Megan Faces Derision – Volume Eight

Megan Faces Derision

Background: Megan Faces Derision (volume 8): In Megan Faces Derision, Megan receives mild, but irritating bullying at school because of the mistakes she makes at reading. Her parents are not sure of the cause of the problem, but it could be dyslexia. She finds the whole affair rather embarrassing, but she eventually discusses the matter with her parents.
Megan tackles the bullying in her own unique way with a little amusing help from her father.

1 PROBLEMS AT SCHOOL

Megan had always liked school in the way that people do who are good at it, but she had also found it preferable to being at home alone with her mother in the early days. Her mother’s attitude towards her had improved immensely over the previous twelve months, but she still enjoyed going to school, just not quite as much as before.

Feyton, the town in which she lived, was of medium size, about fifty thousand inhabitants, and had five junior schools scattered around it, so when she was in junior school until the age of eleven, she had known everyone in her class for five years. They were the closest people she had to brothers and sisters.

However, at the age of eleven, all the pupils from the five junior schools sent all their eleven-year-olds to the one huge secondary school. There they were streamed, so Megan ended up in a class with children that she had never met before. She had been put into class 1:3, which meant that she was in the third brightest class in the first year. Only one other of her former classmates had gone in there with her, but the other twenty-eight were total strangers, although she could still meet her old friends at break and lunch times.

The placing into classes had been based on the simple tests that each pupil had sat in junior school, but the re-streaming at the end of each year in secondary school was more scientific and Megan had been moved to form 2:2. Again, there was only one of her old friends there, and now, at age thirteen, she was in 3:1 and there was no-one there from her old junior school.

She liked being in the top class, but she found it a little lonely, since most of her new classmates seemed to have come from two of the junior schools, so they could be a bit cliquey.

This had the effect of isolating Megan and her response was to focus on her schoolwork. It didn’t bother her too much because she had always been ‘a bit different’, and, although she had never felt shunned, she and everyone else knew that she was not quite like everyone else.

Megan’s explanations for events that happened in everyday life were derived from her Spirit Guide, Wacinhinsha, who had been a member of the Sioux Nation the last time he had been on Earth, whereas other peoples’ rationalisations came mostly from their parents or the television.

Most people’s grandfather took them to the seaside by car, whereas hers had taught her to fly there while her body was resting. Most people would have kept quite about these things, if they were happening to them, but Megan did not.

Her friends from her old junior school had grown up with Megan and so knew what she was like, but her new classmates did not, and even at thirteen, were already a little too steeped in society’s traditional way of explaining things.

Some openly laughed at her, but most just thought she was odd. Still, having had her own mother criticise her for her beliefs all her life, she could put up with that, because she could tell that they were reacting from positions of ignorance or fear.

She could understand that fear was her mother’s problem too, but most of the children she knew just did not know, they were ignorant of psychic matters, because churches did not teach them or even believe in them, and the kids believed what they were told She felt sorry for them because they had a steeper uphill battle to come than she was facing at that time.

Megan had the benefit of knowing that she was right, whereas the others only thought they were.

However, it did mean that some kids in her class would jump on any mistake that she made, seize every opportunity to laugh at her or call her stupid. There were only two or three ringleaders really, but once they started, their friends usually joined in. It was a form of bullying, but it was nothing that she couldn’t handle, she had witnessed other children being bullied far worse, because they were weaker-willed than she and scared to go to an authority figure.

Megan had never felt the need to do that either, in fact, she had never even told her parents, although she was considering doing so, if things didn’t sort themselves out soon. In her last two classes, the situation had improved as the school year drew on, as they all got to know each other better and as the bullies tired of picking on someone who seemed impervious to their mockery.

Megan did not bear a grudge, so if anyone wanted to befriend her, she welcomed them, whether they had been one of the antagonists or not. They were to be pitied, she reminded herself, because they didn’t have a Sioux friend, a Siberian tiger or a flying grandfather.

She didn’t mind what others believed and never criticised others’ religions or argued with them about them, because she didn’t know anyone who had the same experiences as she had, although that never made her doubt her own sanity either.

She felt very fortunate to be able to do what she did, although Wacinhinsha had told her that it was not luck, because she must have been working at it for many lifetimes to become so proficient. However, even compliments like these did not have the effect of making her big-headed. She knew that her Spirit friends were always right, but she chose not to see it like that, because it meant that there was less chance of her becoming egoistic.

