Teaching Her a Lesson

Teaching Her A Lesson

Part Eight: Differentiated Instruction

There. My desk was put back together. Better double check and make sure nobody dribbled anything anywhere. Hmm. Couple little spots where Taylor didn't get her mouth in place on time. Some tissue, dab dab dab, aaaand good. Cleaned up. Very good. One thing down.

Cassie yawned, the first sound she'd made since I'd pumped her full of Serenex. Somehow it made her look even less alert.

Now, what else needs doing...

Knock, knock, knock.

"Can's in the hallway! Testing!" I called once my heart started beating again.

"It's Candace and Louisa," came the reply.

Cassie blinked. Sort of. One eye, then the other a second later. But that was about it.

I let them in.

Their expressions said they knew perfectly well what had transpired between me and the Stern sisters this afternoon. At least in terms of the carnal, that is. Not the other thing. Even so, their disapproval was apparent.

"Is she...?"

I nodded. These two had never been around someone in a Serenex ingestion trance before, other than each other when I'd put them both under. "Try not to do anything too loud, say her name, poke at her. If we let her stay adrift like this, it's safe to talk around her."

They each studied her for a moment, but one by one turned back to me. "So Isa said she confessed?"

"Yeah. Actually had the guts to act like we were overreacting. Kids these days, ya know."

My colleague sighed at my attempt at humorous hubris. "You do realize we're the same generation as her, right? You're what, twenty-eight?"

"Twenty-six. But millennial, gen Z. Apples and oranges."

"Look, whatever. So how did it go? Once you finished defiling Taylor and Abbie, that is."

"You're one to talk, Candy. And... well, I haven't quite started yet. Quite."

Louisa piped up. "Haven't started? When you kicked me out, you were ready to chew her up and spit her out. I don't think she's capable of appreciating your very sinister biding of time when she's like this."

"I'll do it when I'm good and ready."

"You're not ready?" Both women spoke on top of one another, and Isa continued. "You had all last night and all day today. How hard can it be to tell her not to blackmail you, and if you're feeling vindictive, to feel guilty about trying?"

Candy dug deeper, asking, "You don't mean... emotionally ready, do you?"

Pussy

, added her expression.

"I'm not... Rather, she isn't..." I rounded on them. "Look, it's a little more complicated than that."

Eyes were narrowing at me. I tried not to shrink away from them, but having screwed up this spectacularly, it wasn't easy. "It's nothing to worry about, but... there was a small... accident."

"An accident," Candy repeated.

"What kind of accident?" probed Isa.

Moron

, added her expression.

"I'm managing it."

"If I'm going to help keep your nuts out of the cracker, Canon, I need to know what's going on. Don't b.s. me. You might be pulling the strings with those girls, but when it comes to OPSEC, I'm in charge."

This was a good reminder why women in uniform didn't do it for me. I sighed, thinking truly unpleasant thoughts about Abbie and what I'd do to her if she crossed my path right now. No sense trying to dodge the truth with these two. "All right. So, Abbie... said some things. To Cassie."

The women shared a look before Candy asked, "What kind of things?"

"Not to be crude, but... well, along the lines of making Cassie a bit more like her."

"What's 'like her' mean? A bully? A bitch? A narcissist?" she pressed.

"A sex slave?" said Isa more directly.

"That one. Now look, before you go flying off the handle," I raised my hands defensively as they both plainly prepared to do just that, "it wasn't my idea. She caught me off guard, blurting some things out before I could shut her up. I dismissed them both immediately after. She will be reprimanded when the time presents itself, I assure you."

Candy took a seat in a vacant desk on the opposite side from where Cassie sat. Isa was content to remain standing, asking, "And will this stern talking-to of yours undo what she did?"

"Well, no, but--"

"Then maybe we ought to focus on what needs to happen here and now. So you said some things were blurted. What kinds of things?"

I tried to think. "Something like, it would be fun to sleep with me, nothing unusual about it. Like that."

"Oh come on, you expect us to believe that!" exclaimed the resource officer. "Don't blame those girls. At every turn you've been scheming to use that crap to force women to--"

Candy shushed her, though, and we all watched Cassie a moment until we were sure she wasn't stirring. I chimed in before Isa could go on. "It's not my fault! I know how it looks, but it really isn't. I told you yesterday, Taylor said some things to me -- sarcastically -- that wound up sinking in for her sister. Now her sister can't separate these new thoughts from her old ones, and it's making her act out. Come on, Candy, you saw her yesterday, the lengths she was willing to go to be the sort of girl she thought would make me happy."

