We entered the main hall again where the delinquents and guardians loitered I found all the delinquents wore similar but not identical white dresses with either white tights, knee or ankle socks and carried a small white handbag, slung over their shoulder. Mum began to faff with the bow on my back. “You actually look quite nice considering,” she said. “Hopefully this experience will do you good.”
“How can this do me any good?” I asked.
“Well… if you’d known that vandalizing Cooper’s Quarry would put you in a dress every Sunday, would you have done it?” Mum asked. I shook my head and hung it. “There you go.” she said.
“Do I have to wear a… er… every Sunday too?” I glumly asked.
Mum nodded.
“All day?!”
She nodded again.
“But… what if I need the toilet?”
“You do know what a nappy is for, don’t you?” she said. I gulped and hung my head.
A loud clap grabbed my attention and that of everyone else in the hall. “Is everybody present?” A lady said, before asking the boys and girls to assemble. Mum shoved me forward and I did what the others did; stood in one of several rows facing forward. The lady welcomed us to Sunday school and told us that we’ve got lots of fun activities to look forward to, and for the benefit of those of us who are here for the first time, she listed some of the activities. The book group didn’t sound so bad, and ‘games’ was too ambiguous to draw a conclusion. The group discussion on morality and misbehavior sounded both serious and complicated, but when she said “…and before we break for lunch we’ll do some dancing.” a shiver went down my spine. She told us to assemble ourselves into three groups of seven and one group of six. I glanced around nervously, as did all the others before hesitantly gravitating towards each other. I joined the group that had assembled closest to me. “Hi.” I timidly said. The others muttered similar, unenthusiastic greetings.