Arthur Penny and Iris 

​Arthur Penny stood and stared at the two long words on the shiny green door, as he raised an angry fist to knock on it. He knew they were expecting him so needn’t have knocked but liked the way it felt as his knuckles crashed into the cold hard wood, like all the anger was flowing out of him and even though his hand hurt, Arthur’s insides began to settle. The washing machine, tummy churning feeling, slowing down at last.

“Hello Arthur, sit down a minute,” said Miss Trott, her head poking around the door. “We won’t be too long. Maybe have a think about what happened while you are waiting,” she said, with a reassuring smile. Arthur plonked himself down on the big, brown, grown up sized chair to wait, and glancing up at the door as it began to close stared at the words again:

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HEADTEACHER’S OFFICE

​Now he had ‘torn it’, as his Nan used to say. He had found lots of her sayings confusing, even once she’d explained them. ‘Torn it’, for instance, meant messing things up! And he knew he had definitely messed things up now, Miss Trott had been really kind, even when he hadn’t been kind to her. As a matter of fact, Arthur had been anything but kind lately, answering back, throwing things, shouting and this was the worst thing of all. Today, he had kicked Miss Trott! Arthur knew
he shouldn’t have ‘lost his rag’, as his Nan would have put it, but he had and now he was in big, big trouble! He felt like crying but knew he wouldn’t, not now his eyes were broken. They couldn’t make tears anymore and Arthur didn’t know why.

​He held his tummy tight. The funny feeling was starting up again, only more gently than before, more of a flutter.  As Arthur looked down at his feet he noticed a brightly coloured butterfly perched on his left shoe. Looking closely he could see that the butterfly was all seven colours ​of the rainbow. She was so beautiful!

The butterfly fluttered her delicate wings and flew gracefully up, then around Arthur’s head before landing in his lap, “Hello Arthur, I’m Iris. Looks like you are in a spot of bother, lad!” 
“Wha... what did you? Why can you talk?”
“Well it’s easier to help people if you can talk to them, isn’t it? You know Arthur, just because you’ve torn it, doesn’t mean you can’t mend it.”
“My Nan used to say that,” said Arthur quietly.
“I know,” replied Iris gently. “I also know that you miss her very much and that all those feelings that you’re having are perfectly normal but it’s much better to let people help you than push them away. When you are ready.”
“But how will I know when I’m ready, Iris? ‘Cos right now I just feel angry all the time!” 
Iris fluttered up to place a small kiss on Arthur’s cheek and whispered softly in his ear. “You’ll just know.”

The big green door swung open and Miss Trott beckoned him inside the office. He had expected cross faces and angry words but he had been wrong, so wrong. Everyone looked worried about him but ready to listen. Arthur didn’t think he was quite ready to talk just yet but knew, that when he was ready, there were people ready to listen.

Oh and his eyes had mended because he had started to cry. 

Written by Mrs Burrows