No homework today. Not because there wasn’t any, but because I had no willingness to go through it. We only had to deliver it in two days anyway. The only thing I wanted to do is stay in silence with Abby on my lap. Abby too was in a bit of a foul mood, only about something different for the most part. She was stretch over the couch, belly over my legs and chin on a pillow as she stared at the door.

Her sister had to go back to her university to sign some stuff and get some papers and it was looking like she’d only be back tomorrow, putting a damper in Abby’s mood. That was a shame, specially because the two keep getting along better and better each day. Abby was particularly happy after Sophie told us she’d stay with Claire at the café where we met on Sunday. She was looking like an abandoned puppy, to be quite frank.

Normally, I’d be all over her to cheer her up, but even for that I didn’t have the energy.

“This day is being kinda sucky,” she said, putting it mildly.

It didn’t start that way. By all accounts, today was looking like a perfectly normal day. There were no signs of it being any different until P.E.

We were changing into our school uniforms. I just had it with having people constantly looking over their shoulder, scared that I’d be doing the same with ulterior motives. I was very sick of having them doing that to Abby while seeing her only in her underwear. My girlfriend.

I’ve had had it and opened my mouth to speak—rather, to shout.

“Will you girls quit it?” a voice spoke out that didn’t belong to me.

I closed my mouth and looked to my left. Mathilda was facing the same direction I was previously staring, her shirt still wide open and to be tucked in her skirt. She looked just as angry as I was previously feeling. Now, I was stunned by her sudden outburst.

“You keep staring at them like they were some kind of molesters! Can’t you see how stupid that is!?” she cried out. “Have you even stopped to think for a moment how uncomfortable that makes them feel?! They are both dating for crying out loud, do you think they’d be staring at other girls blatantly in front of each other and appreciate you staring at them!?”

She took the words right out of my mouth then.

One of the girls still had the gall to say that she still felt uncomfortable changing with us around. I regained some of my spirit and gave her a look up and down. I didn’t pay any attention to her features, I only did that to better drive a point.

“Oh, don’t worry. You’ve got nothing I’m interested in, and I’m sure Abby feels the same.”

That was very cathartic, but not the smartest thing I could have done because insults started being hurled between her and her friends against us three. It got so bad, a teacher was called, and eventually, we were again called to the principal’s office. The result? We all got a slap on the wrist, mostly because the principal still remembered very clearly having dealt with Will. From now on, Abby and I were told to change on one corner of the room, something we were already doing, and to report if we notice anyone of doing exactly what they were afraid we’d do. To sum it all up, the situation was solved by not solving it at all. Great.

Worst of all, us three now had bad blood with the other girls we got into an argument. Just those four though. I was surprised to have some of the girls who’d on occasion stare at us coming up and apologising. Some even said they’d do it because I have very pretty legs. I thanked the compliment, but still asked for them to not look since I was in a relationship. Overall, only those four were a problem, but maybe if I didn’t hurl that insult, things could have gone better.

“Urgh, why did I have to say that?” I growled as I rubbed my face in frustration.

“I thought it was kinda funny,” Abby huffed.

That was neither here nor there. Although… yeah, it kinda was. She looked like the type of girl who thinks highly of herself, so having someone telling her she wasn’t anything special must have stung. Good.

“I still shouldn’t have said that.”

“…I’m still surprised about Mathilda,” Abby commented as she switched her head into a more comfortable position.

The reason why Mathilda defended us, she explained after us three got alone, was because she saw I was about to explode and tried to take the first step to avoid us looking like the villain in case things went wrong. I still messed it up, but having her start the argument must have helped in the aftermath. At least I hope it did. Quite the good friend we got there, right?

“But Violet, that’s all in the past! Why not relax and have

some quality time with Abby?”

A good question with a very simple answer: we still would have to deal with our homeroom teacher tomorrow. She had warned us not to give her problems and today we kicked a lot of fuss.

“Haah, let’s stay home tomorrow,” I mumbled.

“That’d be nice, if only by the fact she’d most likely come kicking our door down to still give us an earful,” Abby aptly pointed out.

I sighed and tumbled to the side of her legs, feeling even less motivated to do anything else.

