"Click... clack... click... clack... click... clack," the echo off high heels walking across a freshly polished floor filled the lobby of Claybourne High School as one its teachers made her way inside from the frigid, mid-January temps outside.
It was a cold Friday morning with a light dusting of snow covering much of suburban Ohio town Kim Dudley, and her Husband, had called home since she graduated from Ohio St and began teaching six and a half years earlier. Her entire body was freezing, especially her feet, from the walk inside from the teacher's lot and Kim found herself wishing she would have dressed a little more substantially, even if it was just for the morning commute.
"Should have at least worn your boots," she chided herself, trying to get the blood flowing in her stocking clad toes as she hustled up the hallway.
Knowing how the rest of the day would play out however, Kim filled with a bristling inner warmth as looked down at her black leather pumps, knowing they'd make much more of a visual impact than a pair of frumpy but cozy Winter boots.
So would the thigh high black stockings she had on under her form-fitting, knee length black skirt. It was a strange feeling having the cold air draft upwards over the bare skin of her upper thighs, but once she was inside, the warmth from the heat ducts along with the surrounding mass of people caused her crotch to quickly began to simmer.
Raising her head, Kim smiled at the sea of faces she passed along the way to her first period class. By then the steady click of her heels on the floor had been drowned out by the din of the bustling herd, but she still felt her heart beating in her chest and anxiety chewing at her gut every time she saw a familiar and friendly face, wondering if it would be the last time she would ever see them.
Ever the observant woman, Kim could also feel a plethora of eyes gazing at her in passing. Out of the corner of her eyes, Kim could see every male student she brushed by seemingly crimp their neck to get a good look at her. While she was one of the more attractive members of the faculty, rarely did she ever come to work dressed more like she was headed to a cocktail party instead of her 12th grade social studies class.
Looking down as she pressed on to her classroom, Kim could see her nipples poking out the front of her cream colored silk blouse like two concealed grapes in her bra cups, hardened by the bitter cold outside and her own inner angst. Thankfully the black blazer she had on kept anyone from seeing her obvious arousal unless they were standing of directly in front of her. Still, even with the shameless act she was preparing to do, Kim felt the need to fold her briefcase under her arms and raise it to her chest as she approached the door to room 205.
Taking a deep breath, Kim stepped inside the room and saw the usual choas that surrounded the moments before first period started. Most of the students were already in the room even though many were a blur darting back and forth between their desks, catching up on any last minute gossip or making plans for later in the day before class started. Kim had learned not to stand in front of the door for too long, to avoid getting plowed over by a rampaging student trying to hurry into the room before the late bell rang.
It wasn't long however before all of the students' eyes gradually settled on their teacher, looking more like she was headed to a high level board meeting instead of conducting their class. Even as the students drifted towards their assigned seats, all the male eyes, and a good many of the female ones, were glued to Mrs. Dudley, and the formalness of her attire.
Kim was sure she could feel the weight of several of the aroused male gazes in the room, but none of them outwardly said a word. In fact, there was an awkward silence hanging in the air as she dropped her briefcase on her neatly kept desk a few seconds before removing her blazer and draping it across the back of her chair. Popping open the locks of the briefcase where she kept her school supplies, Kim removed a stack of graded essays before closing it back up.
"Not the best group of papers I've ever seen...we still have to get some of that rust off from Christmas break I guess," Kim chided the class as she walked towards the aisle closest to the door to start handing the grades out.
On cue, several kids rolled their eyes in disappointment when they saw their score but most of them quickly raised their gaze back towards Mrs. Dudley as she walked past, her narrow waist, rounded hips and trim athletic calves readily apparent in the tight black skirt.
Balancing herself on her 4 inch high heels as she navigated the obstacle course of book bags laying in the aisles, Kim had to fight a internal touch of irony as she scolded the class to do better. The topic of the essay had been on ethics in government, ethics being the difficult to digest word considering what she and her Husband were on the verge of doing.
After all the graded papers having been returned, Kim walked back towards her desk and grabbed the metal tray she kept there for incoming assignments. Turning on the tips of her heels, Kim made her way to the first row of students once again, this time telling them each to drop their cell phones in the basket.
"I'll give them back at the end of class," the teacher promised despite the youthful chorus of 'whys' and 'groans' that erupted around her.
Knowing that cell phone use had been an issue several times in Mrs. Dudley's class, all the students had heard her warnings before but none of them thought she'd take the drastic step of confiscating their tethers to the outside world. But one by one each student relented and dropped their phones with a clank into the waiting basket.
Dropping the almost half full basket back on her desk, Kim then walked towards the door of the classroom, closed it and then turned the lock, a safety precaution that had been added to every classroom after the incident at Columbine years earlier.
Suddenly the unsettled quiet that had descended upon the room developed into a full blown hush when the students saw their teacher lock the door just after taking their phones.