Read the story of Dianne and answer the following questions.
Dianne the Heroine
Donnie and Dianne were twins. Although is the older brother and Dianne was
the younger sister, Dianne was always a head taller and five kilos heavier than
him when they were growing up. The other bad thing to Donnie was that
Dianne was the biggest kid in class, while he was the smallest. Kids in class had
continually made fun of his size and lack of athletic ability. They would say, ‘Hey
Don! Your twin sister still beat you up?’ Or they would chant again and again at
the school canteen, ‘Donnie, Donnie is so small, but his sister is so tall.’
Donnie believed that chant was hurtful to him and Dianne, but he only felt his
own. He took no notice of his sister’s feelings. When the kids made jokes about
her, like calling her ‘little Dianne’ for describing the reality of the bigness of his
twin sister’s body, it was even a relief for him not being the target of the jokes,
and he did nothing to stop the kids. Nothing seemed to bother Dianne,
Donnie thought. He just assumed that her feeling was as tough as her body. That
was until the day she snapped.
There was a new girl, Jenny, who wore a thick glasses, and without them was
nearly blind. The latest chant that the kids had come up with was ‘Jenny’s small
and fat, and blind as a bat’.
One day at a lunch time, Dianne and Jenny were standing together in line.
Suddenly, David, a student from my class, ran up behind Jenny amd snatched her
glassed off her face. Everyone began the chant as they carelessly tossed her
glasses down the line.
Donnie watched Dianne’s face as it was happening. There seemed to be an anger
brewing behind her eyes. David had gotten the glasses back and was waving
them around the air. That’s when it happened. With one hand, Dianne grabbed
the glasses from him and with the other hand, she hit him in the face with such
force that he fell over. Everyone froze in shock for a second until David screamed
‘Get her!’ Some different students rushed toward Dianne. She held the glasses up
as if to protect them and looked panicked until she made eye contact with
Donnie. ‘Dianne! Here!’ Donnie screamed, gesturing that she throw him the
glasses. She tossed the glasses to him, and he caught them. She then faced the
students who were rushing toward her. She skillfully defended herself by
knocking them down one at a time as they approached her. She stopped fighting
only when no one else dared move toward her.
Donnie brought the glasses over and gave them to David. ‘Say sorry and give
Jenny back the glasses’, he told David. The naughty boy said nothing.
Dianne then glared over him and said ‘Say you are sorry and give her back her
glasses’ as she dragged him over to Jenny. ‘S-s-sorry…’ , said David as he handed
her the glasses. Jenny took them and her eyes round with shock.
Someone started clapping at that time. it was quiet at first, then almost everyone
joined in. the day marked a change for them all.
Answer these following questions!
1. Who were the twins?
2. Did both of them have the same built?
3. Why did Donny’s friends make fun of his size? How?
4. Did they do the same to Dianne? How?
5. Who bullied Jenny?
6. What kind of bullies did she get?
7. How did Dianne react with what was happening?
8. What did she do?
9. How did Donny participate in the action?
10. How could Dianne make David to say sorry to Jenny?
