I had been teaching university classes for about three years. I was lucky to be looking for the job at just the right time, it wouldn't have nearly so easy if not for issues among the faculty at the time. I never found out all the details except that the administration had to hire a decent sized group of teachers the year I started. Not only did it get me a job, but it also meant that as a younger woman I didn't stand out quite as much against the older men who still made up the majority of the staff.
One of the things I had learned in my relatively short time teaching was that, despite the ethical implications, it was hard not to be attracted to the occasional student. I was a little worried initially about what it said about me seeing as I had a good ten years on some of them, but it really wasn't such a big deal in some ways. It wasn't like I was actively seeking them out, I just happened to be surrounded by them on regular basis. I couldn't have been the first person to deal it and I reminded myself that as long as no one other than me ever knew then I would be fine.
My favorite this semester was a girl in my calculus class. She had to be eighteen or nineteen years old and her schoolgirl look caught my attention almost immediately. She always sat in the front row and took dedicated notes, making it easy for me to get several surreptitious glances at her over the course of a lecture. I went for guys most of the time but I wasn't concerned with fitting into a certain label. If I happened to be attracted to someone why did it matter what gender they were? I'd had a couple girlfriends who had been just as much fun to be with as any of my boyfriends.
She didn't seem to have any idea that I might be watching her. Much like me she tended to prefer wearing skirts, I don't think I ever saw her in anything else, and she wasn't all that careful about keeping her legs closed. I never really saw as far up skirt as I would have liked but I took what I could get. She also sometimes wore shirts that were a little bit loose at the front and fell away from her chest when she leaned over too far. The day I remembered best was when she wore a shirt with buttons up the front and spent a good part of the class idly toying with them. By the end of the hour she had the top three buttons undone which, while still not enough for me to actually see anything, was enough to set my imagination running wild.
I sometimes suspected she was doing it all on purpose, teasing me for her own unknown reasons. That was probably more wishful thinking on my part than anything concrete however. It wasn't until she came to talk to me after class one day that I decided I might actually be right. She waited until the rest of the students left to approach me while I was packing up the last of my things.
"Excuse me Miss?" she said.
"Yes, can I help you... Megan isn't it?" I asked, as if I didn't know.
A good three quarters of the students in the class were essentially nameless to me, but hers I knew.
"You can call me Maggie if you want, everyone else does."
"Okay Maggie," I nodded. "Something I can help with?"
"Well Miss, I was wondering if you had our assignments marked yet. I get a little anxious sometimes."
I wouldn't have last week's assignments ready until the next day, as per the tentative schedule I had set. I did however recall already marking Megan's and there really was no harm in telling her so.
"I'm sorry, I don't have them all finished yet," I apologized. "I seem to remember you did quite well though if it helps. You got an eighty-something I believe, eighty-four maybe."
"Well that's not bad," she said. "I could probably do better next time though, don't you think?"
"I'm sure you could if you work at it," I agreed.
I really had no idea what Megan was capable of academically. She seemed bright and her marks so far showed it, but I didn't have the faintest clue how much she studied or how long she worked on her assignments.
"The problem is," she continued thoughtfully, "there's so much going on, it's hard to concentrate on my work sometimes. I think what I need is something to really make me focus."
"I do have office hours if you would like some help," I suggested, unsure what she was getting at.
She shook her head slightly, "I was thinking more like an incentive, something to make me want to put the time in."
"Like what?"
"Not sure yet, but I'm thinking if I get a ninety on my next assignment then you would do something for me. Nothing that would get you in trouble or anything," she added as I frowned at her request.
"I don't think I can help you," I said regretfully, torn between curiosity and my growing suspicion that she was up to something.
"Well I think you can," she countered. "How 'bout we wait and see when we get there." She turned and started to leave the room, effectively ending our conversation. "See ya Miss," she called over her shoulder. "I'll wear a shorter skirt for you next class."
Her last comment before she vanished around the corner made me freeze for a second even though I was now alone. She had known all along that I was watching her, she was just toying with me. To what end I still had no idea.
****
Megan didn't talk to me again until a week later, again not waiting for the weekly assignments to be handed back. I felt like a nervous wreck having spent far, far too much time obsessing over her and what she could possibly want from me. Despite that I managed to hold everything together fairly well I thought, teaching wasn't something I would have gotten in to if I was easily rattled. I still wished I knew what she was after, it would make my life so much easier.
The most obvious possibility was that she was simply trying to get a better final grade out of me, though her scores were already good enough I didn't know why she would risk getting in trouble over it. A small part of me held out hope that maybe she was actually interested in me as I was in her. There was no reason it couldn't happen, even if it seemed unlikely.
As she had the previous week, Megan waited until everyone else had left before approaching me.
"Hello Miss," she greeted me cheerfully.
"Hello Maggie," I replied.
"How did I do this time?"
"You got ninety-eight percent," I said with a sigh.
The abrupt jump in score over her last assignment had confirmed for me that Megan was both playing some kind of game with me, and that she was probably far more clever than she let on. Certainly smart enough to be dangerous.
"See, I knew you could help," she said with a wide grin.
"So what do you want from me?" I asked guardedly.
I still had some control over the situation if I chose to exercise it, all I had to do was say no and that would be the end of it. I decided I may as well figure out what she wanted.
"Well, I got up a little bit late this morning Miss," Megan said. "Didn't remember to set my alarm, I barely made it to class on time. Since I was in such a hurry I didn't realize until it was too late that I forgot to put any panties on."
She let that sink in for a moment, watching my face carefully.
"I had to get all the way here and sit through the entire lecture worrying someone might see up my skirt," she continued. "It's very distracting."
It certainly was. I was having a hard time concentrating on anything other than Megan and what lay beneath her skirt.
It was all pretend of course, except for not having panties on. That I'm sure was a deliberate 'accident' on her part to help her gauge my reaction. I put on the best poker face I could under the circumstances but I still felt like she could read my mind as she studied me.
