Teacher's Punishment Pt. 01

A low chime called out and the screen on her phone lit up with a notification, twenty minutes until the lecture started, that meant the current class ended in five.

She absentmindedly started gathering some of the things from her desk, so that she could leave more quickly when the class ended. Not that she disliked the class or such, it was an interesting enough subject and a good teacher. Actually, a very good teacher.

Her other teachers were all either young recent graduates with no real teaching experience who barely knew more than her or aged men and women phoning it in when they taught so they could go back to whatever they really wanted to do in academia. Not this one though.

Older than her and the young recent graduates who taught, but not actually old, clearly having experience in both teaching as well as the subject matter. On top of that a clear passion that was infectious to everyone except the really stubbornly lazy or disinterested in the classroom.

Or maybe she was kidding herself, making it more than it really was, and looking for reasons other than thinking he was handsome as to why she thought him a good teacher.

Now that she thought about it, it struck her that there were a higher ratio of girls in this class than in the program she studied. Also that most of the ones not seemingly swept up with the teacher's passion were guys. Or maybe that was just coincidence, who knows, and frankly she didn't really care. What was important was that she liked the classes he held.

As she thought that, his gaze moved across the classroom and seemingly, at least to her, settled on her for a moment before moving on. That thick lustrous hair, that tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, those intense and intelligent eyes of his. Oh, who was she kidding, maybe she did have a little bit of a schoolgirl crush on him?

Blinking back into reality, she realised she had lost herself in thought for a moment and missed the last few sentences of what was said. She peeked over to her deskmate's notes but to her dismay saw only a blank sheet, the girl supposed to write stuff down resting her head on her hands and just listening to the teacher.

She nudged her deskmate slightly and whispered "I missed that last part, what did he say?" but only received a shush and a slight glare as a reply before the girl turned her head back to the teacher.

Well, hopefully it wasn't too important, and he looked to be wrapping up anyway so was probably just some closing remark. He looked over at the classroom clock, single minutes left still, and told the class that was all he had for today but that he would be available a few more minutes if anyone had any questions.

As she packed up her things and got ready to leave she heard his voice say her name and looked up. "Please stay behind for a bit, have something I need to talk with you about." he said before turning back to a student asking him a question.

She tensed up, what was this about, what did he want with her? Nervously she pretended to be looking over the things she had put in her bag, trying to buy some time and look busy.

After very pointlessly opening the bag, moving some things around without actually changing anything, she looked up and saw the classroom empty except for herself and two of her female classmates up by the desk talking to the teacher. She slowly shuffled up there, listening in to the conversation taking place.

It might have started out relating to the class but seemed more like an excuse by the students to talk to the teacher at this point. The teacher stopped the conversation, apologised to the students saying he had to 'take this' and promised they could continue next class. Obviously disappointed, the girls shot her a hostile glare as they unwillingly left the classroom, leaving her now alone with the teacher.

He turned over to the whiteboard and started to wipe it clean for the next class as he asked her "Do you have another class now? Straight after this? What we need to talk about might take a while and best to do it in one session rather than many.".

She, nervously, explained she had a lecture in fifteen minutes and then a short class after that, saying she could stay for maybe five minutes before she had to leave for the next class.

He nodded in understanding and said "Ok, well, that won't be enough time then. This is important though so could you make your way to my office at the end of the day after classes?".

She bemoaned this internally, she didn't really want to stick around at the university after the last class today, the last class would be done by 18 and it was a Friday after all.

Picking up on her silent unwillingness to stick around that late on a Friday he said to her "Look, I know it sucks and all but trust me you want this handled today and not later.".

This whole thing was starting to make her nervous, what the hell was this all about? She tried to get him to give her some clue as to what it was regarding but he refused, simply repeating that it wasn't the kind of thing you wanted to handle in multiple sittings.

Finally she agreed, she would come by his office after classes, and got some directions from him on where it was located before she went to her lecture.

She hurried across campus to the lecture hall, getting there single minutes before it started and sat down at a seat some of her classmates had reserved for her. As she settled in some of them asked why he had kept her after class. Her reply that she didn't really know why but she needed to see him after classes today was full of frustration, explaining she didn't even know if it was good or bad.

Her friends sympathised with her, especially since they were all going out tonight for some fun and this made it unclear if she could participate. Of course they were going to go ahead as before but hopefully she could join up with them when she got free.

The day went by slowly. She felt like it was a bad thing she was being summoned for, if not then why couldn't it wait? And why did it have to happen on a Friday evening and he wouldn't tell her what it was about?

And today of all days, she was meant to go out with her girlfriends, let her hair down and blow off some steam. It had been a while since she broke up with her ex and she felt like cleansing her palette of that jerk. She would prefer to chase after her taste of the month in the presence of her friends so they could warn of any red flags they saw and run support for her, tonight would have been perfect for that.

Well, she'd just have to get this over with quickly and catch up on the drinking when she joined her friends she thought as she walked to his office. This place was a god damn maze, he might have told her the department and room number but that sure didn't make it easy to find.

