“Did you have something to say, Miss French?”
“Hello, ladies,” grinned Aladdin, sitting at the front mesa, tabela with his feet up.
“Shift!” grinned Jasmine. “You know we always sit here!”
“Aw! Do I have to? I’m comfy here!”
Meg rolled her eyes. “Well, if you don’t move, one of us is going to have to sit somewhere else.”
Belle looked around. Aladdin’s friends were sitting at the back table. There was a spare assento beside Adam. Before her friends could object, she made her way up to him. “May I assento here, please?” she asked.
Adam, who still had his head in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, looked up. He smiled when he saw who it was. “By all means, Belle.”
“Thank you.”
She slid into her assento just as Mr Frollo came into the room. Meg, jasmim and Snow White exchanged knowing looks. aladdin grinned broadly.
“Settle down, class!” snapped Mr Frollo and the room fell silent at once. Belle looked up and saw that he had a white strip of tape across his nose. Clearly she had done some damage when she had butted him in self-defence. A chill ran through her when she saw what he was holding in one hand.
Hercules raised his arm in the air. “Um, Mr Frollo, what happened to your nose, sir?”
A few people tittered, as though the pergunta was ridiculous. Mr Frollo scowled. “I had an argument with a door and lost, if you must know, Mr Bolt.”
“Must have been a pretty heavy door to break something that solid,” Flynn muttered to Hercules.
Whip! The long metre stick came down on the escrivaninha, mesa with a crack and they all jumped and ceased talking at once. Belle hoped that they weren’t about to be whipped with it. Was that allowed at this school?
“Silence!” snarled Mr Frollo. “Today we will be focusing on the sin of Lust. Tell me,” he pointed the ruler at Aladdin, who had ceased smiling and was looking both serious and panicked. “Mr Street, would you think anything wrong with allowing a pretty young girl to flirt with you on the street?”
“Well, no, sir,” stammered Aladdin.
Whip! The ruler came down on the table. “Wrong!” snapped Mr Frollo. “Mr Castle?”
Adam sat up straighter. “Sir?”
“If a man is tempted to make amor to a woman, is it his own fault?”
“Well,” Adam said, carefully, “if it was both something they wanted, then they could be equally to blame, but if only the man initiates anything, forcing the woman against her will, then, yes, it is his own fault.”
Whip! “Wrong!” snarled Mr Frollo.
“How?” asked Adam.
“Because the man has been tempted por the woman!” Mr Frollo’s eyes fell on Belle. She looked at her feet. “The temptress!”
Beneath the table, Adam’s hand found Belle’s and gave it a comforting squeeze. She looked up at him, gratefully.
Meg got to her feet. “Mr Frollo, how can you say such a thing? If a man can’t keep his trousers on-!”
“Sit down, Miss Waters, or you’ll be in detention for the rest of the week!”
Meg sat down, her cheeks burning hot. “I’m sure you all remember doing the Stuart period in History class,” Mr Frollo continued, walking away Belle’s mesa, tabela and back to the front of the class.
“Yes, Mr Frollo,” the class chorused.
“You remember the witchcraft trials?”
“Yes, Mr Frollo.”
“But,” said Belle, softly, “what’s that got to do with-?”
Whip! The class jumped. “Did you have something to say, Miss French?” asked Mr Frollo, smoothly. “Would you care to share it with the rest of the class?”
“N-not really, Mr Frollo,” she stammered.
A few of her classmates tittered again. The crack of the ruler silenced them. “Oh?” Mr Frollo said, silkily. “Perhaps you’d care to tell me in detention, then?”
Detention with that man? Belle sprang to her feet. “I was just asking what our lessons about the witchcraft trials have to do with Lust, Mr Frollo.”
“Oh, were you, now?”
“Yes.” She felt compelled to go on. “I don’t understand how the two are connected.”
“Sit down, Miss French,” Mr Frollo commanded, “and I will tell you.”
Belle sank back into her seat. “Don’t worry,” Adam murmured.
“Those women who were burnt for witchcraft tempted the men who accused them. They seduced them with their magical ways. They deserved to be burned for witchcraft.”
Now jasmim was on her feet. “Mr Frollo, I find that comment sexist!”
“Oh, do you, now?”
“Yes! Meg’s right! Why should it be the women who get blamed for tempting the men? If the men are lecherous enough to make unwanted sexual advances on them; how is that the woman’s fault? They don’t ask for it! You can’t justify a man’s actions simply por saying that the Devil uses women as his puppets to make them fall!”
