Previous: Behind the Door, Part 6 – An Erotic Story
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Miss Kennedy didn’t go back to her classroom after leaving her Kindergarteners in the lunchroom. She, instead, went to the reading specialist’s small room.
She peeked through the doorway. “Rachel?”
But the room was empty.
Jenna knew her coworker would be back soon, and she would have time to spare.
Jenna meandered through Rachel’s room. It was dolled up to rouse the joy of books in young, struggling readers. Cutouts of silly animals were pasted on the walls. The low counters had rows of books—some thin and tall, others thick and small, all illustrated. On the floor, there was a soft pink pillow in the corner of the room to offer a comfortable reading space.
Rachel had lit a single, wicked candle. It sweetened room with the scent of vanilla. Jenna stared at the tiny flame twitch side to side, back and forth. She recalled the days of odd events and awkward positions in which she found herself. She had done things she never dreamed of.
Jenna startled back to reality at hearing her name.
“I wasn’t expecting you here,” Rachel said. She plopped down a stack of children’s books on her horseshoe-shaped activity table.
“Have you heard anything about anything?” Jenna asked, leaving one eyebrow arched high.
“Anything?”
“Rumors about what amounts to a secret society?” Jenna tugged nervously at the long sleeves of her loose, pleated tunic.
“Ooh! I like secret societies because I like secrets. Nothing’s better than having the secret.” And she gave a little girlie hop and patted her hands. “So what’s the society? I’m not in it.”
“Remember you said you wanted to take me out for a drink?”
“Um, kind of.”
“Well, you did. Let’s go tonight. I have some ideas to run by you.”
“Ideas about starting a secret society?” She bounced her eyebrows.
“Yea, I guess we can talk about that.”
“Miss Kaufen,” a young student interrupted.
Both teachers looked at him.
“I want to read that book—’The Gray Goose’.”
Rachel shifted her hip to the side and put her hand on it.
“Didn’t you read that last week?” she asked lightheartedly.
“I love the book.”
“Not this week. Miss Kennedy wants to read it.”
“She’s right,” Miss Kennedy said with a smile of a lovely, kind teacher. “I like it too. One of my favorite books. But, Miss Kaufen, it wouldn’t be a problem. I can hold off one more week to read it.”
“No, no.” Rachel shook her head. “Choose another book and then you can borrow it again. Deal?”
“Which book?” the boy asked.
“Your choice, any book.” And she ran her hand along the tiny library, like a gameshow model showing off prizes.
The boy went on the hunt, pulling out books and shoving them back in.
“So we can meet after school?” Jenna confirmed.
“I’ll be ready.”
At happy hour, Jenna and Rachel were having cocktails at Harkenrider’s Bar.
Rachel set down the glass of her Irish coffee after a sip. She dabbed her lips.
“So, Jenna, about this ‘secret society’. I was in the Waffle House Club in college. Quite a fun group of students. Strange tastes, some of them.”
“All right, all right. Secret society might not be the best name, the right term. I am learning that a lot of stuff goes on at school. I would’ve never expected it.” She turned her cocktail glass on its thin napkin.
Rachel resettled in her seat, intrigued. “Continue.”
“You know about me and Jermaine.”
“Of course. I saved you, girl. You owe me. Natalia could have really done you in. You’d be out on your ass—your cute ass.”
“And I thank you. But I paid you back. That’s why I’m not paying tonight.” Jenna raised her glass and sipped without waiting for Rachel to raise hers.
Rachel lifted her glass and winked. “Your tongue was worth a lot more than drinks. That’s why I’m not complaining and am willing to pay the whole bill tonight. Just know reading specialists in elementary schools don’t get the big salaries of Kindergarten teachers.”
Jenna rolled her eyes. “If I had become a professional volleyball player in Europe, hmm. I’d be making decent money—much better than teaching school.”
“Professional volleyball?”
“Yeah, a player through high school and college. Had a few teams from overseas interested in me.” She tottered her head proudly and pushed her hair over her shoulders.
Rachel leaned against her seatback. “Strippers too, they make more money than teachers, you know.”
“Oh you know I know. I lived good in college. If webcams or today’s websites were available then, damn! things would have been much, much better. I’d be sitting on a mountain of cash and 401K savings. Reading the Wall Street Journal every day, getting richer and richer.”
“What do you read now?”
