Spellman Ch. 13

As I was leaving the restroom, I overheard a bit of conversation around the corner.

"Of course Emma is already trying to get her claws in him."

"She's such a slut. Hopefully he's smart enough not to fall for it. She thinks she can just put those big tits of hers out there and any guy will trip over himself trying to get at them."

"She must have known about him already, that top she's wearing today is ridiculous. So obvious."

"Oh she did. I was standing there when Mrs. Mitchell pointed him out to us last week at Meet the Teacher. You could just see Emma sizing him up." I was curious to find out who was talking and thought it might be funny to see how they reacted when I came around the corner.

"You're being quiet, Riley. What do you think? He's your partner, right?" I froze.

"Oh...I don't know. I've only talked with him a little bit. He seems nice. I'm not sure if he's the kind of guy who would fall for Emma."

One of the girls scoffed. "He's a guy. He's got eyes. She's got huge tits. They all fall for it."

"Maybe," Riley said.

I decided it was past time for me to stop eavesdropping, so I walked around the corner to find Riley standing with two other teachers I didn't know. Their eyes went wide when they saw me. "Oh, hey Riley. How are you?"

"Hi Ryan. I'm doing fine, thanks. How about you?"

"Other than having to sit in those terrible chairs for way too long, everything's good." The other teachers chuckled. "Hi, I'm Ryan Dillon."

"Aisha Patel, second grade."

"Elizabeth Washington, also second grade."

I shook their hands. Aisha and Elizabeth both seemed to be somewhere in their thirties. I knew that Tori and Melissa's group made an effort to include Riley in things but she rarely joined them outside of school. Were Aisha and Elizabeth part of her actual friend group here, or was she just avoiding me and the others? My presence having obviously killed their conversation, I moved on. "I'm going to head back in there. It was nice to meet you Aisha, Elizabeth. Riley, I'm sure I'll see you a bit later after all of this training stuff is over. I need to talk to you about some lesson planning stuff."

"Sure, we can go over that this afternoon." She did her best to seem cheery, but I could tell that she still felt awkward around me.

"Great, thanks. See you then."

I rejoined Emma, Tori, Melissa, and Becca at our seats for another tedious hour of learning absolutely every single feature and use-case of Learning Lighthouse, of which I was pretty sure I'd only use maybe fifteen to twenty percent. I was doing my best to sit up straight in my seat, but Emma kept slouching over to lean into my arm. She apologized the first couple times she did it, but eventually just settled in to rest against me. I wasn't sure if this was just how she was all of the time or if she was going out of her way to do every little flirty thing she could, but I had a feeling it was the latter. I wasn't going to encourage her, but I didn't want to make too big a deal out of things that could very easily be explained away as innocuous. At one point I did see Riley turn around to stretch in her seat a few rows up on the other side of the aisle. She frowned when she spotted Emma leaning against my arm.

I wanted to cheer when the Learning Lighthouse trainer finally wrapped up his presentation, but settled for a polite clap of thanks for his time when Mrs. Mitchell asked for one. Our lunch had arrived and was being laid out in the back of the room. Emma grabbed my arm. "Hey y'all, we should all go eat in Ryan's classroom. I want to check it out."

Tori gave me a sly smile. "Sounds good to me. Let's go!" We all found our lunches--I was very excited about my steak sandwich, plus the jalapeno chips and lemonade--and walked back towards my classroom as a group of five.

"Dillon's Desperados, very cool!" Emma said.

"Thanks. Melissa was actually the big help there. She came up with the name and did most of the design work, I really just glued things together."

"You two seem to be fast friends," she said, giving the petite blonde a curious look. "How'd that happen?"

Melissa blushed. "I just ran into him when he was setting up his classroom last week. Really it's because of Tori. They're the ones with the history."

"Oh right, you said you two knew each other from growing up down here."

"From growing up down here?" Becca laughed. "Girl, they dated for years."