However, it was not only Megan’s religious beliefs that caused some kids to make fun of her, there was also the fact that she was good in school – she was in the top class – so she was called ‘ swot’ and ‘teacher’s pet’ by some of the children in lower grades, but she was not alone in this, kids in the top three classes faced the same taunting really, although most of the others had friends to bear it out with, whereas Megan did not.

Then there was Megan’s friendship with Mrs. Williams, the mayoress of the town and Megan’s Saturday morning job with the SOS Green Party in Mrs. William’s office. This set her apart as much as her Spiritualist beliefs and psychic powers, because there were many other Spiritualists in Feyton, but there were no other thirteen-year-olds with special dispensation from the council to work for a political party, which was also in office. Furthermore, the mayor also often sent her chauffeur-driven, stretch Mercedes to pick her up from school and take her home.

She had considered asking Mrs. Williams not to do it any more, but then she had thought, why should she pander to people’s jealousy. It was better to show people that their base emotions would not win them any prizes than to give into them and let them think that a scowl and a taunt would get them what they wanted.

If there were times when things like this mild form of bullying and jealousy did get on top of her, she never found herself alone, no matter where she was. Grrr was often with her at school and when she went walking, she also spent a lot of time ‘asleep’ on her bed when Megan was doing her homework or researching her next article for the SOS Green Party.

Wacinhinsha usually appeared to her when she was in her bed or just in her bedroom, but before she went to sleep and her beloved grandfather came to her when she was asleep, although he was no dream.

She loved all three of them, but she had no favourite. Grrr and Gramps were such a comfort, although she could speak to her grandfather and Wacinhinsha, who, while a friendly person, was more like a teacher, albeit a very caring one, rather like Mrs. Henshaw, her form teacher at school, who also cared about the children and doing her job well.

Megan had experienced some rude comments on the Internet about her articles, especially where they concerned the Party, but she forgave the senders because they probably didn’t realise that they were insulting a thirteen-year-old girl, since she only signed them with her name, not her age.

She had also been called a witch and a liar because of her article about finding the mayoress’ cat, although that hadn’t bothered her either really.

However, there was one thing that did really upset her and that was her ability to read aloud. Despite being in the top class of the school, she did have some problems with reading. Not reading in general, but reading aloud in specific.

When she read in her head, she sometimes made a mistake and sometimes those mistakes were quite funny, making her laugh, but when she was reading aloud before the class, she made other people laugh and sometimes that was embarrassing, especially when they carried on taking the Mickey long after they should have stopped.

She had been making these mistakes in reading all her life, but her old friends never took the rise and she had laughed with them, but these new schoolmates were not laughing with her but at her and it did hurt a little. In fact, it was just about the only thing that did get to her and she had been putting up with it for almost three years.

She was starting to get tired of it, but she still had no intention of talking to an adult about it.

If she were closer to her mother, she might have talked to her, but their relationship was so fragile, from Suzanne’s side, not Megan’s, that she was a mother, but not a friend and she did not think that the bullying was serious enough to bother her father or a teacher with it, although she was hoping that a teacher would notice it and take some independent action.

However, that had not happened yet and Megan’s only solution was to practice reading aloud to herself in her room, in the vain hope that it would correct itself.

It hadn’t yet though, after four or five years of trying, but she stuck with it, hoping for the best. Wacinhinsha had never mentioned it either, so she just assumed that it was ‘just one of those things’ – a cross that had to be borne.

However, Megan was still not perfect and sometimes she contemplated revenge on the worst and most persistent of her tormentors. She thought she might ask Grrr to scare the living daylights out of them, but she did not really think it right to use her friend for her own purposes, as Wacinhinsha had warned her about politicians.

She was not even sure that Grrr would allow herself to be used like that either, so she had never yet tried and hoped that she never would.

For her part, Grrr was aware of the situation and was prepared to jump in on behalf of her friend, if she ever needed help, but to Grrr, Megan was doing fine on her own, so she let her get on with it, but stayed close by, ready to growl, if it was ever needed. Megan suspected this, but didn’t know it for sure, because she still did not have any way of communicating with Grrr that she knew of.

The fact was though, that Grrr knew more than Megan gave her credit for, but then that was true of humans and the rest of the animal world in general.

Wacinhinsha too was aware of the turmoil that the bullying was causing Megan and he was expecting her to ask him about it at any moment, but the plea for help or an explanation on the subject had not yet come, so he too had considered it best not to interfere, lest it stunt Megan’s independence.

Gramps was the only one of her friends who seemed unaware of her plight, but, in his defence, he did have his wife to look after, because she had been an ultra-staunch Catholic and was still recovering from it.

by +Owen Jones

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