I wasn't far behind her. Spending an hour a day with Taylor in my sixth period had been exhausting me all year; an extra hour all alone with her was going to be the death knell of my joie de vivre. Briefcase in hand, I made my way into the hall. Grant High was silent this time of day, a welcome respite. At the far end of the English hallway, I could see our custodian Randi pushing her vacuum back and forth, doggedly undoing the damage these kids did to the poor building day in and day out. She looked up and I gave her the customary nod of gratitude; it was unreturned as usual. I couldn't even blame the woman. After all, my being here doing my job only made hers harder, while the reverse was true for her. My classroom, H121, was right near the junction with the school's main hallway. Then it was that long stroll down the wide, empty corridor to the parking lot before I could finally drive home, unbutton my shirt, and relax for a few minutes before I had to start prepping for tomorrow.
I knew my fantasies were getting out of hand, but I tried to convince myself they weren't unethical because no one was getting hurt. Taylor Stern was undeniably attractive, and I found myself drawn to her. I experienced a similar attraction to Candace Salata when she started last year. We had the same prep period, and waiting in line for the photocopier had given us a chance to connect over our shared professional interests and sense of humor. That was a real attraction. But with Taylor, it was more physical. She had an undeniable body, and she liked to show it off. While I wasn't exactly her target audience, I still found myself watching her. It felt like I was owed at least a little something for all that she put me through. Despite her physical appeal, I disliked almost everything else about her. She was lazy, conniving, deceitful, entitled, and could be a real bully to anyone who crossed her. But for some reason, all of that was part of the attraction. The combination of her body
Taylor. And those unrestrained boobs of hers. Oh shit."Guess that's what they call irony, right?" she said as she crossed the room. Sure enough, there on her desk was the little pink chapstick egg that had started this whole thing off. The Serenex was sitting out on my desk. Oh fuck. Don't notice it! "What's that?" Taylor immediately opened the cap and began applying more lip balm. Watching a round pink bulb smear across her lips had been a prominent feature in many of those fantasies I had been culling."What's... what?" I asked stupidly.She pointed directly at the Serenex as she made her way back toward the door. But still putting the cap back on the chapstick, she was moving far too slowly for my comfort. "That. Is that pepper spray or something?""Uh... yes...?" I cleared my throat. "Yep. Pepper spray. You can never be too careful, right?”But Taylor was cocking her head to the side, studying it as she drew closer. "Are you even allowed to have that? That's like a weapon, right?
Not knowing what else to do, I set the spray down on my desk and took a step away. That was it. I was done. All that was left was to see if they'd blackmail me, or simply go for the throat and end my life as I knew it right here, right now. Abbie approached her sister, though it was clear she was apprehensive about Taylor's uncharacteristic nonchalance about all of this. Still, she was curious, pulling her sister's arm up where she could see it. It was still wet, almost dripping with how much I'd overdone it. Abbie sniffed, and when she didn't experience any pain or discomfort, sniffed closer. "What even is this shi--" With reflexes I didn't know I had, I pounced. One hand clamped on the back of Abbie's head and the other under Taylor's arm. The two were pressed together until there was contact, then held there. Abbie squealed and then flailed in shocked alarm. Worried she'd start screaming, I let go a few moments later. Abbie immediately spat and sputtered, wiping her mouth on her s
"What's her problem?" asked Taylor. "Hush." But what was Abbie's problem? Was it that she had ingested the Serenex? How much had she taken? Abbie had consumed enough of it to comment on the taste. Hmm. I retrieved the Serenex and, sure enough, the lengthy warning label had a bolded prohibition against ingesting the substance. However, it was also accompanied by warnings not to get it in the eyes, not to use more than the prescribed dose, to only use it in accordance with state and federal law, and a hundred other cover-your-ass statements. There was nothing about the reason for any of these warnings. Although it seemed pretty obvious that a chemical that affected the brain when it made contact with the skin would only have a stronger effect if it was ingested. Well, bookmark that for now. I had a bigger problem at the moment. Simply put, I had just openly dosed two students with a chemical weapon. The girls even knew the name of it, and eventually, they would snap out of the effects
The younger Stern wasn't lacking in confidence, that was for sure. Even aside from having the guts to pose half-naked in the first place, she'd festooned them with quotes - lyrics, I was guessing - boasting of her hotness, sex appeal, and unattainability. Her expressions dripped condescension, arrogance, or both. Pretty nauseating stuff, really. But once I got past that, my eyes almost popped out of my head. There were dozens of lewd photos in here. None of them were fully nude, and she never did a bottomless pic, quite. But I'd gotten a lot of good peeks at her nipples, often merely partially concealed behind hands or hair or a translucent bra. Wide and pink-red and almost angry-looking. Her tan covered the whole thing - no bikini top in the tanning bed for her. Her ass did have tan lines, right along her panty line. But it looked like she'd come across a thong bikini earlier this spring that she really couldn't get enough shots off. She was at a pool somewhere, and it looked indoors
