Chapter 14

Three Months Earlier

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

The bell rang, signaling the start of my fourth period U.S. Government class. It was all seniors, most of whom were starting to develop very advanced cases of senioritis. The kids still did good work, though, and we managed to have a lot of very good discussions and debates.

“Okay everyone, in your seats,” I said. The various little crowds and gatherings dispersed as the students moved to follow my instructions. “Noah, your assigned seat.” The lanky basketball player rolled his eyes before leaving the seat next to his girlfriend Olivia. I did a quick scan of the room for attendance, the only missing student being the one who should be in the chair Noah had just vacated. “Did anyone see Mia at school today?” I asked.

Before anyone could answer the door flew open and the cheerleader in question strolled in, holding a bouquet of flowers and pulling an assortment of oversized balloons behind her. Two of the balloons were in the shape of a ‘1’ and an ‘8’, and several others were printed with messages like ‘Birthday Girl’ or ‘Queen.’

“Happy birthday, Mia. My gift to you is not writing you up for being late to class.”

Mia flipped her short red hair out of her face and gave me a smile before batting her big blue eyes at me. “Aw, thanks Mr. D. You’re the best.” She made a kissy face and then sauntered over to her seat. I just shook my head at her. She’d become increasingly flirty over the past couple weeks. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that her last couple quiz grades had not been up to par. She had done well during the first semester, but now that the end of her senior year was rapidly approaching she had given up on putting much of an effort into class. I’d had a meeting with her to remind her that it was still possible to fail this class, meaning she’d have to redo the credits in summer school if she wanted her diploma. Unfortunately, rather than leading to her putting more effort into her schoolwork, she put more effort into trying to charm me into passing her. I really wasn’t a terribly tough teacher, but I did still expect my students to at least do the work. Mia sat down in her seat, the bundle of balloons producing a lot of noise as they bounced against one another.

“Now that we’re all here, we can pick up where we left off yesterday. Our next debate is on the issue of term limits. Bella and Aiden for the affirmative, Ethan and Liam for the negative.”

The four students came up to the front of the class. Bella was clutching her notebook to her chest and holding a stack of index cards. She handed the first one to Aiden as they took their positions. Ethan and Liam had one crumpled piece of paper with hastily scrawled notes on it between them. The teams went back and forth over the next twenty minutes. The debate wasn’t structured like it would be if the kids were on the Debate team—each side had five minutes to present their case, three minutes each to ask questions of the other side, and then four minutes to field questions from the rest of the class, or from me if there wasn’t enough class participation.

Despite obviously not having done enough prep, Ethan and Liam did well. Ethan was a very bright young man who would be heading to MIT in the fall, but he was much more of a math and science guy. Still, he had enough material to work with. Liam was funny and charismatic, presenting his team’s position in a way that had even me chuckling along. He had played center for the football team and I’d worked with him a lot during the season.

On the other side, it was clear that Bella and Aiden had done their homework. Or rather, it was clear that Bella had done her homework. She handed Aiden a steady stream of notecards for the presentation and had one ready to answer every possible objection. The only problem was that handing the cards to Aiden was her only participation in the actual presentation. Aiden was forced to be the speaker the entire time. It was a shame, Bella was a brilliant student and a fantastic writer, but she was painfully shy. I had hoped it was something she would learn to overcome, but it was looking like the girl was going to graduate without ever really coming out of her shell. Hopefully it was something she’d finally achieve next year at Stanford.

When the teams were done with their presentations and the class had finished asking their questions, I dismissed the four of them back to their seats, taking a couple minutes to finish my evaluations while everyone settled down.

“Excellent job, everyone. Next up we have our debate on lowering the voting age. Hannah and Amelia for the affirmative, Lucas and Emma on negative.”

The second group also did well, wrapping up with about fifteen minutes left in the class. It was unfortunate that the period wasn’t quite long enough to squeeze in three debates, but it wasn’t the end of the world. I took the final bit of the class period to return their tests from last week and go over the answers as a group.

“Overall, I’m very pleased with the results from this test,” I said after we had finished going through everything. “This was the last test before your final, and most of you are in a great spot. There are just a couple of you I have some concerns about, though, and if you have a note on your test I’d like for you to either stay a bit after class or come back for a few minutes during lunch so we can talk about some things.” That last bit only applied to two students: Jake Johnson and Mia Davis.

