The first time she saw the white frog was by the creek that ran through the corner of her back garden.
It was sitting on top of a dead bird, greedily gulping down its steaming entrails .
She didn't think frogs did that.
Over the years she saw it come and go and lay its spawn, all the while bird skeletons began to build up.
She never questioned why they were left there, why her parents never removed them.
They were just another fact about the garden - one her teacher didn't believe and called her a liar for.
Her response was to invite her teacher over to see the bones for himself.
Back then it was fine, her parents thought it a great opportunity to talk about her grades and behaviour.
She just wanted to be proven right, to have her teacher eat his words.
He got so much more than that, right after he'd finished talking to her parents they showed him the creek.
She'd never seen her parents faces look so tense before, so grim and yet so calm.
They didn't try to stop her teacher from leaning right over the bones, leaning until he fell over.
While they may be hollow, a bird's bones are awfully sharp.
They pierced every inch of his face, neck and shoulders - going right through his eyes.
He didn't get up after that and the police tried to charge her parents with involuntary manslaughter.
It didn't work though, they argued that nature leaves things where they should be.
They said the teacher was careless and traumatised their daughter, said he'd bullied her for years.
The jury lapped up their sob story and let them go free.
All the while she wondered why the frog left the bones there and why she'd never seen the eggs hatch.
They gave her a week off school to allow for her to de-stress after the gruesome incident.
She used it as a chance to catch the frog-spawn and raise it herself, to see if they'd ever eat plants.
After a month of trying and failing to raise the tadpoles on varying forms of vegetation she gave up.
They were fed raw bacon until they grew into tiny white frogs and she let them all go.
The next summer they all came back, a small army of white frogs all feasting on meat and leaving the bones.
Sometimes she'd catch one and give them a drop or two of her own blood - they loved it.
They loved her, leaving behind small trinkets mixed in with the bones.
A ring here, ribbons there and even a gold tooth once.
It took her many years to match these items with the local missing persons reports.
Knowing how they died and where their remains were she did what she thought best at the time.
She never questioned why they were left there, why her parents never removed them.
They were just another fact about the garden - one her teacher didn't believe and called her a liar for.
Her response was to invite her teacher over to see the bones for himself.
Back then it was fine, her parents thought it a great opportunity to talk about her grades and behaviour.
She just wanted to be proven right, to have her teacher eat his words.
He got so much more than that, right after he'd finished talking to her parents they showed him the creek.
She'd never seen her parents faces look so tense before, so grim and yet so calm.
They didn't try to stop her teacher from leaning right over the bones, leaning until he fell over.
While they may be hollow, a bird's bones are awfully sharp.
They pierced every inch of his face, neck and shoulders - going right through his eyes.
He didn't get up after that and the police tried to charge her parents with involuntary manslaughter.
It didn't work though, they argued that nature leaves things where they should be.
They said the teacher was careless and traumatised their daughter, said he'd bullied her for years.
The jury lapped up their sob story and let them go free.
All the while she wondered why the frog left the bones there and why she'd never seen the eggs hatch.
They gave her a week off school to allow for her to de-stress after the gruesome incident.
She used it as a chance to catch the frog-spawn and raise it herself, to see if they'd ever eat plants.
After a month of trying and failing to raise the tadpoles on varying forms of vegetation she gave up.
They were fed raw bacon until they grew into tiny white frogs and she let them all go.
The next summer they all came back, a small army of white frogs all feasting on meat and leaving the bones.
Sometimes she'd catch one and give them a drop or two of her own blood - they loved it.
They loved her, leaving behind small trinkets mixed in with the bones.
A ring here, ribbons there and even a gold tooth once.
It took her many years to match these items with the local missing persons reports.
Knowing how they died and where their remains were she did what she thought best at the time.
She brought the frogs into class to teach the children about good and bad.
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