All characters are at least 18 years old.
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Hank
"Alright, everybody, I hope you studied over the holidays like I said, 'cause it's quiz time!"
My students made no attempt to hold back their groans, and I chuckled to myself. If I'm being perfectly honest, we few sadistic educators did take sick pleasure in running our students through their paces. I handed the quizzes to the nearest student for them to be passed around, then sat at my desk at the front of the classroom. That gave me perhaps ten minutes to myself, letting me reflect on this new dynamic at school with Jean.
Last night, Jean had come back a bit different. Still uneasy about something, but... happier. I didn't want to badger her with questions about who her new friends were, but they had seemed to do a world of good. I had fingers crossed that these friends wouldn't let her down, to give her some semblance of a normal life. After all, spending all day with your professor who was more than ten years your senior couldn't be healthy, especially for somebody her age. That would mean less time with her to myself, of course, which was... fine.
This morning was interesting, since it was the first time we had to go to school since she moved in with me. She'd had to walk from the faculty parking lot, with me a few minutes behind her to avoid suspicion. It made me wonder how long we could keep it up before somebody noticed. I supposed all we could do was be cautious.
And that brought us to just now. Lexi and Jean were once again sitting next to each other, and the way they had interacted before class started was... odd. It was an intriguing blend of hostile and amicable, like frenemies, as the kids called it. God, I was getting old. Now, ordinarily I would welcome Jean improving her relationships with others, but this was Lexi we were talking about. The girl that had evicted her on a rainy national holiday. The girl that had threatened to expose my relationship with a student. The girl that very likely was holding something over the mother of one of her classmates. She was dangerous. There was no sugarcoating it. So for Jean to go from almost hating her to somewhat getting along in a matter of a couple days--
Was Lexi one of her new friends?
I broke out into a cold sweat at the possibility. Had Lexi gotten to her? What had she done this time? Was Jean being forced to do her bidding?
You're being paranoid, Hank. What did Lexi have to gain from influencing Jean?
It didn't matter. I was pretty sure Lexi was three steps away from being evil. I couldn't let her sink her claws in. No. No no no, not my Jean.
"Professor?" I snapped back to reality, eyes focusing on Drew. Jesus, I'd really zoned out there. "It's been ten minutes. Time's up."
"Dude, don't fucking..." somebody from the other side of the room muttered before sighing in disgust. He was met with some displeasured grunts of agreement, making me chuckle again.
"Alright, pass 'em up," I instructed, gesturing for them to do so. I was going to drive myself crazy with all these thoughts. Better to just wait and see how things played out, as difficult as that was. "I'll have these graded by Wednesday. In the meantime, we'll be moving on to parenting styles! Who can tell me the four parenting styles?"
Jean raised her hand quickly, and I couldn't help but smile as I pointed to her. "Authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful."
"That's right." I drew a big cross on the blackboard, writing a parenting style in each of the quadrants. "And who can give a brief summary of each?"
Drew raised his hand, waving it around obnoxiously. I smirked and pointed at him, readying myself for his quirkiness.
"Well authoritative parents are the ones you want," he explained. "They raise the kids who don't need therapy." There were a couple of resentful grunts from the room, evidently from students who didn't have authoritative parents. "Then you have authoritarian parents, who are the tiger helicopter parents."
"Asian parents in a nutshell," a Chinese-American student chimed in, earning a few laughs.
"Then there's the permissive parents, those parents that never say no to their kids and raise self-centered little monsters. And last is neglectful parents, who might as well have gone out to get milk."
"Shit, not cool, bruh," an African-American student quipped, causing more laughs.
"So what do Karens count as?" somebody else asked.
"Alright class, let's stay focused," I said with a smile. "I suppose that's... the gist of it. But let's look at each of them in more detail and go over what they have in common, and what sets them apart."
The rest of class passed just as smoothly, with the lingering holiday mood seeming to keep the discussion light-hearted and casual. Before I knew it, class was over and students were making their way out. Jean subtly neared my desk and leaned toward me as I wiped the blackboard clean.
"Um. I don't have work tonight. I was gonna hang out on campus with my friends," she said, her eyes looking anywhere but at me. She was in a crop top and a baggy hoodie, zipped up high enough to cover her exposed midriff. My fingers were itching to rip that zipper down and yank her top off, slipping a hand down her jeans to finger-fuck her right here. Willpower won out. This time.
"Sure, that's fine."
It's not fine!
