Page 78 of The Teacher

“What are these?”

“They’re photographs, can’t you see?”

“Photos of Skipper and I?”

“Exactly, Miss Finn,” she replies. “They’re evidence. Proof of how you’ve purposely sabotaged the school.”

Oh.

Now I know what’s happened, she’s paid a photographer to stalk me for the last few weeks and take photos of me and Skipper from a distance. And now she has those photographs spread out over Mr. Brown’s desk. Photos of my personal life. Photos of Skipper and me. Miss Tweed turns her head to look at me and tuts. “I did tell you, Miss Finn, that I’ve got my eye on you. And now, if you try to apply for a teaching job at any school in the country Mr. Brown and I will pick up that phone and tell them everything about you. Everything. We’ll say you’re a slut and a liar, purely out to wring money from the school, and who can’t be trusted.”

Holy cow.

The woman’s insane. And a stalker. And clearly obsessed with Skipper. And obsessed about hurting me in every way.

But this crazy woman has control over the school through her stranglehold on Mr. Brown, and she’s getting me fired. She’s kicking me out of my dream job, at my dream school. The same school I went to as a kid. She’s going to ruin my professional reputation forever. And, judging from Mr. Brown’s blank expression, there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it. No amount of protesting can save me now.

I’m doomed.

I’m at a loss for words. Miss Tweed smugly smiles at me like she’s won some kind of a competition between us. But I never wanted a competition with her or anybody else, I just wanted to teach.

And now that’s over.

“Can you see now why we have no reason but to fire you,” Miss Tweed says.

“Can I be excused for a moment?” I ask, my throat dry. My hands shake.

Mr. Brown waves at the door, letting me go for a minute. Miss Tweed just looks on in pure unfiltered joy as I stand up and walk out of the office, closing the door behind me.

I’m alone in the deserted hallways of the school. I cover my face in my hands and, for the hundredth time today, I begin to cry.

My entire world, everything, has collapsed around me. Skipper’s revealed to me exactly who he is. My job is lost. Everything I love or care about is burning around me.

I just stand there in the hallway of the school I love and sob. I don’t care if Mr. Brown and Miss Tweed can hear me from inside the office behind me. I don’t care about anything anymore. I’m a loser. A failure.

BOOM.

The double doors at the end of the hallway burst open with a slam. I flick my head up to see what’s going on. Someone’s entered the hallway.

The school doors have opened, and it’s Skipper Deep that is walking through. Coming towards me.

29

SKIPPER

As I swing open the hallway doors, I see Sandy Finn crying there outside the principal’s office.

The first words out of her mouth are venom.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” she shouts at me, her voice echoing down the hallway. I ignore her and continue marching towards her and the office. Steve, my bodyguard, stays close beside me. “I said, Skipper Deep, what are you doing here?”

We ignore her words.

I reach her, stopping a few yards away from her, close enough to see the tears streaming down her face. I can clearly see from the redness of her cheeks and the tears in her eyes that she’s angry, hurt, and confused.

Just as I thought she would be.

A dangerous cocktail of emotions. I need to tread carefully here.