Twice she had to stop and ask for directions until she found his door, 18:20 her phone said it was. 20 minutes of fun wasted on this, she wondered how much more it would be before she was free. Butterflies were filling her stomach as she knocked on his door, please just be something irrelevant, stupid and quick so she could get out of here and get her party on.

Moments stretched out as she waited for a reply. Fuck, she would be pissed if he wasn't even here after making her stay after class on a Friday night. Finally a voice rang out from inside, "Enter" it said. She took a deep breath and then went inside.

The room inside was of a moderate size and sparsely decorated. Mostly empty white walls, a large dark wooden desk facing the door with windows behind it showing a view of a campus park outside. In a high backed desk chair he sat behind the desk, eyes down on some papers, pen in one hand and the other gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. Without looking up he said "Sit down, finishing this, be with you in a moment.".

She sat down in the chair, placed her bag with books and laptop next to it, and let her eyes flick about the room. A mostly filled bookshelf, office plants, generic artwork that probably came with the office, a cabinet for documents and his framed diploma.

He was apparently a new teacher here, his first semester, so it made sense it wasn't entirely lived in, she guessed, but still was quite spartan looking. She looked back at him, he was still focused on the paper and making what looked like small annotations on it. Worried and wanting to get on with it, she cleared her throat trying to snap him out of it.

"Yes, I know, just a moment, almost done with this." he replied, still not looking up. Was he purposefully trying to stress her out? Finally he put his pen down, gathered the papers up and put them on a pile at the desk's side before looking straight into her eyes.

"Sorry about the delay." he said, giving her a disarming smile that somehow made her feel like a jerk for just having been so frustrated at him, "And sorry about us having to do this on a Friday evening, a girl like you probably had something much more fun in mind for tonight.".

She feebly tried to make the argument that she didn't mind being here at this time and such, clearly seeing that he saw straight through it but not calling her out on it.

"Well, I guess we'd best get straight to it." he said, produced a stapled together bundle of papers from a drawer, put them in front of her before he went over to his window, and continued "Take a look at that and tell me what it is.".

She was utterly confused at this, had he brought her here to just read something? It didn't take long for that confusion to turn into horror however...

What she had in front of her was a paper she had written for an assignment, but not for herself. In order to get some extra spending money she occasionally did assignments for other students, but she was always careful when doing so.

Sure she might use most of the same sources from her own version and a similar layout, but it was by no means a simple copy of the one she would hand in herself. Frenetically she skimmed through the paper, looking for whatever error she might have made that could get her busted.

Her horror went back to confusion when she got to the last page, there was nothing in it that should have revealed the cheating. She went through it one more time, a bit more carefully this time, but found nothing yet again. As confused as this made her why she was here it paled in comparison to the relief she felt, she should be in the clear.

She took a moment to compose herself, feeling really thankful the teacher was looking out the window so he hadn't seen whatever emotions her face might have betrayed as she first read it. "Uhm, mister, it looks like someone's version of the assignment you gave us a few weeks back?" she said to him, prompting him to turn around to face her.

"Yes," he started, "your classmate Karen's. Do you know what is wrong with it?".

Her stomach dropped at his possible implication but she thought she managed to keep her composure somewhat and replied "I didn't read it in detail, just skimmed through, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary?".

He walked over towards his desk and stopped behind his chair, leaning with his arms up against the top of its headrest. He looked her straight in the eye as he said "She didn't write it.", her stomach dropped further and must have ended up somewhere down in the building's basement, she felt cold and frozen in place.

Eventually she got out "Ok? Eh, why do you think so?", putting all her effort into keeping her cool and not giving in to the maelstrom of emotions she felt. He looked to consider his words for a moment before he leaned off his chair and started a slow lap around the desk and her.

"Well first off, it is leaps and bounds above her regular work." he paused briefly here, both in speech and movement, before continuing "I don't mean to be rude, but I think we both know she isn't the most gifted or motivated of students". True, she did know that, and wasn't a particular fan of her otherwise either, but kept quiet.

"On top of the difference in quality there is a clear difference in language and structure, both compared to how she expresses herself in speech and previous writing." he said, now passing behind her.

All he has is conjecture, nothing concrete resembling proof, she thought to herself, trying to keep calm. He stopped at her side and put a hand on her shoulder, almost making her jump out of her skin with startlement, and asked "Do you have something to tell me?".

She looked up at him and he locked eyes with her, they were transfixing in their intensity, near hypnotising in their focus at penetrating past her retina into her thoughts and soul. She was paralyzed, like a deer staring at the headlights of an approaching car, like prey frozen in fear at the sight of a predator.

She kept repeating to herself that he had no proof, just conjecture, in a vicious battle with the fear threatening to consume and break her. Breaths felt like aeons as the moment dragged out before finally he broke his gaze and went to sit down. He studied her for a moment from his chair, letting the moment drag out painfully, before adding "Well?..".

She couldn't wrap her mind around how he could seemingly know it was her, was her writing that recognizable or something? Regardless, he shouldn't have any proof she told herself. She opened her mouth but couldn't accompany it with words and closed it again, instead she started shifting a bit in place trying to wake herself up paralysis and manage a response.

