"Have you finished your political assignment yet, Cheryl?"
Not the sort of question I wanted asked, especially as I hadn't even started the stupid thing.
"Ah, no, sir. Not quite. I don't have all that much left to do, though."
"Just remember it's required by Friday week. Your work is a little borderline right now. Quite frankly, a failure on this assignment will put your position on the cheerleading squad in jeopardy. The school rules are quite firm regarding this. Anyone who is not sustaining passing grades is dropped from the squad until they get their marks up."
Bloody hell. I couldn't afford to be dropped from the squad. There was a ton of younger girls wanting in. If I got dropped I'd never get my place back. I'd have to do something about making sure I handed in a good assignment.
- - -
"Simon, have you got a moment?"
I was startled. Cheryl, one of the cheerleaders was deigning to speak to me? She'd never even acknowledged that I attended the same school before. Now she was cooing sweetly and smiling. At me. She wanted something.
Man, that girl is good. Even though I knew she was having me on she still persuaded me, against my better judgement, to help her with her assignment. The assignment would be no problem. I'd done three different versions when I was doing mine, trying to get an assignment that would get up the nose of the professor and still get a good pass mark. I could rework one of my rejects for Cheryl.
It's a joy to watch her operate. She's blonde and beautiful, and she has a brain, even if she does seem reluctant to use it. At sixteen, she had all the boys on the campus watching her. Now that she was the ripe old age of eighteen she was leading them all around by the nose.
She cooed at me, and flattered me, and hinted at wild delights that would be mine. Without actually saying it the message came across loud and clear. If I gave her some major help with her assignment then I could expect a decent reward. The insinuation was a date and maybe some real quality time with her as part of the date. What could I do but accept?
Things promptly went the way I thought they would. She was sorry, but she couldn't make the first appointment to start the assignment. Could I start it for her? No worries, Cheryl. Of course I can.
- - -
"I thought you had arranged to see Simon tonight and get your assignment started," observed Jenny when I ran into her after cheerleading practice.
"Get real," I said, laughing. "Simon will do the lot. I'll just keep sweet-talking him and keep him on a hook until it's done."
"Not very nice. I assume that the date you insinuated will happen isn't going to?"
"Fat chance. If he really thinks I'd go on a date with him, or do any of the other things he's dreaming about, he's an idiot. The guy's a loser."
"If he's a loser, why have you conned him into doing your assignment?"
"Because he's a very brainy loser. He'll be able to produce a dry as dust assignment that will have old Eddings smiling at me and congratulating me for my rare insight."
"Still, it's not very nice to use Simon like that."
"He can look on it as a learning experience," I said. "After all, this is a school."
- - -
The assignment work went on in much the way I'd envisaged. I'd suggest a time to meet, Cheryl would agree and then cancel at the last moment. Would I be a sweetie and just go on with it by myself? Of course. No problems.
After a week the assignment was complete and in Cheryl's hot little hand. She actually had three days to spare. As soon as she had it her attitude changed.
Talk about the quick kiss off. A date? Was on earth was I talking about? She'd never promised to go on a date. It was all in my imagination. Thanks for the help. And she was gone, walking away, her bottom swishing happily from side to side.
I went home and relaxed, waiting for a phone call.
It came later that evening. She was crying and almost incoherent. It seemed that she'd finally got around to reading the assignment I'd prepared for her. I interrupted her wailing.
"Cheryl, I can't understand a word you're saying. Why don't you come around to my place and we can discuss whatever little problems you've got?"
She was reluctant but desperate. She didn't have time to start doing an assignment from scratch. All she could hope to do by herself was bring the one I'd given her up to a standard that might get her a pass mark, if she was lucky, and if old Eddings was feeling generous.
Cheryl was banging on my door fifteen minutes later. I let her in and she stormed past me and flung herself down on the couch, glaring at me.
I just stood there, smiling politely and waited to hear what she had to say. I took her a couple of moments to get her thoughts together and then she started.
"How could you do this to me?" she demanded, shaking the assignment in the air. "If I handed this in I'd be a laughing stock. It's a guaranteed fail, and I'd be out of the squad and I'd never get my place back. This thing is so bad I'd be lucky not to get kicked right out of the college."
"Could be worse," I pointed out.
Cheryl looked at me as though I was mad.
"Worse? How could it possibly be worse?"
"You might have handed it I without reading it."
She looked appalled at the thought. I guess that was what she had originally decided to do before realising she should know what she'd supposedly written.
"But why? Why did you write this, this, garbage?"
"I thought you'd probably cheat, being all soft words and insinuated promises and then nothing. So in the spirit of friendly co-operation I decided that you cheat, I cheat. Fortunately, there is a way out of this situation."
Cheryl brightened up at that. I could see her mind working. If I knew a way out she was sure that she could get it out of me.
"What way?" she asked, a sweet and gentle smile on her face. She looked absolutely stunning.
"Well, before I can give you the details, you'll have to take your clothes off," I calmly told her. "I can't trust your word, now can I? So when you're sitting their naked I'll explain how easy it will be for you to resolve your problem."
Cheryl stared at me in shock, mouth open.
"You expect me to take off my clothes in front of you? If you're hoping for sex, forget it. Not going to happen. No way. I'd sooner fail."