Practicum

Stephanie didn't know how much time had passed. She had no idea what might have happened behind Beth's door; clearly it hadn't ended as abruptly as she had hoped. She resolved to stay in her hiding place until Robbie emerged, nevertheless. But it was dark and almost oppressively warm in the closet, and her perch on a stack of laundered coveralls was surprisingly comfortable.

She didn't know how long she'd been asleep when the door opened up, and she didn't bother saying anything when she looked up to see Cathy glowering down at her. "Well, well, well," Cathy declared.

"Cathy!" Stephanie exclaimed. "I -- Listen..."

Cathy grabbed Stephanie's arm and dragged her to her feet. "If I find one rubber glove missing in here, kiddo, you're going to be answering to Dr. Kartz about it. And this time you won't have Cherie and Kris to blame it on, will you?"

"What are you talking about, Cathy?" Stephanie said, rubbing the spot on her arm where the older woman had grabbed at her. "I was just waiting for Beth to get done with Robbie in there, I had a question for class. But they've been in there forever!"

"You've got a perfectly good room for waiting."

"Then I wouldn't have known when Robbie got done in there!"

"Stephanie, the only reason why I'm not going to write you up on this is that I don't feel like taking yet another file over to Old Main tonight. If you don't get lost right now, I'm going to reconsider that. Out!" She pointed to the stairwell.

Stephanie, seeing no other option, pranced off down the hall with her nose in the air. At least she had some dirt on Robbie and Beth now.

Robbie was curled up on Beth's still-made bed, blissfully unaware of the commotion out in the hall. He watched as Beth flitted around the room naked, her breasts jiggling enticingly as she walked, lighting candles and turning the radio on low and giving him ample opportunity to admire her body as she did it. "So nice to meet a guy who appreciates these little touches the same way I do," Beth said as she set down the lighter on her dresser and turned to let him drink in the full-frontal view. She grinned at him, bursting with desire that their fun in the tub had only stoked further, and climbed onto the bed to join him. With the glow of candlelight dancing on both their bodies, she took him in her arms and began nibbling his ear. "Now where were we?" she cooed.

"Right around the lesson on..." Robbie began.

Beth laughed, but then she pulled back to look at him. "Robbie, it's not a lesson and it's not a practicum, remember? I may be your teacher, but right now I'm just a woman who's dying to make love to you." She lay back beside him and spread her legs. "And who appreciates your tastes!" Reaching over to the bedside table, she drew a foil-wrapped condom out of the drawer. "The only lesson you need to remember is how to put this on."

"So I won't be graded on my oral exam," he quipped.

Beth burst into a roar of laughter and closed her eyes as she did. And so she didn't see as Robbie got up and positioned himself between her legs and, before he could let his nerve desert him, buried his face in her bush. Then her laugh turned to a moan of pleasure as he set about teasing her clit with his tongue. The taste and smell were nicer than he'd expected, but the thrill of her abundant hair tickling his face was the best of all.

"Ohhhhhhhhhh..." Beth's tender moans rang out as she rubbed his head with both hands and squirmed with pleasure beneath him. As he went to town with his tongue, he drew his fingers up her leg and, after a bit of gentle probing, slid one and then two inside her. Beth's responses grew even louder as he flicked away at her tender moist inner flesh, and he could feel himself growing even harder -- who knew that was possible?! -- at the sense of all the pleasure he was giving her.

It didn't take long before Beth clamped her legs around his head and let out a roar of contentment. He rubbed even harder with his fingers until he was sure her orgasm was over with, and then at last slid them out and looked up at her face, which gazed back at him in dreamlike joy.

"Thank you," she said breathlessly. Then, holding up her arms, "Come here. I want you now."

Robbie still had the condom clutched in his left hand, and lost no time in tearing the package open and rolling it on. He did have a bit of trouble guiding himself inside her in the dark, but there was no awkwardness as Beth whispered, "Here," and took his cock in her hand to lead in. Promptly he was overwhelmed with the warm, wet sensation, and took a moment of stillness to savor it. "Like that?" Beth asked knowingly.

"You can read about it all you like," he said, "But nothing can describe just how that feels!"

"That's what's so magical about it, isn't it?" Beth said.

"Yeahhhhhhh..." Robbie exhaled the word slowly as he began grinding into her, slowly at first but picking up the pace quickly as she encouraged him with her joyful moans.