With her second try she got out "No, I don't have anything to tell, I don't know anything.". With a response given she felt the pressure receding, she hadn't cracked, and added "You think I am part of whatever this is? Is this why I'm here?" masking the echoes of her fear as indignation and slight anger.

"If this was it then why couldn't you just ask me after class? I'm sorry if I've done something to make you suspect me of whatever this is exactly but this is my spare time and if there isn't something else then I'd like to leave." she said, talking faster and faster as the sentence went on, finding herself needing to take a few deep breaths to calm the emotional turmoil she felt inside.

On the other side of the desk he sat, fairly motionless, studying her with a passive face, twiddling casually with a pen in one of his hands and allowing the moment to drag on. She felt a surge of anger at his contrasting calmness to her turmoil and added "Was that all?" with a bit more anger than was probably wise.

He looked almost sad for a moment as he let out a sigh before saying "No, I'm afraid that is not all" and produced a single sheet of paper from one of his drawers. "I didn't give you all the pages before, I wanted to give you the chance to come clean rather than be busted." he said as he handed her the paper.

She immediately recognized what was on the paper when she saw it, immediately knowing full well what the consequences of it was. Some distant part of her mind mused at how calm and still everything was now, an alien cold, calm stillness had taken over.

Fucking Karen that stupid idiot. She looked up from the paper at her teacher, he had put down the pen he had been playing with and looked serious and sympathetic rather than the previous studying passivity.

When seeing her look at him he said "That was the first page of the paper Karen handed in, notes on what the paper and subject was about. I assume in case she got any questions on it." before taking a deep breath and adding, seemingly with reluctance, "Signed by you at the end...".

She dropped her gaze, letting it slide down and settle on the desk, not able to meet his eye any more. Busted cheating, nothing good could come from this, fucking idiot Karen that bitch.

She should be crying now, shouldn't she? This seemed like the moment if ever, but all she felt was a cold emptiness. From what felt like a great distance away she could hear him speaking, saying something about what was supposed to happen, the disciplinary actions and ultimate end result..

Wait what? Supposed to happen, what did that mean? She looked up, stopped him, apologised and asked him to repeat what he had been saying. Looking like he understood her mood somehow he gave her a nod and a slight smile before starting again.

"Like I said,", he said, continuing with "what is supposed to happen in a situation like this is that I report it to the faculty member organising this particular class as well as the dean. From there a disciplinary hearing will be held, evidence is presented, in this case quite damning, and disciplinary actions settled on, most likely expulsion.".

"What do you mean by SUPPOSED to happen?" she said, heavily stressing the word, feeling an ember of hope flicker to life, hoping with all her might it was not just false hope.

This made the teacher pause, he was clearly considering her words before starting to speak. After a while he started, slowly and carefully choosing his words, saying "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you helped her cheat in order to get some money, yes?".

Cautiously she nodded yes, not sure where this was going.

"And it isn't some massive amount, more like a way to not just make ends meet but also have some fun?" he continued.

Again she nodded a yes, still cautious but a bit less so.

"I asked around a bit before our meeting and learned that Karen's parents are big donors to our school. She probably wouldn't receive more than a slap on the wrist for this." he said, face distorting a bit with anger towards the end, "Quite unfair in relation to the punishment you would most likely receive I think you'd agree?".

There was no hesitation in her nod this time and she added a "Yeah, it would be.".

He stood up at this and walked around the desk to sit on its edge near her, putting a hand on her shoulder and said "But it would also not be fair to let it go completely. What you did was wrong regardless of how unfair the punishment would be in relation, I hope you understand.".

She nodded in resignation, her brief hope of getting off scot-free squashed, and asked "Is there, is there maybe some other way I can be punished then? I understand you can't just let me go but I can't be expelled, I just can't, isn't there some other way we could handle this, just between you and me?..".

His eyes looked to be deep in thought for a few moments before focusing back on her, he smiled slightly and said "Hmm, maybe there is a way..." before standing up in front of her. He put a hand on her head, gently brushed aside a strand of her hair from her face with a finger and said "Unbutton my pants.".

Her eyes widened and without a second thought she blurted out "What?!?", eliciting a bigger smile from him. "You heard me. You did say you wanted some other way to be punished, one between just the two of us." he said.

She blinked, not sure if she was hearing right, before starting to protest, though she was quickly cut off by him. "Look little lady," he said, "you can take it or leave it. You can either take this kindness I'm offering or take your punishment the normal way, the technically correct and right way.".

Her eyes dropped from his face down the front of his pants, to his crotch, and she thought to herself "Am I really doing this? Is this better than expulsion?". A voice within quickly replied, screaming at her that fuck yes it was better than expulsion.

This would be a comparatively short, private and easy thing compared to an expulsion. Finally it added, in a half joking manner, she had been planning to go out looking for a palette cleanser anyway?..

Slowly her hand moved up to the front of his pants, gingerly working the fly downwards and undoing the front button, eliciting a "Smart girl..." from him and a pat on her head.

Opening up the front of his pants she exposed his underwear, put both of her hands on the elastic top of it and looked up at his face before asking "Are, are you sure we should do this?..".