Try To Prevent (another injury)

Now I have that little set of whinges out of the way, I will continue with the relevance of Stephen's comment and the special football he had wanted to present, following my 'performance of the poem in Mr Walsh's class (see blog Saturday 5th of January 2013) The poem had gone over well with the class and importantly, Mr Walsh. Not just the fact that I had learnt it by heart in a single day, but that it appeared I had created a 'performance' of the poem as well. I will just say that I had truthfully made up the actions on the spot, but had learnt the entire poem In the day as mentioned, all 60 plus lines. I had won over several members of the class. I had my first rave reviews, and just as suddenly my first critic, Stephen (and obviously for personal reasons, just like many of those in the real working world of drama critiques).  

Stephens comment had come after his show and tell had been postponed due to the length of my piece and the added 'performance' time required, rather than just the narrating of the words (it was very important to drive around as a car, when describing Ethelred's reversing technique). I was a little in fear of Stephen, due to his size, rather than any other reason. Alright everyone was a lot in fear of Stephen, because of his size! And, having suddenly come up on the wrong side, I had a new reason to suddenly be watching my back ( and my front, my side, and especially my head) in the very near future. The look Stephen gave me spoke volumes. Volumes, referring not to the decibels of 'ringing bells' I  would likely be hearing later in the day, due to several whacks I would be receiving. I was referring to volumes as, volumes of books ( if Stephen's intentions and ideas for assaulting me were ever written down, they would fill several large bound issues) volumes of  ways I was going to be assaulted due to his 'rugby ball' ( with all the black scribbles on it) not being shown in class. 

I felt it was important that Mr Walsh be made aware that Stephen had something very important to share with the class. I considered his presentation was crucial. Vital in fact, that everyone got to pay attention to Stephen, rather than have Stephen pay attention, only to me. I knew what that would mean. It would not be the first time I had received the attentions of a stronger, more dangerous student. I had unfortunately been knocked to the ground by another student in the previous year. I had taken the fall, and faked unconsciousness rather than get up and be hit again. Unfortunately, that had led to a fair amount of school exclusion, and compounded my disrespect for several other students, whom had persisted with name calling and other methods of bullying, throughout the year. Another unpleasant school year had passed in disappointment.
(Continued tomorrow)