The Year My Life Broke Read Free Page B

didn’t work out. I missed Muzza, who could play every sport like a star and loved it as much as I did. Between us we’d taken Abernathy to the top, for both cricket and footy, which may sound like bragging but it’s true.
    Tarrawagga was so scummy and boring. The most exciting lesson of the week was doing a worksheet on commas and full stops. Maths was like, page 37, questions 1, 2 and 3. Homework: questions 4 and 5. Next day, page 38, questions 1, 2, 3 and 4. Homework: questions 5 and 6. Next day . . .
    We had assembly once a week, in a big hall, and it was usually just teachers making announcements about lost property and behaviour at the bus stops and how there was too much rubbish around the school. But then one day this kid called Red O’Hearn got up and went out the front. People paid more attention straight away, because it wasn’t often that kids spoke at assembly, but also because he was a good guy and everyone liked him. I actually didn’t get why he wasn’t school captain, but apparently he got in too much trouble with teachers.
    Red was another of the kids who played sport regularly and I wouldn’t say he was a natural but he gave everything about 146 per cent. Didn’t matter what the sport was, he went for it. Mr Surrey loved him. Anyway, he made a pretty radical speech. It went something like this: ‘Listen, I know this school doesn’t exactly have the greatest rep around the district . . .’
    Right away Ms Krishnananthan, the principal, looked like she was going to jump up and cut him off, but she couldn’t really do that, so she made a face like someone who’s swallowed a cockroach. A live one. But Red was facing us, with his back to her, so he couldn’t see that. He just kept on going.
    â€˜Not many of us have been here all the way through, for seven years, but I have, and so has Nirvana, and so have Amanda and Shelley and Rolf. And you know what? Every year we’ve been beaten by every other school at everything. And I’m sick of it. So we want to change that. We’ve got these big cricket and netball games coming up soon, and we want to piss on the . . . sorry, sorry, I mean . . .’
    Too late. Ms Krishnananthan was on her feet and most of the teachers looked like they’d all suddenly swallowed cockroaches. On the other hand the kids were pissing themselves . . . sorry, I mean, laughing a lot, especially some of the little ones, who were probably having real bladder control problems they were so hysterical. It took at least a full minute to calm everyone down and the whole of that time Red was talking to Ms Krishnananthan, except she was doing the talking. He just stood there, and his face matched his name. Now I knew why he hadn’t been chosen for school captain.
    At last Ms Krishnananthan came to the microphone. ‘That was a most unfortunate moment,’ she said. ‘I don’t find it at all amusing that one of our students would use such language, especially in front of the younger children. And I’m sorry that some of you apparently thought it was funny. However, Redmond has apologised profusely and I am going to allow him to finish his remarks, on the condition that he chooses his words with much more discretion.’
    She gave Red the microphone. It took him a while to find his rhythm again but he eventually got back on track. ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry about that, I’m really sorry, Ms Krishnananthan, and teachers, I’m just not used to this talking in front of everyone and I’m not too good at it. Anyway, the thing is, what I wanted to say, I’m proud of this school, I reckon it’s all right, we’ve built it up from just a couple of demountables and look at it now, we’ve got the new oval opening in a few weeks and it’s a beauty, and we’re gunna play the kids from Maxwell on it, in front of pretty much everyone from the district, the mayor and the members of