Free Discipline by Stella Rhys Page B

Which
reminds me that I need to apologize for acting all PMS-y this whole
weekend.”
    I laughed. “Okay.”
    “Basically my period’s coming but it’s being
all late so I have all the symptoms but they won’t go away. And
don’t make a joke that maybe I’m pregnant because you have to have
sex to get pregnant and we all know that it’s been like, closed for
business down there since the beginning of time. Which is less sad
to me lately because turns out Reesa from my textiles class is a
virgin! And she’s so pretty, so whattayaknow.”
    “Ooh, really.”
    All I could do was nod and kind of smile. I
had just mustered up the courage to send a text that I’d somehow
spent fifteen minutes composing, and I couldn’t stop reading it
over and over.
    Daniel, I’m so sorry about what happened
yesterday. I can’t apologize enough for it — I didn’t mean to drag
you into this and I wish I could thank you in person for what you
did.
    I couldn’t stop obsessing over “thank you in
person.” I hoped that it didn’t sound desperate, though I was in
fact desperate to see him again. After confessing my history with
Daniel to Linh, she helped me get his cell number from Mike. I
wasn’t about to raise suspicion and ask anyone for it, especially
since the whole kitchen scuffle had drawn a witness. Following that
whole mess, Daniel had stayed at the party for just long enough to
know that Ben wasn’t coming back. I had planned to slip an apology
in before he left, but I couldn’t with Mr. Davies glued nosily to
his side, even as he walked to his car.
    Defeated and racked with guilt, I took that
time to go straight to my room, reaching the top of the stairs when
Mr. Davies came back inside and spoke to me from the bottom of the
steps.
    “Mr. Cole told me that he saw the blonde
haired fellow grab you,” he said in a hushed tone, continuing only
when I stopped and turned. “I’m guessing that’s why he sprung into
action. I would do the same if it were my wife or girlfriend,
though I can’t say I’d have used quite as much force since I’m not
a very angry man.” He paused. “But then again, Daniel isn’t a very
angry man. And you’re certainly not his girlfriend.” He gave me a
look. It wasn’t a question, but his old eyes squinted as if waiting
for me to confirm. My attempt at a casual response was marred by
the crack in my voice.
    “Of course not.”
    He stared for a few more seconds before
nodding and starting back towards the kitchen. “Of course not.
You’re old enough to remember how those stories end in this
town.”
    Kind of. The student-teacher scandals that
rocked Woodhill happened before I reached the high school, so I
never paid a whole lot of attention to the “Miss Mullens Thing”
that happened when I was in elementary school, or the “Mr. Brown
Thing” that happened when I was in middle school. But I knew who
had probably scoured every last detail and stored them all in her
memory.
    “Hey, remember the Mr. Brown thing? Or the
Miss Mullens thing?” I interrupted Kelsey’s story about Reesa from
Textiles. She didn’t seem to mind.
    “Omigod, yes ?” Her answer was
incredulous. “Definitely about Mr. Brown. Do you not? He was like a
poor man’s Mr. Cole, which isn’t bad at all.” She drew her tongue
across her lower lip. “God, I wish he still taught here. My
student-teacher fantasy might’ve had a shot if he didn’t fall off
the face of the earth.”
    “You’d… sleep with him?”
    “Yes. Sorry, not sorry.”
    “But I thought… wait, what was his story
again?”
    “Really? Oh my God,” Kelsey groaned at my
lack of knowledge, though she was more than happy to fill me
in.
    Mr. Brown had been one of the younger
teachers at the high school — cute and apparently known for being a
bit of a flirt, but mostly with pretty teachers and moms. I have a
faint memory of Aunt Erin wondering if he was sleeping with Bree
Hannigan, but dismissing the thought because of something