"Is that what that was," Isa grumbled with a sidelong look at her girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend? I didn't know what had been happening in their household since she'd caught Candy's tongue buried in a student's pussy.

"I'm serious. You saw how she was playing a character, didn't you? She says she's my 'fantasy slut,' that they're 'lucky to have me.' And with that in her head, and Cassie threatening to blow open our whole operation--"

Candy frowned. "It's an operation now?"

"Figuratively. But Abbie overreacted. And anyway, it's done now, so it doesn't matter. All we can do now is press forward, figure out how to make it as right as we can."

I gave them a moment to join me in acceptance and brainstorming. How must I seem to them? How had things gone so far? Thankfully, when Candy next spoke up, it wasn't to criticize, but to be productive. "How sure are you that she heard what Abbie said? Is there a way to tell if she internalized it?"

"You can ask her yourself. Just stick to questions and she should be fine. It seems to be a lot like teaching when they stayed up too late the night before. They can sleep through anything until you say their name."

She nodded, then crossed the room and knelt in front of Cassie. The girl didn't look up, not even when the teacher joined hands with her. "Cassie? Cassie, can you hear me?"

"Yeah, Coach." Coach? Oh right, volleyball. I'd forgotten they were already close. No wonder she was pissed. Then again, she'd been the sweet giggly neighbor kid to me for years; amazing how fast goodwill dried up in the face of most of a year's salary in ransom demands.

For Candy, though, it was a relief to be recognized. I wanted to assure her that she'd looked just as out of it and she'd come out fine, but I let her go on and learn for herself. "Did either of the Stern girls say anything unusual to you earlier this afternoon?"

Cassie nodded. "Yeah."

The ladies waited for her to go on, but she didn't. Isa came around, sparing a brief disgusted look for me. Like I was the one who'd made her blackmail me! Her attitude was beginning to annoy me. "What did they say? Cassie? What happened?"

"Taylor invited me to use her chapstick. I thought it was kind of gross but I was afraid of her so I said yes. It wasted kinda bad, too. I was just glad she didn't start anything. I heard one time Taylor was drunk at a party at Maxine Wightman's house and she tried to kiss Ian only Ian was dating Anna so he said no, and she took someone's lighter and burned his arm."

It was a small vindication that my suspicion that the chapstick would work and for pretty much that exact reason, though I'd expected her fear would be more social consequence than pyromania. Regardless, with the slow, dreamy way of talking Cassie had taken on, we'd be here all night if we didn't cut to the chase. Candy simply rolled her eyes and went on. "What about Abbie? Did she say anything weird to you?"

"No, Coach."

Both women turned to me, confused, but it caught me off-guard, too. Was it possible she hadn't heard somehow? "You didn't hear Abbie say anything?" I asked. Why was part of me disappointed?

The feeling didn't last long, though. "Do you mean when she said, 'Doesn't it look fun to pleasure Mr. Canon,' Mr. Canon?"

"There it is," Isa grumbled. "Why didn't you say that before?"

"Ms. Salata asked if she said anything weird."

"And that's not weird?!"

The question had been rhetorical, but Cassie answered nevertheless. "There's nothing wrong with it. It feels amazing being his personal booty call. I should, totally." She made a little squeak noise, which I suppose was her approximation of the sound Abbie had made when I'd mashed Taylor's boob in her mouth.

With the mystery solved, I could tell Candy was about to make a cutting remark at me, but my warning look kept her from saying it in front of Cassie. Taylor's sarcasm in front of her compromised sister had already done enough damage. "I see. Do... do you believe her?" asked Isa.

"I guess so."

"Why? Why do you guess so?"

"Because what she said is true."

"But... how do you know it's true?"

"I dunno. Just a feeling. But I know."

"So you don't know, but you know?" Candance countered. "Cassie, that's--"

"That's enough, Candy."

"But she's--"

"We're not improvising this. We're sticking to my plan."

Like yesterday, all it took was the assertion that I had a plan to shatter her resistance. We walked with Isa to the far side of the room, and like that, Cassie went back into her shell. "All right. So what's the plan?"

