An Honest Mistake
Nadia, an impressionable teenager (14) explains her recent behaviour to her headteacher.
(2-3 minutes)
What can I say? It was an honest mistake.
I was actually doing my homework when this removal van thing parks outside . . . and obviously I was gonna have a look wasn’t I? Because well, you’d want to know who your new neighbour was, wouldn’t you?
And honestly? I didn’t even take much notice, ‘til one of them removal men blokes gets out the van with this wooden broomstick thing made of twigs – like what witches have. Hashtag just saying.
And then suddenly there was this like, crack of lighting and this massive thunder like what you’ve never heard before, and it starts chucking it down . . . cats and dogs! And that’s when she appears?
The witch. Wearing this long black coat thing with a hood, and she was, like, all hunched over so I couldn’t see her face, but I DID see a black cat, so I called my mum and I said, “Mu-um! There’s a witch moved in next door.”
And she told me to stop letting my imagination run away with me and get on with my homework. I told her she’d regret ignoring me when she turned into a frog, but she didn’t take no notice.
And the rain was just mad, like, end of the world stuff, and she – the witch – didn’t even care! She just carried on unloading stuff from the van. And I couldn’t see everything but one of those things she was unloading was like, a box, with books, and the one on the top said, SPELLING on the front, as in SPELLS, like what witches do.
So what else am I supposed to think?
And obviously I told everyone, because . . . derrr . . . you would, wouldn’t you? And they was all like . . . ‘What?’ and, ‘Wow!’ and, ‘Tell us about it.’
And like, I’m never the centre of attention or nothing, and like, everyone – yeah, EVERYONE – was looking at me, so I told them about her; about the broomstick, the cat, and the freaky weather, and yeah, I might have added a few details . . . like, the thing about her eating spiders, and doin’ spells in the back garden . . . but like, everyone was listening and that doesn’t happen to people like me . . .
Plus, I really did believe she was a witch . . .
I didn’t know everyone else was going to react that way. I never meant for anyone to tell the newspapers, and the graffiti was nothing to do with me, and neither were the toads. I don’t even like toads . . .
So I’m really sorry . . . I didn’t know she was gonna be my English teacher. I didn’t mean to upset her . . . It was an honest mistake.
© Wendy Storer 2021