My classmates were suitably sympathetic about my trials over tea, especially when I told them I still had a 'pop quiz' that evening.
"He's just the worst," Stephanie said, referring to Mr Rogers.
"Second worse," said Jennifer. Of all of us, Jennifer had been here the longest and was the best source of information.
"Who's the worst?" asked Natalie.
"Mr Sòng," Jennifer answered. Now that caught my attention, in the same way an actor in a show on the telly does when you just can't place them. You sit there thinking 'I know that voice, now what else are they from?' and it bugs you until you get it. Could she be speaking of Sòng lǎo shī, or lǎo shī as I usually referred to him? David had told me first day that he didn't like being called 'Mr' and it was quite a few lessons before I figured out that the 'Sòng' part of 'Sòng lǎo shī' referred to his surname. So I'd never called, nor thought of him as Mr Sòng before. But now Jennifer had said it, I knew I'd heard the name before. Had David said it? I tried to remember what he'd said once when mentioning why he didn't like being called Mr. Had he said, "Mr is my father, and I'm not him." Or "Mr Sòng is my father, and I'm not him." I was pretty sure he'd said the former.
"Who's Mr Sòng?" Natalie asked. But for me, Natalie was the newest girl here and often, just as she had in this moment, asked questions I wanted the answer to.
"Mr Sòng? Why, he's the fucking owner of this whole place, that's what." Jennifer answered.
"And yes, worse than Mr Rogers," Stephanie agreed, "though Mr Rogers is what you get every day, pray you have next to nothing to do with Mr Sòng. He's a vile monster. I-- I don't even have words to describe how twisted and perverted his mind must be."
Memories of my first day came flooding back. That's where I'd heard the name before, the headmaster had referred to him. "Paid a fair penny" for me, he'd said. But this creepy and twisted Mr Sòng, he couldn't be the same person as David... could he?
"He's... inhuman, is that an actual word?" Jennifer added to Stephanie's description. "You'll meet him at some point, but hope he doesn't take interest in you; the less you have to do with him the better. Just don't draw attention to yourself, don't engage him, don't ask questions, no matter how innocent they are. I asked him how his son was once... big mistake."
"He has a son?" I asked.
"Yes, gosh I feel sorry for him to have a father like that, he's a darling. I met him once, he lives with his mother in Vietnam now. You see there was this awful row--" At this point, a guard noticed our conversation and shushed us; we fell silent. But I'd already felt a flood of relief at Jennifer's words. Or course, that was it. David must be the son of the owner. It actually made a lot of sense. How David seemed to think he knew everything, his cocky confidence, how he was teaching me but wasn't a teacher before then. Was his mother Vietnamese, I wondered? He seemed to have a bit of a thing for Vietnamese women, I'm sure Freud would have something to say about that. And was there was some disagreement between him and his father? Did David not approve of some of the things which happened here? I hoped that was the case. I tried not to think too hard about why I was so relieved that David wasn't the Mr Sòng which Jennifer and Stephanie were talking about. David was fun, and yes, had given me a few amazing orgasms. I didn't want to go confusing things by having emotions towards him. No, no emotions, I told myself. These were simply practical thoughts. If David was not in agreeance with his father about The Academy, then I might have a powerful ally.
After tea, I reported to Mr Rogers and he walked me to his office. Neither of us spoke on the journey, I was still sore and tired and just looking forward to getting this thing over and done with. He opened the door and ushered me in first. As soon as I walked in I froze. The office was already occupied. It was a small room, but big for a teacher's office. There was a desk and chair on one wall, and a bookcase on one of the others. There were two three-seater couches, one on each of the two remaining adjacent walls, pushed together to make an L shape. I recognised the three young men who occupied the office immediately, on one couch sat Handsome and Pimples, that is to say Hackett and Seymour, and on the other sat Kingsley who was the one I'd dubbed Sexy.
"Remember your friends?" Mr Rogers' asked. "I thought I'd ask them to help with tonight's quiz. Of course he fucking did. Why, oh why couldn't Mr Rogers just be decent for once? Of course, the fact he was forcing me to give him a blow job at all was hardly decent, but perspective changes the measure of decency. "Now Kassandra, be polite, say hello and thank these young for giving up their evening to help us."
"Good evening Mr Kingsley, Mr Hackett and Mr Seymour, thank you for helping us and giving up your so very valuable time this evening." I gave them the sort of smile you give when you are really not happy to see someone, and you don't care if they know, but society dictates you appear polite. Kingsley and Hackett appeared to pick up that my smile and voice were dripping with fake niceties, but Seymour appeared not to notice, or at least, not be bothered.