The next morning I woke up feeling terrible. I was exhausted, though I remembered sleeping well. Everything ached. I was just... done. I didn't get ready nor ring the bell for Mrs Duckworth. Maybe I could have a sick day? I didn't know if they did sick days here, but surely they must have something in place. I rolled over in bed and tried to go back to sleep.
My whole body jolted as the door opened suddenly.
"Why aren't you up?" Mrs Duckworth snapped.
"Sick," I said.
"No you're not. Get up. Now."
Dare I refuse? None of my attempts to defy Mrs Duckworth had ever gotten me anywhere but worse off. Reluctantly, I rolled out of bed. She stood over me while I got ready then marched me off to the meal hall, deposited me at the wellbeing window and left. The wellbeing window is where we started all our meals. We were given any medications we were taking, which for me meant an array of vitamins, along with a card that we presented to the meal station. The card listed dietary requirements, by which I mean The Academy controlled what and how much we ate. I'd almost missed breakfast completely, so the wellbeing window was unattended. There was a bell to ring for such occasions, but I didn't think I could stomach breakfast. I could have done with a cup of tea but I hadn't had a decent cup since I arrived; it was served lukewarm. Rumours were that it was because some girl had once attacked a teacher by flinging hot tea on them, but nobody I knew had claimed to have actually seen it happen. Some other girls were leaving the meal hall already and so I followed them out and headed to my first class.
"You look terrible." Was how David greeted me when I arrived to class.
"I feel terrible." I plonked myself down at my assigned desk.
"Tough detention?" he asked. So, he knew about that. Teachers always say they don't gossip about students in the staff room, but honestly, who believes that?
"Yeah."
"Wanna tell me about it?" I wondered how much he knew, or rather, what aspects Mr Rogers had already bragged about. But on second thoughts, I didn't really want to know the answer to that question. Nor did I particularly want to relive yesterday.
"Don't you know already? Aren't you all omniscient and stuff?" To this David chuckled.
"Of course," he said, "But it will do you good to talk about it."
I tried to keep it brief, but he kept pressing for more and more detail. He seemed very interested about my time on the cross and what the young men had done to me, but not so interested in the men themselves.
"Do you know where they might have come from?" I asked, hoping I wasn't being too obvious in trying to find out more about my location.
"Sure," he replied, "and then what happened?" Well, I'd tried.
When it came to my time in Mr Roger's office, however, he didn't want detail at all and encouraged me to just summarise what I'd done.
"You don't want to hear about this bit?" I asked.
"Meh." David shrugged. "Too many sausages, not enough buns."
"What?"
"You know...
sausages
... like a penis? And
buns
, well, in this case only one--"
"No, I get that part. But the
sausage
to
bun
ratio didn't really change that much. What, three
sausages
and one
bun
is fine, but a fourth is a no-go?" David laughed.
"No, love."
"Then what? So what's the ideal ratio?"
"Well, for me, one sausage and lots of buns." He giggled rather shyly, "The one sausage being mine."
"Yeah, I figured."
"Heh. You don't approve?"
"Well... not that I don't approve, just, that's a little, I don't know..." I paused, wondering if I should continue down this line. But what the hell. "Selfish."
"Selfish? How?"
"Ok, so a man has one... um... penis, right?"
"Most do--"
"And don't you dare say you're God and have fifty billion penises or two of them or whatever. Just one." David cracked up laughing at this and I waited a moment for him to quiet so I could continue. "So a man can please, like, one woman, because he has just one penis. But a woman, well, she's got--"
"One pussy?"
"No, I mean, yes, but there's other... well, other holes. You know."
"Like the shitty one." David nodded like he was agreeing, but I felt he was teasing me somehow.
"Yes, or her mouth. So a woman can have, like, two or three penises in her, so she can please two or three men at once."
"I see." I felt he didn't.
"What I'm saying is, one woman can pleasure lots of men, but one man can't pleasure lots of women."
"I see. Very wise."
"Yeah, well, more
sausages
than
buns
makes more sense." David burst out laughing again, and I was sure he'd been holding that in a while.
"Love, I'm sorry," he said through wheezes, "but that is just not how it works."
"It is!" I protested.
"Love, I think I've had more group sex than you have." Well, that was probably true. "It's not about how many
sausages
and
buns
are there, it's about sharing pleasure, the giving and receiving. Plus personal preference. I don't like other
sausages
involved when I'm getting my
sausage
handled, if you know what I mean. When Dick took you-- that's Mr Rogers to you--"
"Did you just call him Dick?"
"Yes, that's his name. Dick Rogers." I burst out laughing. "Well, he prefers Richard, but I call him Dick. He doesn't like it, but--" David shrugged and there was a sparkle in his eye. "Nothing he can do about it." I relished the thought of that, David being the son of the man who was essentially Mr Roger's boss would mean that there really wasn't anything he could do about that. It also suggested that David didn't like Mr Rogers either. "But anyway, I was saying when he took you to the wall there was one bun, and lots of sausages. But in the office afterwards there was lots of sausages but only one bun. Different, see?"
"Sure." I didn't see, but I wasn't sure David's explanation was going to get any better from another attempt. They rarely did.
"Besides, pleasuring a person is about far more than genitals. I can pleasure multiple ladies at once and I don't even need one penis to do it, but it is a lot more fun if I use it." He shrugged. "But it can be fun without, too. Pleasure can be given and received without anyone's genitals being involved. Come, I'll show you. Take your clothes off."
"Uh..." Our conversation had been rather lighthearted and teasing. I hadn't expected it to take that sort of turn. "Do I have to?"
"Teaching moment," he said, "Besides, you'll enjoy it, I guarantee. Up you get." I stood up, but then I wasn't quite sure where to start with taking my clothes off. I felt all shy and awkward, which I suppose was natural, except for the fact that random teachers forcing me to strip off in class should have been second nature to me by now.
There was a knock on the door. Ad I just been saved by the bell? Or in this case, the knock.
"Come!" David said. The door opened and one of the guards entered. "What is it? What's wrong?" There was a note of urgency and concern in David's voice.
"Nothing Sir," the guard said, "But Kassandra here missed her pills this morning." He held up a small paper cup. What? Really? They sent a guard just for that?
"Kassandra, why did you skip your medication? It's important!" David asked me.
"No it's not, it's just vitamins. I slept in and missed breakfast, didn't feel up to eating anyhow." David took the cup from the guard and handed it to me.
"Take them now," he said.