The New Principal Ch. 21

Then I noticed the uniforms. They had been changed after all.

They didn't look bad actually, but it was clear they didn't choose any of the options from the fashion show. They kept the deep school green. There was still a jacket, but it was cut very aggressively in at the waist, with darts to emphasize the angle from the waist to the bust. The lapels were wide with dark piping and a couple horizontal stripes. The skirts were a bit higher in the hem, up to right below the knee. They were pleated, but still fairly tight, in line with the military look of the whole outfit.

Again, it didn't look bad, actually, but with everyone marching along like they were, the effect was dishearteningly regimental.

Then, right as they got to the class building, I saw an adult move toward one student. I recognized him vaguely. He was one of the science faculty. He stopped the girl and started talking to her with a good deal of heat. The most depressing thing was that not one of the other students even stopped. As the teacher pulled out a notebook and started writing, the student lowered her head, and I could see her shoulders shudder slightly. I couldn't tell what, if anything she had done wrong. And all of the other students just kept on walking.

This was the revitalized demerit system, I suppose.

I scrubbed through the rest of the day on the outdoor cameras and saw much the same. More cowed students trooping from the dorms to the classrooms, and from the classrooms to the cafeteria, and then back to the classrooms or dorms. No frisbee or soccer on the quad, no reading in the warm grass, and certainly no nervous couples holding hands as they walked together in the early autumn sun.

As I was getting ready to head upstairs to head up some stew for a midnight meal, I saw a weird blur in the corner of the screen. The video was fairly late in the day, only a few hours ago.

It took me a while to find the next camera angle around the corner. I had to look through the cameras that weren't on the regular security camera list, one of the cameras that were part of the creepy, hidden list. But when I did find it and synced up the time, I saw a smallish girl in uniform jogging down into a dark area and crouching down. She pulled something out of her bag and then... I had to zoom in to see what was going on.

I laughed out loud.

Scrubbing a bit forward I saw the result of my young graffiti artist's effort: "Fuck Sten, demerit my ass." Underneath that bit of eloquence was a decorative tag that took me a bit to decipher, then I saw it: "DC." It had to stand for the Dionysian Club.

I laughed again, then watched to make sure she got away safely. I wondered if she had been there at the spa training. I couldn't tell who she was, but that wasn't important. The Dionysian Club was still going strong, it seemed.

After heating up a bowl of stew, I went back down to go through the indoor cameras. First order of business was to check up on Veronica and Jennifer to make sure they were okay.

Jennifer had a desk in the main teacher's area and there was a camera there, so I glanced through, but there wasn't much to see. The teachers were all at their desks and they seemed much busier than I remember. These indoor creeper cams had audio, so I listened in every time there was a bump in the sound wave. The room was quiet for the most part, pens on paper, honking of chairs being pushed back on tile, and not much else. Then I saw a Jennifer talking to another teacher and scrubbed back to catch the conversation.

"Ms. Lashgari, can you help me out on this for a second?"

"Sure, Beth, what's up?"

Beth, whoever she was, maybe one of the English teachers? seemed very stressed. Even the use of her first name seemed to agitate her.

"Uh, well, it's the progress report for Angela Jackson. I'm not sure what to put down for remediation."

"Angela? She's the best! She hasn't gotten into trouble, has she?"

"No! Of course not. She's an angel, just like her name."

Beth gave out a painfully forced laugh.

"No problems, no remediation, then, right?"

"Well, that's... I mean... you read that email, right? Principal Sten implied that there were expectations..."

"Beth. Look at me. It's your class. Angela is your student. You run things. Don't let anyone tell you that you've got to tear down any student out of some kind of messianic to pull people down in order to form them better, or whatever bullshit Sten was spouting. You don't need to hurt people to make them better. You know that. You're a good teacher. Allow yourself to be a good teacher."

Through this speech, Beth started cringing visibly. She glanced around, looking to see who would be overhearing, but Jennifer didn't lower her voice at all. She did see Beth's reaction though.

"Yeah, I know..."

"Beth." Jennifer sighed deeply. "If you think this is going to rebound to you, then you'll have to make your choices..."

