The Secret Legacy of Pan - English Translation

Chapter Eight

GAMES

I was on time. When I entered the chemistry classroom on Wednesday morning, Corey handed me a sticky note. "Today's theme", he whispered before sitting down in his seat. I waited until I was sat down as well before unfolding the note that said: Get Ms Black to say oral sex. My mouth stood wide open.

"Oh? That game again?", Lee asked curiously. I handed him the sticky note. I noticed that he was just as careful not to touch me as I was. He read the note and a small smile formed around his lips.

Ms Black entered the room and started her teaching. Lee leaned over to me. "What does the winner get?"

I looked at him, bewildered. "What?"

"What do I get if I succeed?"

"You won't", I whispered, my gaze trained on the blackboard in front to not draw any unwanted attention. "Nobody will succeed. Look at her." I nodded in the direction of the blackboard, where Ms Black was currently noting down "Barium sulphate precipitation". Her chequered pleated skirt, the Scottish Highlands model, ended at her knees, the rest of her legs were covered by grey stockings. On top of that, she was wearing a knitted vest with a white blouse underneath and a brooch at her neck. She was the personified picture of a matron. Nobody at this school had ever heard of anything pointing towards a partner in Ms Black's life. If sex ed had been a thing in her days, she had likely skipped that class. For the first and last time in her life.

"The reason she isn't a biology teacher is so she doesn't have to teach that stuff", I explained to Lee.

He was grinning confidently. "What will you give me if I succeed?", he persisted.

"I'll treat you to ice cream", I repeated his own idea.

"That's not enough. Like you said, it isn't easy to sway Miss Black. I need a little more incentive." I forgot about the blackboard for a second to stare at him. Did he want me to show up without a T-shirt in P.E...

He interrupted my train of thoughts. "Take me to your mum's pub."

"WHAT?"

I was so surprised I could not speak any quieter. People around us were staring. Including Ms Black.

"Miss Morgan, is there something you don't understand?"

I looked back and forth between Lee and Miss Black. He leaned back with a confident smile.

"Fine", I whispered through my teeth, then said loudly to Miss Black: "Mr FitzMor here just told me he thinks your thesis is illogical." Lee narrowed his eyes – I had gotten him into an impossible situation.

"Do you mean to tell me you know more about radium than Marie Curie, Mr FitzMor?", Ms Black asked sternly. Her small, brown horn-rimmed glasses were trembling in an outrage.

Lee did not even bother sitting upright. He was still leaning back totally relaxed beside me. "Let's be honest, Marie Curie lived over a hundred years ago. Since her time, humanity has evolved significantly", he said calmly. "The cars of that time barely had three PS, today there are engines with over six hundred. Before, millions of people died of the Spanish flu, which can be treated with a little bit of penicillin today. We have invented bagged soup, chemical cleaning, condoms with flavouring." The last point earned a few giggles. Lee ignored them. "Wouldn't you agree that Marie Curie did great things back in her days, but that we have evolved past them by now?"

Ms Black had crossed her arms over her chest and was impatiently rocking back and forth on her feet. "You have to consider the fact that the wheel can't be reinvented and that some things stay consistent."