Whatever I had done was working a lot better on Abbie than it was on Taylor. I didn't know what to do. Taylor was suspicious, accusatory, but by the same token, she was still sitting there calmly, her most boisterous resistance a slight elevation in volume. But would her passivity last? Maybe I was safe, maybe, but that was an awfully big risk to take. "Your sister is fine. And so are you. Understand? Nothing bad happened in here today. Say it, Taylor." After a moment, she shrugged. Fucking hell, that jiggle. "Nothing bad happened in here today. Apparently." Did that statement mean anything? Her present apathy made it so difficult to predict long-term animosity. There was no telling whether getting away with Monday had been a fluke or a part of Serenex's intended effect. Their product advertised its ability to suppress an unruly mob, but not to make them permanently well-behaved citizens. Would Taylor keep playing mum? There was no certainty, and standing around wondering wasn't g
Taylor Stern might be the queen bitch of the senior class, young and desirable and cocky well past the point of fault. But as long as my Serenex was in her system, I could knock her over with a feather. I may or may not be able to control what she did tomorrow, but right here, right now, for once in her miserable life, the little bitch was going to do as I said. "Do you need me to help?" I pressed as she kept hesitating. "No," she said quickly. "No, I got it." Last semester, I'd realized she was copying vocab quiz answers off of the boy next to her. She'd denied it, of course. While most students would acquiesce to a deserved rebuke at having been caught cheating red-handed, this was Taylor Stern. She'd never admitted guilt, even after being assigned two nights' detention for her persistence in lying about it. Even tried to suggest the honor roll student might have been copying off of her. So I'd whipped up a second version of the quiz, one just for her, visually similar enough to
"What party? You mean Cassie Brown?" She shook her head. "Nah. That party sucked anyway. I got pretty drunk, though. Anyway, no, it was... Thursday? Or Wednesday. What day did you come back last week?" "Friday." "OK, so Thursday, then. I remember because I was really stoked we had a sub for most of the week until I showed up Thursday and suddenly I was like, what was I even thinking, Mr. Canon is an excellent teacher, and then you were back the next day and I was really glad." Then she frowned, which since it was Katie Medina meant the lower lip automatically thrust out in an adorable pout. "Where were you all week anyway, Mr. C? You never said. Three days is a long time to be out. Did one of your grandparents die or something?" Even the casual mention of dead grandparents wasn't enough to dull the heat throbbing out of me into Tabitha's mouth. How could she breathe like this? Abbie was kneading Tabitha's ass, and as I watched, she took a page out of Katie's ex-boyfriend's playbook
She remained bent over. "Ugh. Yeah. Man, that was nasty. Thanks, Mr. C." She kept at it with the water bottle, swishing the water around to get the dregs and spitting into the trash. I pivoted to the others. "Both of you. Talk. Now." Tabitha defended herself first. "I didn't know anything about whatever that was," she insisted. Abbie shot her a swift glare. "Don't hate on me. I told Taylor this was a horrible idea from the beginning, C-dawg." "Well you obviously know something! If you don't know the why, you can at least start with the goddamn how! I just watched her graduate! Did you chloroform her in the bathroom or something?" "This school, man, people getting drugged all over the place. Somebody needs to crack down," quipped Abbie. I didn't laugh. Screw it. I turned back to Katie, who seemed to have more or less recovered. "Katie, what did they do to you? Are you OK?" She nodded. "Yeah, I think so, Mr. C. Those paper towels were frickin' gross. You know what it... Did you e
Fourth? She'd made Abbie take a dump on my desk. I opened the door. "All right Taylor, let's--" Taylor was not in my room. Two other people were. One was straight from my short list of suspects. Abbie sat on the corner of my desk in a loose-fitting t-shirt and denim shorts that went down nearly to her knees. That she wasn't dressed to titillate was actually much more surprising than her being here. As I walked in, she looked up from her phone with a sly grin. "Sup, C-dawg. Long time no see." The other occupant, however, was not on the short list. Nor the long list, nor any list at all aside from my second period class roster. "Katie...?" Katie Medina's reply was muffled by her gag, what turned out to be a wadded up ball of paper towels from the dispenser I kept in my desk. Which, it turned out, was now sitting beside Abbie, who turned out to be offering to me the key to a pair of handcuffs which, it turned out, were the reason Katie wasn't moving from her desk at the front of t