The bell rang, sending the students scurrying off to their lunch period in a hurry. Jake finished putting his things in his backpack and started towards my desk. Mia was already walking out the door with her friends, her balloons banging against the doorframe as they escaped the classroom. Hopefully she’d return during lunch so we could talk about her grade. I spotted Bella slowly walking towards the door. “Bella,” I called to her. She froze and turned around, eyes darting around nervously.

“Y-yes, Mr. Dillon?”

“Could you wait around for a minute? I need to speak with you about something once I’m done with Jake.”

“S-sure. I’ll wait outside.” She scampered out the door as Jake came over.

“Jake, I just wanted to check in with you about your grade on this last test. A sixty-four is way below your usual scores. Everything okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m sorry Mr. D. Last week was just a little crazy at home and I was working a lot. I didn’t have time to study.”

“Okay. Well, you know you have the option to take a make-up test sometime this week and try to replace your grade on this one.”

“Is it okay if I come do it on Thursday during lunch?”

“That’s fine. I’ll see you then.”

“Thanks, Mr. D. See you.” Jake turned and left the classroom.

Bella slid in the door as he left, holding her pile of books, notebooks, and notecards. “You wanted to s-see me, Mr. Dillon?”

“Just for a minute,” I said. She shuffled over to my desk, eyes downcast. “Bella, I was really hoping to see you take a more active role in your debate presentation today. I have a feeling that you did pretty much all of the research and writing for your team, right?” She nodded, still not looking up at me. “But you didn’t do any of the speaking. That’s really not what I was looking for in this assignment.”

“I-I’m sorry, Mr. Dillon. I’m just not really c-comfortable speaking in public.”

“I get it, Bella. Public speaking is a struggle for a lot of people, but it’s something I was hoping you would at least try to work on here. You don’t have anything to be ashamed of. You’re a brilliant student. I know that from your tests and from your writing. I just don’t want you to feel like you have anything holding you back from reaching your full potential.”

“O-okay, Mr. Dillon. Is that all?”

“Yeah, that’s all. Have a good lunch, Bella.”

She beat a hasty retreat, throwing open the door and rushing out of the classroom and running straight into Mia and her crew, who were on their way in. Bella fell down in a tangle of books, balloons, flowers, and paper. “Watch where you’re walking, freak! You ruined my flowers!” Mia cried out. Her friends laughed. Bella stammered out an apology, grabbing her things and hurrying off before I could even stand up from my desk. “Here, hold these, I’ll be out in a couple minutes,” Mia said, handing her things to one of her friends.

Closing the door behind her, she practically skipped over to my desk, her skirt bouncing with her movements. “You wanted to see me, Mr. D?”

“I did. Have a seat, Mia,” I said, gesturing to one of the empty student desks. She sat on top of the desk, crossing her legs, and then swung around to face me.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Mia, we already discussed your last couple quiz grades, and now there’s this most recent test. A forty-two on the test brings your grade for the class down to a sixty-seven, Mia. You’re really in danger of failing. I know you don’t want to have to spend part of your summer making up the credit so you can get your diploma.”

She nodded, seemingly unfazed by my words. “Oh yeah, totally. That’s why I was hoping you and I could work something out for my grade.” The red-headed cheerleader uncrossed and then crossed her legs again. From where I was sitting in my chair and with her on top of the student desk, the result of the movement was Mia flashing her panties at me. She smirked when she noticed that I had noticed. “You know, Mr. D, I’m eighteen now.”

I didn’t like where this was going. “Yes, I noticed the balloons. Happy birthday. I don’t think that has anything to do with the problem with your grade, though.”

“I’m just saying, we could work out something as two adults... “ She spread her legs again. “I do something for you, and you do something for me.”

I stood up from my desk so that my sightline was no longer right up her skirt. Her eyes widened in surprise for a moment and she glanced down at my crotch, probably thinking that I was on my way to accepting her implied offer. “I understand that you’re testing the boundaries of your new legal adulthood, but trust me, my boundaries are very solid.” I started walking towards the door. Opening it, I found her friends gathered together laughing about something, probably a video on one of their phones. “If you want to do something about your grade, you can take a make-up test sometime this week during lunch. That’s your only option. Have a good day, Mia. Enjoy the rest of your birthday.”

