Chapter 6: Another pupil for extra lessons

Stephen

A few days later Clarissa arrived back and stood in the kitchen and glowered at me. "Stephen Faulkes, I apologise for my behaviour on Boxing Day. I am sorry for what I said and I hope you will forgive me." The words came out as though she were reciting a piece of poetry.

"Clarrie, that is about the most insincere apology I have ever heard; an apology that wasn't an apology. However, for now we'll let it go. It seems that we have to live together even if neither of us like the situation. Perhaps we can try and just get along. I expect the heavy hand of your father has forced your return and no doubt has set targets he expects you to achieve. I'll help you as much as I can, but you'll have to do your part too. As far as I'm able, I'll try and keep out of your hair and perhaps in return, you can try and control yourself a little." I received a sullen nod in response but I didn't make an issue of it. I noticed that she walked stiffly but she didn't tell me why.

Jenny and I agreed not to make love in her bedroom because there was only a thin wall between hers and Clarrie's. Instead she would come to me as and when she felt like it. I hoped it would be frequently but I wouldn't force the point. Both of us were determined to continue with our relationship but not to flaunt it in Clarrie's face.

Lessons started in the schoolroom next morning with revision of the first few lessons. They were pretty basic but I wanted to make sure they had a good grasp of the principles behind computer technology. Jenny definitely made an effort and I think Clarrie did too but she made a point of hiding it and even moved her computer screen around so she could sit with her back to Jenny. I gave the girls the afternoon off and Clarrie went into town; Jenny stayed behind and we made love for an hour and afterwards she surprised me by saying, "Sarah thrashed Clarrie really hard. Looks like she put a belt across her bum probably a good many times from the bruises I saw this morning." She waited a bit and asked, "Will you use the tawse on her?"

"Not unless I really have to."

"What about on me?" She giggled.

"Oh you'll get spanked whenever I feel like doing it." I rolled her over and gave her bare bum a few mild swats on each cheek and then we wrestled and cuddled again.

Things remained much the same for the whole of the Christmas/New Year holiday period. Each morning, apart from New Year's Day, I went over one of the David's lessons from earlier in the term and set them the same assignments. Generally they spent the afternoon, or part of it, doing the work but I didn't restrict them to a set time. I did insist it had to be done by the following morning though. Jenny told me she appreciated the way I went slowly through the material and allowed them to interrupt with questions but Clarrie rarely said anything but her assignments showed she'd taken in much of what she'd been taught although she did the minimum that would get her what I considered a pass mark. Jenny's work always had a fuller explanation and she received higher grades which caused Clarrie to comment that was only because she slept with the tutor and her own lower grades were because she didn't demean herself in that way. In fact Jenny didn't sleep with me every night but now we made no pretence of hiding it when she did.

Howard phoned several times to enquire and check on his daughter's progress and spoke to her and Jenny briefly each time. I'm sure that each time he made sure she knew the consequences of not working. He reminded me to call at his IT department to get a better computer for Jenny when they reopened on January 4^th. Her luck was in. They'd just amalgamated two departments and an iMac G5 like mine was available, except hers had a slightly smaller screen.

My fears that Jenny's behaviour and attitude to me might revert when we returned to Uni proved unfounded even though we both had to put up with a lot of stick from her classmates when we arrived together for the first lecture. This was fuelled of course, by information or rather, misinformation, supplied by Clarissa. David's entry stopped further comments and we all handed in our assignments. Jenny had wanted me to check hers before she printed it out but in front of Clarissa, I refused saying, "Any marks you get have got to be on your own merit, same as Clarrie. Any points you are not clear on, I will go through after we get the assignments back." She pouted and made a face but accepted my ruling as being fair.

As usual David gave an excellent presentation on the computer but, again as usual, he went straight through it, deftly manipulating several images into one picture, and it wasn't until he finished that he asked for questions. By then the students had forgotten the questions they meant to ask. For our assignments, to do over the weekend, we were given a disc with various images and we had to combine any three and add text to produce a poster. Su Lee came to me in the cafeteria afterwards. "Steve, I blinked during David's talk and missed half of what he said, would you mind going through it with me sometime?"

Jenny, sitting next to me, answered, "Why don't you come to our class this afternoon? I only half understood what David said and Stevie will go through the worksheet with us. You won't mind will you Stevie?" I agreed but to my surprise, Su Lee looked worried.

"I won't have to... to sleep with you to pay for it?" Clarissa had already spread exaggerated stories of how they were being coerced into getting extra tuition.

"You'd better not. He's mine!" Jenny astounded me with her sharp reply but it brought a smile to Su Lee's face. Clarissa wanted to spend the afternoon with some of the other students and, in front of them, I refused to allow it telling her that if she didn't turn up it would be reported to her father. She never once spoke during the lesson and when I'd finished and said they could either continue and do their assignment work or leave it until later, she immediately took off. Su Lee stayed and all three of us worked on our posters with my being called to give advice at frequent intervals but as all three posters were totally different, there could be no allegations of cheating. Su Lee's was particularly artistic and her choice of Chinese characters enhanced the design although none of us could read them. I would have awarded it higher marks than mine and indeed, David did give her top marks.