I Wish I Could Tie You Up In My Paws
Matty kicked her locker. “I hate my locker!” Matty screamed at it. Or anyone who was listening. She turned the combination in again. It wouldn’t open. “I hate this thing!” The bell rang. The late bell. She was late. And she couldn’t go to Math until she got her homework from her locker. Travie peaked out from the Spanish Room at her. She came outside.
“What are you doin’?” she asked in unbeleif, obviously assuming Matty was skipping class.
“Trying to get this damn locker open!” she snapped. But not at Travie. At the locker.
“You better hurry! Ms. Abbi is probably looking for you. I’d help, but I told Mrs. Biff I was going to the bathroom. See ya!” Travie ran to the bathroom. Matty tried and tried again. But she couldn’t get her locker open. She was sure it was the right locker. But she couldn’t get it open. The bell rang for the end of class.
“DAMN IT!” She ran to the math room. She attempted to explain.
“I’m sorry! I was trying to get my da—I mean darn locker open. I’m not kidding! Ask Travie!”
“I’m sorry Matty. But you skipped,” Mrs. Abbi shook her head sadly. “I believe you, but those are the rules. Go to the office.”
“But Mrs. Abbi! This time I didn’t do anything!”
“Go.” Matty dropped her head and walked towards the office.
“YOU SKIPPED?” Principal Watts bellowed. “I can’t believe you.”
“But sir, I told you that I didn’t, that I was trying to open my locker,” Matty tried to be calm.
“Tough. 4:20 detention. Go.” Matty staggered to the cafeteria and sat next to her friends and told tehm about the detention.
“Teachers,” was all Travie could mumble.
************************************************
“You’re all here for skipping class, even if you really didn’t and it’s just policy!” Watts yelled at the detention class. Matty drew squiggles on a sheet of paper. “No drawing, no nothing. Just sit.” He grabbed the paper.
“I wish I could tie you up in my paws,” Matty muttered under her breath.
“Excuse me?”
“I WISH I COULD TIE YOU UP IN MY PAWS,” Matty said loudly, but not yelling.
“Oh really? Why’s that?”
“Because! I always get in trouble for stuff I didn’t do. Like last week. I didn’t take Ruby’s lunch money! I picked a quarter up from the floor! Or yesterday. I didn’t twist Pearl’s wrist. She stumbled and fell and twisted it herself. I didn’t do none of that stuff. The only stuff I ever do is be sarcastic. And I get in trouble for that. I wish you could know what it felt like to get in trouble for stuff you never did! I wish you knew how it is to be punished for something that never happened, to waste your time for being normal. I wish I could tie you up in my paws, just for a day.”
“You think I’m unfair?” Watts questioned. Matty nodded silently. “Then tomorrow I’ll be a student and we’ll see. I’ll use one of the spare lockers and things. And you be the principal. Okay?”
“Okay.” Matty and Watts shook on it. Matty couldn’t wait for the next day.
Matty reported to the principal’s office first thing the next morning. She sat in the big swivel chair and put her feet up on the desk. She of course elected Travie to be a teacher, and Pouncival, Mungojerrie and Sillabub.
“Alright class,” Travie began. She waas being the Social Studies Teacher. “Where’s your homework?” Everyone passed their paper up. Mrs. Abbi raised her hand.
“I didn’t get any homework.”
“Everyone got homework.”
“But I wasn’t here.”
“Are you saying you didn’t do it?”
“Yes, but—“
“Go in the hall.”
“But Travie!” Mrs. Abbi said strictly.
“That’s MS. Travie to you. To the principal’s!”
“But I—“
“GO.” Mrs. Abbi sulked away. When she left all the cats cheered.
“I suppose you know this is a seious offense?” Pouncival, who was teaching Science scolded Mr. Wokker. Tumble was trying not to snicker. He knew—the whole class knew that thie was Pouncival’s big payback.
“No! All I’m doing is wear my collar because I couldn’t get it off!” Mr. Wokker pleaded.
“There are no excuses. A 5 o’clock detention. And for snapping at me one tomorrow too. And heck, the next day just because I feel like it.”
“But that’s not fair!” Wokker whined.
“UNDERSTAND?” Wokker nodded. Pouncival smiled, then leaned over to his friends. “That felt good.” They snickered.
Meanwhile, Mungojerrie was very ‘disappointed’ in Munkustrap. He was teaching English, only cos Munkustrap was in it. He decided it was time to get back at the Munkustrap guy.
“So you BROKE Rumpelteazer’s ankle?” Mungo asked. He pointed to Rumpelteazer on the other side of the room holdong her front left ankle, screaming bloody murder.
“How could I? I was over here!” Munkustrap questioned logically. But Mungo’s logic was much easier to follow.
“So? If no one else did it was you.”
“But you can not prove—“
“I’d say I’ll see you after school, but I don’t wanna, so you have a five o’clock detention. You can go home, Teaze.” She winked and ran off.
And Sillabub was teaching Math. “Mrs. Kitch. You did steal Tugger’s lunch money?”
“No! Of course not!”
“Well, you sit next to him, and his money is gone!” Mrs. Kitch didn’t answer. “Since you refuse to tell the truth, you’ll be meeting with Principal Matty very soon.”
“But I—“
“As I was saying, what movie should we watch first—Scream or H20?”
As all this happened, Matty was happily listening to people’s stories and letting them go, because their story made more sense then their teacher’s. Not the kitten teachers, the real teachers. Except, of course, the teachers that were being sent down. After school she had the most fun sending them in detention hall. But the teachers couldn’t take it.
“STOP!” Principal Watts burst in. “Game Over. You kittens win.”
“We haven’t won until you know how it feels,” Jemima said.
“We know how it feels, and this is all lies. Your teachers never do this to you. You’re just getting back for all the homework. And frankly, It’s all lying. SO you all have 5:00 detentions. Every kitten in this school. And Mungojerrie.”
During detention, they didn’t know what to say.
“They’re just wimps. They can’t handle our life,” Pouncival whispered.
“Wimps? More like Friggen Jerk-offs!”
“MATROPOLIS!”