Mia hurried out of the room, grabbing her balloons from her friends and taking off down the hall. Her little gang scrambled to follow after her. I just sighed and shook my head before closing my classroom door.

After lunch was my fifth-period U.S. History class, this one full of juniors. Unlike the seniors, they were still engaged with their schoolwork and worried about their grades. I gave them the period to work on their research papers while I finished up reading some essays from my second-period class. The door opened to admit Maya Patel, one of the English teachers. I knew she had her prep period right now. “Mrs. Patel, how can I help you?” I asked.

“Can I talk to you outside for a second?”

“Sure thing,” I said, rising from my desk. “Kids, don’t burn down the classroom.” I received a few polite chuckles. I stepped outside with Mrs. Patel, shutting the door behind us. “What’s up, Maya?”

“David needs you to go see him. He sent me to cover your class while you’re there.” David was David Torres, the principal.

“Right now?” I asked. “We’re in the middle of the period.”

“Yeah, he said it was important. Not even ‘A.S.A.P.’ Now.”

“Weird. Well, they’re just working on their research papers right now. Hopefully this doesn’t take too long. Sorry for taking up your prep period.”

“It’s fine. Good luck with whatever it is David needs, Ryan.”

“Thanks.” I said. On the way up to Principal Torres’s office I racked my brain trying to figure out what was so important that he needed to call me out in the middle of a class period. My heart started racing as I worked my way through the possibilities. Had something happened to Amanda? Maybe she’d been in a wreck and was in the hospital? Shit, I’d left my phone in my desk on silent, like I did every day during class. I was listed as Amanda’s emergency contact—maybe they’d tried to call my cell first and then when they couldn’t reach me, called the school. Or maybe something with Mother, or with my dad? I started to walk faster, my long strides carrying me to the front office. The longer it took before I knew for sure what was going on, the worse the possible scenario became in my head.

When I made it to Principal Torres’s office, he was standing at his desk with Claire Simpson, one of the Assistant Principals, and Mark Wilson, the school resource officer. I burst into the room, practically panting at this point. “What’s going on? Did something happen to Amanda? Is she okay?”

Everyone else in the room looked confused. “Amanda? Who’s Amanda?” Principal Torres asked.

“My fiancée. I was trying to figure out why you’d call me up here in the middle of a class period and thought maybe something had happened to her.”

He shook is head. “No, nothing’s happened to your fiancée, at least not as far as I know.”

“Okay ... so then what’s so important that you needed to pull me out of a class?”

“Have a seat, Mr. Dillon,” he said, taking his own seat. Confused, I sat down across from Principal Torres. Assistant Principal Simpson and Officer Wilson remained standing. “Mr. Dillon, we’ve received a report that has led to us needing to open an internal investigation about the possibility of you having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student.”

“What the fuck?” I said, unable to restrain my language. “That’s ridiculous. Absolutely not.”

“We received the complaint and enough evidence to at least warrant looking into things, Mr. Dillon,” said Assistant Principal Simpson.

“Evidence? What sort of evidence could you possibly have? This is insane. Mia is just—”

Principal Torres cut me off. “Mia?”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding my head. “Mia Davis. I spoke with her during lunch about some concerns I had about her recent grades and she made some ... suggestive comments about how to resolve the issue. I shut it down in no uncertain terms. She was only in the room for a minute or two. Obviously now she’s just trying another route.”

He shook his head. “Mr. Dillon, at this stage I can’t reveal any names but I can tell you that Mia Davis is not one of the people involved.”

“I honestly have no idea where any of this is coming from. I have absolutely never had any inappropriate contact with a student.”

“I understand, Mr. Dillon, but we need to do our due diligence here. This is not currently a criminal matter, but we do need some time to look into things.”

“Not currently a criminal matter? It will never be a criminal matter because nothing has happened!” I shouted.

“Ryan, you need to calm down,” Officer Wilson said. He reached out to touch my shoulder.

