Chapter 4 – Shocks and Surprises
It was during class the next day that they discovered the Letter Writer. It was mental algebra, and Mrs Sullivan was quite irritated by the stupidity of the girls and the hot weather.
Mrs Sullivan asked, “If 4n+4.5=89, then what is n? Lizboa! Answer the question!”
As usual, Lizboa had not been paying attention. “What was your question?”
Mrs Sullivan noticed that even in an orally-conducted class, Lizboa still held pen and paper. “Lizboa! You know very well that the use of pen and paper in mental algebra lesson is prohibited. Bring me your paper at once.”
Reluctantly, Lizboa handed Mrs Sullivan the paper. Mrs Sullivan was staring at the note as if she were shot! The note read:
How was the last note? Did it soak your fingers? Ha! This time, let’s talk about concentration in class, shall we? What does
“Vanity in awful games + no concentration in class=?” Lizboa The “best” at all games!
“Lizboa! Who…who wrote you this note?” stammered Mrs Sullivan, shocked that a girl in her class was writing letters like this.
“I did. I wrote that letter, and was going to put it in my swimming bag, so that when I went swimming, I could see the note, and everybody would think that someone was writing me spiteful anonymous letters. This is the third note I’ve written,” said Lizboa calmly, as if this were just a normal affair.
Bianca went white. She had pitied the awful, cunning Lizboa, and had been fooled by her show. What a mistake for a head girl to make! She felt so guilty.
The others were also astonished. So Lizboa, trying to get pity and sympathy, had used an underhand way of pretending to get spiteful letters that she had written herself! What a disgusting creature. Alexis and Alice felt slightly sick.
“Why would you write horrible letters to your own self?” demanded Mrs Sullivan.
“I wasn’t too popular, and felt miserable. So I wrote these letters just to gain sympathy and pity,” said Lizboa, honestly.
“And I gave you sympathy and pity!” exclaimed Harriet, indignantly. “I can’t believe how easily I was fooled. You are disgusting! I shall never forgive myself for having thought one moment it was somebody else. Never.”
“Well, that’s your problem, not mine,” said Lizboa, shaking her hair back. “Oh, and, Mrs Sullivan, the answer to your math question is 21.125.”
“Well, this is something I haven’t heard of before!” said Mrs Sullivan. “Bianca, you will deal with her. See that she gets her punishment and also uses her brains to get better results in academics than she does now. She must be clever, to have thought of the plan and the letters, so she must have the brains to do well in class.”
Bianca again called Lizboa to her study after class.
“You must notice that you were completely in the wrong to deceive others and make others think badly of someone else,” said Bianca, shortly. “Well, I shan’t preach about your faults, but please understand that your actions in this affair were repugnant, and that they will not be borne again.”
“No, I’m sorry, I don’t see what’s wrong,” said Lizboa in a sickly sweet voice, rolling her eyes.
“Your punishment,” said Bianca, ignoring the comment, “is this list I have made out. Take it and sign your name on it. I have signed mine.”
Lizboa signed it. She knew that the punishments would be hard and plenty, and Bianca had put it down on paper. Bianca wanted her to sign it as proof that she acknowledged her punishments.
Lizboa went out of the room, and sat down on a bench to read the paper. It was a combination of learning things and not being able to do gym or tennis or swimming.
This was a hard punishment for Lizboa, even more so because she would miss two swimming heats and a tennis match!
Though Lizboa learnt all the things that Bianca told her to, and learnt them well, she simply refused to excel at what she could do. She held on to her way of barely passing. If she tried hard it would be just showing that she was humbling herself to the teacher and head girl! No, that wasn’t what a strong girl would do, thought Lizboa.
Lizboa didn’t notice that if she tried hard and did what she could in her studies, the girls would, instead of despising her as they did now, respect her for starting again.
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