A change in the office.

The PTA meeting was held in Carter Junior High School’s assembly hall. It was an older building with wooden floors and terrible acoustics that had been an indoor basketball court before being repurposed once the school had a much more modern gymnasium built. A raised stage was at one end of the room with endless columns of neatly stacked chairs to be put out for the meeting. Spencer and Amy helped Jessica to start arranging the chairs into rows. The two adults doing most of the work once Amy began to get bored and her enthusiasm for helping out failed. She just wanted to hang out with her friend really and not doing any of this other stuff.

Once Amy had moved off to sit on the chairs they’d been arranging, it left Jessica and Spencer more or less alone. She watched the hunky dad as he picked up chair after chair and she could see that he was favouring his shoulder a little. It wasn’t a lot, perhaps he was hiding his discomfort for her benefit but with her knowledge of the human body and how it worked, she could tell something was up. When they’d got enough seating set out for the number of people that were likely to come, Jessica called Spencer over to her at the stage.

“Let me look at your shoulder. I can tell it is troubling you,” she told him.

“It’s fine honestly. You did a great job the other day,” Spencer tried to argue against her.

“Don’t be silly. We’ve sometime before the parents start showing up,” Jessica told him finally.

Jessica jumped easily up onto the stage that would have been around chest height for Spencer and motioned for him to come closer. As he got near, she took him by the shoulders and turned him around. She parted her legs and brought Spencer back so that he was nestled between her yoga-clad thighs. From this height, Jessica could easily get her fingers into the muscles and the knots of Spencer’s strongly muscled upper body. He gradually relaxed as she began to massage the pain away from his body becoming comfortable enough that he had his arms sitting on top of Jessica’s slender legs as she was secured under his armpits.

She'd been allowing her fingertips to trace down under the collar of his jacket and shirt when a door was opened leading into the hall causing a boom that made them both jump. The Spanish Teacher Miss Cindy Lynn stepped inside and immediately noticed the two of them together. She raised one arched eyebrow at the gym teacher, both reproachful and jealously Jessica thought as she headed straight towards the two of them.

Spencer coughed and excused himself from Jessica’s leg embrace. “Thank you,” he said. He was grateful his body hadn’t betrayed him with an erection this time. It would have been incredibly inappropriate for that to happen at his daughter’s school.

“Copies of the PTA’s bylaws and covenants,” Cindy said when she drew near. She had a stack of paper held in her hand.

Jessica could tell that Cindy was furious with her. They’d worked together long enough for Jessica to be able to read her. The other teacher’s eye practically blazed and she’d forgotten the oh-so-fake sweet veneer she put on around the parents.

“I’ll take one of those and go find Amy,” Spencer said not noticing the two teachers glaring at each other.

Cindy Lynn took the top copy from her collection. It was half a dozen pages stapled together which practically no one bothered to read. With it, Spencer made his way back to Amy who was seated near the back of the rows. Spencer sat down next to his daughter and started to flick through the rules and regulations of the PTA for nothing better to do with himself.

With Spencer gone Jessica couldn’t help but stick it to the bitchy teacher. “I told you Spencer loves my massages. Believe me now?”

Spencer and Amy didn’t have long to wait for people to start arriving but he still managed to read through the PTA document three times. Amy stood up and waved her hand animatedly when she saw Kimberly arrive with her parents, Darcie and Tony. Amy waved them over to where she had saved three seats for them next to Spencer and her.

Darcie already had a smirk on her face when she saw Spencer had come to this sort of thing.

“Are you feeling sick Spencer?” Darcie began to tease him.

“No,” he replied not understanding.

“It must really be serious. It would have to be, it’s the only way you’d come to this sort of shit-show,” Darcie finished.

“Darcie,” Tony quietly reproached his wife for swearing in front of the kids.

“Very funny,” Spencer said to her ribbing. “I was helping Miss Wolfe set up actually.”

It was Darcie’s turn to raise an eyebrow at Spencer. “And when did you become such a pillar of the school community?”

Spencer chose to ignore her this time.

When she knew, he wasn’t going to fall for her mocking a second time, Darcie decided to give up on her fun. “Anyway, you’re in for a real fucking treat with bitch-face Loren Chapman in charge.”

Tony just rolled his eyes at his wife.

The PTA meeting was just as terrible and dreadful as Spencer had been expecting. Loren was just as Darcie had said, although maybe not a complete bitchface. She opened the meeting with a long-winded speech about everything the PTA had achieved in the past 12 months and somehow made it seem like she had achieved these things on her own, taking credit for others hard work. New council members were voted in and Spencer was just looking forward to the coffee and cakes afterwards, then getting out of there as soon as possible.

The final order of business that Loren had saved to the very end was the re-election of herself as President. She was running unopposed. There wasn’t even a Vice-President as no one wanted to work so closely with her.

“And well I suppose it’s just a formality but I need a show of hands for yours truly to be re-elected as PTA president. As you know it will be my fourth year and I look forward to serving you all just as diligently as I have these past three years. My sole focus, as always, will be our dear children who are our very future we hold in her hands…”

Something about what Loren had just said as she droned on in self-aggrandisement drew Spencer’s mind to something he’d read in the PTA regulations before. Without being consciously aware of what he was doing, Spencer had stood up and interrupted.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Spencer Askren. It’s so wonderful to see that you have chosen to grace us with your presence for the first time ever,” Loren said a little snarkily at him interrupting her moment of triumph.

Spencer felt like he was having an out of body experience. “Sorry. You were saying this would be your fourth year coming up as PTA president.”

“Yes. I’m glad to see you’ve been following. Anyway, as I was saying…”

Spencer cut her off. “It’s just that in the covenants it says that the Presidents position is limited to a maximum of three years.”

Loren was beginning to get angry at Spencer now. People all around Spencer were flicking open their copies of the rules and regulations for the first time ever.

“Yes. BUT. If you read further that rule only applies if the president doesn’t have children at the school,” Loren glowered at Spencer.

“Sorry but correct me if I’m wrong, your middle son graduates this year, right? And your youngest daughter won’t enter the school for another year after this. I think that makes you ineligible to run for President next year.”

Somewhere Karen McAdams let out a snort of laughter that she quickly quelled. People everywhere were murmuring amongst themselves.

Next to Spencer, Darcie shot up out of her chair. “I nominate Spencer for the position of PTA President!”

Spencer had his hands up trying to get Darcie to sit back down. Loren was trying to get everyone to be quiet and shut up.

Karen McAdams got up out of her seat too. “I second Spencer for PTA President.”

Spencer felt queasy. This wasn’t at all what he’d intended when he’d spoken. Amy had a huge smile on her face, as did a lot of other parents, at what was happening. A vote was called for and Spencer was elected into the position of President with only a single vote against; Loren Chapman.

A big round of applause went up through the assembly hall at this rather shocking turn of events. In the space of around five minutes, the seemingly endless reign of the authoritative and tyrannical Loren Chapman was over and a new era was about to begin.

Spencer hadn’t moved from his spot beside his chair but signalled for everyone to calm down and give him a chance to speak. “I, ahh, really don’t know what to say except thank you, of course, and…”

Spencer turned to look at the person he felt had caused this by damned well nominating him in the first place.

“I nominate Darcie Collins for the position of PTA Vice-President.”

It was Tony Collins who let out a snort of laughter. He quickly held his hand up and said, “Oh I second that nomination.” He was quickly slapped repeatedly in the arm by his wife to try and get his hand back down.

The vote carried without a single objection this time.