Page 16 of The Teacher

She’s out to get me.

I’m in the parking lot of New Water’s most pricey hotel, the same hotel my brother and my best friend got married in a week ago, but this time I’m not here for a nice wedding. I’m here for the school fundraiser.

Great.

Men in suits and local celebrities, bad canapes and Miss Tweed.

My favorite way to spend an evening.

Despite being one of the most elite private schools in the country, Poseidon’s Academy has fallen on hard financial times in the past few years. I don’t know how we have, since we charge extortionate fees for the students to attend the school, but that’s what I’ve been told is the case by both Miss Tweed and the principal. The school is in trouble. Deep trouble. That’s why we’ve been holding fundraisers for the past few months, to try to encourage the rich parents of students and local business people to invest and donate to our school.

This is just the latest one. All run by Miss Tweed, of course. She’s made herself in charge of the school’s financial records when she came in five years ago. These fundraisers have been her baby, and she runs a tight ship.

And she’s just ruined my day.

I know I shouldn’t be so down by what she said to me at school earlier, but it has affected me so badly. I’m still recovering from her words in that hallway outside the nurse’s station. It’s like she’s stripped away all my self-confidence and left me with nothing.

You’re only here because of your family’s wealth and connections.

Lies. What she said simply wasn’t true, but somehow Miss Tweed could make me feel like a chastised schoolgirl. She made it seem like she was my teacher, giving me a detention, and I’ve felt like a naughty student all day.

Just because she reckons I’m here because of my family name.

That I’m not a real teacher.

“I can do this,” I repeat to myself as I lock the car behind me and step up to the front doors of the hotel. It’s night and it’s a bit chilly outside. Despite that, I’ve decided to wear a nice dress, although I’m worried that the cleavage is a bit low. I can feel the cold wind whip freely on my exposed breasts. I do look good, though. It’s the one thing getting me through tonight, the one thing getting me through Miss Tweed’s disgusting lecture from this morning.

I look damn good in this dress.

As I reach the front steps of the hotel someone comes out of nowhere and jumps in front of me. I’m surprised by the sudden movement and it takes me a moment to recognize who it is.

Mr. Brown. The school principal of Poseidon’s Academy.

Jesus.

What a shock.

At five-foot-eight, I’m pretty tall for a woman, and Mr. Brown, at five-foot-seven, is pretty short for a man, so it’s a weird imbalance for me to have to look down at my boss, at a man much older than me.

“Miss Finn,” Mr. Brown says as he jumps in front of me. He’s blocking my way into the hotel.

“Mr. Brown! I didn’t expect to see you outside. Shouldn’t you be in the hotel talking to the guests?”

He straightens up, but he’s still shorter than me. “I wanted to talk to you privately before you went in,” he replies.

Oh, no. This doesn’t sound good.

“Sure, go ahead.”

My Brown is a nervous man. I can tell he doesn’t like the social aspects of his job. He’s more than happy to sit behind his desk and fiddle with numbers all day and not talk directly to his staff. He always puts me on edge when I talk to him with all his little twitches and nervous ticks. I do like him though. He’s a decent man, although very much under the power of Miss Tweed and her dominating personality. It’s almost like she runs the school and Mr. Brown is her personal assistant. He never fights back at her. To him, Miss Tweed’s word is Gospel.

A lot of staff has left in the years between me leaving Poseidon’s Academy as a student and me returning as a teacher. Mr. Brown became the principal just a few months after I graduated, so it’s good we don’t have that weird student-teacher dynamic I still have with one or two other staff who used to teach me.

“How can I put this delicately? I’ll be blunt, if I may,” Mr. Brown starts, beckoning me to the side of the hotel, away from any incoming guests. He speaks to me in an anxious hushed voice. “The school is, as you may know, in a bit of a difficult situation at the moment, money-wise. We really need some emergency cash, to put it frankly.”

“I’ve heard.”

“Ah, good. Well, that’s why these fundraisers are so important. You are a, uh, very charming woman, Miss Finn. I hope we can rely on you to talk to everyone here tonight.”