Part one
The ripple of quiet murmuring slowly travelled down the line of boys until it reached David who was standing alone at the back. Unlike his peer group he was not really that interested, but he casually registered the triumphant chattering about; "Mrs. Raymond's wearing a short skirt today." David smiled as he saw a couple of girls roll their eyes at this testosterone-fuelled elation. He knew the girls with equal excitement would soon be discussing Mrs. Raymond's choice of clothes or her new hairstyle. To the boys she was someone to lust after; to the girls a style icon, to David though she was just a teacher.
As he walked into the class that day David decided to study her a little more closely as he mused on what the fuss was about. Sure she was attractive, her tall frame meant she was slim with shapely legs. Mrs. Raymond was fond even at school of wearing high-heeled shoes, which toned her legs perfectly. The shoes ensured every muscle in her calves and thighs were sharply defined. Her dark brown hair framed a pretty face with attractive cheekbones and large brown eyes. There was no questioning her attractiveness and many of David's friends had commented on what a lucky man her husband was. The rumor was he was much older, and that he was a villain, or even a big time gangster, but as with lots of things at school David wondered if someone had just made these stories up.
David snapped out of his daze as the headmaster popped his head round the door.
"Sally have you got the keys to the staff room," the headmaster asked, while David quickly found his seat. Mrs. Raymond immediately handed over a set of keys, as the class thought how odd it was to hear their teacher called by her first name. By now everyone was seated and the history lesson began. David had never been a fan of history; preferring practical classes like woodwork and metalwork to the more academic stuff, but Sally Raymond's teaching style made even History an engaging subject. She showed them how to research a topic. To critically assess the facts and draw their own conclusions as to what was going on. Even better they looked at the effect on ordinary people of events like the moon landings, or sporting triumphs, rather than studying historical figures and what they did. This caught David's imagination far more than remembering a list of dates and facts about some grand event.
The past half-terms work had been exactly an example of this. Sally had given everyone projects and David had been told to look at a family called the Raimondi's. David's had found it fascinating learning about how the Raimondi's had become one of the key Mafia families. A Paolo Raimondi had become one of the most feared Gangster's of the forties, and his sons and grandsons (often given the same first name) had continued in the "family" business. He had managed to trace their activities illegal and llegal to almost the current day when they disappeared. The family seemed to scatter around the world, and go completely legitimate. Any remaining dodgy dealings became myth or legend.
It had been great fun piecing this work together and after being reviewed by Sally, she had told him to add a chapter on what the Raimondi's might be doing today. It had been the best task of all, writing a piece on what might have happened to them all. To David's delight Sally had given him an "A" for his project.
At the end of the class their teacher engaged them in a brief discussion about what they wanted to do next week, it was to be the final lesson of the school year. Traditionally the last lesson contained some kind of treat for the class. The unanimous vote was on watching a movie, but there was little consensus on what. Eventually Sally ended the class by telling them she would pick the movie for them and everyone left smiling and chatting. Many of the boys tried to get one last look at Mrs. Raymond's legs as they walked out.
One girl asked. "Where did you buy your ear rings miss?" Mrs. Raymond smiling gave a short concise answer and thanked the girl when she added. "They are lovely miss."
The class was on average nineteen years of age and Sally was only twenty-five so the age gap was not that great. David left wondering if his teacher knew how the class idolized her for their various reasons, and how she was the most popular teacher in school. Mrs. Raymond always gave very little away, so it was impossible to tell what she absorbed from the goings on around her.
A week later the class sat watching, "The Godfather," and Sally Raymond smiled to herself, crossing her legs under the desk as she did so. Her choice of movie had been spot on and the class was fully absorbed in watching it. True it was violent, but it was historical, and many of them like David had recently done projects in the area of organized crime. It also allowed her the opportunity to study David without him noticing. She knew most of the boys lusted after her in the way young men would and she loved it. Sally enjoyed the way they thought up elaborate excuses to talk to her or offered to do menial tasks to help her. Over time the fact she was attractive to her male pupils and of interest to some of the female ones had become more and more important to her. Sally soon realized dressing well helped her gain popularity, so she focused on this more and more. It seemed to create the following from the girls; the boy's interest was of course far easier to generate. Her self-esteem was driven by this popularity, all be it she tried to be a good educator to her pupils too.
David was different though, he was more aloof, but a hard worker. Over the course of the last two years he had gone from bottom of the class to the top, showing real talent as a historian. It was a shame that despite this talent his heart seemed to lie in practical subjects. His woodwork teacher spoke very highly of him and also thought he had real promise. The question Sally pondered whilst watching him was whether he could be persuaded to take further history education and whether he could afford it. Or did he really want to set up his own business in some kind of trade such as building.
Sally wondered why she continued to dwell on David's motives. For her plan it did not matter much, as long as he needed or liked money and who didn't? It wasn't like she cared about the boy. All she had to do was talk him into helping her and he was without question the one she most wanted to ask. For a start he was disinterested in her. This might seem a problem, but it would make it more of a challenge and she liked that idea. He also had the practical skills to support the cover story she had worked out. The million-dollar question was would he be happy to aid her and her husband. She smiled at the idea of him helping her husband. The simple fact that his aloofness made him the right choice also made his response to assisting a difficult thing to predict. Sally thought he might need some persuasion, but she knew from experience she would be good at that. All be it to get what she wanted might require some patience from her and others.
The movie was coming to an end now and the class would soon be leaving. It was at the end of the movie that Sally dropped her bombshell that she would be leaving the school and so would not be teaching them next year. She smiled to herself, delighted at how disappointed they all looked. All that is apart from David, who seemed not to be concerned by the news.
Sally had a lot of marking to do and her daydreaming had not helped her get through it. The goodbyes and good lucks kept going on for ages before Sally was finally left in the classroom on her own with the door shut. Deciding for the umpteenth time that she would go through with her plan concerning David, she took a deep breath and returned to the marking. God how she hated it, but hopefully there was some fun times to come now school was finally over.
At the end of that final school day of the year, David was shocked to get a note to go and see Mrs. Raymond in her class. He wondered what on earth could be the reason, perhaps he had left something behind, but he could not think what. There did not seem to be any way he could be in trouble.
When he walked into Sally Raymond's classroom David found her sitting on her desk, legs crossed, looking at a laptop. She immediately looked up and stared at him. He felt himself blush a little as his eyes travelled up from her black high-heeled shoes, up her legs and body, to her face. When his eyes met hers she smiled warmly. Her whole face lit up and David found himself realizing just how pretty she was.
"Hello David, thanks for popping in to see me, please sit down," she said warmly. "I have a favor you might be able to help me with." David sat and listened as she explained what she wanted to see him about. It was hard work though not being distracted by her legs, which were right in front of him, at head height. Sally seemed to be careful to keep her knees close together but it didn't stop David's mind wandering.
However he soon grasped what Mrs. Raymond was saying. Basically with her husband she had agreed that they would build a log house in their garden over the summer. This would then allow them to move the study from the house to the new building, and free up a bedroom to become a nursery. David expressed surprise that Mrs. Raymond was pregnant, but before he could say anything more and assume this was her reason for leaving, she explained she wasn't yet expecting a baby. However, Sally explained she was hoping that she would be expecting soon.
