She (Probably) Pretends She Didn't Notice

From the look on her face, I'd give it a one out of ten chance that Miss Friedman didn't notice that I'd been looking at bondage porn in particular. At that moment, I was just about to start planning how I'd explain my expulsion to my parents, when she straightened her demeanor, and turned off my phone's screen.

"Mr. Matters, the syllabus explicitly laid out you're not allowed to use your phone in class." She says in a voice as stiff as a corpse.

I gawk for a moment, trying to figure out if this is good or bad. On one hand, I'm in deep shit. On the other hand, I was mostly just relieved that she wasn't making a big fuss about the truly bad part. Might as well play a long.

"I'm sorry, Miss Friedman. I just ADHD'd off for a bit. It won't happen again." I say, reaching for my phone. She shakes her head in disapproval.

"The rules are the rules." Her voice implies no margin for interpretation. "You're not allowed to use a phone in class. the syllabus explicitly lays out the docking of a letter grade for a caught phone."

"Oh come on." I groan. Okay, now this was officially bullshit. Every teacher with half a brain knew that you just came off as an asshole for strictly enforcing rules like this. "Can't I get off with a warning just this one time?"

Then, to my surprise, she didn't say no. Instead, she looked down at the phone and back at me. For the briefest moment, I thought I saw a blush, but it could have just been my imagination. Then, she wordlessly put the phone back on my desk.

"Fine. No grade off." She says. Probably the first time anyone has heard of Miss Friedman bending a rule in her admittedly short time on faculty. "But, on Tuesday during office hours, your spending that time grading tests for my 101 students. And there isn't an answer key. We clear?"

"Crystal." I wipe my brow and stow my phone back in my pocket. Miki giggles quietly to herself, though now she's staring off into the middle distance, mind clearly not here in the classroom. She happened to walk by while I had my phone out, but Miki managed to avoid confication? What total bullshit. I groan and try to pay attention to the lecture on the 30 years war. The Danish Intervention. How....exciting?'

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