Glancing behind me at Tamsin, I raised my eyebrows to see how I was doing, getting a nod and smile in return.
Focusing back on the students, I added, “Just so you know, the principal spoke to parents about us bringing in an old piece of literature with this title for you, and the emails we received back encouraged it. Words carry weight. You don’t know what someone’s been through or is going through, and you don’t know how your words will impact them, even if you don’t mean for them to.
“Think things through before you say them, weigh your words properly, and consider other people’s feelings. I’m not saying that Pope got everyone to understand how bad rape was and how vapid society was back then, but I’ll bet you he opened a lot of eyes when he published this.”
I held the book up again for them to see.
“Do you think we could read it?” A kid wearing a football shirt asked, nodding at the book. “Like, can we download it?”
“More than likely. I know the paperback is still available to buy at least.”
“Cool.”
After discussing it more with them, hearing examples of things kids were saying, and the other stuff they were dealing with online, we moved on to my least favorite part of any discussion. It didn’t matter whether it was me doing the talking or someone else, the words ‘do you have any questions’ just made me want to shrivel up.
Of course they had questions.
“Are you going to teach us about the book?”
“Can we study the book?”
“What other books have weird names?”
“Was Pope a pope?”
“How much of her hair did he cut off?”
“Couldn’t she, like, just get hair extensions? That’s what my mom does.”
And then came one that re-opened up the thoughts I was trying to ignore.
“I saw you with Logan Richards. Are you dating a deputy?”
Looking at Tamsin for help, I glared when she just smiled at me and asked, “Well, are you?”
“No, I’m not. He’s been my best friend since I was little, so that’s why.”
The girl who’d asked the question raised her hand again. “But he’s hot. Y’all look cute together.”
Before I could even think of anything at all to say to that, another one of the kids yelled, “Why’s he staying at your house? My dad said you’re hot, and he’d totally—” he stopped and cleared his throat.
This time Tamsin did help me out. “Why don’t you tell us about your name? It’s unusual.”
It was obvious that the kids wanted me to answer the previous question, but I held onto hers like I was Tom Hanks with a volleyball.
“Bexley Heath is a place in London where my family was originally from generations ago. When I was born, my parents thought it would be cute to name me after it, so here I am.”
I looked down at my watch at the same time the bell rang, and finally relaxed.
At least, that’s what I thought I could do, but none of the students moved. They just sat there staring at me.
“Uh, don’t y’all want to go? I always ran out the door when the bell rang.”
Then one of the boys in a football jersey with the school team’s logo on it stood up. Holy shit, he was tall.
“We just wanted to say thank you to you and Miss Waite. We get what you’ve been talking about, Miss Waite, and you’re right. You know what happened to those two students who joined that group—”
Two students had recently attempted suicide after joining a fucked up group on the web. Thankfully, they hadn’t succeeded, but schools were being instructed to educate students about the issues with groups like it and what they said to each other because of an increase in the number of cases. “