Chapter 18

"How ... how did you get the headphones?" Emily asked. "Those ... aren't... yours." She took a seat right in front of Mr. Hill's desk, staring at her chemistry teacher in disbelief for a moment before trying to snatch the pair of errant headphones away from him. Mr. Hill's hand, however, moved faster. He neatly slid the blinking headphones away from her instead, picking them up off the desk. He held them up in front of his face, as if to admire the little device.

"They're pretty good," Mr. Hill said, as he gazed at the softly blinking lights imbedded in the headphones. "A little crude, but still ... good." He placed them back down, the wires intertwined with his fingers, his palm firmly covering the ear buds as he looked at Emily. "And yes, they are mine now. Given how you and your friend Donna so casually discarded them, I figured you didn't want them anymore. Finders keepers ... I believe that's the proper phrase of ownership."

"Wrong," Emily shot back. "Donna lost them after she, uh, put them away in her purse ... because you made her take them off in class, because you're a mean fucking jerk." She folded her arms crossly over her ample chest, her eyes narrowing at Mr. Hill. "Did you steal them from her then? Or did she just drop them on the floor, and you found them? How'd you do it?"

"Actually, that's not when Donna lost the headphones," Mr. Hill said. He tapped the pile of pornographic photos featuring Donna and Emily that lay on his desk. "This is when she lost them, while you two dirty little whores were too busy eating other's pretty pussies to notice anything else. An atomic bomb could've exploded right next to you two randy sluts, and you wouldn't have noticed it ... so just going into the locker room to grab the headphones was rather simple, actually." He rolled his eyes, and gave a sad shake of his head. "There I was, trying to think of some rather subtle and clever way to relieve one of you girls of your headphones ... and all I wound up doing was picking a pair of them off the floor. And neither of you even noticed me at all. It was all a bit undramatic, to be honest."

"No, that's not what happened at all," Emily replied uneasily. She shifted about nervously in her chair. There was something about the way Mr. Hill was speaking to her that made her incredibly uncomfortable, and also seemed incredibly familiar. Glancing down at the photos, though ... and seeing Donna's tongue so deliciously buried inside her snatch ... she wasn't quite as sure of her memories as before. And the weird thing was, she didn't know why she felt so sure about what had happened. "Stop lying, Mr. Hill. You're such a fucking liar..."

"No, I'm not," Mr. Hill asked calmly. "And there's no need to be so angry, Emily. We're just having a pleasant conversation. That's all." He reached into the desk drawer again, and took out the miniature globe that Emily had given him a few days before. Emily could see that it had been modified a bit, though. There were some black wires running out of a crude hole carved into the base of the globe. The wires led to a little keypad device, like a TV remote. Mr. Hill tapped some buttons on the remote, and the globe opened up and began slowly spinning, transforming itself once more into something resembling an exotic, metallic chrome flower, with such wonderful blinking pink and green lights...

... and sapphire lights...

Sapphire, Emily thought dreamily. A beatific, slightly vacant expression crossed her pretty face as she watched the lights dance in front of her eyes. Huh. I don't remember seeing the sapphire lights before...

purplepurpleBLUEpinkpurplepurpleBLUEBLUEBLUEBLUE

"Well, regardless of your opinion of me," Mr. Hill continued pleasantly, "I'm not a liar. You may think that's what happened because that's what Donna told you, when she texted you the other day. And Donna told you that because that's what I told her to tell you." He fiddled around a bit with his remote, and the lights changed around a bit. More and more blue flashed in front of her eyes, which made Emily even more dreamy and happy. "I needed to test to see if I could override the conditioning process, which I successfully accomplished with Donna. And more importantly, I needed Jack to think that the missing headphones were nothing more than a careless mistake. There's no need for him to be suspicious of anything ... yet."

"No, not at all," Emily said in complete, cheerful agreement. She nodded her head in agreement with Mr. Hill, her favorite teacher at Patriot High. "It'd be so silly to worry Jack about anything. You're so nice, Mr. Hill!"