“Hold on, let me get out of you,” Abby chirped. “Twisted as you are, you might tear a kidney or something.”

Yes, it was an uncomfortable position I was in, but I was beyond caring about that too.

Abby however wasn’t in such a bad mood as I was and curled herself up against me, moving one of my arms over her and holding its hand close to her chest. I could faintly feel her heartbeat. That finally got me to ease up a bit and I curled my legs under hers.

“Better?” she asked sweetly.

“Hmm… better.”

“…Won’t you give me some tickles?” she asked, turning her head to show me her wry smile.

I wasn’t there yet, but I still gave her temple and cheeks a couple of smooches.

“You missed a spot,” she told me, still with the same wry smile.

I kissed the spot she said I had missed, making Abby get all bubbly and giggly. That finally got me to chuckle.

“Babe, let’s go do homework.”

“Don’t wanna.”

I know. I also know you’ll be all stressed out about having to do today’s homework and tomorrow’s too.”

As badly as I just wanted to stay like this, she was right. It was better to push through it than leave it all to tomorrow.

Haah, fine. Let’s get this over with.

 

◊◊◊

 

Our homeroom teacher was looking none too pleased as she stared at us from behind her intertwined fingers that supported her head by the nose.

Us three—me, Violet, and Mathilda, sat opposite to her and under her unblinking gaze. No one was moving aside from breathing in and breathing out the heavy atmosphere. The only sound heard was the clock hanging on the wall to our right, showing me that it had been over three minutes since we got inside our homeroom teacher’s office.

Finally, the silence was broken with the back rest of our teacher’s chair creaked as she reclined on it, and complaining about us having put her in a very tight spot.

I had a picture of her situation, but there were still some things I needed confirmed before being certain.

“Erm… did the principal push this issue on you to save himself the trouble of potentially dealing with my dad?” I asked.

She looked at me only with her eyes as she kept pivoting her chair from one side to the other.

“Since you aren’t going to play dumb,” she sighed as she assumed her previous position. “Yes, I believe that’s exactly it. Now, I need to prove him I deserve the position of homeroom teacher and avoid an angry parent yelling at me and bringing trouble to the school.”

Yeah, that confirmed everything to me. And for once, I was thankful for having watched my mum navigate negotiations in a way that made the other person feeling grateful for benefiting her.

“Don’t worry about my dad. I’ll tell him about what’s been going on, but I’ll also tell him to let me deal with this stuff.”

“…And in exchange?” our teacher asked, a bit of a smile appearing from behind her hands.

“Nothing. I just don’t think having him butting in would make anything better. In fact, it might make things even messier.”

Were I to let him in, he’d kick a fuss and probably get the other students to transfer school. Sounds good at first, but once a bit of thought was put into it, the consequences of that would be awful. We’d then be public enemy number one in school. We’d most likely be left alone, but as the cost of becoming social pariahs. It’d be better to solve this in a more civilised way. Besides, can you imagine how proud our parents will be if we manage to solve this by our own? Well, mine and Violet’s. Mathilda’s parents never showed much care in her actions, as far as I knew.

She chuckled and leaned on the chair again, swinging side to side but still holding a smile. “The old man was right, you girls are real trouble,” she told us in a playful tone.

Perhaps, but unlike him, she seemed to be willing to at least listen and at best, work together with us.

“Erm… are we… going to be punished?” Violet asked.

“Hmm… let’s hear your side of the story before deciding that.”

“What’s there to say?” Mathilda intervened. “Imagine this: you and your husband are changing clothes in a place with other women. Would you like to have them stare at your husband while he changes because they’re worried he’d peek? That’s what’s been going on with my friends. Two times a day, twice a week, for a whole month now. That’s sixteen times already! They never did anything to warrant such suspicions!”

“I get that, I really do. However, name calling and getting into fights isn’t the way to solve the problem.”

Not completely, no. It did get most of the girls guilty of doing that to say sorry. It was only those other three or four that were still the issue.

The teacher’s chair squeaked as she stopped the rotating movement. In one quick breath, she asked what we’d do.

