Well Defended

You’re stunned by the accusation. You don’t know what to say. It appears Abigail does, though.

“Really, he’s trying to **** you?” she asks with a sarcastic tone. “Looks to me like he’s just trying to stop you running away. What are you doing in his office?”

“He lured me here. He was going to **** me.”

“I’ve just come back from taking Ellie to the nurse’s office and I found her in here, going through my personal possessions in my rucksack. She gave me some cock and bull story about needing a copy of my contract. Apparently, Mrs Oversight has lost the school’s copy.”

“Really, that’s your story, Layla?”

Layla glances between the two of you, her eyes blazing with indignation. She knows she’s caught in lies, but she’s not going to give up easily. Whatever’s happened. Whatever is happening. She still believes she’s in the right. She still believes she has the moral high ground, even if she’s sacrificed some of it to prove her point.

“You can’t believe him. He lured me here. And then he tried to **** me.”

“Lured you, how?”

“He said he had some questions about his contract.”

“Surely if I had issues with the contract I would’ve asked about them before I signed it.”

“I don’t know how your mind works. You’re a pervert. You were just too excited about working with innocent girls. Look at this. A clear sign of perversion.” She’s holding up the statuette she’d hit you with. “Look at it. Only a pervert would have something like this.”

Abigail holds out her hand and Layla places the statuette in it. She looks it over.

“I must admit it looks suggestive, but I don’t think it’s obscene. Yes, if you want to see the female form in it, you can. But it’s not certain. What is it?”

“It’s a Celtic Fertility statue, representing one of their fertility goddesses Tlachtga.”

“See historical. Not unusual for a history teacher to have something like this with them.”

“Sheri didn’t have anything like that.”

“No, Miss Wandering didn’t. I know you liked Sheri, Layla, but you’ve got to accept it when the board says they couldn’t keep her on. We all know they had their reasons for getting rid of her. They might not be making it common knowledge, but you’ve got to admit there were a lot of rumours. If any one of them was true, that would be enough to see her gone. And you can’t blame Mr Smith for the board acting on it.”

“It’s for the good of the students.” Layla’s arguments sound bad even to her. She flushed, is it because of her embarrassment, or is it because she’s holding the statuette? As far as you know it’s still on.

Which makes you think. Was the statuette the cause of Ellie’s collapse? She had complained of feeling odd as soon as class started. An innocent girl like her might not recognise a rise of her libido.

“Maybe we should take this to Mrs Oversight or Dr Stricture,” you suggest.

Layla recognises that this won’t help her. “Alright, maybe he didn’t **** me. I’ll drop the accusation if you let me go.”

She’s in the wrong in every single way but pursuing it will just cause more trouble.

“Just stay out of my classroom and my office.”

Layla nods. Abigail steps aside and the school secretary storms off.

“Thanks for taking my side,” you tell Abigail after Layla has gone.

“Not a problem. Layla was very vocal about not employing you. I just assumed she was pissed they sacked Miss Wandering without letting her know. She was close to Miss Wandering. Just be careful around her. Layla is tenacious.” She looks at the statuette in her hand. “I know this is innocuous, and I know I told you to personalise your classroom and office, but probably a good idea to keep this at home.”

You agree. “Is there a reason you’re here?” you then ask.

“I was just checking up on you. You weren’t at lunch.”

You tell her about Ellie and what you’d been doing. She nods understandingly. “Oh, and there’s another reason,” she adds.