"Ms Lashgari. I appreciate you... and what you are saying here, but... I mean... I need this job. I can't afford to just quit... I don't mean that as an attack on what you did back then, but... I just can't lose this job. Principal Sten said she was going to be shuffling up faculty... and... I can't be shuffled."

"God... I'm sorry." Jennifer sighed again, this time in pained exasperation. "I didn't... Okay... let's fix this. We'll need to talk to Angela..."

And with that, Jennifer walked with Beth out of range of the microphone.

Dr. Sten's terror campaign seemed to be working pretty well. This only convinced me that we needed to move faster.

Nothing else from that camera, so I moved to the next on my list.

I didn't expect to see anything from Veronica's office. She knew where the camera was and blocked it long ago.

I was surprised, then, to see her office, clear as day. I could see her computer was on and there was a document open. Written in a large font was, "Nosey, nosey, you big perv!"

I chuckled again. She knew I was going to be poking around. It was actually kind of cute. Veronica wasn't a people person at all. Despite her blossoming among our little foursome, she maintained that she usually didn't like people, and I believed her. Her students adored her, well, they adored and feared her. She was the embodiment of the strict librarian, but she was probably one of the truest, best, and most capable people I knew. The students could see that and a lot of them tried to model themselves off of her, much to her flattered confusion.

As I was thinking about what a wonderful woman she was, I saw her walk into frame.

She didn't sit down, but went right to the camera. She looked at it and winked, then licked her lips.

"Hey there, friend. Wish I could see you right now."

With a smile, she darted back to the door and I heard a click.

"But maybe we could take advantage of you being able to see me, eh?"

She blew a kiss toward the camera and moved up toward her desk.

She chuckled and then deleted the message on her computer.

As always, she was stunning. Today she was wearing her hair up in the stereotypical severe bun, held together with a pair of chopsticks. There were a few strands of hair very strategically dangling down to frame her face. She rarely wore much makeup, but then she did have a dark red lipstick and a subtle eye shadow and blush.

Just like everyone else, she was dressed more conservatively than I remember, but it fit her style more easily. She wore a dark tight-fitting jacket over a white blouse. Her skirt was long and slit high on the side. It looked like she had on tights or hose of some kind, but I couldn't be sure. And her statuesque form was lifted higher on a pair of perilously high heels.

She swayed back and forth, slowly unbuttoning her jacket. There wasn't any music, but I could feel the beat in the bump of her hips. For a thin woman, she had lovely curves, and she certainly knew how to show herself to best effect.

The jacket came off first and without much fanfare. She tossed it over to the chair as she spun around. She leaned over on the desk, aiming her derriere toward the camera. Looking back over her shoulder, she looked back to the camera.

"There really isn't enough room in here to do this right, you know? I'll have to give you the full version later. But, seeing as how you are playing peeking Tom today, I'll give you a little peek to tide you over."

Her incredible ass was still bumping back and forth to that unheard beat. She held herself up with one arm, and ran the other hand up her legs, defining that luscious line of taut skin under the fabric of the skirt. When her hand got to the curve of her butt, she slowed down, caressing herself gently. Then in a flash, she pulled her hand back and brought it down hard. The smack was loud, and I could see her eyes flash wide, even though she knew it was coming.

She laughed gently, I guess she was imagining my reaction.

I had never been into spanking, but the sight of her bent over like that might have made me a believer. Something else to try in private when we could get together again.

She continued her caressing. Back down her leg, but this time, when she brought her hand back up, she was pulling the hem of the skirt up with it. She was wearing stockings after all! The dark nylon over her dark skin, both so smooth and sexy, what an incredible sight. As she brought her hand higher, I saw that she had even been wearing garters. I swear I saw her shudder when her hand finally reached the flesh of her upper thigh.

With that, she stood up straight again, letting the skirt fall back down. But she turned slowly, both hands now exploring her body, up her belly, and moving so close, but ultimately avoiding those incredible breasts. Up, one tracing lightly up her neck to the side of her head into her hair, and the other trailing back down over her waist and back to her butt. Now she was facing the camera again, and I could see that she was getting a little worked up.