We knew she had talked with the other girls before. They talked during lunch break while we were having this talk in the afternoon after classes were over. The bigger question wasn’t what we should do, but what did the others say we should. Assuming they’d stay with their opposing views on us, they’d probably want us to change in a different room. That, however, wasn’t likely. They’d be crucified if they ever said that to our teacher. Most likely, they’d want us to apologise. Good luck with that, though. Violet would chew her tongue clean off before admitting any fault, and by the way Mathilda was getting heated up, I’d wager I couldn’t count much with her either.

“Look, we shouldn’t have started an argument. I think we all get that. However, as far as most of us want it, we aren’t going to say sorry to them. They said they didn’t feel comfortable changing with us around, Violet told them—her—that she didn’t have anything to fear after taking a look at her body. If she got insulted by Violet saying she wasn’t into her right after she told us she didn’t want us to look at her, that’s her problem, not ours. We just want to move on and see if we can finally get whatever privacy we can in a shared changing room. Violet and I have been dating for months and she still gets shy around me, imagine how she feels with other people staring.”

“…I also hate having other people seeing you naked,” Violet grumbled under her breath. Good thing that she did too. Another point to push the needle towards us being told to go home with no further repercussions.

“Haah, talking about this is being useless,” our teacher and judge sighed, appearing to have reached a verdict. “I’ll just ask you the same I asked the others: don’t stir problems and leave the others be. Agreed?”

That was the best result we could have gotten, so no complains came from me or the others. Still, we weren’t free to go.

“One more thing,” she told us, sounding a bit more relaxed, but still looking to come across as tactful. “There’s one more issue I need to discuss with you.”

I exchanged looks with my girlfriend and friend. None of us even suspected what it could be. Well, it wasn’t long before we got to know what it was.

Sometime during the second semester, most likely after spring break, the school was planning a trip for us second years. Here’s the catch: due to the distance, it required us to stay at a hotel for a night. Rooms would be shared and, since Violet and I were a couple, there were talks about putting us in separate rooms to avoid… intimacies.

I understood their concerns. Other students and their parents could raise concerns over preferential treatment and the school not upholding morality amongst the student body.

“What if I share the room with them?” Mathilda asked.

“That still won’t work since you are their friends. You could just leave for an hour and leave them alone.”

Mathilda and Violet clicked their tongues in unison. It was a bit amusing to see them staring at each other, Violet wondering why Mathilda clicked hers why our friend was amused by Violet’s confusion. My guess was not as much a guess as it was a certainty. Mathilda enjoyed a lot watching and teasing us. I wouldn’t be surprised if I caught her looking at us while eating popcorn one of these days.

“Anyway, we haven’t reached a conclusion, but I wanted to inform you that it might be a possibility that you won’t get to share a room,” our teacher clarified.

By her body language, we were finally done talking.

One win and one loss, huh?

Overall, it was a net-neutral. Not good, not bad, but still, we were all looking like it sucked.

“Stephen!” Mathilda shouted when she spotted him waiting for us. Mathew was with him too, but he was mostly ignored because he was still properly dressed, unlike Stephen.

She stepped up to him, grabbed his tie and tightened it around his neck while asking if he was looking forward to being reprimanded too.

“C’mon Mathy, don’t be like that,” he choked as he tried to get her to ease up on her strangle hold. “You know I always fiddle with it when I’m nervous.”

“You? Nervous?”

“Yup. Did everything go well?”

She was looking a bit blushed, even more so because she noticed he was gently holding her hands and not letting go.

“Honestly, you…” she grumbled, letting her hands slide down his chest and to her side. “Yeah, everything went well. More or less.”

Oh-ho? Is it progress I’m seeing?

It looked like it. I’m not sure if he was doing it intentionally, but they were looking like a pair of love birds, nonetheless. I understood then, why she liked watching us so much. It got this fuzzy feeling going on in my chest. It also got me in a flirty mood, so I grabbed Violet’s hand and bid farewell to our friends. She would also need so cheering up before we got to doing homework, so our needs aligned perfectly.

“Abby, wait!” Violet urged as she tugged me back. “Weren’t we supposed to go eat something together? Aren’t you hungry?”

Oh yeah, we were. Cuddling could wait a bit longer. My stomach was now growing and nuzzling was always better with a filled stomach after all. And who knew, maybe I’d get to see Mathy and Stephen getting more intimate while at it.