Hello again Dear Reader.
My apologies. I told you this piece of the story would be available months ago. Unfortunately real life intervened. Fantasy is a much more pleasant way to spend our time, don't you think?
For those of you who would like to fill in the rest of the story, please read "A Bad Girl" Chapters 1 & 2. Briefly, Miss Althea Flock, schoolteacher, has already experienced her female dominant side. Upon leaving college she swore off such things. Lately, though, she has found herself dreaming more and more of one particular student. Overstepping her bounds only slightly, she has paid a visit to the girl's home, and now Susan Castle sits in the passenger seat of Miss Flock's car.
"Susan," I said "we're going to go have a cup of coffee."
She grunted. I looked over at her: Stirrup pants, bare feet, a sweater, and hair like a wet mop. That's my girl, I thought to myself. Did she know how pretty she was, I wondered?
"Don't grunt." I said, "It just makes you sound like a pig."
Now she consciously snorted like a pig. I was partly angry, but found myself hiding a loud laugh with a smile.
"Enough!" I said, after I regained my composure—but I couldn't quite keep the amusement out of my voice "And do up your seat belt."
"Okay," she replied, suddenly quiet and pensive. She stayed that way until we reached Barilko's, a doughnut-and-coffee place by the highway. As she hopped out of the car, I noticed that her toes, usually hidden by heavy Doc Martens, were bare, and that the nails were painted pink. This display of gaudy plumage on a bird that was deliberately hidden and drab struck me as a positive sign.
Inside I bought two cups of coffee. Sue couldn't decide whether to have a cruller or a cherry stick.
"Can I get both?" She asked with a slight plead in her voice.
"No," I said "you have to choose."
"Please" she appealed, now in full pout mode.
"No. Don't ask me again." I said firmly. I had to be firm; she was annoyingly cute when she was sucking up. I was sure scores of boys would have melted on the spot, and that most people would have given her what she wanted. But I'm a teacher first.
She stopped her whining almost immediately, and I saw a strange combination of wariness and fascination came into her eyes.
"So what are we doing here?" She asked as we made our way to a table.
"Should I talk to your parents instead?"
"Do what you want." She shrugged, but there was a tone there that I didn't recognize, edgy and cautious.
"I want to straighten things out with you—not your mother, and not your father."
"Wouldn't work anyway. She's got her own shit goin' on, and he doesn't care."
Sue had wedged herself into a corner, facing at ninety degrees from me. I stared at her across the table, and when I thought I had almost made eye contact, as much as she'd allow anyway, I spoke:
"First, let's get something straight. I'm Miss Flock, or Miss F. since we're being informal. Because I know you, I'm prepared to call you Sue, or do you prefer Susan?"
Shrug.
"Very well then Sue . . ."
"I'd prefer Susan," She wasn't looking at me, not directly. But her eyes kept cutting back to me "I like the way you say 'Susan'".
I think that was when I first felt it. A funny feeling tingled in my belly, and when I caught her eye I spotted something like a ghost of a smile gracing the corners of her typically sullen young mouth. Somewhere beyond my conscious mind part of me knew what she was, and what she wanted. We were here because of choices, choices that she had to make and that I couldn't--would not--allow myself to make for her.
I squashed the feeling out of my mind. But it caught me by the throat, and when I spoke again, my voice was husky and quivering.
"Susan,"—a little frisson, an unbidden thrill—"The first thing we need to establish is that this is an official meeting. Don't swear at me again," her face fell and her lower lip pooched out "I wanted to talk to you about your performance at school."
"What about it?" The sullen little girl was back "I do my homework."
"Not true—you don't do it often, and what you do is far inferior to what you're capable of."
"If I'm passing, why are you bustin' my chops?"
"Because if you keep going the way you are, you won't pass. And personally I don't want either of us to go through another year like this one. I realize this is a busy time for you. I'm sure a lot of things are changing and that some of them are confusing, but the things you do this year are going to either set you up or screw you up—for life."
"Oh yeah—and history was soooo important to my plans." She rolled her eyes at me, maddeningly. She ran her tongue around her lips, and then puckered them with an audible 'pop'. "Is it true you went to Catholic school?"
The question caught me off guard.
"Why yes, yes I did. Why?"
"Did the nuns beat you and stuff?"
"What do you mean?"
"Like, instead of bo-o-o- ring detention, would they, like, lay into your ass with a ruler?"
I was angry now.
"It's none of your business, but yes...
She leaned forward, and her eyes gleamed.
"Did they like, spank you bare-tail with a ruler?"
"I was caned on the hand," I said icily "Once. For insolence."
She sat back, her body language clearly saying 'well that's no fun'. I was angry, but as I fought for control of the conversation I realised three things: I was imagining Sue —Susan — bent over my knee, her stirrup pants down to her ankles. And that my nipples were hard. And that Susan could see my hard nipples—was looking straight at them, in fact. I felt my face flush red.
"That doesn't matter. We're here to discuss your future — not my past."
"Yeah, yeah."
"You can be insolent and fail," I stood up "or you can shut up, listen, and perhaps pass, which will allow you to graduate. Seeing as you seem to be fonder of option 'A' I'll see you in class."
"Don't go..." Almost a whisper. But suddenly I found her hand gripping mine "I'm sorry—I didn't mean to be...to be a bitch."
Unable to look at her I sat down again. I could hear the tears in her voice.
"I'm sorry, Mizz F. I just get these moods, y'know?"
"No," I answered "I don't. Tell me about them."
"Oh it's just, I dunno," Once again she looked at me from under her fringe of hair "did you ever really like someone, maybe really like another person. But maybe that person didn't know you like them. . ." Her voice trailed off.
There was a lump in my throat. We were skirting some of the most dangerous territory a teacher could ever cross. Part of me wanted to hear her confession, but to go that way could only bring trouble. Besides, I wasn't sure how I felt myself—my nipples weren't hard anymore, but I was pretty sure I was wet. And first and foremost, I was a teacher.
I feigned ignorance: "Oh Susan—is it boy trouble?" Her disappointment was palpable.
"Kinda like that." she admitted.
"You're not pregnant or something, are you?"