Shane handed his paper to Professor Spencer on Monday morning, only to find that her face turned green when she saw the signature and clutched his paper like she’s going to tear it into pieces.‘What’s wrong with Spencer? She looks hell,’ Kian pointed out.‘Dunno,’ Shane shrugged. He didn’t want to talk about Professor Spencer at the moment.October finished in a quite busy manner and November faded away quickly, too. Nothing special happened these days. Mandy and Mark were getting closer, but Shane had got an idea that Mandy didn’t really fancy going out with him.‘Mae, what you doing after school this evening?’ Asked Mark, one day after school.‘Well, what about you? Going out with Ellen?’ Mandy said casually.Shane’s heart skipped. Who’s that Ellen?‘If you’re busy then I’ll go out with her,’ Mark was trying to put his hand on Mandy’s shoulder, but her own hand reached there first and pushed his away.‘I wouldn’t bother,’ Mandy snapped.Mark walked away and Mandy stood up, too. But Shane called her from the back. ‘Mae, who’s that Ellen?’Mandy frowned. ‘A girl from Class One, very charming indeed.’‘And Mark — ’‘Don’t ask me,’ Mandy swept her long hair over her shoulders and ran out of the classroom, catching up with Daisy Moore.Kian filled him with ‘that Ellen’ in the evening when he asked. Ellen’s full name was Ellen Cruise, she had a pair of attractive maroon eyes and long curly fawn hair. She was very active and herself. ‘A lot of boys like her,’ Kian said.‘How do you know so much about her?’ Shane asked curiously.‘Well I… I had liked her when I was in Grade Two,’ Kian said flatly. ‘And I think she had liked me, too. But we were just… erm… two kinds of people, I guess.’‘And now you decided on Daisy?’Kian raised his eyebrows. ‘I wonder why you still can’t take it, Shane mate. Even Mandy admitted that Daisy is kind.’‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know,’ Shane explained. ‘I’m not saying that Daisy’s not good.’Kian let out a light laugh and went on doing his homework. But Shane now had something else to think about. December was flying away and Christmas drew nearer — the school Yule Ball Party was going to begin soon but Shane still hadn’t invited his dance partner. He simply didn’t want to hear Mandy saying ‘Sorry, Shane, I’m going with Mark’ when he asked the girl he really wanted.It seemed that everybody else was all thinking about the same thing as Shane, because the dance-partner suddenly became the hottest topic in the class.— ‘Lance, who’re you going to go with?’— ‘That girl in Class Five, Rose Rochester. And you, Dennis?’The boy named Dennis beamed. ‘Of course Angela, you see. Angela, fancy going to the Yule Ball with me?’Angela was sitting in a group of giggling girls, her face turned red but she seemed rather please with herself. ‘Okay, Denny.’‘Ki, ya goin’ with Daisy?’‘Who else would I take?’ Kian’s smiling face was full of pleasure. Daisy, who sat beside Kian looked so pleased that her usual pale face glittered with light.

‘You, mate?’ Kian asked him.Before Shane could answer, Mark turned his head from the front. ‘Mae, you didn’t agree to go with the others who invited you, did you?’Kian and Shane both stopped to watch.‘No,’ Mandy answered, expressionless.‘Then are you going with me?’Mandy smiled. Shane’s heart beat fast.‘SHANE FILAN!’ At this very moment, Professor Spencer suddenly bellowed towards him. ‘WHAT IS THIS? You call a dream-diary a physics essay and hand it to me?’Shane felt if he had fallen into an ice-hole. He wrote his last physics essay really carefully and he expected to get an ‘E’. Why Professor Spencer still not satisfied? He came to get his essay back and asked Professor Spencer loudly,‘Professor, I think my physics essay is pretty good, why you gave me a ‘D’ while giving Lance an ‘A’ even if his is an inch shorter than mine?’Professor Spencer glowered at him coldly. ‘Mr. Filan, I wonder who’s the physics teacher, you or me? DETENTION.’Shane didn’t reply. He took his essay back and went for his seat without looking back. His classmates stared at him all the way and Shane pretended he didn’t see them. He had used to stares and gapes by now.‘Shaney, you all right? Forget about — ’ Kian began.‘Well, Ki, I don’t really care. It’s just that I’m going to miss this week’s band practice…’ Shane acted like nothing but failed. Drops of tears flowed across his handsome face.‘Oh Shane…’ Kian patted him and sighed.Mandy and Mark stopped talking now so that Shane didn’t know whether Mandy agreed to go with Mark or not. But, judging by the two of them getting closer and politer these days, Mandy obviously did. It looked the world seemed to turn dark for him! Shane thought sadly. Failed in the schoolwork; no dance partner at the Yule Ball (at least he didn’t want to invite anyone else now) and missing his most love, music, for a whole week…Shane scribbled his homework and got it finished hastily in the library, but he didn’t go back to the common room with Kian. He sprinted for Professor Spencer’s office to do the detention. Although he ran as fast as he can, because the homework was too much that held him a lot, he still arrived late for about ten minutes.‘You’re late,’ Professor Spencer threw a sentence coolly at him.‘I’m sorry, but today’s homework — ’‘No arguments,’ Professor Spencer wasn’t listening. ‘Well, what do you think I’ll let you do today, Mr. Filan?’Shane hadn’t got a clue. ‘Er, you mean, lines or cleaning or — ’Professor Spencer gave a high-pitched and cold laugh. Shane began to feel scared.‘You see these brambles out there? More them away with your hands.’‘What?’ Shane couldn’t believe his ears.‘Move the brambles away only with your hands,’Shane gaped. Move the brambles away only with his hands! That’s almost impossible! There were so many thorns on the brambles that he’d never hold them!‘But Professor — ’‘Begin, now, or it’s double punishment.’Shane stepped slowly to the brambles and bent beside them. He wished his Mom or Kian could know, but there’s no way to choose now. He closed his eyes and lay his hands on the brambles. Then, as he expected, he felt a searing pain and blood exuded from the cut on his very skin…

Shane returned to the common room at eleven o’clock. He went and cleaned the blood on his hands first, but blood kept exuding that it was impossible to clean. He bought some bandage from the school hospital. The doctor asked what did he do to his hands, Shane merely shook his head and did not answer.‘Now, now, now, dear, it’s OK…’ The doctor wiped the blood stain away from his hands and put on the bandage. ‘Don’t hold pens or write for three days, you remember?’Kian promised to wait for Shane in the common room but he didn’t return until eleven o’clock, Kian was worried sick. When Shane finally came in Kian jumped.‘Mate, you’re back! Oh I almost go and look for you myself — hey, what’s wrong with your hands?’‘I’m not supposed to write for three days,’ Shane said expressionlessly.Kian’s face twisted with horror. ‘Mate — what did Spencer do to you?’Shane just couldn’t control himself in front of the friendly, careful and loving Kian.When he finished telling Kian what had happened Kian burst into tears. ‘Shane, oh my mate, you’re such a — such a…’ Kian held Shane’s blood-soaked and bandaged hands and his teardrops fell onto them.‘And that’s not all,’ said Shane, gray-faced.‘What — ?’‘I don’t know how, but Spencer reckons she knows all about my family and if I tell my parents, she’d know immediately and she’d got a chance to ruin my whole family…’Shane gave a quiver.Kian frowned. ‘Your whole family? What does that old bat mean?’‘Heaven knows… anyway, I can’t go to the classes tomorrow, would you please past Spencer a message?’‘No problem,’ Kian nodded. ‘But are you going to tell your parents?’‘No idea.’ Shane looked at the floor. *