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They were outcasts compared to the other girls.  They did not care, they had each other.  They were teased mercilessly – one because she had the need to make up a friend, the other because she was nothing like the made-up friend that had been portrayed.

 

Sophie and Linda laughed it off.

 

Because they shared each other and they shared a joke. 

 

It was a joke between them.

 

The joke was that they did not need anyone else. 

 

Best friends tend to copy one another instinctively.  They do not recognise that they are doing it.  So, Sophie and Linda wore their hair in the same way, their books were covered in similar designs, usually pictures of their favourite bands – bands which, of course, they both liked.

 

As teenagers they both fancied the same boys but, as they were not considered cool, neither of them was successful, so there was never a competition.

 

*

**

 

Because they were the same, Sophie and Linda, they were different  to the other children and other children do not like people who are different.  They certainly do not like people who are successful with boys, they were not cool but they were (Sophie in particular) successful in their studies.

 

That was why Penny pursued them.  She pursued Sophie in particular because Sophie was the brighter one.  Pursued was a strange label to attach to Penny’s attachment to the girls.  Penny was undoubtedly a bully, in all senses of the word, but although Penny was tactically clever in her bullying, never being caught or recognised by teachers in many years, she was recognised of course by her contemporaries, who did not have the bravery to report her.

 

Penny was a bully.

 

And Sophie had something that she desired.

 

Intellect.

 

*

**

 

For four years Sophie did Penny’s homework.  The threats made were never against Sophie.  Maybe she could have coped with that.  The threat made were always against her best friend and Sophie could not cope with that.  So, Sophie complied.  She would never hold back in her defence of Linda.

 

*

**

 

You can’t copy examination answers, even Penny knew this and even Penny knew that preparation was the key to success and nobody was prepared for exams as much as Sophie.

 

So, Sophie was interrogated as to what the questions would be and what the answers should be.  It was all in the detail.

 

They were sixteen and at this point, Penny had bullied Sophie for five years.

 

Now it was time for the ultimate plagiarism.  Penny picked Sophie’s brain and Sophie shared a joke with Linda, her constant friend.

 

*

**

 

There is a moment when an exam begins, when the first pages are turned, that all the students look at one another.  It is either in relief or apprehension.  For these exams the look was in reassurance.  The students had been adequately prepared by their teachers.  There were no shocks or surprise; if they had done their work, they would be OK.

 

If they had paid attention.

 

Of course, Penny had not paid attention.  She didn’t need to.  She had someone else to do that for her.  For the last five years.

 

*

**

 

There is a moment when an exam begins, when the first pages are turned, that all the student look at one another.  It is either in relief or apprehension.  All the students looked reassured, except one – Penny.  She immediately knew that she had been dealt a rough deal.  There were no questions that she had anticipated and the answers she had been given were of no relevance.  They were not the answers to the questions that Sophie had told her would come up.

 

Sophie, of course, knew this and Penny wasn’t stupid, she was just lazy so she knew it too.

 

*

**

 

Penny failed her O’levels and was not accepted into sixth form.  She took an apprenticeship with a local hair dressing salon but was fired after two months for non-attendance.  Penny never could apply herself.  It was not known what she did after that.  She disappeared.

 

*

**

 

Sophie and Linda joined the sixth form, free from persecution and had two happy years successfully studying but, more importantly, many more years of being friends.

 

*

**

 

They had the last laugh.

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