Chapter 2
Dressed as a slut by a student
The simple walk to the car park was embarrassing for Jessie as she was still wearing the skirt hiked up, showing off too much leg for comfort. Graham wouldn't let her pull it down and an appeal to Paula didn't help. Unaccountably it was the canvas flat shoes that left her feeling small and insignificant between her two tall students. It was that feeling of helplessness, plus the chance of escaping school before she was found out, that kept her going along with them.
A student had been mistaken for her by the teaching examiner so here she was pretending to be a student while Jenny pretended to be the student teacher. If all went well she could avoid being thrown off the course and losing her career with the help of her students covering for her and pass this final week of her course. After a good night's sleep she would refresh her will power and tomorrow regain control of the class and manage it through Jenny.
At least no-one knew her at this school as it was her first day as a student teacher. The only contact with other teachers was a brief visit to the staff room this morning and so it was hardly likely anyone would recognise her. She looked like a student so would be dismissed as one, hardly noticed in the crowd.
The principal's strident voice was unmistakable and it cut right through her. Jessie stopped right by her car unable to move. Jessie was so close yet unable to take that extra step into the car for a longed for escape. It seemed that everyone was conspiring against her, tripping her up with little misdemeanours, pushing her along an unpleasant track.
Her edginess made it sound as though he were shouting at her. It would be so unfair to be found out now after being so close to escaping school.
"Graham! How are we set for the game?" the principal asked, with enthusiasm.
She listened to every word of their undecipherable discussion expecting any moment her boss would ask what she was up to. Paula took a hold of her arm startling her, moving her out of the way to open the rear car door. Jessie watched it swing as though seeing it for the first time.
Her eyes were wide absorbing the tableau as though it was in black and white, everything in slow motion. Paula shoved her into the back seat. She managed to crane her neck, intently staring through the glass at her boss and Graham, sharing an animated muffled dialogue.
He still hadn't noticed her or that a student, Paula, was about to drive a teachers car out of the teachers car park. Paula leaned over opening the passenger door encouraging Graham to get in.
Jessie heard their conversation flood in without hearing her name being mentioned as she feared it might. At last Graham slid onto the seat with a big smile on his face from the encouragement he had received; she nervously looked out of the back window. Her boss was striding off engrossed in thoughts of the big match this weekend, missing their subterfuge, which was a transgression of school rules on so many levels.
Jessie was supposed to be in charge of these eighteen year olds but it had all gone wrong leaving her in a difficult situation, where she was reliant upon their co-operation. With her clothes and hair pulled into something her students thought would make her look like one of them she had sunk into the role, but that would have to change. As they drove off she ran the absurd little mistake through yet again, wondering how she could have handled it differently.
For a start she shouldn't have let a student pull her skirt up so short or loosen her blouse or let her hair down. She shouldn't have played the part of a student being interviewed so perfectly in a role-play exercise.
When the examiner walked in she should have been aware of him and stopped acting like a stupid airhead student. The student acting as interviewer in their little act thought she was helping out by pretended to be the teacher in front of the examiner. That was the point at which it all went so badly wrong.
In front of the examiner Jenny had usurped her place as teacher while she hid herself among the students. Now Jenny had plans to rule, with the class's connivance, for the rest of the week. If she had stood her ground rather than let the farce take its course she might have saved herself all this messing around.
She was running away from school like a silly little school girl after letting the students take over her class. She felt pathetic. She was a twenty-eight year old experienced woman letting a bunch of teenagers run her around. It was time to make a stand.
She would have to take back control of the class starting right now by taking back her car. They pulled up at a red light so Jessie pulled on the door handle finding the child-lock was on. Jessie rolled her eyes with the irony of it. They started off again so she opened her mouth to tell Paula to pull over.
"What happened to Jenny in the store room?" Paula shot the question over her shoulder, not seeing Jessie react badly.
Jessie cringed in the seat seeming to fold in on her self. She had let Jenny take responsibility for her stupid mistake, letting her pretend to be the student teacher. While covering for her, Jenny had gone into the storeroom with the examiner where something bad had happened. She wouldn't say anything about it but she was taking it out on Jessie.
Jenny's inexperience let her down and in turn Jessie felt terribly guilty at letting her student down. Jessie sat there wondering what he had done to her and what she could do to make it up to the young woman.
Graham opened the door pulling Jessie out.
"Where are we?" she asked, feeling as though waking from a bad dream. The act of taking her car back from them was lost for the moment while shaken up from the guilt over what had happened to Jenny.
"A mall, I'm going to get you some clothes," Paula announced gleefully.
"I don't need anything, just give me a chance to pull myself together," Jessie complained. Graham shoved her shoulder, making her follow Paula.
"You need some clothes to make you look like a student for the rest of the week," Graham stated.
"No. I can't go through with this farce. If I get kicked off the course then I'll just have to accept it," Jessie told them both. She was trying to be firm, not so much for them but her own benefit, trying to build the will power to face such a situation.