alone." This time the statement was less affectionate and more statement of fact, almost with a hint of warning. With that haunting reminder, I left one of my students, half naked and alone, in my home, got into my car, and raced off to a meeting that was undoubtedly about how I was fucking her, and two other, students under my care. Still, it was really good toast.
______________________________________
I arrived in the Board of Education parking lot with only a minute to spare, and that would have to be used to navigate my way to the superintendent's office, wherever that was. I knew of the building, but I had only needed to visit once to get my teaching license. Yet, five seconds were stolen from me when the sight of Principal Daley's car caught my eye. Shit, was he the reason this meeting was happening? He seemed oblivious to what was going on, but maybe he finally sniffed out all the sex that was happening under the school's roof between me and my students. Then again, maybe he was just here as part of the mandate that school principals had to be present at meetings between the superintendent and their employee. The two were not mutually exclusive, so I hoped it was the latter because I don't know if I would be able to lie and weasel around the accusations if they were being thrown at me from two sides. I was never very good at lying, and I never had a reason to 'weasel out' of something. Even so, as I raced up the stairs to the superintendent's office, I was constructing lies upon lies, and more lies to support those lies if they get called out, to keep my ass out of jail.
I arrived at the waiting room, and there sitting before two large, beautifully carved, double doors was the secretary I had spoke to on the phone. He was young, blonde, well built and looked incredibly tired and more nervous than me. Still, when I arrived, he was right on point with his duties of welcoming me and leading me to the doors.
The doors opened like I was about to enter a throne room, and when I saw inside, I may well have. The interior was huge, far larger than it had any right to be for a school administrator, regardless of the schools they oversaw. The walls were covered in beautiful renaissance era artwork of battles between heaven and hell. Though, on second consideration, as well done as they were, they were rather intimidating for the office of a school employee. The room was lit solely by the twin, tall, windows against the back wall, on the right and left of the desk that sat in the center. Behind the desk was a large stone mural, once again depicting some kind of battle between good and evil. If I hadn't already known Superintendent Cross's reputation, my first impression of this office gave me a good idea of what it would be.
Seated behind the wide wooden desk, a type of wood I'm sure I've never heard of because it would cost me an arm and a leg just to read about it, was Superintendent Cross. Perhaps it says something about how I view the world, or just my experience with school administrators, but I had assumed Cross would be a man. Men were often the administrators, and women were often the teachers. Yet here I stood, a male teacher, looking at a female administrator. While I'm not too humble to admit that, as far as male teachers go, I was on the higher side of average attractiveness, Superintendent Cross was well and beyond the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
Vanessa, Vivika, and Valentina all exhibited individual traits that appealed to any and all common fetishes concerning the female body. Nessa with her large, heaving, breasts, big doe eyes, and platinum blonde hair. Val with her perfectly sculpted and athletic body, including a defined midsection, an ass you could bounce a quarter off of, and thighs that you wanted nothing more than to wrap around your waist. Vivika, exuding a classical yet seductive beauty, enchanting eyes and the most kissable lips I've ever seen and had the pleasure to experience, and a perfectly proportioned and curvy frame. Yet Ms. Cross seemed to combine all those traits into one womanly form.
Her hair was a deep black, and long enough to curtain across her shoulders and down her back, and with enough volume to look like it was pushing back against gravity; a heavy half curtain draped over one side of her face, nearly covering her right eye. Her skin was paler than Nessa's, but darker than Vivika's, and I think I even spotted a few freckles dusted across her cheek bones. Her eyes were purple. Honest to god, purple. Electrifyingly purple. Her lips were dark crimson, closer to black than they were to red, and so inviting, even when pulled into her almost-villainous smirk. Following her swan-like neck down, even when dressed professionally she couldn't hide the size of her breasts and the swell of her cleavage, lifted up against her purple blouse with each inhale. Sadly, my initial examination and admiration of her body stopped there, as, sitting behind a desk, I couldn't very well see any more (though I very much hoped I would). I had momentarily forgotten that this woman had a ruthless and vicious reputation, given how enticingly beautiful she was and how inviting her curvaceous features were.
