Mrs. Horen didn't look back, but she did at least halt her typing for a moment to address me. "You may not care what I think, Mr. Canon, but for what it's worth, I do think you're an excellent teacher. We're lucky to have you." It was a good thing she wasn't looking, because I completely failed to mask my surprise. "Um, thank you." "But don't take that to mean that I think you're an innocent man." I didn't know how to respond to that. She didn't elaborate, however, so I simply said, "Have a nice summer, Mrs. Horen." "Mm." The remainder of the morning was spent in the usual end-of-year activities. Reporting missing materials, organizing returned ones, tidying up so August would be one iota less of an ordeal. Amy was in and out, flitting between all the members of her department. She leaned around my doorway; finding me in the midst of re-stacking heavy piles of textbooks, she let herself in. "Hey, you're back. While I have you, we had a couple updates to your fall schedule I want
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
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
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?" "
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
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
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
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