All Megan can do is force a thankful smile as she stomps out of the board meeting as soon as the doors swing open. She dressed in her best wool grey blazer over a black Adrianna Papell dress, with a brown leather brown belt to tie everything together and black pumps that were digging into her feet. She wore formal looped earrings and a gold necklace to look more professional.
And to still be told by the dean that she's being given the same joke of a budget as last year and still be expected to pull off the two plays and three trips she planned was an insult for a ivory college program, but to be told that she's being given a favor by the budget not decreasing was a shock to her system. And the only thing she could do during the meeting was smile thankfully.
Megan guesses that her hatred is showing, as students get out of her way in the hallway. A nice gesture but nothing they would understand, most of them still lives with their parent's in their mansions in West Riverside. Not that she's judges them. If she was eighteen again, living at home with their money, she'd make all the same mistakes of her youth but she'll enjoy them more.
"Get out of my fucking face!"
Without seeing her, Megan knows Courtney's voice since getting into three public arguments during her freshmen year. Megan knows Courtney's type, because they both grew up on East Riverside. But she knows Courtney is a good student, she volunteered for bake sales and already scheduled herself to tutor incoming freshmen.
As Megan makes her way through the growing crowd of students, she sees Courtney first. Despite approaching the pending drama, Megan can't help eyeing Courtney's dirty blonde hair in an unkempt ponytail with her amazing slim body. Courtney's sultry look is enhanced by black eye shadow to compliment her brown eyes, dark earrings, and black nail polish, but she'd be gorgeous if she smiled with her sleek lips.
Megan always thought Courtney has a cute face, a hot body, and charm to spare but looking skimpy in her uniform doesn't hurt either.
As Megan breaks through the crowd, she sees that Courtney is cornering a junior. Not just any junior, a blonde little tart named Katherine Clark, whose family paid for the business wing of the college to keep her in school to counter her bad grades. If Katherine makes one mention to her parents in her freak voice that is a horrible mix of Farrah Fawcett and Kermit the Frog, Courtney's done.
Megan grabs Courtney's arm as she pulls her back and barks, "We had enough of your shit young lady!"
Megan's heart sinks when Courtney says with a miffed voice that echoed her disbelief, "Ms. Poland, I didn't do anything. Why are you doing this?"
"God you were always trouble! Go to my office after school, no excuses!" Megan looks around at the student's surprised looks; it's expected, she rarely yells and is this harsh with. She walks Courtney past the crowd and down the hallway, looking away as Courtney has tears in her eyes.
"This isn't fair."
Megan whispers, "I'll explain later." Courtney looks at her with a confused look on her face. "I don't want to hear it! Now go to class!" She pushes Courtney forward. "Now go!"
Courtney gives her a look with enough contempt to make a baby cry before she turns around and walks away, wiping her eyes.
As the students look at Courtney walking down the hallway, she prays that Courtney figures out her guile. Everyone else slowly disperses, not that they were suddenly afraid of her but because the show was over.
----------------------
Megan forces her office's metal door open inwards, a feat that can only be done by her, the janitor, and Jesus Christ. She picks up and lugs her workbag full of textbooks and purse full of a teacher's true necessities, gum and skittles.
Megan walks into her office that's located in the college's downstairs basement, the one place that's still in the original section of the college that's from the 1950's. She's grown use to the daily reminder of the cost of telling the dean to go to hell after dismissing his advances; a publicly known punishment for a semi-private crime, thanks to his connections.
She drops her workbag and purse on her metal desk with a deep sigh. She forces the light switch to the on position with her thumb, as the ceiling light eventually turns on she looks at thumb and fears callus will form in a month.
Megan looks back at her desk and sighs. She forgot to put away her Fifty Shades of Grey book, again. The faint smell of pine from the thin carpet means the janitor already vacuumed and will look at her with a smile next time he sees her in the hallways.
"It's going to be alright Megan," she calmly tells herself.
She lost her own access to the supply closet and she's considered a leaper at the teacher's lounge, she can survive being known for stretching her mental muscles and so forth. Megan closes the door after putting her shoulder into. She then moves around her one guest wooden chair, pushing it against the wall.
She briefly looks over the stacks of syllabi she's going to pass out to her classes tomorrow neatly piled on top of her only cabinet; she wonders how quickly she'll find them discarded on the school grounds at the end of the week
Megan wiggles between around the corner, being careful not to tip over her warped, four foot, plastic aquarium green plant that she calls the Audrey II; her only décor item she can afford with her pay.
She sits downs on her stiff, wooden chair and opens her purse. She takes off her necklace and earrings and plops them inside. She takes her cell phone out and places on the desk before she snaps her purse closed, she plans on not using those pieces of jewelry until the next crisis. She opens her bottom drawer and slides her workbag off her desk and into the drawer with a groan.
"Christ, I hate being thirty five."
She kicks the bottom drawer closed and opens the top drawer, smiling when she finds a day old cup of coffee from Dunkin Donuts. She exchanges the purse for the cup and closes the drawer. She takes a sniff and it smells decent enough to clear sinuses but not to drink. She looks for a garage bin and then remembers that she doesn't have one. She laughs at herself as she hides it back in the top drawer.
Megan plays an easy listening reggae song saved on her cell phone, takes off her black pumps, wiggles her toes, and feels a sense of calm with the universe as she leans back, her chair creaks as she does.
She closes her eyes, which is a better alternative to looking up at the vent above her that doesn't work. Her mind takes her to the normal fantasy: She's on a sandy beach, wearing a two piece bikini that actually flatters her body, feeling the warm sun and a cool breeze on her tanned skin, and drinking an island drink with a small pink umbrella. All the women wink at her as they pass her by. No one is working as servers expect for the dean and the teaching staff.
Her fantasy makes a wonderful addition by making Courtney walk out from the clear, blue water in a red micro mini bikini. Courtney's completely slicked back hair opens up her face when she smiles happily. Her breasts bounce with perfect symmetry and her long, smooth legs ooze with sex appeal as water flows down them.
A hard knock on her door snaps her out of her fantasy and from sitting position.
"Ms. Poland, are you inside? I can't open the door," Courtney says.
Megan quickly turns off the music, she doesn't know why but she's suddenly nervous and anxious. "Sorry, one second!"
After she puts her pumps back on, Megan makes her way around her desk and opens the door, laughing at Courtney's surprised reaction at the door being opened with a loud scrape against the carpet. "Sorry, old door."
Megan continues to smile as Courtney walks in with her book bag and gym bag, taking note of Courtney's change of clothes into a loose pink v-neck top that clearly showed her black bra, tight black jeans shaping her toned waist and backside, and a basic pair of black sneakers. Megan imagines that Courtney is planning to hang out with her friends or whatever nineteen year olds do after school instead of going home.
