Alice and Dana arrived later that afternoon to start getting ready for the dance, mom was in her element, apparently seeing me getting all dressed up for a dance I didn’t want to attend was a life goal.

“So, girls” mom started as she entered the room, “who are the lucky gentlemen escorting you tonight?”

Rolling my eyes at mom’s enthusiasm I deferred to Alice to answer her questions

“Dana is going with Harrison, I will be going with Andrew Parker and of course, Tina’s got Eric.” Alice chirped almost matching my mom’s excitement.

“In fact,” Al continued “they should be here in about 15 minutes. Andrew’s dad owns a limo company, so we’ll be travelling in style,” she said, bouncing with happiness.

“Well, I must say, you all look beautiful. Come downstairs and we’ll take some photos before the young men arrive” mom said, floating out of the room.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The photos seemed to take forever, with mom endlessly wanting more. Finally, dad came and put an end to the photo shoot, ushering us all towards the door with only minimal complaint from mom.

“Don’t worry Mr and Mrs Kennard, I’ll make sure Tina is home at a respectable time” Eric said laying on the charm with my parents.

“Nonsense!”

“Eleven!” my parents responded at the same time. I saw mom roll her eyes at dad as she pushed us out the door

“Don’t be such a prude Andrew, let the kids have fun for once” At this, she shut the door on us so no further discussion could be had.

“Is your mom drunk TK?” Al asked

“Or possessed?” asked Dana, both as confused by her behaviour as I was.

“Probably the former,” I responded “So, are we going to this thing or standing on the porch all night?” I said, trying to get this thing over with as quickly as possible.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The dance was in full swing, and everyone, students and teachers alike, was celebrating the fact that school was out for the Christmas break. Alice, Dana and I spent the evening dancing in a group, soon forgetting the boys were even with us. For their part, our ‘dates’ were all huddled in the corner far too cool for dancing.

“You’re behind on your assignments,” she said without so much as a glance at me.

“What?”

“The supply teacher has left quite a few memos on your behaviour and standards of work over the last few weeks,” she carried on.

“My work?” I said baffled “You want to discuss my work?”

“Yes, I want to discuss the fact that you’ve fallen behind with your work, and your attitude towards a teacher”

“I’ve been distracted,” I said hoping to get a rise out of her. I’m not sure why I felt a fit of anger towards Miss Porter at the situation, however, now it was flowing I couldn’t hold back. Stuffing my hand into my bag I pulled out a stack of loose papers, “Here, that should cover any essays I’ve missed,” I said chucking them at her.

“That’s enough Tina,” she said, trying to reign in my outburst.  “Sit down,” she said coming around her desk to stand in front of me.

Rolling my eyes, I did my best to ignore her

“Please Tina,” she gently put her hand on my arm. At that simple touch, my anger fizzled out, and memories of that kiss shot through me, the energy around us suddenly becoming charged. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one being affected by this moment as Miss Porter looked almost in pain at the situation. Finding her composure she shook her head, cleared her throat and stepped back all in one seamless motion.

“Please Tina, sit down so we can sort this out.” She said, retreating to the safety of the other side of her desk.

Complying I sat on top of the nearest desk, “Better?” I asked.

Rolling her eyes, she just continued with the topic at hand, “Do you have any explanation for your behaviour over the last couple of weeks?”

Shrugging my shoulders, I just sat and waited for her next question

Sighing she tried again, “Okay, let’s start with the late assignments, your work is usually on-time and of a high standard, however this, she said while grabbing the papers I threw at her earlier, is not, what’s going on?”

“I don’t have my computer,”

“Pardon?”

“Part of my assigned punishment for my little night out is no phone or computer, which makes researching that bit more difficult.”

Urggggg the pounding in my head was deafening. I am never drinking again! Rolling over I buried my head under the pillow hoping to block the world out for a little longer. Closing my eyes images from last night flashed before them, Kate, dancing with her, kissing her, I’ve honestly never felt freer to be me. Weird how quickly it can all come crashing down on top of you.

Miss Porter…the shock of the kiss seemed to hold us together forever, although couldn’t have been longer than ten seconds.

“I’m sorry,” we both said at the same time. I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation, here I am, first time in a gay bar, and I end up kissing the teacher I’d spent the semester daydreaming about.

“What are you doing here Tina?”

“Um, it’s Alice’s birthday, she wanted to come.”

At my statement, she suddenly seemed panicked and started looking around the club, “Your friends are here with you?”

“Not anymore.” Her gaze suddenly focussed back on me

“What?”

“What?”

“What do you mean not anymore? They’ve left you?”

“Well yeah, I mean Dana wasn’t feeling very well, so Alice took her home.”

