, and brown leather boots that came up to her knees. She looked just like a cowgirl - all she was missing were a six-shooter and a lasso. She turned to the children and gazed at them as though deciding which of them she'd have to send to the headmaster's office.
Miss Montgomery clapped her hands, and the children gradually stopped talking and faced the front of the room. Parts of her hair stuck out at odd angles, like when a character in a cartoon gets struck by lightning.
"Now, children," said Miss Montgomery, "I'd like you meet Miss Elliott."
"Good morning, children," said the tall lady - Miss Elliott.
"Good morning, Miss Elliott," the children chorused.
"You're going to have, um, a French lesson now," said Miss Montgomery.
Several of the children gave one another curious looks. They weren't supposed to learn French until they were much older.
"Music," Miss Elliott said from the corner of her mouth.
"Oh. Yes." Miss Montgomery laughed nervously. "Silly me. Music."
Some of the children whispered to whoever was sitting next to them. Music was on Wednesdays and Fridays, wasn't it?
"As the saying goes," Miss Montgomery continued, "I can't carry a tune in a bucket, so Miss Elliott has kindly offered to take my place for this lesson. I'm just going to sit at my desk and mark some of your homework while I listen to your beautiful voices."
Simon smiled at Miss Montgomery's joke, but he knew something was very seriously wrong here. Miss Montgomery normally taught them for Music, and she sang quite well, so why had she suddenly said she couldn't? Why had a new teacher arrived so close to the summer holidays? And what had happened to Miss Montgomery's hair?
Miss Elliott treated them to the smile she'd learned from a book. "Now, children, today we're going to learn a song from the Hit Parade. Won't that be fun?"
None of the children knew what the Hit Parade was.
"Who thinks the Beatles are the best band in the world?" Miss Elliott asked.
Nobody put their hand up.
"Ah, so you're all Rolling Stones fans, then?"
Simon had heard of the Beatles, and thought he might have heard one or two of their songs on the radio, but he thought they'd split up a long time ago. If they were the best band in the world, wouldn't they still be together?
Miss Elliott said, "So we're going to learn a song by the Beatles, called Love Me Do." A couple of the boys made icky noises at the mention of love. Miss Elliott sang the first verse to them. She had a strong, clear voice, and oddly, her accent disappeared when she sang. Simon didn't think she'd win X Factor, but she was pleasant enough to listen to.
She sang the first verse a couple more times, then told the children to sing along with her. When she thought most of them had learned the words, she told the boys to sing one line, the girls to sing the next, and so on back and forth. Yasmin held up her pencil case, pretending it was a microphone, and looked at Simon as she sang. Simon felt his face go red. At the end of the verse, Miss Elliott produced a harmonica from her pocket and played a solo. It sounded sad, as though the person who was singing the song knew that the person they were singing to would never love them, but had to ask anyway.
By the end of the lesson, the children had learned the whole song. Many of them were still humming it after the lunch bell rang.
Simon and Yasmin sat on a low wall to eat their sandwiches. "What do you think of Miss Elliott?" Simon asked her.
Yasmin chewed thoughtfully on a bite before answering. "She's a bit weird, but I like her."
"A bit weird?" said Simon. "That's putting it mildly. How did she make Derek leave us alone?"
Yasmin shrugged. "She must've told him she'd give him a really horrible punishment, like sweeping the staffroom with a toothbrush, or counting the bricks in the gym."
"You didn't see his face," Simon said. "He looked scared at first, but when she finished speaking to him, he looked..." Simon couldn't describe Derek's expression, so he imitated it.
"My brother sometimes looks like that on the morning after a night out," said Yasmin.
"He was looking right at me, but he didn't see me. It was like he didn't even know I existed."
"That's good, though, isn't it?" Yasmin asked. "It means he'll leave us alone."
Simon nodded. "But how did she do it?"
"Maybe she's a spy. Or a shape-shifting alien." She lifted her hands like claws and twisted her face into a hungry scowl.
"What would a spy or an alien be doing in our school?"
Yasmin shrugged. "Spies and aliens always go undercover in schools."
Simon laughed. "You've been watching too much TV."
They spent the rest of lunch playing a game about alien spies who were scouting the school ahead of a planned invasion. It ended when Simon said the humans had an X-ray camera that could see through the aliens' disguises, and Yasmin said that was cheating. Before they could get into a proper argument about it, the bell rang for the end of lunch.
The afternoon's lessons passed uneventfully. Miss Montgomery was back to her usual self. When the bell rang for hometime, Simon and Yasmin waited at the school gate for Simon's Daddy to meet them. He arrived ten minutes after most of the other children had gone, yawning widely enough to swallow a Christmas pudding.
"Sorry I'm a bit late," Daddy said. "How was your day?"
"Interesting," Simon replied.
"It was good, thank you, Mr Thwaite," Yasmin said.
"Who's the new teacher?" Daddy asked.
Simon turned to face the direction Daddy was looking in and saw Miss Elliott standing in the doorway of the main entrance to the school.
"She's the main reason the day was interesting," Simon said.
"I'd say she's broken a few hearts in her time," Daddy said with a sly grin. Simon didn't understand what he meant by that.
Last update: 25/7/2020 17:09