How to Get Caught Sleeping With Your Teacher

Chapter 9 - Sophrosyne

Two days had passed since my little outburst at school. Chad had skipped fourth period physics two days in a row, but I knew he was at school. He was always the type to avoid his problems at any cost, and in that moment, I was his new problem. I walked into Gillian's class pretty early and it was almost empty. There was a kid named Julian Abernathy with full on sideburns sitting in his desk chewing on his pencil, a guy on the basketball team who was trying to flirt with Hilary Smith, a clean-cut golden girl who I used to be friends with. I set down my stuff at my desk and sauntered up to Mr. Gillian's desk to borrow his stapler.

"Hey, Nikita. How are you?" He greeted with a smile as he sorted through papers whilst he sat at his desk.

"I'm trying really hard to avoid ambiguous questions at the moment." I said, deflecting his question.

"Oh, yeah? How's that going?" He asked, mocking me. I laughed and ignored his follow up question.

"I need to borrow your stapler." I said as a statement rather than a question.

"All yours." He responded looking down at the stapler. I started to reach for it, but stopped my hand when I heard a familiar voice calling my name from behind me. I'm sure a confused look found my face before I spun around to see Chad standing there looking back at me.

"Nikita, I--" He started but I cut him off. In that moment, everything I'd felt over the past two weeks boiled over. Between Micky's wound and his departure for who knew how long coming up, constant eye gropes from both guys from the basketball team and Coach Keuls alike, Chad trying to get his petty revenge, not being able to talk to Lucia because she was busy with her family, all of it. I felt it all in that very second. I swung my open hand straight towards his cheek, and felt the sound it produced vibrate through the room. I could feel the gasps and wide eyes of everyone in the room at the meeting of my hand with his face, but I didn't care. I didn't care about how I would probably get suspended. He lost his footing and staggered back when I hit him. Chad was about to say something again, but was cut off by Mr.Gillian, who'd now stepped in between us and was facing Chad. He said something to Chad which caused him to look past Gillian at me with hatred in his eyes, and then turn to exit the room like a defeated snake, sulking back to it's hole.

Gillian watched to make sure he'd completely exited the room before he turned back around to look at me. He gave me a stern look, and then briefly looked out at the three people in the room.

"Come with me." He hissed before turning around and walking out of the room. I hesitated before following him.

I worried that he'd take me to the office, but instead we turned in the opposite direction. I thought I might ask where he was taking me, but I didn't want to agitate him.

He slowed down once we reached the 600's hallway and walked towards the meeting room. The meeting room had multiple uses. It acted as a private quiet room for teachers to discuss things with other staff members and students alike. Sometimes they used it for disabled students during pep rallies or when other students needed to calm down, because it was always kept unlocked.

He opened the door for me and shuffled me inside; he followed, shutting the door behind him. The inside of the meeting room had a long wooden conference table augmented with standard office chairs and a vase in the center of the table. The far side of the wall was covered with one-way glass, but the rest of the walls were plain. There was a faint smell of coffee grounds, mostly masked by Gillian's scent.

He folded his arms and turned towards me. "What was that?" He asked, seeming slightly annoyed.

"Mr.Gillian, I'm sorry, I just--" I started, but he cut me off.