Beth had, a time or two, had men tell her she took them by surprise with her talking in bed. Too intense, too dirty, not what they expected...with that in mind, she told herself to be careful not to scare Robbie off. But as his thrusts grew harder and faster, all that went out the window. "Ohhhh God! Yes! Do it! Gimme that cock! Ram it into me, Robbie! Harder! Make me feel it!" She had her eyes closed as often as not, but when they were open she could see that her frankness was getting through to him, evidently for the better as he followed her orders and did go hard and fast through two more of her orgasms.

Robbie was in fact bewildered with his teacher's intense comments, but the surprise kept his mind elsewhere well enough for him to hang on as she came again and again. He was beginning to think he could keep it up all night -- and might even have to -- when Beth said, "Come with me this time."

"I'll try," he replied.

"You can do it!"

Doing his best to get utterly lost in the moment, he stepped up the pace still more, now enjoying her filthy talk rather than really listening to it, and flailed away for a last minute or so. He felt his orgasm coming at last, and thought a bit too late to hold off and bring her off one last time as well, but he was utterly out of control and had come before he was even fully aware of it. Beth was aware of it, though, as she heard and enjoyed his joyful yell and the predictable drawing to a halt down below the way men always did when they came. She welcomed his collapse on top of her just afterwards, and hugged him tightly.

"I'm sorry I didn't get you off that last time," he said.

"Robbie!" Beth exclaimed. "I came at least four times tonight! That last one was for you!"

"Hadn't thought of that." And he laughed. Once he'd quieted down a bit, he propped his head up and looked her in the eye. "Beth, I...the things you said..."

"Oh, Robbie!" she gave him a tender look and kissed him on the cheek. "I probably should have warned you, I do have a very big mouth in bed. It's just who I am. I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable."

"No!" Robbie said. "I mean, it was...not what I expected. But once I got used to it, I loved it. So intimate!"

"Thank you!" Beth had never heard that one before.

"I think...I just figured something out that I never got in class," Robbie went on. "That's where the double standard comes from, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?" Beth was thrilled at his intellectual curiosity, but mystified all the same.

"Guys are always trying to get a girl to sleep with them, but then when she does, she's a slut and blah blah blah," Robbie said. "I never understood why, but now I see it. They can't handle a woman getting just as horny and wound up as they do, maybe even more so, and when they see and hear that, it scares them off."

"That could very well be," Beth mused. "I'm impressed."

"I'm so sorry guys are like that, Beth."

"Don't be. Clearly you're not."

"And I never will be!" He drew her into a tight squeeze which she happily returned.

The real world was back with a vengeance as Robbie was off to the library to study the next morning, with midsems looming just a few days away. But the memory of Friday night kept him warm through the long and boring weekend of cramming, and Beth's admonishment as she'd patted him dry after their shower together Saturday morning -- "You don't want to get into Princeton and then lose that chance because your grades slipped in your very last term!" -- kept him focused on his studies. She had been completely noncommittal about the chances of another night together, but for the moment his exams had to come first anyway.

As for the note, he almost thought he ought to thank Stephanie for it! But he opted not to do so unless he found out for sure that she was responsible.

Midsems came and went, and Robbie did well on them all. With the passage of the next two weeks, his shyness returned in full force and he didn't feel up to returning to Beth's apartment with his grade report in his hand. Better to cherish the memory and accept it wouldn't happen again, he decided, than to risk tarnishing it with a "no" from Beth.

Cherie and Kris also did well on midsems: with the investigation still hanging over their heads and their off campus privileges suspended, they had nothing to do but study anyway. Although no one could be found to corroborate Stephanie's accusations, neither could anyone be found to say they weren't true. And so the prospect of being barred from the prom and the year-end festivities loomed, but at least they would be allowed to graduate.

Things might well have been left hanging all the way to June if not for a fat envelope with an orange and black logo that Alex found waiting in his mailbox on a Tuesday in mid-April.

He and Beth had been careful to avoid any meaningful looks in class. And so he sat patiently through the discussion on asexuality that afternoon, even allowing a laugh at Randy's tasteless joke about how the last girl he'd dated was one -- just to keep up appearances. But when the bell rang, the charade was over, or at least interrupted. "Beth!" he exclaimed, springing to his feet. "I got in! To Princeton, I got in!"

