Dahlia
***
Thank goodness for the benefits of modern teaching. Computers, projectors, sound system, all of it controllable from my desk. Why, a teacher hardly needs to stand... or, they can just go without standing at all during the day.
Which is useful, considering Kara had restricted my legs early before classes started with something called a 'binder'. Thick straps combined panels of leather together into something almost resembling the skirt of a dress, except this extended from my ankles up my calves and past my knees. I was kept sitting perfectly still, unable to separate my legs or move around much at all, let alone stand up - unless I wanted to reveal to my students that I wasn't the shining beacon of virtues that they thought I was.
"So you see," I said as I wound down my final lecture of the day, "there would have been reasons for non-heterosexual pairings to exist. It's easy to assume that - for the sake of survival - you would only see straight relationships historically, but we have evidence of same-sex couples or other non-traditional partnerships as far back as we have records from these people.
"For your homework for the weekend, I want you to examine some benefits these peoples would have provided to their communities. Feel free to write about any time period, whatever speaks to you." I smiled at my class. "Class is dismissed."
The students poured out of the room, eager to escape for the weekend. Save for the odd student majoring in history, this was just a boring requirement for them to get to the more interesting classes of their degrees. Sure, the unit on sexual history held their interest more than some of the others, but it was still a stretch to say any of them enjoyed it.
I glanced around the room. Kara stepped out part way through the lecture with her phone in her hand, and I was getting worried something had happened. I supposed I didn't need her to untie my legs, but it felt wrong to undo the bonds she had set up. It didn't necessarily matter though, at least until all the students left.
Finally, the last stragglers filtered out, carrying their bags and books... save for one particular student. It was the girl from a few days ago, and I wracked my brain to remember her name. I discreetly grabbed the sign-in chart that had been passed around the room to track attendance and found her name based on where she was sitting. Felicity Ledger, that was it!
I gave her a warm smile, and gestured to the otherwise empty room. "Felicity, right? Class is over, you can head on out." She shrugged, a glint in her eyes as she watched me. For a moment, I felt cornered, unable to flee from this predator thanks to the binder on my legs. I had to remind myself she was just a student, and that I was overreacting. "Is everything alright?"
Felicity looked down at her laptop, then back at me. "I think I need your help with something Ms. Waverly, can you come take a look at this?"
It was phrased so innocently, but it felt like a trap. She couldn't know that I was bound, tied up, right? I squirmed as much as I could in my seat. "I'm sorry, I'm not feeling the greatest. Could you come here and show me instead?"
With a soft sigh - though the smirk never left her lips - Felicity got up from her desk and came over by me. Immediately as she stood by my shoulder, my sense of smell was overcome by her perfume. It smelled like chocolate, and my brain immediately went to sinful thoughts. She placed her hand on my shoulder and I jumped, uncertain why I was so nervous.
A finely manicured hand pointed at the laptop that was set down in front of me. "I record all my classes, Ms. Waverly, using my phone. That's why I absolutely had to get it back on Wednesday after class. Well, that and it's my cell phone, after all." I realized what I was looking at on the computer: an audio file sat open on the screen, ready to be played. "There was something odd at the end of the lecture, I was hoping you could tell me what it was about?"
Then, Felicity clicked the play button. Through the laptop's tinny speakers, I could hear my voice and Kara's voice come through. Horrified, I sat through a replay of our last encounter in this very room.