Nothing But The Truth (P.O.V. of Alison Doresett)

The two days of Philip's suspension was up. Today Philip Malloy would come back to school. He deserved the suspension. He should not receive such support from the public. He lied that he was singing the national anthem, but in fact he was just humming the song and was indeed causing a disturbance in the class. I bet he did not even know the words to the national anthem. Philip Malloy had claimed that he was just singing the national anthem out of patriotism. The newspaper had written about this. The public reacted very greatly. The fact that he would be back at school today led my mind to the day all the trouble of this started......

Today I had to attend Miss Narwin's homeroom class. Without any anticipation of what would happen next, I sauntered into the room. Many students, including Philip, had already come into the classroom. Even Miss Narwin had already entered the classroom.

"...For the moment just take any seat you wish. We'll work out particulars problems a bit later on. Yes?" Miss Narwin was saying.

"Am I supposed to be in this room?" asked a student.

Many students were asking whether they should be in this homeroom. Even I myself asked once just to make sure that I was in the correct room. It seems to me that the changing of homeroom assignments was a bit of a mess. Many students were not sure which homeroom they were assigned to. Just then, in the middle of the confusion, the sound of the intercom voice of Dr. Doane, our school principal, was heard. We were asked to stand up and listen to the national anthem.

The song of the national anthem was being played. Everybody was standing silently...for now. But then, a loud humming could be heard. It was truly disturbing.

"Is that someone humming?" Miss Narwin enquired.

Nobody answered.

"I don't know who that is, but you heard Dr. Doane request silence." Miss Narwin said. Apparently, Miss Narwin looked irritated. When the national anthem was played, we were requested to stand respectfully and silently. It looks like someone had broken a rule.

Miss Narwin had found out the person. "Is that you, Philip?" Miss Narwin asked through the voice of the national anthem.

"Just humming." Philip looked indifferent. He has just broken the rule!

Naturally, Miss Narwin stopped him from humming. Philip stopped humming, but he was reluctant in his actions.

The next day, we were in Miss Narwin's homeroom class again. Again, the national anthem was played. The loud and disturbing humming was heard. It was Philip again. This time, he was persistent in his humming of the national anthem. With an irritated and angry voice, Miss Narwin sent Philip to the vice principal's, Dr. Palleni, office. It looked reasonable to me. Philip was indeed making a nuisense of himself.

The next day, Philip was again causing a disturbance by humming in the classroom. This time, not only was he persistent in his humming, he even retorted Miss Narwin. He was sent to Dr. Palleni's office again. Why must he get himself into trouble for such a minor matter?

After that, I heard from my friends that Philip was suspended. He deserved it. It's not that Miss Narwin did not give him a chance to correct his mistakes. He chose the option of suspension himself.

What make this incident so special is that the newspapers actually wrote about it. It was very one-sided and it was in favour of Philip. It was very unfair to Miss Narwin as nobody ever listened to the story in Miss Narwin's point of view. Nobody had ever spread this incident to the reporters. It must be Philip who had spreaded this incident to the public. The news spread very quickly and soon the whole nation knew about it. People were angry with Miss Narwin. In the end, Miss Narwin had to resign her job as a teacher.

The sight of Philip Malloy interrupted my train of thought. I was irritated with him. How could he be so unfair to Miss Narwin?

"Philip!"I almost shrieked at him.

"Oh, hi,"He did not seem to notice my fury at him.

"I just want you to know that I think what you did was really mean."

"What?"He actually did not seem to know what I was talking about.

"Narwin is one of the best teachers. All the kids say so. It's really embarrassing."

"What are you talking about?"

"You were just doing that to annoy her" I was not willing to tell him exactly what I was talking about. He should know.

"Who?"

"Miss Narwin. Everybody knows it. She's so fair."And with that sentence, I turned and walked away without a glance back to Philip Malloy.

"That's not true! Well, if you're not even going to listen...!"His voice turned softer and softer as the distance between us lengthened, until I heard no more.