"Oh, congratulations! I knew you could do it!" Beth also threw caution to the wind and wrapped Robbie in a celebratory hug in full view of several of their lingering classmates, including Stephanie. "What a wonderful opportunity, and frankly, places like that need more guys like you!" She pulled back and said nothing more, but gave him a nod whose meaning was loud and clear to Robbie.

Stephanie did not notice the nod, but she witnessed the whole sicky sweet moment from the back of the room as she was leaving. It was deplorable, the whole situation! To think what they'd gotten away with, and now this! Unacceptable. She'd held her tongue on the whole matter of Robbie's visit to Beth just in case Cathy changed her mind about ratting her out. But now that a couple of weeks had gone by with no word and now those two were flaunting it for all to see, maybe it was time to blow the whistle.

As if on cue, Stephanie switched on her mobile phone to discover a voicemail from her mother. "Hey, hon, I'm going to be visiting Dr. Kartz on Thursday to discuss the latest round of funding I brought in. You'd better come by to look pretty as well, and don't drag any of those troublemakers with you this time. We want you to charm him, after all! I'll see you then, dear, okay?"

Stephanie turned off her phone, deep in thought. What better way to charm Dr. Kartz than to root out a brewing scandal before it brought down a promising kid like Robbie? And if she brought her concerns to his office this afternoon, there'd be time to bring everything to light by the time Mom was in town on Thursday. And Cathy...Dr. Kartz would never take her word for it over Stephanie and her mother together!

Yes, she damn well would.

Two days later, Stephanie had the satisfaction of sitting alongside Mrs. Simpkins this time, out of the line of fire, watching from a safe distance as her mother paced the floor before Dr. Kartz' desk. "Honestly, Roy, I just don't believe this!" she bellowed at him. "Is this the legacy my friends and I left here? Is this what I raise so much money for? A place where my own daughter has to have her nose rubbed in a teacher not only favoring other students but probably sleeping with them?!"

"Now, Karen, we don't know that anyone was sleeping with anyone," Dr. Kartz reminded her. "All we know is that Robbie visited Beth's apartment after someone else started a silly rumor. Robbie does have a history of falling for pranks, you know."

"Yes, yes, the suitcase incident," Karen snapped. "Quite frankly, I've never forgiven you or Spinard for that either. For my daughter to have to go through that indignity when she was so new here!"

"The guilty parties were punished then, Karen, and they will be now," Dr. Kartz reassured her. At this, Stephanie was aware of Mrs. Simpkins harrumphing just quietly enough that Kartz wouldn't hear. That old bitch always did dote on her dear Robbie. Probably Cherie had also pleaded her case to her a hundred times or more since going to work in the library last fall.

"They'd damn well better be," Karen said, wringing her hands as she paced the floor. "Stephanie doesn't need this kind of thing yet again in her last months here!"

"I'm sure we can get this whole thing cleared up, Karen," Dr. Kartz said. Before she could argue the point again, he buzzed his receptionist. "Stacey, send everyone else in please."

Karen glared at the door as it opened and Kris, Cherie and Robbie filed in. Last of all was Beth, the only one who dared return Karen's dirty look. One by one they all took seats, and Dr. Kartz stood up but remained behind his desk.

"I believe you've all been briefed on why you were called here," he said. "Cherie, Kris, although we still haven't been able to prove that you were the source of this silly rumor about a practicum for human sexuality class, all are agreed that you were at least aware of it. Now you see the real damage that may have done: an accusation has been made about Beth having an inappropriate relationship with Robbie. Have you got anything to say for yourselves?"

"Only that I'm sorry I didn't tell Robbie and Jane the whole story was nonsense in the first place," Cherie said, glaring at Stephanie. "When Stephanie brought it up."

"Cherie!" Karen snapped, "My daughter would never --"

"The hell she wouldn't, you bitch!" Cherie interrupted, every word seasoned with tears of rage.

"Cherie!" Dr. Kartz snapped. "I will not tolerate that kind of language in my office, thank you very much!" He approached her spot on the couch, between Kris and Robbie, and bent over to look her in the eye up close. "Now then, young lady, I will only ask you this once: do you know anything about this rumor?"

Beth stood up, "Dr. Kartz, I don't believe she had anything to do with it."

"Beth, I'll deal with you in a moment," Dr. Kartz said.

"If I don't rip you a new one first," Karen snarled.

