Our Little Deadly Secret

Let's Just Talk

I hadn't talked to Maac since he came to my door and I tried to hand him the bracelet back to him. Which he left right on the front stoop of my house. But I did keep the silent promise I made to him before he went back home. The rest of the month up until Christmas break, I gave in. I showed up to every class online via zoom. Except his. I couldn't face him just yet. But I somehow got Maria and Elisa to record his lessons without him knowing and text them to me. Along with dropping off any worksheets that went with the daily lesson. And during our exchanges, I would hand them whatever homework I had completed to hand in the next day on my behalf. But it came to an end when the new year came and went. And it was time for me to officially head back to school.

By this time, I was finally off my crutches. I just had a boot on my foot. The cast on my arm was officially off, and I was cleared from my concussion. But with all that said, my surgeon still said to take it easy with classwork and any type of activity, but I should be all set to try out for the tennis team again this year. So imagine how I felt when I walked back into school with my backpack on and with very little help. All my friends greeted me. Gave me hugs and wished me luck when it was time to head off to homeroom. I took a deep breath as I carefully opened the door and walked into the classroom, finding Maac at his computer. Completely ignoring me.

I carefully walked over to my desk before quietly setting my bag down and grabbing a piece of paper before writing on it. A homework assignment that I had saved for this morning. In the hope that he would see I was busy, which would prevent him from talking to me.

"Selena. A word?" I heard from his desk. I cursed under my breath as I begrudgingly got up and made my way over to the front of his desk.

"Yes, sir?" I replied as I stood on the other side of his desk, but did not look at him in the eyes. I needed him to see that I meant every word the last time we talked.

"How are you feeling? Do you need anything?" Maac then asked softly before he then realised I was not in the mood to have a light conversation with him, let alone a deep one for sure.

"I appreciate your concern, but as my teacher, I feel it is unprofessional for you to be asking me personal questions like such. And I ask that you respect my boundaries and decisions."

"As your teacher, it is my job to make sure that my students are provided with a comfortable and safe environment to learn and grow while under my care. So I will ask again: How are you feeling." This time, it wasn't a question, but a demand. A demand that he was not going to let me leave unanswered, no matter how hard I tried.

"I'm doing better now that I have fewer medical monstrosities attached to my body," I then curtly stated.

"Is there anything you need that I can get for you?" he then asked.

"Again, I appreciate your concern, but..."

"Selena. Answer the question."

"No. There is not."

"Great. And I do expect to see you after school this afternoon for your tutoring. I had a conversation with your parents, and as much as you have voiced your opinion, and I do agree that you have been doing tremendously well this year in my class, your parents and I still agree that it is in your best interest to keep up with our arrangement to make sure that you stay ahead and do not fall back even though you had been out of school for a couple months at this point in time. So I do expect you to stay when the bell rings to dismiss the school day, Miss Maynard."

I wanted so badly to scream at him for making my life a living hell. The main reason why I had talked to my parents about stopping the arrangement was so I could cut off as much interaction time with him as possible. To prevent any of this craziness that had occurred before the accident from happening again to me. But I also knew I couldn't just up and tell my parents that. So I used my academic achievements as an excuse. And I thought I was in the clear when they agreed with me and said they would talk to Maac about at least temporarily stopping all tutoring. At least until my grades started to drop again. But from there, the next goal was to keep my grades above a B to keep Maac at bay for the rest of the year. Take the summer to properly relax and do my own thing before then regrouping and planning my strategy for staying out of Maac's class as much as possible for my senior year of highschool.