"I didn't think this would really do much for me, but damn... This is really fun."

She floated lower, sitting gently back down on her chair. She looked straight into the camera with smoky eyes. Without any change in expression, her legs began to spread. The slit in the skirt widened, but she reached down to pull it up again. She lifted her butt up and slid the skirt up, bunching it up around her waist.

"That's going to wrinkle like hell. See what I do for you?" Her eyebrow arched high.

When she got the skirt out of the way, I saw the bigger surprise.

Veronica the naughty librarian was not wearing panties!

She laughed again.

"Well, the garters already make too much of a bump in the line, so I figured why bother? And besides, I figured I'd be making a little video for you anyway."

She settled back down and went back to running her hands all over her body. Her legs were now spread wide, showing me those incredible lips that always made my mouth water.

She was still moving gently back and forth, but now she started rocking her hips a bit, which shook her breasts nicely underneath that thin white fabric.

As I was enjoying the movement, it was like she could sense my gaze. She moved a hand toward the buttons, not opening the top of bottom, but a couple in the middle, so she could slide a hand inside, and she did just that.

Watching that hand slink into her blouse and anticipating the reaction in her face to the sensation of groping her breast, I almost didn't see where the other hand was heading. Her other hand was already down on her thigh, and my eyes were drawn there when she squeezed her thigh, hard. Then in drifted up, fingernails on skin, heading toward that carefully trimmed bush, now clearly glistening.

Her head rocked back as her hand reached the edge of her pussy. She gently ran a single finger up her labia, lingering lightly at the top, where her hood protected her oh-so-sensitive clit. Before her finger got there, I could see that it was already starting to poke out slightly. She was well and truly starting to feel it.

I looked up to her face to watch the transformation I knew was soon to come. Her head was still thrown back, but soon she lifted it to look back into the camera. She smiled, knowing that no matter how hot I found her body to be, I always needed to see her face. Even without the trick, her eyes were the key, so expressive, dark and evocative of her catlike spirit.

My peripheral vison noticed the hand on her breast was moving slowly, but the other hand was picking up speed. Her shoulder rocked in rhythm, so I didn't need to look to see what she was up to.

She tried to keep her expression stoic, knowing she was on display, but it was increasingly hard to maintain. The pleasure her hands were evoking, the sensation of a hardening nipple, labia rubbing back and forth, becoming more slippery with each stroke, it was all shown on her face. Her eyelids lowered and then snapped open. Her tongue slipped out and licked her full lips. Her nostrils flared wider and more rapidly as her desire grew. Then there was a sign I had seen before, she opened her mouth ever so slightly and bit down on her lower lip. Maybe she knew how much I enjoyed that look, maybe it was unconscious, but to me it was powerful.

Then there was a loud pounding on Veronica's office door.

I saw her entire body jerk in surprise. She nearly slid off her chair.

But amazingly, in an impossibly short time, she gathered herself. She stood up, letting the skirt drop down into place. It did look a little wrinkled, but not too bad. She grabbed her jacket and slipped it on, leaving it unbuttoned, and turned to the door. The camera and its single viewer were seemingly forgotten.

She took the briefest of moments, breathed in, then out. Then, remembering, she reached out and wiped her hand on something off-camera.

Then she went to the door and opened it.

"Ah, Mr. Grant, what do you want?"

"Oh, Veronica, I asked you to call me Dean."

"Dean. what do you want?"

It was odd to see Veronica interacting with someone without me there. She had opened up so much in our little group, I had forgotten how awkward and abrupt she was with people she didn't know, or in this case, people she didn't like.

"Can I come in for a sec? I need to talk to you about the committee."

There was a quick pause.

"I am right in the middle of something, but if it's quick..."

Mr. Grant walked in the office and glanced around.

"We really need to get you over into the administration building. This is way too cramped. I'm moving over there to my own office in a week or two."

"Why would the nurse's office be in the administration building?"

"Oh, I'd still have the exam room for taking care of students, but I'm going to be shifting over and handling some of the stuff over there. You'll see.

"Well, as a librarian," now the sarcasm came out. "I think it's best that I stay, well, in the library. It's part of the whole job description, right?"