"I'm the one whose reputation is on the line here, you'll deal with me right now," Beth insisted. Opening her purse, she said, "Or rather, you'll deal with this right now." She drew out the note Robbie had given her that night and handed it to Dr. Kartz. "You might recognize the handwriting isn't mine," she said. "But the stationery is. So someone stole that paper from me and then sent Robbie a note that he was supposed to think was from me."

Dr. Kartz studied the note. He had Beth's personnel file open on his desk, and he flipped through it for a handwriting sample. "Not even close," he said. "I know this handwriting from somewhere, but it's not yours."

"Here's where you know it from," Beth said. She pulled out Stephanie's copy of a pop quiz from earlier in the week and handed it to Dr. Kartz.

He compared the two, and then gave Stephanie a stern look.

"I don't know what that note is, Dr. Kartz, but I didn't write it!" Stephanie exclaimed.

"My daughter would never do a thing like that," Karen proclaimed.

"I think you're wrong this time, Karen," Dr. Kartz said. "Have a look for yourself." He handed both papers to her.

Karen perused them both, and then looked at her daughter. "Stephanie?"

"I didn't do it!" Stephanie protested again. "I've never even seen that note!"

"I'd know this handwriting anywhere, dear," Karen said. "Just what kind of a joke was this? You wanted to make things even worse for Kris and Cherie, was it?"

"No!"

"Not that I'd blame you, but --"

"Mother, I'm innocent! Even Robbie will tell you, I didn't give it to him! Isn't that true, Robbie?!"

Robbie couldn't help smiling. "Actually, Stephanie, I did see you coming out of the mailroom office on the day I got the note."

"You were in the mailroom office?" Dr. Kartz demanded. "Stephanie, students are never allowed there!"

"Mrs. Simpkins brought me back there to help mail out prom invitations!" Stephanie insisted. Turning to the older woman beside her, she commanded, "Tell them!"

"Stephanie, you know I wouldn't do that," Mrs. Simpkins said crisply. "Dr. Kartz is right, it's absolutely against the rules for students to be back there."

"But you told me to..."

"Stephanie, Mrs. Simpkins has been here since before you were born," Dr. Kartz said. "She was here when your mother was a student." At this he nodded at Karen, who nodded her acknowledgment. "She has always run a tight ship and she has always been a stickler for the rules. Students have feared her for decades, kiddo, because of her dedication to the rules. Quite frankly, I wouldn't believe she let you in that office even if she said she did."

"And I say nothing of the sort, Dr. Kartz," Mrs. Simpkins added. "You know I always take care of the prom invitations myself. They're hardly a burden that requires help anyway. Certainly not illegal help."

Stephanie, out of tricks, gave her mother a pleading look. "Mom? You've got to believe me!"

"I don't know what to believe," Karen said. "But I know my daughter's handwriting when I see it." Turning to Dr. Kartz, she asked, "How much trouble is this really worth, Roy? If the worst she did was send Robbie to see Beth when he wasn't really expected to?"

"You know it's worse than that, Karen," Dr. Kartz said. "What if Beth hadn't kept that note? This could have destroyed her career when she's not only innocent, but a fantastic teacher who's done a world of good for Spinard. And furthermore," he paused and looked at Kris and Cherie, and then at Stephanie, "This means we've got to reconsider the matter of who was responsible for this 'practicum' rumor to begin with."

"Didn't Jane tell Coach Stone it was Stephanie in the first place?" Beth demanded.

"Yes, she did," Mrs. Simpkins said. "Isn't that right, Dr. Kartz?"

"Stupid fool I was to dismiss it, too," Dr. Kartz confessed. "But there's one thing this doesn't change. Robbie. Exactly what were you and Beth doing in her apartment all that time?"

"Dr. Kartz, that's none --" Beth began.

"They were helping me!" Cherie interrupted. "Dr. Kartz, I was really depressed after Kris and I got fingered for the rumor, and I was feeling desperate that night, and I went and begged Robbie to forgive me for the suitcase incident because now I knew what it was like to be Stephanie's victim, and I mean, he was super-nice, but he didn't really know how to help me, so he went and got Beth and then they both came to my room to calm me down. They were wonderful, too."

"That's not true, Dr. Kartz!" Stephanie piped up. "I saw Robbie and Beth go in her apartment and they didn't come out, and Cherie wasn't there!"

"Why on earth should anyone believe a word you say at this point, Stephanie?" Mrs. Simpkins demanded.