"I know," Mr. Hill said. "You can have them back, by the way. I know you want to make your brother happy." He gently pushed the headphones further across his desk, until they rested right in front of Emily. "I just needed to take a look ... well, the people I work for wanted to look at them, anyway. In some regards, they're rather primitive, but in others..." Mr. Hill looked at them appreciatively. "Off-the-charts impressive."

Emily's forehead furrowed in bewilderment. "Principal Jenkins wanted to look at the headphones?" she asked. "Why would he want to do that?"

Mr. Hill stared at Emily for a moment ... and then he began to laugh. Emily laughed along with him. It seemed to her like the right thing to do, especially since he was so nice and everything.

"No, Emily," Mr. Hill said, shaking his head as he chuckled, "not Principal Jenkins. I work for other people ... people who've been interested in your brother Jack's work for quite some time. They're the reason I took my assignment at this wretched school. They suspected that some of his ... ah, shall we say, handiwork ... might manifest itself in this environment." Mr. Hill looked right at Emily's big, heaving breasts, which pleased her to no end. "I just never would've suspected that he'd have such a lack of, well, subtlety. Or that his appetites would be so carnal, not to mention appallingly vulgar."

"Oh," Emily said. She nodded her head again, even though she really didn't know what Mr. Hill was talking about. She just knew that she felt a delicious tingling sensation between her legs when Mr. Hill stared at her tits. "But ... what do you mean, assignment? You've, like, always been one of the teachers here."

"Are you sure about that, Emily?" Mr. Hill asked mildly.

"Um..." Emily bit her lip nervously. It sure seemed to the blonde teenager that Mr. Hill had been a teacher at Patriot High, as long as she could remember ... but for some reason, another name kept popping in her head. Mrs. Heberden? It was like some foggy, half-forgotten dream, but for some reason, Emily suddenly had the crazy notion that her chemistry teacher was supposed to be Mrs. Heberden, who had been one of the teachers at Patriot High for a very, very long time ... but she'd suddenly decided to go on sabbatical, and the school had gotten a last-minute replacement for her, the very day that school started.

The replacement's name was Mr. Hill.

Which Emily thought was crazy, since that hadn't been what happened at all. It couldn't have happened. Emily just knew it, she was completely, absolutely sure of it ... just like she knew she'd always been in love with her brother Jack. Mr. Hill's been teaching at Patriot High, like, forever ... everybody in the world knows that...

"Yes, I'm sure," Emily said confidently.

Mr. Hill grinned, which Emily found just a bit unsettling for some reason. "Good," Mr. Hill said. "Very, very good."

Gingerly, Emily took the headphones off the desk, half-expecting Mr. Hill to yell at her, or snatch them away from her. When he didn't, she gleefully stuffed them in the bottom of her purse, her eyes wide and glassy with excitement. Jack's going to forgive me, she thought happily, he'll be so pleased ... he'll want to fuck me again, I know it, I know it...

"So, uh, Mr. Hill," Emily said, "why did you want to steal the headphones, anyway?" She cocked her head curiously at her teacher, looking at him with bewilderment. "You know, Jack's super nice, and smart, and sexy ... I'm sure he would've given them to you, if you just asked him."

Mr. Hill coughed politely, and shook his head, still grinning. "Um ... somehow, I very much doubt that," he said. "You see, in a way, we've already asked him. And he said no."

"Really?" Emily said. A hurt look filled her eyes. "Oh, gosh, Mr. Hill, I'm so sorry!"

"Don't be," Mr. Hill said, giving an absent wave of his hand. "You see, we've had our eyes on Jack and his work for a long, long time. We even tried recruiting him to join us in our research labs – an opportunity of a lifetime, an honor many renowned scientists would sell their souls for – right after Jack turned sixteen, when he dropped out of college." The chemistry teacher's lip curled in disdain, as though he'd just tasted something incredibly sour. "Jack turned us down ... which was a mistake. No one turns us down, my dear. No one. We were very, very disappointed."

