An Improper Behaviour - Short Story

‘Mom, please come and pick me up, I can’t stay here’ the boy was sobbing while chatting on the phone to his mom.

‘Ricky, try to calm down and tell me what had happened’ Kate, his mother, said in calming yet firm voice. She just received a call from her 12 years old son who was in a really bad emotional state but she still didn’t know what had happened.

Ricky became very emotional recently, he just entered such an age and Kate couldn’t do much to help it. She suggested meetings with a psychotherapist to Ricky but he didn’t want to listen so she just hoped he will grow out of it quickly enough. So now she was just trying to find out if there was anything serious of if he simply lost it emotionally.

‘Mom, I can’t stay, please pick me up!’ the boy kept begging. ‘Calm down Ricky, where are you now?’ she asked. ‘In the gents’ he whispered. ‘What? Why do you stay in the toilet?’ Kate asked with surprise in her voice.’ Because I have burst into tears and had to hide as I couldn’t stand guys looking at me. I shouldn’t cry I’m a man, what’s wrong with me?’ he asked with anxiety in his voice.

‘You are growing up and your hormones are changing like crazy, you know that’ Kate explained for the nth time.’ But tell me, why did you start crying in the first place?’ she kept trying to get some details. ‘Well, because the head teacher was angry with me and told me my behaviour was unacceptable, but mom I couldn’t just stand and do nothing!’ Ricky has begun his story.

He told his mom how it all started. Boys had a PE lesson and they were playing football when suddenly his mate, Neal, tripped over and fell to the ground. He started to cry and said he is in pain and that he broke his arm. ‘Get up, sit on the bench and stop moaning Neil, you didn’t brake anything’ said their teacher and ordered other boys to continue the lesson.

Neil sat down but he kept sobbing and saying he is in pain. ‘He should be taken to the first aid officer’ Ricky said to his teacher worried about his mate. ‘We have a lesson here now, get back to the game Ricky and stop fussing about!’ the teacher ordered. ‘I won’t, I’ll take Neal to the first aider, he has broken his arm’ Ricky said with determination in his voice. ‘His arm is not broken! Get back to the game now!’ shouted the teacher annoyed by the boy’s behaviour. ‘One doesn’t need to be a genius to see that Neil is not cheating and broke his arm’ Ricky lost his temper and shouted back at the teacher. Then grabbed Neil and headed to the first aid room.

It turned out that the bone in the arm was fractured and Neil was taken to the hospital and his arm was put into a plaster cast. Now was the time for Ricky to be punished for his improper behaviour. PE teacher felt horribly offended by Ricky’s behaviour and demanded apologies. Boy’s head teacher was furious when she found out and told the boy that it was totally unacceptable for a pupil to behave like that. She told him that she will decrease his behaviour mark and that she will call his mom as she need to talk to her about the language he was using.

‘Then I’ve lost it totally and I left before she could finished slamming the door behind’ Ricky said finishing the story to his mom. ‘Please, come and pick me up!’ he said.

Kate was angry, very angry but she was an adult so she knew how to control herself in the opposite to her son. She knew he offended the teacher and that wasn’t right but in these circumstances even the saint would lose his temper. Besides she wouldn’t even dare punishing her son for helping his friend in such a situation, she could only hope that school will not manage to destroy such a kind heart.

She felt pity for the boy, but couldn’t pick him up - he had to face it somehow. If she picked him up right now, he wouldn’t like to go to school the next day and he had to. So she was thinking about some reasonable solution. ‘Is the school psychotherapist today in her office?’ she asked Ricky as he liked that woman.’ Yes, I’ve seen Ms Patrick’ he confirmed. ‘Ok Ricky, I can’t pick you up, but I think you should talk to Ms Patrick and she will help you to sort things out’ she said reassuringly. ‘Well yeah, I guess I can do this, she is ok’ Ricky said. He seemed to feel a bit better now. ‘So go now and you’ll tell me everything in details when you get home, I love you honey’ Kate encouraged him. ’Ok mom, I’m going, I love you too’ Ricky hanged up.

Kate had to breathe deeply few times to calm down enough to start thinking clearly. If she didn’t she might have called the head teacher, shout at her and potentially do even more damage. She wished the life was easier for her son, but on the other hand, the sooner he will learn to control his emotions, the easier it will be for him in the future even if seeing him in pain was hurting mom’s heart so badly now.