"Oh? Why does everyone except for me know everything about you two already?" Emma seemed to be getting a bit flustered now.

"I just found out this morning from Melissa. Ryan stopped by her her classroom while we were talking and filled me in a bit on everything."

Emma turned to Tori. "So you two went out for years? Does that mean..."

Tori's lips turned up in a big grin. "Oh yeah, it means that."

"And are you still?"

"Maybe," Tori said with a wink.

I groaned. "I don't think I want to be here for this conversation. It was bad enough with Becca and Melissa this morning." Shit, I thought, realizing my mistake as soon as the words were out of my mouth.

"Wait," Emma said, quickly catching on to what I had accidently let slip. "Melissa, you mean that you and Ryan also--"

"Oh yeah they did," Becca laughed. "I got it out of her this morning."

"Becca!" Melissa cried out.

The older woman just waved her friend off. "Oh come on, it was going to come out eventually anyways. You're terrible at hiding it. I could tell you'd slept together within five seconds of you two being next to each other."

"Arrggghh," Melissa whined.

"Wow, so what, am I the only one you haven't slept with, Ryan?" Emma asked, batting her eyes at me.

"Uhhh..." I stammered, "I definitely haven't slept with Becca."

"Not yet, I need to ask James for permission first." My eyes nearly bugged out of my head, causing Becca to start roaring with laughter. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding, we don't do that. I wish you could have seen your face though."

I just shook my head and took a big bite of my sandwich. Damn that's good. The girls continued to tease me and Melissa--Tori seemed immune--while I did my best to ignore them and eat my lunch. We were all sitting on the desks and Emma kept scooting closer until she was practically on my lap. I raised my eyebrows at her. She just gave me a sweet smile and put a hand on my knee. Rather than make a scene I just decided to let it go. What's the worst that could happen? I was saved when the door to my classroom opened, causing Emma to quickly slide to a more work-appropriate distance. Two more women entered the room.

"Hey everyone," the first one said.

Tori jumped up to greet them. "Ladies, welcome to aula de Ryan! Ryan, these other the other two members of our little Spellman crew, Nicole Meyers and Maria Ramos."

"Nice to meet you, Nicole, Maria. I'd get up to shake your hands but, well..." I gestured with my sandwich, which was currently occupying my hands.

"No problem. Nice to meet you, Ryan," Nicole said.

"How's it going here so far for you?" Maria asked.

"Very well. I think it's going to be a good year."

We all ate our lunches and chatted for the rest of the break. I got to know a bit about Nicole--she was from Los Angeles and had gone to Pepperdine--and Maria, who was from the area and had gone to San Diego State. Emma toned down her flirting, but only slightly. Nicole and Maria both definitely noticed, but they just gave each other a look and smiled. I guess they were used to their friend's antics.

When we were finished eating the whole group walked back to the multipurpose room together. As we approached we could hear loud voices arguing. I recognized Mrs. Mitchell's voice immediately. The other voice was familiar but I couldn't place it. The argument only got louder and more intense as we got closer. I hesitated to open the door, but Tori didn't.

Mrs. Mitchell was facing off with Ms. Carrington, the troublesome parent of my student Rosemary, and it looked pretty heated. Mrs. Mitchell was emphatic, waving her hands around.

"--and I won't stand for it!" Ms. Carrington screeched. "He slept with a student, for God's sake!"

I froze, every muscle in my body immediately tightening.

Ms. Carrington noticed our arrival and quickly turned on me, raising her hand and shaking a finger at me. "You! I will not allow my daughter to be taught by a predator!"

The ladies with me all stopped, the expressions of shock obvious on their faces as they looked between me, Ms. Carrington, and Mrs. Mitchell.

I took a deep breath, doing my best to quell the anger that was threatening to boil over in me.

"Ms. Carrington, I'm going to give you about ten seconds to retract those last couple statements before I decide to sue you for slander."