We? Emily thought uncertainly. Who's WE? But much as the question skipped to the tip of her tongue, she found herself unable to actually ask it. Somehow, she knew she was just supposed to listen to Mr. Hill ... and to answer some of his questions. That was all. Much as she wanted to do more, she couldn't – and she didn't know why.

Emily supposed that didn't really matter, though.

"But we didn't give up when he said no," Mr. Hill continued. "Instead, we watched him. And we monitored his progress. In a way, it was slightly disappointing ... he chose to pursue his more lustful interests and some of the more, ah, interesting ways he intended to use his conditioning process." He leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head. "Which is why I came here, and why I've been keeping an eye on you, and Donna, and Charlotte. As well as a few other girls ... quite a few, actually. But mostly you."

"Really?" Emily said. She let out a little squeal of delight, stamping her feet happily and clapping her hands together with childlike glee. "Does that mean you think I'm sexy?"

"I suppose so," Mr. Hill said. "Yes, if that makes you happy." He folded his hands on the desk, templing his fingers together contemplatively. "But if you would like to make me happy – and you do want to make me happy, don't you, Emily?"

Emily nodded. Vigorously.

"Then," Mr. Hill continued, "I'd just like to talk to you for a little bit about the headphones ... and about your brother Jack. Would you like to do that?"

"Sure!" Emily said. A naughty, happy shiver ran up her spine as she clasped her hands together, placing them in her lap. "I love Jack. He's the best brother in the whole world!"

"I'm sure he is," Mr. Hill replied blandly. "Now, Emily ... do you know what the headphones actually do?"

"Of course, silly," Emily giggled. "They make you, um, focus better. That's what conditioning is, I think. And they make you remember things better, too. Jack gave them to me because, y'know, I was having trouble in my classes ... well, you should know that already, huh?" Emily absently brushed long blond strands out of her face, staring down at her high heels as she spoke, nervously twisting her hands together. "And, um, I was worried about making the cheerleading squad. Jack said if I used his headphones, I'd get smarter, and I'd become a cheerleader ... I should trust him."

"Did you trust him?" Mr. Hill asked. "Did they work?"

"Oh, gosh, yes," Emily said happily, practically bouncing in her chair as she shook her head in agreement, her heaving, succulent tits jiggling and flouncing about with enthusiastic delight. "I mean, c'mon ... I'm one of the cheerleading captains now, and my grades have been getting way, way better ... everything's so easy now! And the headphones even made me hotter and sexier than before, I think ... that's what Jack says, anyway." She beamed proudly at Mr. Hill. "What do you think ... do I look sexy, Mr. Hill?"

"I think," Mr. Hill said quietly, "that to be honest, you've always been a pretty girl, Emily. And yes, you're a sexy girl ... but the conditioning process, it's made you look ... well, different." He reached into his desk, taking out a small black notepad and an old-fashioned fountain pen. "Whether or not that means you're prettier than before is a matter of taste, I suppose."

"Oh," Emily said. Mr. Hill's response puzzled the horny blonde teenager a little bit. His reaction hadn't exactly been what she'd expected. Well, Jack thinks I'm super sexy now, she thought, and his taste is the only taste that matters. Dreamily, her mind began to drift back to thoughts of her amazing twin brother. He's going to be so happy that I found the headphones, she mused, I bet he'll want to thank me ... I bet he'll fuck me hard as a reward, like the nasty, dirty cumslut I am...

Emily heard the snapping of fingers. Startled, she jumped in her chair.

"Emily?" Mr. Hill said. He held one hand above his head, and snapped his fingers again. "Focus, please." He tapped the end of his pen on the cover of the notepad. "Have you consciously noticed any other changes since Jack gave you the headphones? Besides the conditioning helping you to study, and help with your cheerleading tryouts? And – how you do put it – making you sexier?"

"No," Emily said promptly. "Except Jack says I don't need to take birth control anymore. So I guess they do something about that, too, which is awesome."

Mr. Hill gave Emily a curious look. "Perhaps," he said quietly. The tip of his pen scratched against the pages of the notepad as the chemistry teacher began to write. Emily craned her head as Mr. Hill scribbled away in his notebook, and felt confused.