Next step: Date Night

A dark cloud hung over school the next day. The principal had grimly informed the student body about the **** of Miss Berkeley and reiterated a need for calm and to follow the rules that were in effect.

During the lunch break you and your friends sat together to plan the next step. You had never seen Tina so visibly shaken before.

“We saw her,” she whispered, “we could have done something. We should have done something…”

Marcus put an arm around her shoulder. “There was a dozen of those guys and only three of us,” he soothed, “we couldn’t have done anything but get ourselves killed too.”

“We need to get these pricks,” Tina hissed, “I don’t care what it takes, we need to destroy each and every one of them. Starting with Stacy’s dad.”

You shifted uneasily, began toying with the ring on your finger. “I might have made some headway there.”

Two pairs of eyes locked onto you at once. Marcus was the first to speak what was surely on both their minds.

“You uh…made contact with Stacy?”

You sighed. “I got her number, yeah.”

He looked you up and down and chuckled to himself. “So you’ve got game. Who’d have thought?”

Tina went quiet for a moment and got a strange look on her face. But the moment passed and whatever was troubling her had been dismissed.

“Well, now you need to initiate contact,” she said, suddenly businesslike. “See if you can meet up with her and then try to get as much info as you can out of her.”

“Pump her for information,” Marcus sniggered.

You shifted uncomfortably and wondered if it was really wise to pursue Stacy, especially in light of what you had learned about the ring. But then you thought of your teacher, being dragged off into the woods to meet a grizzly end.

“Ok,” you sighed, “how should I go about this?”

Tina shrugged. “Take her on a date, butter her up that way. She’s a shallow bitch so it shouldn’t be too hard to appeal to her raging narcissism.”

“She’s goes to the movies a lot,” Marcus chimed in.

You thought about it and ultimately decided it was worth a shot. There was a small chance that she wouldn’t like to do anything with you in public, but somehow you doubted that the ring would allow that.

“Ok I’ll do my part,” you said at last.

Tina grinned. “We’ll be shadowing you the whole time, just in case things go south.”

The matter was evidently settled and you went about texting Stacy. It took maybe 5 minutes of constantly writing and rewriting the message before you figured to hell with it and just sent off a simply request to hang out at the movies after school. Those few minutes of digital silence were strangely tense, but then your phone vibrated with a response and relief washed over you.

Yes, should would like to go to the movies together. Of course, there were conditions as well. She would choose the movie and you would both show up separately. Public displays of affection would be limited to the concealing darkness of the cinema.

Though the tone of her message was bitchy and a little condescending, you secretly felt relieved. The ring hadn’t completely destroyed her personality, she wasn’t just a mindless fuckslave.

—

“Mom, I need a lift to the movies tonight.”

Your mother lifted her head from her work tablet and gave you a long and scrutinising look. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable with you being out of the house with everything going on.”

You shifted uneasily and rubbed the back of your head. This was going to be awkward.

“I kind of…well…I have a date.”

A smile exploded across your mom’s face. “A date? Like a date-date?” She pulled you into an embrace, crushing your head against her prodigious breasts, “oh sweetie that’s so …cute!”

She pulled away just long enough to look you deep in the eye. “Who’s the lucky girl? Is it Tina? Oh I’ve been joking about this with her mother since you two were kids!”

There was a beat of awkwardness and confusion. Had she been trying to set you up with your best friend? But you pushed those thoughts down.

“No Mom, it’s actually…Stacy Chapman.”

She blinked, processed the information. “Stacy Chapman,” several expressions ran across her face in an instant before she settled on one of intrigue. “She’s Mayor Chapman’s daughter right?”

“Yeah..” you replied cautiously.

“You know I went to school with her father,” she spoke slow, as though working through each memory, “he did some work for Grandpa back in the day. That’s what got him his start in local politics.”

This was news to you. Of course you knew that your grandfather had a brief stint as mayor of Silent Oaks, but you hadn’t drawn a connection to Mayor Chapman.

Your mom smiled at you. “Well, I’m sure Grandpa would approve.”

After that your mother insisted on preening over you, inspecting your hair and clothes as you got ready, shooting a rapid fire of questions. Internally you groaned. You would be subjected to a lot of questions come tomorrow.

A few hours later she dropped you off at the cinema, informing you that she would pick you up at 9 when the movie was done. You waved her off with a smile and ventured inside.

Right away you could see Stacy sitting with one of her friends near the soda machine. She glanced up and your eyes met at once. It only last a fraction of a second, but she communicated a lot with that one brief narrowing of her eyes.

Don’t make a scene. Don’t approach. Play it cool.

You went and got your ticket, bought some snacks and ventured into the cinema. The girls walked in and sat down in the row directly in front of you, close enough that you could catch a faint whiff of their shampoo. You sat through a few minutes of trailers until your phone vibrated softly with a text.

“I couldn’t get rid of Maria. Wait 10 minutes and then go to the restrooms.”

You text back in the affirmative and sat in tense silence. Superheroes were fighting on the big screen in front of you, but the whole time all you could think about was checking your phone, watching the minutes tick by.

Eventually you got up and quietly walked out, waiting by the men’s room door. About 30 seconds later Stacy appeared, walking towards you at brisk pace. Grabbing you by the arm she yanked you inside the men’s room and pulled you into a nearby cubicle.

Her mouth smashed into yours furiously and without preamble. The two of you fell into making out for several minutes, lost in each other’s warm mouths as your hands began to grope and grasp at each other’s bodies.

When Stacy parted from you she was out of breath but grinning like an idiot. “Fuck,” she breathed, “I’ve been thinking about that all day.”

She kissed you again, softer this time. There was less passion but it was almost affectionate now. She felt so warm and soft pressed against you and her scent was intoxicating.

“Fuck, Stacy,” you said after a moment, “you’re gorgeous.”

“I know,” she replied with the same arrogance she always carried, “and I don’t know why I never noticed before, but you’re pretty damned hot yourself. Why haven’t we hooked up before?”

“You haven’t exactly been the nicest person.”

Stacy waved that away. “Whatever, all that matters is that I’m here and you’re here.”

There was a moment of silence as the two of you stood in the cubicle, appreciating each other. You were struggling to contain yourself from mauling those perky tits of hers. Stacy was the one to break the silence first, glancing at her phone.

“We don’t have much time before Maria starts getting suspicious,” she began to strip and sunk to her knees, “I’ve got to get another taste of that cock...”