Practicum

Instinctively, Stephanie looked at her mother and Dr. Kartz for support. For once, she found none.

"Cherie," Beth said less than an hour later over tea and cookies in her apartment, "Normally I would never reward a student for lying, but that was a brilliant performance."

"I owed it to you both," Cherie said. Touching Robbie's hand, she added, "I really hope this means we're cool now."

"It does," Robbie said, squeezing back. "There's only one thing I haven't figured out. Just how did Stephanie get into the mailroom to send me the note?"

"She wasn't lying about that, actually," Cherie confessed. "Mrs. Simpkins did let her in." She seriously considered revealing the whole truth to Beth and Robbie -- that Mrs. Simpkins herself had put the note in Robbie's box after Cherie had told her all about the plan and Stephanie really hadn't known anything about it -- but decided against it. The poor lady had already taken such a big chance to help them, after all.

"Wow," Robbie said. "Always such a stickler for the rules here, since before we were even born, like Dr. Kartz said..."

"Which means for all those years she's been watching brats like Stephanie pull the wool over Dr. Kartz's eyes," Beth noted. "Everyone has a limit. I guess watching Stephanie pick on two of her favorite student workers was hers."

"Couldn't that have backfired?" Kris wondered. "What if Dr. Kartz had believed Steph the way he always has before?"

"If there's one person on campus he'll listen to even before Steph's mom, it's Mrs. Simpkins," Cherie said. "The whole library would grind to a halt without her, and he knows it."

"Well played, girls," Beth said. "Risky, but well played."

There was much speculation about what would come of Stephanie, but all were agreed that her mother would get her out of it in the end. In this they were wrong, and the next day they would learn that she had been suspended and would have to wait until next fall to finish her diploma, also delaying college by a semester. In her absence, Jane would be valedictorian.

Kris and Cherie would also get official word of what Dr. Kartz had already told them informally: that all charges against them would be dropped. Once the tea and cookies were finished, they were off to dinner in town to celebrate. "Robbie, would you like to come?" Cherie offered.

"Thanks, but I think it ought to be just the two of you," Robbie said. He stood up to take his empty teacup and plate to the kitchen. "But I guess I ought to be going, too..."

"Actually, Robbie, wait," Beth said, also standing up. "I have something from class I want to show you. Wait here."

"Bye, Beth," said the girls in unison, and she waved them goodbye and was off to her bedroom to collect whatever she wanted to show Robbie. He gathered up the dishes and brought them out to the sink, and then settled himself back on the couch to wait for Beth. He had no idea what she wanted to show him from class, but he didn't much care.

When Beth reappeared in the doorway, she was grinning. "Are they gone?" she asked.

"Yes." He started to stand up.

"Stay on the couch," she ordered.

"Uh...okay. But didn't you say you wanted to show me something from class?" He saw she had one hand curled into a fist, but she didn't appear to have anything with her.

"I certainly did." With that, Beth lifted up her skirt to reveal that she'd removed her panties in the bedroom, and she uncurled her fist to reveal a condom. "How about a little hide and seek in the bush to warm us up?" she teased.