The Unexpected Conference

It was nearly 6 in the evening by the time I pulled into the high school parking lot. I sat in my car for a few more minutes listening to the end of a hockey game, not really wanting to go inside. It had been more than a decade since I had been here and wasn't really looking forward to this. In the years since my high school graduation, I had managed to get two bachelor's degrees, in Chemistry and Biology, and a PhD in immunology. I also landed a job with an up and coming biotech company making big strides in the search for alternatives to antibiotics. In fact, they just landed a patent, I having helped them secure it, which made everyone at the company very rich. Yet for all my accomplishments, I was incredibly anxious to walk into my old school. I kept thinking someone, an old teacher maybe, would call me out, say I was a fraud. Of course, the entire idea was ridiculous; there was no reason to call him a fraud, if anyone even recognized him to begin with. Which they wouldn't.

The only reason he was there was for his niece. It was parent-teacher conference and his sister was unable to attend because she had just had surgery. Normally he would have thought they could have just rescheduled it, but as his sister was house bound for the next few weeks, and the teacher had something that needed to be discussed, he was called in. And he wouldn't have normally minded, but his sense was that his niece had done something wrong and he didn't feel particularly well suited to handle this upcoming discussion.

So, with all those wonderful thoughts swimming through my head, as well as my team having just lost, I walked into my old high school. I followed in a steady stream of people, a few couples but mostly just one parent showing up. Following signs, and a few helpful teachers I didn't recognize from my time there, I found the appointed room.

And I've still got

, I thought to myself as I glanced at my watch,

holy shit I'm 20 minutes late!

I opened the door quickly, jogged into the room, and bent over panting like I was out of breath. I held up a hand in the direction of the teachers desk, where I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. "Just give me one second to catch my breath." I stated, taking unnecessarily deep breaths. "You wouldn't believe the traf..." I began, but faltered when I saw the teacher I'd be talking to.

Rachel had thought herself a very relaxed and easy-going teacher. Granted she had only started last Fall and it was only halfway through March, but she felt like it was going well and she was growing into the teacher she always pictured herself as. Then came parent teacher conferences. None of her students were particularly bad, and only a half dozen or so were what she would call underperforming. She had planned to address that tonight, but the parents of those underperforming students did not see eye to eye with her. Any lack of effort on a student's part must be directly due to a failure in the teacher, according to those parents. She sighed. Definitely not the night she had been planning on.

And now, to top it all off, her last parent of the night just showed up almost a half hour after the scheduled time...and clearly no more interested in taking this seriously. She shook her head. This was supposed to be her easy one! The happy one!

I straightened myself, resumed my normal breathing, and smiled at the beautiful woman sitting behind the teacher's desk. "Hello, I'm Jim. Who might you be?"

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "My name is Ms. Carter...I'm Julie's teacher...the other half of the parent-teacher conference? The one who was here on time, at 6."

"Right, er...traffic..." I began to mumble. "So, is Julie in some kind of trouble? You know it's really tough to be a single dad, raising Julie all alone." I said, trying to score some points, while also giving myself a cushion against whatever might be coming. Although 'not my kid' also had some appeal and was what I was going to say before I had seen the teacher. I couldn't tell much about Ms. Carter, since she was still sitting behind her desk, but she looked to be about average height. Her dirty blonde hair was up in a bun with a pencil running through it. She wore a light tan cashmere sweater with a wide collar over a light blue button up. The combination really went well with her hair and eyes, but what really struck me was her face. It was beautiful, and though she wasn't smiling, her blue eyes were smoldering something sexy. In fact, she looked to be getting more and more irritated as I spoke.

"I know your Julie's uncle, I. Her mother and I exchanged e-mails about her not being able to make it."

Was this guy serious?

Rachel thought.

"You misunderstood me!" I replied hastily, smile disappearing. "I mean that I am a single

dog

dad, and that my

sister

raised Julie all alone!" I started to sweat a little, then frantically added "with the help of a loving family, of course! Including an amazing uncle. That would be me." Smiling again, like I had actually saved myself.

Rachel got up and walked around her desk, nodding. "I see." She said, giving a small polite smile. "Well, since you're already so late and my last conference of the night, why don't we get started talking about Julie." Sitting on the front edge of her desk, Rachel crossed her arms.