She was definitely an older woman, perhaps older than me, but her physical appearance did nothing to convey that. In fact, she looked barely out of college, closer to 30 than to 20 but still behind that milestone. It was the level of authority and power she exuded, even just by sitting there and staring me down, that told me she had more years on this earth than I did. It was the kind of strength that only came from years of experience and the stepping on one opponent's throat after the next.
Her voice broke my inappropriate staring, though it had its own allure that cast another spell over me. It was feminine, but had a smoky quality to it; a soft gravel at the pit of her throat that only came from years of drinking hard, expensive, liquor and enjoying the occasional smoke after sex. "Sit down, Mr. Harper," she began with a command, which seemed very much in place for her character, at least that much I had assumed from just looking at her and her reputation. "I'm sure you don't want to waste any more of your time and you
certainly
don't want to waste any more of mine."
Without a moment to consider or respond, I fell back into the very comfortable, yet dwarfed compared to hers, chair. After I settled, I heard some rustling, maybe movement, coming from her end of the desk, though she hadn't seem to have moved at all. She sat still, like a gorgeous but intimidating statue. It was likely just a sound I made, myself, when sitting in the chair. My nerves and the acoustics in the office were playing tricks on me.
"So, Mr. Harper, why are you here today?" she asked. She knew why I was here. I thought I knew why I was here. She wanted me to say it though. She wanted me to confirm any suspicions she had of my guilt before another moment was passed. It was a power play, pure and simple. Sadly, I had not read up on any business tactics books to know how to counter such a maneuver. I didn't know whether to tell the truth and accidentally incriminate myself of a crime she wasn't even aware of, or lie and get caught in it, thereby cementing my guilt.
"B-Because of, um-" I shakily began, before she cut me off.
"Do not stammer, Mr. Harper. You are an educator, behave like you have an education," she scolded. If she wasn't actually older than me, she certainly acted like it.
"I'm here because of the three new students in my class," I confidently said after collecting myself in the few precious seconds I had before she would likely snap at me again. I even ditched the 'because' at the start of my answer just in case she would lecture me on my grammar. "Vivika, Vanessa, and Valentina."
"That is correct, Mr. Harper," she said, finally relaxing a bit after her successful intimidation, and settled back into her chair a bit. A satisfied smile crawled across her face before vanishing as quickly as it appeared. "Valentina Pellegrino, Vanessa Smithfield, and Vivika Briarheart," she added to their names, demonstrating just how much she already knew. "Principal Daley tells me you've complained of behavioral misconduct from those three within your class, and you have, thus far, been unable to corral this disruptive behavior. Is that correct?"
I had about a dozen lies I could feed her in that moment, all created when I was driving to this meeting, yet I found myself unable to lie to her in that moment. "Yes, that's correct."
"So what, Mr. Harper, would you like me to do about them?"
Even though I already showed she was not interested in any wasted moment in a conversation, I took a few just to ponder my next action. If I remained true to the story that the girls were trouble, that they had made my life hell and would send me to an early grave, it could get me out of any future entanglement. But, they could just as easily rat me out. More importantly though, I didn't want them to leave my class. After last night, I had finally come around to what they wanted from, and for, me. Damn the consequences, I was going to ride this wonderful train, even if it killed me.
That confirmation of the path I wanted to take gave me just enough confidence to lie to this very intimidating authority figure. "Well, originally I wanted to have them removed from my class," I started my lie off with some honesty, "but after working with them I don't believe they will be any more of a problem in my class." I ended with a half truth. I hoped they wouldn't be any more trouble, now that they had me on their side, but knowing them that could very well only be the start of the real trouble in my future. Plus, the work I was implying was not the work I had actually done."So I'd like to keep them in my class, for the remainder of the year."