Chapter 12

Joey went to the nurse’s office for a headache and got a pass to return to class. English was a double class, so when he got back, there was still half of the class period left. Steve was already back in class, hard at work on his assignment. Joey smiled at him when he sat down, then looked over at Kevin, who was staring at him suspiciously. Joey returned a questioning look, trying not to appear guilty. He picked up on his assignment and got started.

New text from Kevin, “Dude. Where were you and Stevie?”

Joey replied, “He needed something to drink.;)”

He saw Kevin shake his head and smile, then went back to work. The rest of English was business as usual, and Joey said bye to Kevin and Steve.

“See you at lunchtime, guys,” Joey smiled.

Joey headed up to the main office, where he would spend the following two periods helping Mrs. Tyler, the first period alone; the next period, Adam would usually help, but he was out today.

“Good morning, Mrs. Tyler,” Joey greeted cheerfully.

“Good morning, my gentle sir,” Mrs. Tyler replied, smiling at Joey when he came in. “So, your brother is home sick today, huh?”

“Yeah, I think he’s going through some changes that are causing a lot of anxiety. Mom is taking care of him today, so I’m sure he’ll be fine. Probably be back tomorrow, a new man,” Joey said.

“Well, I think you’re right. Your Mom is so sweet to you, boys. She’s a lucky woman to have you two lovely boys in her life,” she said, grabbing Joey by the cheek.

She usually squeezed his cheek playfully, but today she changed her grip, instead caressing the side of his face.

“Such a nice, handsome boy you’ve become, Joey. I can’t say I’ve ever noticed how fit and tall you are,” she commented while looking at Joey’s body. “Yes,” she continued while rubbing and squeezing his shoulder muscles, then sliding them down his waist to his hips.” ... a nice, handsome boy indeed.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Tyler,” Joey replied. “You’re right about me being lucky. I have a lot to be thankful for ... I have a VERY loving family and friends, especially you.”

“Don’t be silly, Joey. You’re going to graduate here in a couple of months and be off to college and your life,” she said while still rubbing his forearms and biceps. “Mm mm. Yep, you’ll head out and forget about old high school teachers and office administrators like me.”

“That’s definitely not true, Mrs. Tyler!” Joey said, then leaned in closer to whisper in her ear, “You’re my favorite teacher here,” then kissed her briefly on the cheek.

“Oh my!” she said, waving him away. “Don’t go teasing an old woman now, Joey. You’ll get me all flustered, and besides, I’m not a teacher.”

“Well, I beg to differ, Mrs. Tyler,” Joey said while going to sit down at the table across from her desk. “You’ve taught me a lot over the years, and I bet you have plenty more to teach,” he continued, trying not to be too obvious about his suggestion.

“That may be true, young man,” she said, getting some boxes and bringing them over to the table. “But apparently I haven’t taught you much about being a gentleman and not taking advantage of an old woman and her modesty.”

“Sorry if I offended you, Mrs. Tyler,” Joey said, “You ARE my favorite teacher, though.”

“Well, right now this favorite teacher needs you to pack up these files from these cabinets so we can send them off to the district to be scanned,” she joked, then lightly slapped him on the shoulder.

Joey got to work on filling the boxes. He and Adam had been doing this every day for the past month as the school district was busy digitizing old records from each school. He worked diligently, as usual, while Mrs. Tyler went on about her day. Joey was happy with the effect his changes had on her and thought he could flirt a little more. Shortly after getting to work, one of the janitors came in with a hand truck.

“Good morning, Mrs. Tyler. Here’s the hand truck you requested,” he called to her.

“Oh, thank you, Andy,” she said and stood to greet him. “We’re going to be using this quite a bit for the rest of the school year. Do you need it back right away?”

“No, not at all,” Andy replied, “We have a bunch down there, we only use them all when we clean the school in the summer.”

“Thank you, dear,” she said, “Joey here and I are going to get to work right away with it.”

“OK, have a great day, Mrs. Tyler,” he said while heading out the door.

Joey was finishing up another full box and brought it to the closet where the other boxes were stacked. He took the marker and labeled it while Mrs. Tyler came over and started rubbing his back as he was working.

“OK, my young cheeky fellow,” she said to Joey, smiling, “It’s time to put some of those muscles to work,” she continued while squeezing his arm.

“At your service, M’Lady,” Joey teased in a thick English accent while bowing down to her.

“Why, thank you,” she replied, smiling at Joey. “Let’s load up some of these boxes so we can take them down to the loading dock for the district.”

She instructed Joey on which boxes to load first and watched him load them up. When the hand truck was fully loaded, Joey rocked it back and waited for further instructions.

She watched Joey, then squeezed his arms again.

“Mm mm. You sure are a strong young man, Joey,” she said. “I could eat you up.”

“You’re welcome to, anytime. But I get to eat you up too,” he said, smiling and elbowing her lightly in the side.

“Oh my, my,” she replied. “I see I’m going to have to start being more careful around you, Mister.”

Joey followed her down the hall to the elevator and boarded with the hand truck. Mrs. Tyler held the door until he was on the elevator, then she inserted the staff key and pressed B for the basement.