"Of course!" I said, trying not to swallow too obviously. Walking out from behind her desk I was able to see that Ms. Carter had on black leggings with some cute little boots. I, like most men I'm sure, had a weakness for women in leggings. Especially when they had legs like Ms. Carter. What I wouldn't give to be the front edge of that desk! I shook my head. "Listen, whatever problems Julie might be having, I'm sure we can fix them. She's a good kid, and maybe I haven't been there enough for my sister, but we'll straighten her up!"

Rachel's mouth opened a little, as he started but let him finish. Julie had absolutely no problems, in fact she was Rachel's star student. It struck her however, that he had not gone immediately on the offensive as the parents of her actual underachievers had. "Your sister never told you what I wanted to talk about tonight?" She asked.

"Uh...no?" I was a little confused. "She called me at the lab today, I wasn't even supposed to have my cell on me...so we didn't get a chance to talk long. She just said it was urgent."

"I wouldn't say urgent, but certainly important." Rachel added, before continuing. "She is not in any trouble; in fact, she is by far my best student."

"Your best student?" I asked a little surprised. I let out a breath of relief, then acted like I hadn't. "Well, ya, I mean that's not really surprising. I try to tutor her like once a week." Confidence coming back.

"Mmhmm. Well, she'll be entering her Junior year in the Fall and I'd like her to think about taking AP courses. With any luck, she'll be able to graduate early and get into a good college."

"That's great!" Excited that my niece was doing so well. I had difficulty believing she'd be in any kind of trouble "...but what do her mother or I need to do? It seems everything is pretty straightforward."

Rachel nodded. "Yes, well just understand that it won't be easy. She may need help, and you may need to actually tutor her."

I opened my mouth for a moment, then closed it. I cleared my throat. "Yes, I can see that and I'd be more than happy to help. Except for, English. Fuck that."

Both Rachel's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Oh shit! I mean, uh... we may need a different tutor for English. That's all." I stuttered.

Rachel couldn't help but laugh. "I imagine you may indeed. Julie has expressed similar sentiments about English." A genuine smile remained. he was actually kind of cute, she thought. An average build and height of about 5' 11", she was reminded of a young Eddie Vedder with his long hair. She was a huge Pearl Jam fan, mostly because of her dad. "So, you work in a lab? Or was that bullshit as well?" She stood up from leaning on her desk.

"What?" I said, surprised. "Oh, earlier. Ya, sorry, I was kind of nervous and you're really beautiful. I was trying to make a good impression." I grinned. "Yes, I work in a lab. I do research for a biotech company; we're working on developing treatments and possible cures for different diseases."

"Oh, fancy!" She really liked that goofy grin he had. "And I'm sure you're only doing it for all those poor suffering people. Don't care about the money big pharma offers you at all." Rachel only said it to poke him a bit, get a reaction out of it. She picked up a large bag and held it out. "Would you mind carrying this? Walk me to my car?"

"Sure!" I said, eager to help. "And believe it or not I actually am doing this purely to help others. The company I work for is actually pretty small...but I'm not going to lie, we did just get granted a pretty significant patent not too long ago and our stock shot up. So everyone who had company stock, that is to say everyone, got a decent amount of money. I mean you got to pay the bills, right?"

"Absolutely." She smiled. "That's why I became a teacher. All the money."

I laughed. "You know I thought that was why. I mean you don't really seem to care about the kids."

Rachel stopped and glared at me.

"I'm kidding!" I held up my one free hand in a gesture of surrender. "You obviously care very much!"

She slowly smiled and they started walking again.

"What the hell do you have in here anyway? Bricks!?" I asked. "This thing weighs a ton!"

"Its spring break. I'm bringing some things home that I used for an earlier lesson. And yes, there are three bricks in there." She smiled again.

"What exactly do you teach, Ms. Carter?"

"You can call Rachel since we're not doing parent-teach conferences anymore."

"Oh, thank you! But I think Ms. Carter sounds sexy." I winked at her.

She rolled her eyes. "And to answer your question, I teach mathematics, although the bricks are from a small lesson in physics."

They arrived at her beat-up Toyota Corolla that looked to be on its last legs. "This is me." She said, opening the trunk.

