Smack!
I saw it before I heard it. Ms Tebbit's arm moved with supersonic speed, her palm making contact with Viktor's cheek, striking such a blow that, in his surprise, he fell out of his chair.
Ms Tebbit had been chastising him for his poor attendance. Viktor was always getting into trouble for things like that. As the class clown, some might say it was his duty to get into trouble, but patience with him was wearing thin now that he was an adult. All the teachers wanted to make sure he passed his exams so they could get rid of him.
I had been walking down the corridor on my way to my next class when I heard their raised voices as I neared the open door of Ms Tebbit's classroom.
"Shut up, stupid ugly bitch cunt!" Viktor yelled in his thick Russian accent. He had a way with words. As a migrant, many people initially took pity on Viktor and attributed his coarseness to him still adjusting, but he'd been in the country for the better part of a decade by this time, and it was just how he was.
Standing in the doorway, I watched as Ms Tebbit gave Viktor the slap of his life. Shocked at her own actions, Ms Tebbit recoiled, her eyes widening in fear when she saw me standing in the doorway. There had been a witness. She dismissed Viktor and he scrambled to his feet, exiting with his tail between his legs.
"I'm sorry you had to see that," Ms Tebbit said to me.
"It sounds like he deserved it."
"Do you think he'll say anything?"
"I doubt it. He's too proud. He'll say he got into a fight with a seven-foot weightlifter before he admits a woman got the better of him."
"What about you? You saw it."
"As I said, he had it coming. But maybe I'll call in a favour sometime," I joked.
"Thanks." She sounded relieved and gave me a rare smile.
Ms Tebbit was head of the history faculty, but she also taught my small advanced history class. The class was so small that they scheduled it an hour before regular classes, and by the middle of my senior year there were only three students left, including myself. Although she was an unpopular teacher, I had always had a soft spot for Ms Tebbit on account of her sharp wit and sharper tongue. I wouldn't say she was strict exactly, but she could be as fierce as a dragon and did not suffer fools, gladly or otherwise. As a teacher, she knew her subject well, and was always supportive of students who made a genuine effort.
If Ms Tebbit had a favourite student, I suspected it was me. We got on well in class, although she was somewhat of an enigma compared to other teachers. She never ventured much about her personal life. I guessed that she was in her late-40s or maybe in her 50s, an impression that was reinforced by her short dark hair, glasses, unflattering cardigans, and thin lips that seemed to almost never smile, despite her acerbic sense of humour. She may have been divorced or widowed because she only ever mentioned living with her cats.
Since I witnessed her assaulting Viktor, I'd been thinking about what kind of favour I could ask of Ms Tebbit. At the time I'd merely meant it as a joke, but the more I thought about it, the more I wondered whether I could turn it to my advantage. There was no point asking her to give me a better grade, because she wouldn't be marking my final exam. Even if she was, that was a bit unimaginative and I was more than capable of doing well on my own. If I'd done something to get myself in trouble, I guess I could have leveraged the incident, but so far I'd been quite lucky in that regard. Senior students already had significant privileges, so there wasn't much point trying to bargain for anything.
The penultimate day of classes before senior students went on study break was a particularly cold and wet Thursday morning, and I arrived to find Ms Tebbit alone in her classroom.
"Morning, Ms Tebbit," I mumbled. "Nice day for it."
"It is, isn't it?" she replied, sipping her tea, her face impassive.
I took my seat and started unpacking my books and pens quietly, while Ms Tebbit sat at her desk reading the morning newspaper. The clock ticked down to eight o'clock and the bell rang. The others hadn't arrived, so we waited in silence for a couple of minutes. "Let's give them a little longer," Ms Tebbit said over the top of her newspaper. "Maybe their bus is running late because of the rain."
Mike and Pete were more likely to be snoozing in their warm beds than sitting on a cold bus worrying about getting to class, but I kept that thought to myself and instead tried to think about whether there was anything I could ask from Ms Tebbit, given there were just two days of class left. It seemed a wasteful not to take advantage of this opportunity.
A thought popped into my head and I chuckled involuntarily. Ms Tebbit lowered her newspaper and examined be through her glasses, but I wasn't about to share and she raised the newspaper again, shaking her head.
Could it be that simple? Ms Tebbit wasn't ugly, but she wasn't exactly attractive either. Perhaps if she had longer hair or wore more flattering clothes things would have been different. On the other hand, female teachers didn't have to do much to be alluring to their male students. I once tugged myself off thinking about the frumpy red-faced farm teacher, Ms "Old" McDonald, simply because I'd seen the top of her pink panties sticking out of her skirt during class. Afterwards I felt a little strange, but the reality was that if Ms McDonald offered herself to me I wouldn't turn her down. And Ms Tebbit had at least maintained a slim figure. Maybe it was that simple after all.
It looked like the others were no-shows. I stood and looked out into the corridor. There was no one in sight, so I closed the door.
"Good thinking," Ms Tebbit said from behind her newspaper. "No point letting the hot air out anymore."
I walked to the front of the room on the pretence of standing by the heater and watched Ms Tebbit as she read. This was it. I'd done it before, but this was a bit different to Ms O'Morin. I'd seen what Ms Tebbit was capable of.
My hands were nice and warm as I stood behind Ms Tebbit and, in one smooth motion, reached over her shoulders and groped her modest breasts over her green cardigan. There was silence before Ms Tebbit spoke. "What the hell do you think you're doing!" she exclaimed indignantly. "Let go!"
"I want to say a proper goodbye."
"Get your hands off me now."
Ms Tebbit hadn't moved, but I could sense her fury. I did as I was told. She folded her newspaper deliberately and put it on her desk, then turned in her seat to look at me.
"Just what were you thinking?"
"I was thinking I'd call in that favour," I said with a sly smirk. "Remember?"
Ms Tebbit clearly did remember, I could see it on her face. "I didn't think you were serious."
"I wasn't then, but I am now."
"What is it you want, exactly?"
"Lock the door and close the blinds. Then we'll talk."
With a look of resignation, Ms Tebbit did as I asked, then returned to her seat. "So."
"I want to be clear, Ms Tebbit, that whatever happens, you have my respect."
"Respect? That's what you call groping me?"
"It's nothing personal." Ms Tebbit raised a narrow eyebrow in response, and I continued. "Suppose we were to continue our lesson now. Am I incapable of listening to you? Is it impossible for us to share a joke? Can I not enjoy your class? My gratification has nothing to do with how I feel about you as a person."
"I wonder if a rapist has ever used that line."
I laughed. "Okay, I shouldn't have touched you without permission. But you shouldn't have hit Viktor without his permission either. Two wrongs don't make a right, but if you tell, I tell β and you've got further to fall."
"So it's blackmail?"
I shook my head. "I see it as a choice. You can buy my silence or not."
"That sounds like blackmail."
"Consider it atonement for what you did to Viktor."
"I must say, this is a side of you I've not seen before. I'm not sure I like this ... this ... moral vigilantism." She paused, waiting for my response, but I said nothing. "I don't think it's much of a choice, but I suppose I have to choose your silence. What is it you want from me?"
"Let's talk."
"Talk?"
"Are you married?"
"No."
"Never?"
"No."
"You've had sex though?"
"Once or twice."
I grinned at her sarcasm. "With men or women?"
"Men."
"Only?"
"I hope you're not inferring anything from my haircut."