“People. Meh. Anyway, teaching lasts a lifetime. Sports and dancing only last a few years. One injury, a little weight, and it’s all over.”
“Teaching is forever and forever, sure, but teaching never gets you hurt or rich. They say most teachers stay at a school more than five years. Lots of time to build friendships. That’s a positive.”
“Funny you mentioned friendships.” Jenna paused.
Eyeing Rachel across their high-top table in the dark bar, Jenna knew this young lady was waiting for her to bring up the topic of the night on her own. Rachel would not push it. So Jenna moved.
“There are a lot of things happening at our school. A lot of people are friends. Real friends—’after hours’ friends.”
“Uh-huh. You’re meeting your guy-friend at lunchtime. I know you love it. It’s so obvious.”
“Is he your friend too?” Jenna said, still sidestepping the key topic of the night.
“Hmm. ‘Friend’.” Rachel pushed her grin to the right and her eyes darted left.
“I left Principal Simmon’s office that one night, and you were waiting just outside. He called you in. Both of them were in the office.” Jenna left the words hang in the air. “He also knew things before I told him things.”
“Things and knowing things—this about the secret society that’s worrying you?”
“Do I have to be that obvious?”
“In the intelligence world,” Rachel began, leaning forward as if she had classified information, “spies and sleuths have to keep secrets and share secrets. It’s a dual, duplicitous world.” Rachel then gave a sinister snigger.
“Hmm, a Kindergarten teacher and a reading specialist talking as if they’re secret agents. This is getting too absurd even for erotica.” Jenna ran her fingers along the handle of her drink glass. “What’s the name of the after-hours group?”
“A group? A name? Now you’ve gone right out of your mind.” She haha’ed. “You’re crazy. There’s nothing.”
“Well then, since operatives keep and share secrets, like you say, I’m going to take my chances and spill these beans.” Jenna put her hands on the edge of the table, and now she leaned forward. She pushed her ribs against the sharp edge. It reminded her of being bent over Principal Simmon’s desk in his office and his painful spanking.
“The other night, I had sex with Principal Simmon and—get this—Mrs. Mower. They reenacted what me, you, and Jermaine did. Remember that?”
Rachel leaned back again. “Mrs. Mower? You serious?”
Rachel gripped her cocktail glass and regripped it.
“Yes, Mrs. Mower. She acted as me and I—well, I was you.”
“She saw our video?”
“Yeah. Really liked it too.”
“How?”
“Natalia,” Jenna said simply. “She brought the video to Principal Simmon. It was her proof to get me fired. Right now, the charges—accusations—are being reviewed, investigated. I think I’m safe. Principal Simmon said so. Said so when he came to my room with Mrs. Mower. He just has to play like he’s investigating to not draw attention one way or the other.”
“Mrs. Mower.” Rachel repeated the name.
“You mean you didn’t know she…”
“Mrs. Mower,” she mumbled not responding to Jenna.
“Told me she got caught doing a student’s dad on a parent-teacher conference night. She and Principal Simmon have been hooking up for, maybe, a year now.”
Rachel took a drink and kept silent. Her eyes conveyed that she was caught up by something else. She was upset.
“Everything okay?” Jenna reached across the table to touch Rachel’s free hand.
She looked up, and forced the heaviness off her demeanor. “Fine.”
They were again silent for a few moments. Jenna wondered if she should quit the conversation and end the night. Rachel was triggered at learning about Mrs. Mower.
Jenna attempted to find out if Rachel wanted to talk.
“This school has, like, a curse on it,” Jenna said, flinging her hair to the side. “The building makes everyone sort of sexually crazed.”
Rachel gave a single huff. However, her attention still didn’t leave from where Jenna’s comments had taken her.
“So who all is doing it with who?” Jenna asked.
Rachel only took a longer, deeper drink.
Jenna tried to lighten the mood, while also tapping for information.
“Simmon’s got a spanking fetish, I think. Ever gotten you?” Jenna asked with a grin.
Rachel’s attention started to return.
Jenna urged in a near whisper. “Who’s all involved?”
“Just a couple of us. It was for fun—it is just for fun.”
Rachel finished her drink.
“Jenna, this is too much for me.” Before pushing away the drink glass, she muttered, “Mrs. Mower.”
“Rachel, look at me. Mrs. Hampton is not a part, is she?” Jenna attempted a lone giggle. She felt like choking. She knew the idea was absurd, but she still wanted to hear Rachel give a definite no.