As she bent over to jiggle the key in the trunk lock the black leggings stretched a bit more and I couldn't help but stare at her ass. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very long stare, as Rachel stood back up.

"Well, not exactly the greatest night, but not terrible. It ended well." She smiled.

"You're telling me." I gently set the enormous bag in the trunk. "After I parked and finished listening to the Avs lose in overtime I thought the night was a bust, but it was nice talking to you."

Rachel glared at me again. "So you're telling me, not only did you sit in the parking lot instead of getting to our meeting in timely manner, you also just ruined the game I recorded and planned on watching once I got home?"

I was speechless. "What I meant was..."

"Save it." Rachel was so irritated right now. She opened the driver's door, got in and started the engine. "Have a nice night."

I let the door shut, I didn't need to smash any fingers, and immediately knocked on the window. After Rachel had rolled down the manual, I chuckled a little. Rachel immediately began to roll the window back up. "Wait, wait, wait! I'm sorry!" The window paused its motion. "Listen, I'm sorry I was late for our meeting and I had no idea you were an Avs fan! Let me make it up to you."

Rachel sighed. "Don't worry about it." She began to roll the window up again.

"You haven't even heard my offer!" The window continued rolling up and was nearly finished. "I have season tickets!" I shouted as the window closed. It was shut for a heartbeat. Two. Three. Then it began its decent until it was halfway down. "They're in town the day after tomorrow and you'll be on spring break!"

"I don't date the parents of students."

"Well as you clearly called me out earlier, I am only the parent of a golden retriever." I smiled.

There's that goofy smile again. "Fine. But ruin another game for me and I will end you." She said seriously. "Give me your phone." I did. A handful of seconds later she handed it back. "Pick me up at 6:30 and don't be late this time." She eyed him, then rolled up the window.

I held my hand up in the surrender motion again. "Wouldn't dream of it!" I shouted as she drove away. I looked down at my phone. She had put her name in as Ms. Carter followed by a winky face. I sent her a quick text saying 'drive safe' so she would have my number, then pocketed my phone and walked to my Jeep smiling.

Tonight turned out to be a pretty good Friday night

.

***

I texted Rachel midday Sunday to make sure she was still a go, and to get her address, then arrived outside her place ten minutes early. I had relayed everything that happened, with respect to Julie, to my sister after I got home. She was really happy about it all. My mind was elsewhere, but told her to let him know anytime Julie needed any tutoring. I looked up at the address, a small condo in a decent neighborhood. Grabbing the flowers off the passenger seat I walked up to the front door and knocked.

The door opened and I was a bit startled. I myself was wearing my Avs jersey, of course, along with a long sleeve shirt underneath, and some jeans. That was usually enough for me. Rachel was also in an Avs jersey that went just past her ass, and black leggings that I was not going to complain about in the least. Her hair was also down and went down almost to the bottom of the jersey. I thought she looked incredibly sexy; what startled me was her face. It was completely covered in face paint. Not just the little logos on each cheek either, but full on fanatic style.

I was silent for just a moment while I took it all in, then said, "I like it." and put on a big smile. I really did like it. "These are for you." I handed her the flowers. "Just wanted to apologize again about spoiling the last game."

"How sweet, thank you!" Rachel exclaimed, taking the flowers. "Let me go put these in water."

She returned a few moments later, feeling good about the coming night, and they started walking towards my car. "Is this yours? It's so nice! I love Jeeps!"

I smiled. "Thanks. It was the first thing I bought, after my new place. I've always loved Jeeps but could never afford a new one."

"New place? New car? How much did you make off this patent?!" Rachel asked, then immediately regretted it. "I'm sorry, that's rude of me to ask."

I laughed. "Don't worry about it. Needless to say, it was enough haha."

***

We had an amazing time at the game: Rachel was psyched to be sitting in the front row, we were put on the kiss cam where they shared a decent length kiss, and the Avs won! After the kiss cam, I had spent the rest of the game with my hand on Rachel's knee, except when she was up banging her fists on the glass. I was smiling the whole time.

We were back at my Jeep, I opened the door for her and helped her climb in, when Rachel sighed.

"Ya?" I asked, leaning my arm on the open door.