“Why didn’t you go with them?” she said agitatedly

“Well, I was having fun and Dana didn’t want to be around me so…”

“So, they left you in a club, alone. How did they think you’d get home?”

“Oh, well Alice knew I wasn’t alone.”

“What? But you said your friends weren’t here?”

“She knows I’m hanging with Kate.” At this, her eyes seemed to narrow

“And who is Kate?”

Suddenly I was nervous to answer her question, “umm, just somebody I met earlier.”

“So, let me get this straight, you and two of your equally underage friends spent the night drinking alcohol and partying with total strangers, while none of your families know where you are. And you decided that it’s safe for you to stay while they leave, with no way home, except catching a ride with your new friend, whom I assume has also been drinking?”

Forget feeling seventeen, I suddenly felt like I was seven. Of course, we were aware of the dangers, and that if you go out in a group, you go home in a group. But at that moment, none of that mattered, ten minutes ago I’d felt on top of the world, now, I felt like I’d disappointed the most important person in it.

I was dead on my feet. Mom had been dragging me all over town to help her prepare for some function she’s running next week, and apparently, I was her chosen lackey.

“Mom, can we please stop for a drink?”

“Not now, Christina. I am on a deadline; this list needs to be finished today.”

Huffing I followed behind her, hoping that the rest of this list would be short.

“Can I stop and get something for Alice’s birthday at least? I don’t want to have to come out again after school this week”.

Turning to me with a frown on her face, I knew I was pushing my luck.

“Fine Christina. If you must. Although why you still insist on spending time with that girl I’ll never understand.”

“Alice is a good friend mom.”

Huffing, she moved back to her list. Mom’s problem wasn’t really with Alice, it was with Lenore, Al’s mom. They’d grown up together, mom her usual stilted self, Lenore, the complete opposite.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Three hours later and it was finally looking like mom was done, sensing an opportunity I offered to take mom and her shopping back to the car and I would stay and shop for Alice.

“Don’t be late for dinner Christina.”

“I won’t mom, I promise.”

Sighing with relief as I watched her drive away, I turned back to the mall.  Alice was easy to shop for, in fact, it didn’t require buying her anything. My gift to Al was the same as always, me.                           Dana and I would allow Alice to choose the activity for the day, without complaint. This year Alice has chosen a girly day of shopping and pampering, followed by the traditional sleep-over where she would regale us with all the gossip of the week.

I needed this time alone, the last couple of weeks at home and school had been hell. Apparently, Jenny had spotted Miss Porter getting out of my car the morning I gave her a ride, naturally Jenny being the pain in the ass she is let it slip to my mom that evening after school.                                                           The rumour mill had gone into overdrive when Miss Porter arrived in town, how this attractive young woman had not been snapped up by any eligible young man was too incomprehensible for the small minds around here. Then add the fact that she was only really seen out and about in the company of women, and rumours were rife. It had taken days of repeating just how I’d ended up giving the new teacher a ride to school for mom to finally relent, although, with the very annoying addition of Jenny on my daily drive to school, you know for her piece of mind.

This was torture pure and simple. I had a good reason to take the school to the court of human rights, surely hiring someone this attractive and then forcing me to sit in a classroom with her for 45 minutes 3 times a week for an entire school year had to be illegal.

“Now, I know it’s your first day back. I know that you just want to get out of here, so, here’s the plan, for the next 30 minutes I want you to write about yourself. Just a few paragraphs, to introduce yourself to me, tell me your likes and dislikes, hobbies, plans for the future, whatever you want just please keep it clean.”

A ripple of laughter went around the class at this.

“If you do that whilst I had out the syllabus for the year, then I promise I won’t set any homework for the rest of this week.”

At this whoops and cheers went around as everyone got to writing.

Miss Porter laughed and smiled at the reaction.  “Don’t celebrate too soon, I will not be this lenient for the rest of the year.”

Oh, that smile, coupled with those eyes, I would forgive her anything. Yep, I’m doomed, an entire year staring at the unattainable and only Schechter to share it with…

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Getting home I was greeted by my mother standing on the porch. The glare she was giving me through the windscreen was enough to know that one wrong word and I would be in a world of trouble.

“Christina”

“Hey mom, everything ok?”

“Don’t give me false pleasantries, I did not appreciate your back chat this morning young lady!”

“I’m sorry ma’am. I don’t know what I was thinking about talking to you like that.” Hopefully my contrite apology would allow me to escape with only minimal punishment.

“Yes, well as sorry as you seem, you know the rules we have raised you by. And you certainly know that there are certain topics of conversation that are not acceptable in this house!”

And there it is, the reason this berating couldn’t wait until we were behind closed doors. God forbid the neighbours find out that the topic of homosexuality came up in conversation at the Kennard house and wasn’t squashed out immediately.