"If it involves making that girl into your 'booty call,' then let's skip past it and get to the backup plan," stated the officer firmly.

"But here's the problem with that," I said, choosing my words carefully, doing my best to project calm reason. I'd had time to think this over, and I knew that when it came to selling it to my co-conspirators, it wasn't going to be easy.

Here goes.

"Those things that Serenex put in our heads... they're very deeply ingrained, as you both know. Enough that Abbie stuffed her sister in the trunk of her car. That those two young women and I are doing things none of us ever imagined we might a week ago. That even you two, who received a much lighter touch, have allowed things to happen that you otherwise never would have."

Isa placed her hands on her hips. "We know all this. Get to the point."

"In short, my point is that I'm honestly worried about what might happen if we try to put two directly conflicting ideas in her head."

Isa could already see where this was going. "Canon..."

"Before you go accusing me of ulterior motives, keep in mind that for one, let's remember we're dealing with an extortionist. I looked it up, and you can do twenty years for what she's done."

Before Isa could point out how unlikely Cassie was to receive the max sentence, I hurried to my next point. "For two, just because Abbie put these feelings in her head doesn't mean I have to indulge them. I already have, as you put it yesterday, two 'nubile sex slaves' -- a categorization I don't agree with, but for purposes of my point, I'll temporarily concede the basic nature of it. Point being, it's not as if I didn't already have an outlet for... that."

"Is there a three," Isa prompted dryly.

"For three, let's look at it like this. If I said I planned to go all in, embrace Abbie's plan and turn her into an actual sex slave... what would the two of you do about it? Not what do you

think

should be done, but if I did it, right now... what would you actually do?"

Neither was in a hurry to speak up. "I... I guess I'd make sure you got her the way you wanted her," mumbled Candy sheepishly.

Isa looked at her lover aghast, but as I prompted her again for her own response, her indignation faded. "I'd tell you you're a piece of shit," she said softly, "and then figure out how to make sure nobody caught you."

"That you would. Now -- suppose you found out someone was going to... liberate her, I suppose you'd say. Set her free, try to fix her. What would you do then?"

"Nothing good," mumbled Isa sullenly. Candy said nothing, which said it all.

"See, so this is my point. Look what you'd do, thanks to how Serenex transformed your thinking. It somehow seems to overpower every other consideration. So what happens, then, if we try to use it to counteract itself? Suppose I dosed you again, Isa, and told you to beat me black and blue and drag me down to the station to tell them everything?"

"I would

never

do that!" she insisted automatically. In the next breath, she understood me. "I... yeah. Shit. I don't know."

"Exactly. Abbie already fired the unstoppable bullet; if we then put an immovable wall in that girl's head, we could cause some kind of complete psychotic break. I do realize, I really do, that what Abbie did is wrong. But right now, all she'll have is a more colorful version of a schoolgirl crush on a teacher. If we try to tell her she doesn't... we may well do a lot more harm than good."

I gave them a moment to think it over. They even huddled in the corner to discuss privately, as if I couldn't hear it all anyway. With their deliberation proceeding in the direction I wanted, I said nothing.

"Do what you have to do, Mr. Canon," said Candy sullenly.

"Fair enough." I was a bit relieved that she paused to give Isa a swift kiss before she left, directing a lingering look at her athlete before excusing herself from the room. Then it was down to me, Cassie, and the officer.

"So like the woman said, we're resigned to this. When we're done here today, though, I need you to give me the Serenex canister so I can have it tested. I'll make up a story about where I found it, something that won't lead back to you. Don't worry about that. But we need to know more about this before you fuck up someone else's life like you did ours."

It was only my relief to have successfully persuaded them that kept me from responding in kind. "Why? We have plenty of it left -- that canister was meant to disperse a mob, and so far we've spritzed it a half dozen times. A few teaspoons, maybe. We have more than enough to reapply doses if needed."

"But you don't know that you'll get any warning before that happens, do you?" She took a step forward, and though I had a few inches on her, it certainly didn't feel that way as her tone darkened. "I can tell you right now, if I wake up one morning and that crap is out of my head, out of Candace's head... I can't guarantee you'll make it to jail. You get me?"

My head cocked back. "Is that a threat?"

The question seemed to confuse her for a moment. "Of course not. I'm your protector, after all. Just think of it as good advice. Very, very good advice."