"I've seen your Jeep, I've seen your front row seats, when do I get to see your first purchase?"

I raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Would you like to come back to my place for a drink?"

Rachel smiled back. "I'd like that."

We talked and got to know each other some more on the way to my place. Rachel explained that though she was teaching now and really enjoyed it, she wanted to get her PhD in Education, or possibly Mathematics. I mentioned the I could see myself someday teaching at a college. Before we knew it, we had arrived.

"Oh my!" Rachel said as she climbed out of the Jeep, I held her hand as I helped her out.

I shrugged. "I did say it was enough."

The house itself wasn't insanely large or anything, but it was in a very nice neighborhood. A 5-bedroom 5-bath, it was a Tudor-style, whatever the hell that meant. I just liked the look of it; inside and out. It also had a very large, private backyard with a large patio and a hot tub on the end that was covered with large trellises that ensured privacy.

"Do you have a bathroom, where I can wash this face paint off?" Rachel asked as they entered.

"Down the hall, first door on the left right there."

I went to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of vodka out of the freezer and mixed a few drinks. I wasn't sure was Rachel preferred so I just threw in some lemonade and a couple of ice cubes.

She re-emerged and began walking toward the kitchen. "I hope vodka is okay." I called to her.

"Sounds great!" Rachel replied as she got to the kitchen and took the offered glass. She looked around, "This really is a lovely house you have."

"I really like it, though I keep all the whips and paddles in the basement." I smiled. "Would you like a tour?"

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Of the basement?"

I spit out a little of my drink as I laughed. "Oh funny, no. That's more of a second date tour."

Rachel smiled. "Then by all means."

I proceeded to give her a tour of the house, though the basement was unfinished and certainly didn't have any whips or paddles. I told her I was thinking about making it into some kind of wine cellar, but I was unsure. As we made our way back to the kitchen our glasses had just emptied and I offered her a refill. Once we both had our drinks, I showed her to the back deck. We stood there for a moment as I pointed out the garden at the far end. "I don't really know what I'm doing, but I have someone come over once a week to check on them and all I have to do is water them."

Rachel nodded. "So, where's your dog?" She asked.

"Actually, Julie went on a hike today with some friends and asked to bring him." I shrugged and smiled.

She smiled and turned. "You have a hot tub." She noticed, her voice not raising or inflected, simply making an observation.

"Ya...you know its heated if you're interested in taking a dip?" I said, half question half invitation.

"I am. Unfortunately, I don't have my swimsuit with me." She said somewhat dejectedly.

I shrugged. "I won't tell if you don't."

"Ha!" Rachel rolled her eyes at him, but then walked slowly over to the hot tub. She moved the cover a bit with her free hand and then felt the water. It felt very nice, very hot.

"There's a safety feature that don't let hot tubs get above 104 degrees, but I had an engineer friend work around it." I explained. "Not exactly sure what he did, but it stays about 110 degrees or so while the hot tub think it's only 104." I pointed to the thermometer that was free floating in the water that read 110. My friend had recommended I kept that there just in case.

She eyed him for a moment, then waved him over with the hand that held her glass. "Help me take the cover off." I did. She hesitated another moment, "Turn around." I rolled my eyes, but did as requested. Rachel set her drink down on the steps to the hot tub, then slipped out of her shoes and socks. She checked to make sure my back was still turned, then began to pull her leggings off. Not the easiest thing to do, standing up and a little buzzed. She made a sigh at the effort.

"You need any help?" I asked. She could just imagine that goofy grin on my face and she rolled her eyes again.

Once her leggings were off, she removed the jersey and the long sleeve shirt she had on underneath. She then looked down at herself in her purple bra and white panties. She decided to remove the bra but keep the panties on. She walked up the stairs and slowly put her feet in the hot tub. She sucked in a breath and I began to turn around. "Not yet! Eyes forward!" I quickly turned back around as her lower legs got acclimated. She moved further in, bit by bit, until she was standing chest deep in the center and felt good. Then she moved to the seat on the far side from where the stairs led up and sat down. Her breasts were submerged, barely, but you could clearly see them. Rachel was very proud of her breasts, a nice size at 34C and perky to boot, but..."Would you mind turning on the jets?"