The Territory by Sarah Govett Page A

office first thing as he has a real issue about being on time. I knocked and he made me wait ages before saying I could come in. I don’t think he was actually busy – it just made him feel important.
    It’s the first time I’ve been in his office. It was weird. I know from hearing other teachers talk that he’s got a family and stuff but there weren’t any pictures of them on his wall or on his desk. The only photo was of him fawning over the Education Minister. It was embarrassing.
    Anyway, he gave me his most serious ‘I’m disappointed in you’ look and asked if there was anything I wanted to say.
    I know I should just have apologised and grovelled and everything, but looking at him and his tragic hair plugs and his smug, fat face, I just couldn’t do it.
    ‘Hugo Barnes started it,’ I began.
    Mr Daniels didn’t listen of course. He just pompously raised one hand.
    ‘I’m very disappointed in you, Noa Blake,’ he said. ‘Hollets is a rare and special school in that, unlike many of its peers, it opens its doors to the less-evolved members of our society.’ (I nearly choked here – I can’t believe he actually said that to my face. And anyway it’s 85 per cent freakoids so the door’s clearly not open very wide. And he’s a Norm himself although he seems to have conveniently forgotten this fact!) He went on to say that my ‘deplorable antics’ (antics!?! – it was just a robot dance!!) lent weight to the argument that there was no place for Norms at a place like Hollets.
    Now this is the worst bit. He then looked me directly in the eye and I’m sure I saw a glimpse of a smile on his lips. He was actually enjoying this. ‘I have no choice in these circumstances, but to give you a formal caution.’
    My head reeled. New Ministry regs meant that a formal caution now automatically meant the deduction of two points from your final TAA mark.
    ‘But that’s two points,’ I cried out. ‘How can that be fair?!’
    His mouth was a thin grey line.
    ‘I don’t set the penalties, Noa. And if you ever speak to me in that insubordinate manner again you will lose a lot more than two points.’
    It took all my self-control to remain silent.
    But still: two points. Two whole points!! Hugo Barnes gets nothing and I lose two points. Two points can easily be the difference between a pass and a fail. But Mr Daniels just sat there as if he’d just given me a detention or asked me to pick up litter. Does his miniscule brain not register he might have given me a death sentence? Or does he get some sort of perverse kick out of playing God like this?
    ‘You, student of ant-like importance, I sentence you to die a slow and miserable death of starvation and disease, now please turn to page twenty-four of your text book and copy out the section on inert gases.’
    I don’t know what I’m going to tell my mum. She’s going to go mental.
    I told Daisy and she tried to cheer me up, saying I’d be fine and my marks were good enough anyway, but I could tell by the way she started curling her hair with her finger that she was properly worried for me. I avoided Raf. I saw him hanging around by the main entrance where we’d arranged to meet so I slipped out the side door. I think he saw me. I know it’s not his fault but I couldn’t really handle seeing any freakoids now, even him. I mean he was caught openly laughing at Mr Daniel’s hair in Assembly and gets away with an off-the-books bollocking. Jack’s right. It’s all so massively unfair.
    It was Jack’s shoulder I really wanted to cry on, but things are so messed up between us. Why can’t everything just be simple? Like it used to be.

    I take back what I once said. The Territory is a terrible place to live.
    We went to see Aunty Vicki and my cousin Ella today.
    It took ages to get there. There weren’t many other cars as electricity’s so heavily rationed, but Aunty Vicki and Ella live right at the edge of the Territory so it’s never quick. Mum gets extra