“A part of what?”
“You know, the after-hours group.”
“There is no group.” Rachel blinked as if waking from a trance.
“You’re imagining a soirée with naked people. Insane! You’re way, way out there. You’re the one who’s sexually crazed.”
“So no one knows what’s happening? They’re all in the dark?” Jenna asked. But she was suspicious.
“I wouldn’t say that exactly. They assume and don’t ask questions. It’s how this works.”
Now Jenna leaned against her seatback of her stool. She tucked her hair behind her ears. She crossed her arms. Rachel had just admitted it, maybe, because her mind was consumed with Mrs. Mower.
Jenna waved to he bartender to order a second drink.
She prodded Rachel to tap for more information.
“Mrs. Mower, you know she was really good.”
Rachel stared dully at Jenna.
Jenna tried to think of what guys would say.
“What a set of tits!” She cupped her own chest. “She could knock a guy out with those things.” Jenna felt dumb saying that. “And her nipples! They’re the size of dates. And just as tasty.” She felt embarrassingly dumb.
“Dates? Tasty!” Rachel was astounded at the comment. “Tasty?”
Jenna shrugged, this time, with a smirk.
“I can’t believe…” Rachel’s words faded.
“I wouldn’t have expected it—her to show up with Matthew. I had to look twice. Wondered if I actually believed it.”
“She is so…” Rachel’s voice trailed off again.
“What? She’s so what?”
“A thief.”
Jenna scrunched her nose. She narrowed her eyes. “What was she stealing?”
“‘The Gray Goose.’ She stole it from me.”
“That kid’s book?”
Rachel nodded. “She always kept it. Never gave it up. She got it, and I had to hunt for it.”
“I assume she didn’t keep it so your kids would choose other books to read.” Jenna took a long drink from her second cocktail.
“That book means everything. Get the book and you get good things.”
Jenna slapped the tabletop with both hands. “Say what?”
“The book has messages in it.” Rachel’s eyes drew away from Jenna. They stared toward the floor.
Jenna set her elbows on the table. Her fingers interlocked.
“Messages in a book! I can’t believe it. World War II espionage redux.” Then Jenna leaned forward further. “And the book is passed around the school—teacher to teacher?”
Rachel exhaled her frustration. She then took a deep breath before opening up.
“It all began as a joke, right. Someone left a note in the book about wanting to get, um, ‘goosed.’ Follow where I’m going?”
Jenna dangled between confusion and laughter. “‘Goosed.’” A giggled took over.
“‘The Gray Goose’ is a key reading book for us.”
Jenna tsked her tongue as she rehashed Rachel’s words.
Rachel nodded. “A hand-written note was found in the book.”
“A note?” Jenna asked.
“I don’t know if it was from a deranged teacher, a joke from a kid. Hell, it may’ve been a prank—an older brother being an ass. Or what if a young kid found the note at home and just used it as a bookmark—innocent readers and parents’ bad penmanship. Whichever way it happened, there was interest in all of it—the whole thing.”
“Who got interested?”
“Me first. I thought it was funny. It was about that time me and Matthew got, you know.”
“No, I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore—who or what.” Jenna’s cheeks ballooned before she exhaled in frustration.
“I was laughing about the whole thing when Matthew came to my room. We laughed about the humor. When I turned to put the book away, he, well, he ‘goosed’ me.”
Jenna shook her head. “Wha—what did you say?”
“You heard me clearly.” A big smile crossed her mouth.
“He ‘goosed’ you in your room?”
“It was okay because it was after school. It was just a pinch in my room. We laughed about it for a few days until he called me into his office. And—haha—he really got me then. Ever since, if I had the book, he knew I was willing. So the goosing’s began.” She giggled, as if embarrassed while also proud of the memory.
Jenna nodded. “And more teachers joined—”
“You know the teachers drool over him,” she interrupted.
“—all of them wanting a copy of The Gray Goose.”
“No, not a copy. There is only one in the school—no other. It’s sort of like if you have the book, he knows you want it—you’re ready and willing.”
Jenna gasped, nearly choking on her drink. “That’s why you came to my room asking for the book. And that’s why…”
“You’ve been getting so many visits, yep.” Rachel sipped her empty glass.
“But you had it when Principal Simmon came with Mrs. Mower to my class.”
“This isn’t a perfect system. And I assume a porn video filmed on CCTV may be on a different level.” Rachel slid her empty glass to the center of the table. “I’m not fond of Mrs. Mower because she had the book for so long.”