"So noted, Officer. Thanks."

"Don't thank me. Now we got work to do, so let's bite the bullet already."

She withdrew, and I was amazed at how much easier I could breathe. How could I be so frightened by someone who I knew for a certainty couldn't hurt me? I glared at her shapely backside as she made her way back to the far side of the room.

Don't treat me like a pussy!

I wanted to scream at her, except what could be more of a pussy thing to do than that?

For the first time since I'd dosed her, I approached Cassie, pulling up a desk in front of her, seating us face to face. Her eyes were barely open. Had she fallen asleep? No, when I said her name, those soft green orbs slowly focused on me, a bit dazed and droopy, but focused nonetheless.

After jotting down a few words on it myself, I slid a piece of paper across the desk, along with a pen. Inwardly I chuckled; my policy on lending students a pen was to take collateral to make sure I got them back, but I supposed I had reasonable assurances of its return. "Cassie, I want you to read the words I wrote on that paper and copy them a hundred times. All right?"

"Sure, Mr. Canon." She picked up the pen, and I watched to make sure she was getting it right. From a few feet farther away, Isa watched for the same.

I will protect Mr. Canon's secrets.

Simple and straightforward. That was important. Misinterpretation or using too broad strokes could foul this up in a hurry. This should both nullify her threats of blackmail as well as make sure that if or when Cassie noticed anything happening that might be a threat to me, she'd help me regain control. Isa and I watched as she copied it, and little by little, I began to relax.

I relaxed for the first twenty or thirty repetitions, anyway. I hadn't realized at first that Cassie's huge, loopy handwriting was taking a lot longer than it had the others. By the time she was nearing fifty, I decided that was good enough and told her to stop.

"Can't. Need to do a hundred," she murmured, continuing unabated.

Isa and I shared an exasperated look, but I didn't push things. On some level it was a relief. Her minuscule defiance here wasn't confirmation that we couldn't plant contradictory commands in her, but that we'd told her to do something and then been unable to tell her to stop corroborated my suspicion at least. With that, we let her go. Even after the encounter with the Sterns and the conference beforehand, it was still only just past four. Cassie's predecessors had all needed several hours before waking up. Candy had needed over four. We simply needed to be patient. Everything was taken care of now; all that was left was to--

My phone buzzed. Cassie was on line eighty-two. I fished my phone out of my pocket, and...

It was the number. The blackmailer. "What the hell...?!"

ARE YOU READY FOR INSTRUCTION?

read the text.

I looked to Cassie, as if she might have covertly sent the text without alerting me. She was starting eighty-three.

"What is it?" asked Isa, concerned.

"It's... them. It's that number." I held up the phone.

Not surprisingly, Isa was analyzing the caper faster than I was. "Shit. She has a collaborator. Dammit, I was worried about something like this."

"Shit! Cassie, did... Cassie, look at me. Cassie, stop."

"Can't. Writing a hundred times. Almost done." Splitting her diminished capacity for attention actually made her even

slower

!

"Cassie...!"

But she shushed me. She shushed me! "Not yet."

"Relax, Canon," said Isa, putting a soft hand on my shoulder before I could go fully apoplectic. "She'll be done in a minute, and then she'll be able to talk. Not surprising, really. Having someone else know the secret is a good failsafe to prevent someone from getting leverage over her. Plus she's a high school girl. Not a one of them who can keep their mouths shut worth a damn."

"But what if she told all her friends! What if--"

"She didn't. Man up, OK? She obviously didn't. For one, if there was a rumor going around school about you fucking Abbie Stern, one of us would have heard about it. For two, if she wants her money, she has to at least keep the secret until she gets her hands on it."

"But she already told someone!"

"Hey. Calm down. You're panicking, and we can't have you panicking around someone in her condition. Most likely scenario, she told one other person. Now take a few breaths, grow a pair, and keep them occupied on the phone while we wait for Cassie to finish up. And remember, don't tip them off that we know about the kid. Whoever that is probably feels nervous enough as it is, and we don't want them pissing themselves either."

My fist clenched, and not only because of the avalanche of anxiety crashing down on me. Officer Barbour sure knew how to push my buttons. She was, however, right. Annoyingly. Her suggestion of deep breathing actually did help. Cassie's scribing was still advancing in its glacial way. Eighty-seven now.