Excuse Me, Miss Mills?

Chapter 2

"You sent her what?" Ruby exclaimed.

I grinned into the webcam, delighted by the shock on Ruby and Neal's faces.

"A link to a fanfiction website," I said. "It was for my grade!"

"Emma, no one sends porn to their teacher!" Neal said, grinning ear to ear.

"I didn't!" I exclaimed. "I sent her the link to an archive of short stories portraying the non-canon relationship between two men from a Shakespearean play! She's the one who read the other stuff."

"Still!" Ruby nearly shrieked.

"Rubes, my parents are trying to sleep, come on," I said.

"Then turn me down because I'm not sure I'm going to be able to keep it down on my own," she shot back. "You sent porn to a teacher!"

Neal was just laughing.

"Do I need to kick you out of this video chat?" I demanded.

"Maybe, I mean seriously Emma!"

I lowered the volume on my laptop a few notches.

"Hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to get the grades she deserves," I said.

Neal rolled his eyes.

"Sending your teacher the link to a website that's pretty popular for dumping smut isn't the best way to get an A," he said.

"Well either way I've definitely caught her attention," I countered.

"Oh?" Ruby asked, her interest clear in her eyes. She smirked a little. "Are you looking for Miss Mills' attention now?"

"Our little baby has grown out of only crushing on graduating senior girls and moved on to women who are entirely out of her league and unavailable," Neal said, grinning widely.

"I haven't!" I tried saying, but they were already on a roll.

"She's hot, I'll give you that," Ruby said. "Half the guys have a crush on her."

"It's true," Neal agreed. "All those skirts and heels and blazers. And don't get me started on those button downs she wears all the time. There's always that one button that's straining so hard that might just pop one of these days—the Button of Everlasting Promise."

"You know she's with someone though, right?" Ruby added. "A guy, too."

"I'm not trying to rub up on a teacher!" I said, exasperated.

I heard a knock at my bedroom door and felt my heart in my throat. Had one of my parents heard that?

"Emma, it's getting late," my mom called through my door. "Maybe you should hit the hay."

"Yeah, I know mom, I'll wrap it up," I said. She didn't come in or ask anything about what I'd said so I assumed—prayed—she hadn't heard.

Her footsteps retreated and I turned back to the screen.

"I've got to go," I said. "I don't have a crush on a teacher, so you can both eat my entire ass."

"All right Em, good night," Neal said.

"Sweet dreams, gorgeous," Ruby added.

Neal got a gleam in his eye and added, "But no sweet dreams about Miss Mills."

I rolled my eyes and ended the video chat. I guess I shouldn't have expected anything else out of the two of them. I was about ninety percent sure that they both stayed in the chat room after that to talk about what I'd told them.