Don't Worry About It

Chapter 2

The next morning, Larissa awoke momentarily confused why she was still dressed from the day before but was quickly reminded by a pounding headache. She stumbled to the kitchen to pour herself a tall glass of water and drank it greedily as if she hadn't drunk for days. The headmistress began to have a foggy recollection of her hedonistic daydreams from the previous day but was distracted by the many email notifications she saw on her phone. Finally, she made her way to her office, opened her laptop, and began to dig her way out of the many emails that were waiting in her inbox. It had been nearly two hours when she came across a message with the subject line "open me." Bracing herself for spam, she clicked on it hesitantly.

Dear Principal Weems,

My my my. What do we have here... it seems as if you have an admirer. When the students are away Weems will play. Looks like you'll have your hands full with a certain new faculty member...

-Anonymous

There was a link at the bottom below the signature. Larissa knew better than to click on suspicious links, but her curiosity got the better of her. She clicked it and was redirected to a online writing platform. A story popped up on her screen and she began to read.

It was nearly ten o'clock when she ushered me into her office. The room was dark and the fire cast shadows across the room as she gestured for me to sit. I glanced nervously at the raven perched on the corner of her desk and wondered what fate awaited me. "Have you been a good girl for me?" she asked as I fiddled with the hem of my skirt. I looked up at her as she waited expectantly. "Yes, headmisstess." The tall blonde woman bent down and whispered in my ear, "show me."

Larissa slammed her laptop shut. Her cheeks were tinged pink as she dared not read further. This couldn't be... could it? She bit her lip in contemplation and took a deep breath. She slowly opened her laptop again and scrolled to the top of the story to see when it was published. Two days ago. Shit. Suddenly she had an idea. She jotted down the website name and logged in to the Nevermore server. All websites accessed on campus were recorded- perhaps there was a chance it had been uploaded on the school's network and not the author's private one. She scrolled two days prior and scanned the site names. Because the campus was nearly vacant, there wasn't much for her to scroll through and soon enough she found a match. Larissa sat in stunned silence as she wrapped her head around what she had discovered. She re-read the anonymous email searching for clues, but her head was spinning so fast she couldn't think straight. What if it were fake? Or worse... what if it were real? She hardly knew the woman; how could she be writing fanfiction about her? Larissa closed her laptop once more and decided to clear her head. She had been staring at a screen for the better part of the morning and could do with some fresh air. She rose from her desk and made her way out to the courtyard. Just as she swung open the door she nearly collided with the woman in front of her. "Oh! I beg your pardon," she started and felt her heart beat faster when she saw the woman was in fact Ms. Walker. "Ms. Walker! What are you doing here?" she said rather dumbly. "Principal Weems! I was actually on my way to drop something off at your office," said the shorter woman, producing a manilla file from her tote bag. "I forgot I owed you my lesson plan and wanted to run it over to you. I hope it's not too late. She handed Larissa the folder and smiled up at her with hopeful eyes. "No need to worry about tardiness given the circumstances, but I appreciate your respect for deadlines." Larissa was doing her best to focus on the conversation at hand, but her thoughts kept drifting back to the story she had read about what the younger woman possibly wanted Larissa to do to her. She took note of her outfit and felt her mouth go dry when she noticed Alice was in fact wearing a skirt. A long one that flowed down to her ankles but a skirt no less. "Well thank you for bringing it by my office personally. I'll look this over, and if I have any comments I'll send you my revisions." Alice nodded and turned to leave. Larissa watched as she walked and felt her eyes linger longer than she dared to admit. She felt like calling out to her to ask her to stay but the words caught in her throat and soon enough she was out of sight. Larissa sighed deeply and continued her walk to the courtyard. It was still dark and gloomy, the headmistress noted, but from time to time a defiant beam of sunlight would peek out from behind a cloud. She sat on a stone bench and noted the traces left behind from the chaos of last week. "You've given your life to this school," the small voice whispered to her. "You worked so hard, Larissa. Isn't it time to have some fun?" She tapped her finger on the bench in thought. If she were going to do this, she needed more evidence. She needed to know for sure this wouldn't blow up in her face. She devised a plan and smiled in satisfaction as she rose once more. She had work to do.