“Don’t touch me, Mark.” While I wouldn’t exactly say we were friends, Mark and I were at least friendly. Usually. Obviously I was not in a great mood at the moment. He backed off.

“I think it would be best if you took some time off while we look into things, Mr. Dillon,” Principal Torres said. “Starting right now.” That really didn’t sound like a mere suggestion to me.

“Fine. Just let me grab my stuff from my class and I’ll get out of here. I expect a call tomorrow where you tell me what a big misunderstanding this was and you apologize for making such a mess of everything, so I can get back to teaching my students on Thursday.”

“Why don’t you let Officer Wilson grab your things?” Assistant Principal Simpson asked.

“Are you kidding me? Teacher gets pulled out in the middle of class, a few minutes later the cop shows up to take his stuff? Do you want to start a firestorm of gossip or something?”

“Okay, then I’ll go get it,” she said.

“Still not great, but probably better than sending the cop,” I said. “No offense, Mark.” He just shrugged. “My phone is in my desk, and my bag should be right next to it.”

Assistant Principal Simpson returned a few minutes later with my phone and bag. As I was getting ready to leave, Principal Torres spoke up again. “We’ll keep you in the loop as our investigation progresses, Mr. Dillon. For now I think it’s best you stay home for a few days. I’d ask that you refrain from contacting any other teachers or students during this time.”

“I don’t have any students that I’m in contact with outside of school besides some of my football players, and only for football reasons. Speaking of, we’re right in the middle of spring practices. What am I supposed to do about that?”

“I’ll speak with Coach Thompson. I don’t think you should be involved in any school-related activities for now.”

All I could do was shake my head. I left without another word, heading straight for my car. It took several minutes of sitting in my car before I felt calm enough to drive. This situation was utterly ridiculous. I couldn’t believe that they were taking this seriously, and even claimed to have evidence? Given that absolutely nothing had happened I had no idea what that could even be. Once I had settled my nerves a bit I drove home to the apartment I shared with Amanda. I dropped my bag at the door and tossed my keys onto the counter before flopping onto the couch with a huge sigh.

“Babe?” Amanda called from the second bedroom that she used as her office. She worked from home most days, doing a combination of programming and translation work for a software company, and wasn’t used to me being home before four at the very earliest. It wasn’t even two yet. She came out into the living room with a confused look on her face, her auburn hair tied back into a high ponytail. “You’re home early, what’s going on?”

I sat up. “Can you sit down for a minute, we need to talk.” Her look of confusion morphed into one of concern, but she sat down in one of the chairs. “I don’t even know how to begin...”

“Ryan,” Amanda said, her voice quivering. “You’re kind of freaking me out. What’s going on?”

“In the middle of fifth-period, I got called up to the front office to speak with Principal Torres. My first thought was that something had happened to you, so I was really worried. But when I got there, he had one of the assistant principals and the school resource officer with him. Apparently, there have been allegations that I’ve been having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student.”

Amanda stiffened, her eyes popping. “Wh-what? Ryan, please tell me that isn’t true.”

“Of course it isn’t true! How could you even think that?”

“I just ... sometimes I worry. You told me that one cheerleader has been trying to flirt with you, and you’ve been coming home really late recently ... and you’ve been so tired after work...”

“Are you serious, Amanda? We’re in the middle of spring football practice. You know that. Of course I’ve been home late.”

“I know, but ... well, guys have used flimsier excuses before. I know it’s stupid, but I just worry about it sometimes, and I hear how other women talk about you sometimes, and I...”

“So you’ve been worried that, what? I’ve been cheating on you? And you haven’t said anything?”

“No, I don’t think you’re cheating ... it’s just, it’s silly, I know, sometimes I just ... sometimes I just worry about it, okay?”

“No, it’s not okay. Amanda, I need you in my corner right now. How could you even think that about me, that I’d do that to you, to us, for even a second?”

“Why would they send you home for no reason, though?”

“They said they had enough evidence for a claim and that they at least had to do their due diligence and look into things, but it’s bullshit.”

“Evidence? What kind of evidence?”

“I don’t know, Amanda, They wouldn’t say. It doesn’t matter though, because whatever they think they have, it isn’t anything real. I would never do something like that. Not with a student, not with anyone. I have always been and will always be faithful to you.”