“She’s right!” Meg cried.
Whip! Everyone jumped. Mr Frollo pointed the ruler at jasmim with a snarl. “You just bought yourself a week’s detention, Miss Dove.”
jasmim groaned and sank back into her seat. aladdin put his hand up. “But, Mr Frollo, if, and I’m saying “if” here,” he added as jasmim shot him a look, “women really do tempt men, how can they then be blamed for all the other bad things men do? In my village, I never came across a woman who committed a crime but the men were usually drunks or thieves or camel-jackers.”
jasmim shot Mr Frollo a triumphant look. Belle remembered something and put her hand up. “Mr Frollo?”
“What now, Miss French?”
“You told us that Eve was evil because she tempted Adam.”
“Yes, she was.”
“But she herself was tempted; por the Snake, whom, if memory serves correct, was male.”
“Eve was weak,” snarled Mr Frollo. “She wasn’t strong enough to resist the temptation.
“Perhaps but then doesn’t that then mean that men are just as much to blame for sin as women are?”
Mr Frollo seemed struck dumb for a second. Then, he pulled himself together. “But all the most holy figures of the Bible are male, Miss French. Thus men are holier and less likely to corrupt. Case closed.”
Belle wanted to argue but she felt it was useless, so she said nothing. Satisfied, Frollo straightened up. “That will be all, class. seguinte week, we will be looking at Pride.”
Belle felt her legs trembling as she got to her feet and picked up her bag. “Come on,” Adam murmured, catching her elbow gently and steering her to the door. As they passed Mr Frollo’s desk, she closed her eyes in anticipation, but he said nothing. She couldn’t believe it. She felt relieved.
“I told you,” Adam smiled.
“I’m glad that’s over,” she sighed, leaning against him for a second.
“I’m guessing that it was you that broke his nose, not a door,” Adam whispered.
She nodded. “Yes, I’m afraid it was.”
“Oh, what is his problem?” exclaimed Meg, linking arms with Belle. “Fancy giving Jas a detention just because she stood up to him!”
“He’s riled about something,” commented Aladdin. “Sorry, Jas.”
jasmim sighed. “Well, it could be worse!”
The seguinte day, her words rang true. It was after school hours and Belle was just coming out of the biblioteca when she saw jasmim standing por the school toilets, crying. Meg and Snow White had their arms around her, comforting her.
“Jasmine, what’s wrong?” asked Belle, going up to hug her. To her surprise, however, jasmim shook her off.
“Get away from me!” she cried, hysterically.
Belle stared at her. Meg was glaring at her too. “Jasmine, what have I done?”
“You didn’t warn me!”
“Warn you about what?”
“About Mr Frollo!” Meg snapped.
A chill ran through Belle’s blood. “Oh, Jasmine! He didn’t-!”
“He did!” Snow White didn’t look angry, just sympathetic as she patted Jasmine.
“Well, did you fight him off?” Belle asked.
“What do you care?” shouted Jasmine, suddenly stepping forwards. Belle took a step backwards, ready to run if necessary. “He said that Miss French had put up a struggle too! Why didn’t you tell me the kind of thing he’d do? Why didn’t you warn me?”
“I-I didn’t know he’d do it again to anyone else,” Belle stammered. “I thought-!”
“You should have told us,” Meg said, sternly. “Don’t you trust us? Is that it?”
“Meg, she was probably too traumatised,” began Snow White.
“He said it was something a lot of girls did willingly; I didn’t know-!”
“And you believed him?” Meg laughed, incredulously. “Jeez, Belle; I thought you were smarter than this!”
“I’m sorry,” Belle said to Jasmine. “I didn’t think he’d do it again.”
jasmim looked at her, betrayed. “It’s too late for sorry, Belle.”
She turned and ran out of the room, sobbing.
“Jasmine.” Snow White ran after her.
“Jasmine!” called Belle, desperately. “Wait! Please!”
“I hope you’re happy,” Meg snapped, brushing past her.
Belle stared after them all, unsure of what to do or how to feel, or even what to say. “I didn’t know...” she whispered.
The damage was done. They blamed her. She blamed herself. Belle turned and hurried away; tears pricking at the corners of her eyes...
"Why didn’t you tell me the kind of thing he’d do? Why didn’t you warn me?”