“No, no. She got caught on CCTV too. That’s how theirs began. Not ‘The Gray Goose’.”
“Either way, she kept Matthew from me. I wanted him alone,” Rachel said flatly. There was a twinge of animosity. “For too long. And she’s older and heavier. I’m …”
“She certainly is that. You’re so trim and fit. You’re young. Can’t complain about that.”
“Yeah, but you liked her too. Just like Matthew. Great tits, you said. And—what were they—as large as dates?”
Jenna’s cheeks warmed. Hearing Rachel repeat her earlier comment about Karen’s nipples was embarrassing. She was glad Harkenrider’s was a dim bar.
“I was only saying…”
Rachel put up her hand. “Save it, girl.”
“Sorry.”
Rachel began to change the subject.
Jenna’s mind began to wander. She quietly tapped her forefinger against her lips as she began to piece parts together. CCTV, amateur porn videos, Mrs. Mower, The Gray Goose, losing Matthew, Natalia getting the film. Did a student actually get into the system for Mrs. Hampton? Or was it another teacher—maybe a reading specialist who pulled the video from the network?
“Jenna. Hello. Are you there?” Rachel tapped her hand, rousing Jenna from her thoughts.
Jenna interrupted Rachel’s one-sided conversation.
“So did you know a kid—some student—hacked the network and pulled down the video of us—you, me, and Jermaine?” Jenna asked.
“Oh, wow! Students are so smart nowadays.” She shook her head. “We’ll never be safe.”
“Unless,” Jenna said, pointing her finger up as if she had a novel idea, “we go back to ‘The Gray Goose’ society.”
Rachel teetered her head side to side regarding “The Gray Goose” idea.
“But I’m not so sure it’s a student who grabbed the video evidence.” Jenna let the words linger between her and Rachel for a brief moment. “Maybe someone else did it—someone who knows the backdoor into the network.”
“Bobby, the computer teacher?” Rachel raised her eyebrows to pinpoint the skinny man as the intruder.
“No, not him.”
“Ron in physics knows stuff.”
“No.”
“Who then? You’ve got a theory,” she sing-songed like a teenager.
“It’s you.”
Rachel’s voice screeched. “Me? What the hell. Why?”
“You know too much.” Jenna squinted her eyes. “You’re into everything and are at just the right place at the right time.”
“That’s cookie talk. All nonsense.”
“I disagree, Rachel. I wonder how Principal Simmon got a hold of the video of Mrs. Mower and that student’s dad on parent-teacher night.”
Rachel crossed her arms and sat back.
“And how did you know? Was it a mistake to let her in on the secret of ‘The Gray Goose’? You thought she’d get caught and fired because of the video. But things went a different direction. Totally different. You lost your man—the lady with big titties stole him.”
Jenna taped her drink glass with a fingernail tip. Maybe a death knell for Rachel.
Rachel shook her head and huffed. “You’re reading too deep into this. Assumptions, assumptions. Jenna, you know nothing.”
“I wonder if my job is safe now, as long as I’m not taking away your Matthew. But my night with him and Karen—I may have to get a new job sooner rather than later.”
Rachel’s eyes narrowed in anger as she listened.
“Am I safe? Who is?” Jenna spoke aloud, prodding Rachel. “Natalia knows a lot too. Amateur porn even without a gray goose. She wouldn’t have that book in her room, but a video in hand. She knew about Jermaine and was right at the exit door when I came by. Interesting.”
Rachel’s lips then pursed, and her stare pierced Jenna. But Jenna fended off the spears.
Rachel grabbed her small pocketbook and rummaged through it as she spoke.
“Jenna, I am so upset that you conjured up all this and tagged me as the centerpiece. You read way too many novels.”
She unzipped her wallet and dug around for cash. There was the muffled jingle of keys and clack of lipstick cases and pens. Finally, Rachel slammed down a ten-dollar bill.
“I’m leaving. I don’t want to see you again. Don’t even come near my room.”
Then she stormed out, her bag swinging behind her.
Jenna was left alone at the table in Harkenrider’s. So many parts had come together so quickly. She was somewhat proud to have done her Sherlock Holmes diligence, but now she also faced several tough decisions:
Continue with her rendezvouses at school under the principal’s protection.
Resign to separate herself from the secrets, as another means of protection.
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