I didn't bother to hide that I was reading over her shoulder. He says he'll take it. The recipient, according to the contact name at the top of the page, was Bitch, Stupid. "Taylor, huh. Does she know you have her saved like that?" She shook her head and pulled up another contact. "No, that's not Taylor, and no, she doesn't know. This is Taylor." Bitch, Boss. "If I enter them like that with the commas, they stay side by side. Convenient." "Dare I ask what you have me saved as?" She smiled, scrolling down through her contacts and finally tapping on one and holding it up to me. Free Tutoring Service. "In case anyone snoops, I didn't want them to find an entry for 'Guy Who Spanks Me Until I Come.'" Thank goodness everyone else was wrapped up in the moment and not paying attention to us. "I approve." The phone buzzed with the reply from Stupid Bitch. (Inwardly, I felt a bit guilty that I didn't know whether that referred to Abbie or Cassie. Tabitha was not someone whose estimations
Taylor and I walked inside together. If anyone thought it strange, a young, single teacher walking side by side with a dropout in a sopping wet bikini top, I didn't care. Hell, thanks to her, my colleagues would think nothing of it, and all of her classmates were about to leave for good, and had bigger things on their minds, besides. Inside, there was a buzz of excitement, jubilant noise streaming from the fieldhouse doors ahead. As we reached them, however, Taylor stopped me with a hand on my wrist. I paused."You know, it's a damn shame we hated each other before we liked each other. We might've done good, ya know.""Maybe so.""Guess you can't reboot shit in the middle of it, though.""No, you sure can't."Her head tilted to the side. "You sure you don't want your present?""You mean the present isn't a work place where none of my coworkers or superiors can find any fault with anything I do?" Not exactly what I'd had on my wish list. Honestly, I'd thought it would be that, or else
The young woman merely glared sullenly. It was as much confirmation as I'd gotten when I pressed Isa on it, but that too had been sufficient. "Makes sense. With a trained chemist on your side -- one who works in a drug analysis lab, with access to all the contaminants she'd need to replicate my mutated Serenex, one whom you thought I'd never encounter or question, so you could keep marching to your twisted Emersonian drummer. Even if the woman found a way around your control -- which I doubt you'd give her -- she'd think to go after Isa, and no way that submissive little bitch was going to rat you out. Hell, you probably even had Abbie handle that, scapegoat for life." "Almost out of the good stuff, so you move heaven and earth to get your hands on more. You make all these big plans for a grandiose gesture to impress your new boyfriend, mind-fucking the entire faculty and staff just so you and I can hook up in the classroom without anyone getting nosy." I shook my head. "Or something
Her hands balled into fists, and a primal growl issued from deep in her throat. A few hundred feet away at the other end of the parking lot, the procession of graduates began exiting the field wearing their caps and gowns, empty diploma cases in hand. "I swear to god, you are the most selfish asshole I've ever met!" Taylor roared. "If you even knew half the shit I did for your ungrateful fuckin' ass, you'd--" "You mean like drugging Randi?" I interjected calmly. Taylor froze, head snapping back warily. "Um, what do you... I mean, I never..." "You did. And if you're going to lie to me, then we have nothing to talk about. I know all of it now, so don't embarrass yourself by being coy." She planted her hands on her hips. "OK, fine! So what? So I dosed a janitor. Big fucking deal. Not like anybody got hurt by it." "That depends on one's perspective on the merits of free will." "Overrated. You of all people should know that." She shook her head irritably. "So how'd you find out?" "
I enjoyed a few more seconds of fondling, then released her. With my back to the auditoriums' occupants, it was naught but a hug as far as they were concerned. Her face was suddenly flushed, and I knew well that the intense look on her face was not the righteous indignation that once would have been there at being publicly felt up by a teacher. It was arousal. Savage, urgent arousal. "Congratulations, Ms. Hutchings. See you on stage." I walked by, and left her in my wake. A few rendezvous with fond students later, I finally bumped into the fondest of them all. She disentangled herself from a cluster of friends to dash over to me and unabashedly wrap her arms around me in a truly fierce embrace, practically a tackle. "Mr. Canon. Hi." "Hiya, Cassie." I hugged back, skipping the grope this time. She'd already arranged a sleepover tonight; I'd have plenty of opportunity to enjoy her ass then. "Can you believe we're here? I mean, gosh, this is probably the last time we'll ever be toget
She somehow followed my incoherent stutters. "You asking about that stuff? Oh, that was so long ago, I can't..." She took a drink, mulling it over. "No, you know what? I think it was that same day, with that whole essay kerfuffle. Funny, right? Yeah, the little fox waited until I was doing one of the bathrooms, snuck up behind me and..." She mimed spraying her face. "Don't you worry, though. Nothing's more important to me than making sure you and your girls can have your fun." My god, when I was poised to listen for it, hearing the way Serenex twisted speech with its rote repetition was just detectable enough to be utterly chilling. "So you knew, this whole time, that we...?" "Sure, sure. You aren't nearly as subtle as you think you are. Classroom doors feature that big gap at the bottom, ya know, and there's a little sliver between those papers you placed over your windows that you can see right in. Don't you lose any sleep over it though. If I saw you were up to anything, I kept o