Peer Pressure Read Online Free Page A

of card from her coat pocket and handed it to Jodie. Laura’s timetable was erratic and confusing; Jodie raised an eyebrow.
    “This doesn’t bode well for me, by the looks of it.”
    “Well, you can dry your eyes on mine,” Jodie replied, handing her own timetable to Laura, who studied her friend’s schedule with a certain degree of envy, before shaking her head and looking at her own one again, saying,
    “It’s pretty shit, isn’t it?”
    Jodie didn’t know what to tell her, but gave it a crack anyway.
    “It’s not shit; it’s just...well yeah, pretty shit.”
    The two friends looked at each other and chuckled.
    “Did you hear,” Laura added, “Mr. Phillips retired?”
    “Is that right?” Jodie replied, genuinely surprised, given that he was supposed to be her English teacher this year, “So that means..?”
    “That means,” Laura continued, “new teacher. Lucky you, I can just see him now: short, blazer wearing, bearded.”
    “And if it’s a woman?”
    “Same.”
    The two friends shared a laugh, safe in the knowledge that if they were to endure another year at Brushwood, at least they were to endure it together.
    Rob arrived at ten to eight, but had had trouble finding a parking space in the staff car park. Eventually, he managed to squeeze his Fiesta between a Mini metro and a motorbike, although he had to climb over to the passenger’s side to get out. He had made his way to the reception desk, passing by students, all of whom studied his every move with glances, not sure what to make of this obvious new arrival.
    “Hi, I’m Robert Peer,” he stated in an oddly high pitched voice, to a receptionist who appeared to be one hundred and twenty years old, “I’m starting today in the English department.”
    The receptionist stared at him for what seemed like an eternity. Rob tried smiling at her, but that just seemed to make her angry. She typed his name into her computer, before sliding him a small card with his schedule on it.
    “Someone will be with you shortly,” she said.
    God, Rob thought, she even sounds one hundred and twenty.
    “Thanks.” Rob took his schedule and sat down in the waiting area beside the reception desk. He tried to stay calm, but nerves were getting the better of him. He found his right leg wouldn’t stay still, only content to bob up and down repeatedly, while his hands were shaking.
    He took a few deep breaths, but that just made him feel sick. He looked up, scanning the walls. A large wooden sign bore the Brushwood Academy logo, with a small quote underneath.
    It read ‘Big trees grow from little sticks’ .
    Or at least that’s what it would have said, had someone not used a marker pen to replace the word ‘sticks’ with ‘pricks’ .
    Rob took a certain comfort in the knowledge that school pranks never really changed, but it was a passing comfort at best. In the end, he decided to focus on his schedule, which might as well have been written in Latin, as no one had explained it to him yet. It looked more like a mathematical equation than a schedule.
    Rob heard the squeak, squeak, squeak of trainers on linoleum and looked up to be faced with a man-mountain, dressed in tracksuit bottoms, t-shirt, carrying a clipboard with a stopwatch draped around his neck. The mountain spoke.
    “You must be Rob.”
    Rob stood up and they shook hands.
    “That’s me,” he replied, his voice thankfully back to its normal tone.
    “John Marker. I’m head of P.E. The rector wanted me to show you around.”
    “Oh, right. He’s not here right now?”
    “No he’s here, it’s just you know, being the first day of school and all, he’s a little busy.
    You’re scheduled to meet him later today for the traditional ‘meet and greet’ in the faculty lounge. Until then, you’ve got me.”
    “That’s fine.” They smiled at each other and John pointed down the hallway saying,
    “Follow me,” quickly turning to the receptionist as they went and giving her a cheeky wink,