The School for Scruff: 10.

I stood for a few seconds by the door of the metalwork room, a room that was like an oven. My last experience of metalwork had been kind of interesting. I'd been meant to heat a steel rod until it would be hot enough to manipulate, and I'd been kind of nervous, so I left the rod in until it melted. That broke the furnace and got me banned from the class and told that knitting might be more in my line. It wasn't, I got tangled up in a ball of wool and banned from that too. I'm just not a very practical girl. Only Haupt thought I might be.
"This is... metalwork?" I said.
Haupt laughed sadistically.
"Now, Scruff, you have work to do!" he handed me a leather apron to protect my school uniform.
"My hair..." I began to object. Waist-length hair can sort of get in the way when you're working over a hot furnace.
"Use your tie!"
I thought of telling him I respected the school tie too much to do that, then I thought better of it and used my tie to tie my hair back. I shed my shoes and blouse too, for comfort.

Haupt showed me to my place - I was to throw pieces of scrap metal into the crucibles on one of the furnaces. It was hot and nasty work, my face got hot and painful, and I was glad of the extra insulation supplied by the bandage on my right arm. I was worked the hardest I've been for years, and by the time the bell rang I was dripping wet. I was overjoyed to have a little rest during break time, to be able to take off my shoes and lie down on the grass.
"You're the new girl."
I looked up and saw a frightened-looking girl about my age. She was red-faced and dripping with perspiration too, so I guessed she'd been in the metalwork room with me.
"One of them," I gasped. "The one who's only fit for group 'D'."
"That was just metalwork."
"And what comes next? I don't have a timetable."
"You'll find out," the girl said ominously. "I'm Karen."
"I'm Scruff. It's Lilian really, but everyone calls me Scruff. It just seems to fit."
"It does,"| Karen agreed.
"History!" Haupt boomed. We jumped to it.
History was better for me. I could sit at the back while Haupt (who seemed to have personal charge of group 'D') started the lesson.
"Our subject this term is the history of fraud and confidence tricks," he started. I brightened as much as I could after metalwork and tried to pay attention. Well, you never know. It might pay off some day. Sis says I need to learn more skills to help her fight crime.