“Huh,” Alice had a wry grin on her face, “Then what?”

“She got rid of Kate, marched me outside and Kit drove me home”

“Who?”

“Her friend, girlfriend, I don’t know, she just introduced her as Kit.” As I said this, I looked at the time, “Shit I need to get home, Mom will kill me”

“Look don’t stress it yeah. Just serve your punishment with the parentals, take the silent treatment from Dana and I’m sure everything will be back to normal in a couple of weeks.”

Giving her an unconvinced look, I replied, “Two weeks, you’ve met my mother, right?”

Smiling again Alice hugged me, “It will be fine, and if you are still concerned talk to Porter.” With that, she pushed me to the car door sending me home. “See ya tomorrow TK, Love ya.”

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

Talking with Porter, in the end, turned out to be harder than anticipated as it was three weeks later before she returned to the school.

After spending the last few weeks getting on the bad side of the supply teacher in my English class rounding the corner of the door and finding Porter back behind her desk was both a relief and anxiety-inducing. The minute I spotted her I froze, causing a backlog of students trying to get past me in the doorway. This in turn caught her attention, briefly, she looked at me and then just as quickly returned to her papers while instructing the class to sit down quickly.

Slumping in my seat I hadn’t notice Jenny following me into the room, “Good afternoon, Miss Porter”

“Thank you, Jenny, how are you?”

So that’s how it is, Jenny gets a conversation and I barely get a glance. Not bothering to take any notice of Jenny’s ramblings I spent my time doodling over the unfinished essay the sub had set us.

“Right class, I have received some feedback on certain students from the substitute teacher you’ve had during my absence, I’m disappointed.”

The class suddenly went very quiet, “I will be having discussions with some of you over the coming days, the level of work that’s been submitted has been below what I’d expect.”

We were supposed to have spent the lesson finishing any uncompleted work, it wasn’t until the bell rang to dismiss us that I registered that I’d even been in the room. Getting up to leave a thrill went through me as I heard a voice call out

“Miss Kennard stay behind please.”

Watching as the others emptied out and the school seemed to drain of life for the day a current of tension ran through the room.

“You wanted to talk to me, Miss Porter?”

“Yes, Tina…”