"Things are changing. I mean, we live in a digital age now. I'm not sure this old dead tree library is going to stay around. We did fine without it before. You'll need to find another field if you want to keep up."

I could almost feel Veronica vibrating with rage. Mr. Grant had basically hit all of the top answers on the how to piss of a librarian quiz.

"Mr. Grant."

"Dean."

"Dean. What do you need?"

"Did you get my email?"

"I don't recall. What was it about?"

"The Restructuring Committee. Melissa is putting together an ad hoc committee to look into ways we can put things back on track here, ya know, efficiency, focusing on core competencies, that kind of thing. The scope is pretty wide open though."

"What do you need? Mr... What do you need, Dean?"

He smiled as she said her name. "Melissa wanted another person on the committee. She wants to bring on another faculty member from the sciences, but I convinced her that we should ask you first."

"You want me on the committee? Why?"

"Listen, Veronica. You don't know the way all this works. I know you were kind of close to Ben, but he really did a lot of damage to the school. Maybe he was an okay guy, but he didn't know anything about running this place. I mean, all that money spent on stupid things that we don't need, right? We're not a big school. We're not a college. Good students don't come here, and we're not going to convince them to come here, especially not with pools and that creepy theater."

"Why do you want me on the committee?"

"Well, it's a favor. I mean, I convinced Melissa to take you on, she didn't want to. I like you Veronica." He stepped a bit forward into the room and closer to her. "I figure I could do things to help you out. Things are going to change a lot around here, and if you want to stay here, you are going to need to be one of the people making the decisions. I am one of those people, and I could help you out."

"Principal Sten doesn't want me on the committee?"

"No, but I convinced her. I'm helping her out with some stuff and she owes me a favor. That's how this works, honey. Listen, I'm not dumb. I know you're trying to protect people, students, a couple of teachers, Kimberly Adams over in the office... I even know you are still hoping you can help Ben. Now, you'll have to give up on him, but if you let me help you, we might be able to help keep some of those people around. Hell, I've got my eye on a few students, too." He gave a quick chuckle. "That's not going to be a problem, but you've got to be on board, you understand? I help you, and maybe you help me sometime later on."

Veronica looked back at him with an impressively stoic face.

"It's okay. I'll take care of you." He reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder. I had no idea how she didn't flinch. "Like I said, I like you, honey. You're incredible, like nothing else around here. You'll fit in really well with the plans we've got lined up here. But I get it, it's a lot. You've got to think it over, look at your horoscope, whatever. Take a day or two and let me know, yes or no. Committee's going to meet next Monday, you need to be there."

He dropped his hand from her shoulder and his voice got a bit harder. "But keep this under your hat, you hear? I'm taking a chance here, getting you in on this, and you need to respect that. Okay?"

"Okay." Veronica seemed to have shut down all of her emotions.

He stepped back and looked her up and down, not even hiding the leer. "Like nothing else around here." Then he smiled warmly and chuckled. "Oh, you got a button undone there." He reached out toward her chest to point it out, but she batted his hand away.

"Hey! No offence, honey."

"In a day or two? Maybe by Friday. I'll let you know soon. I need to think about it."

"Fine, fine. Just remember. You've got people you want to help out. This is how you help them. And it might just be fun, you know?"

He chuckled and walked out the door.

She closed it behind her and collapsed back into her chair.

"Well, shit."

Then she looked up and looked at the camera.

"Fun time's over. Stay there, stay offline. Don't email anyone. I might not be able to be there tomorrow morning, but we'll need to get together soon. I've got to try and prepare the library. If they shut this place down, I need to secure some things and lock down the special collections."

A deep sigh.

"Love ya. Take care."

And with that, she shifted a stack of books in front of the camera.

I leaned back in my chair.

"Well, shit, indeed."

I needed a moment, so I took in the last, now not-so-warm spoons full of stew, then took it upstairs to clean the bowl. I made another pot of tea and headed back down.

When I got back to the console, I was getting a bit tired. That was the plan, of course, but I wanted to be awake for when Kimberly showed up and that was not for a good while yet.