Mia
“There’s a picture of you with Mr Hudson in a bookstore.”
Principal Rutton was calmer than I gave her credit for, given the way she barged into our staffroom.
We stood in her office now. The last time I was in here, I was told not to–and I was paraphrasing here–fuck things up.
Well, so much for that.
I watched Rutton point at her monitor as Lilly fidgeted beside me, nervous. I felt like absolute shit for putting her in this position.
But a picture with Theo could have meant anything. Maybe she was just mad that I didn’t listen to her. She told me to stay away from Theo because he kept yelling at me in front of the students. Maybe that’s all it was. Maybe we weren’t doing anything wrong in that picture.
“And you’re kissing,” Rutton finished, and my hopes crashed to the ground.
“They’re kissing?” Lilly asked, and Rutton turned her monitor around.
There we were, Theo and I. His big hands were wrapped around my waist, my body pressed against his. We were surrounded by shelves and shelves of love stories as his mouth smiled against mine.
Objectively speaking, it was a great picture. But it also left little room for doubt.
I didn’t handle confrontation well. Lilly was right when she called me a bulldozer. Right then, all I could think was: What asshole would take a picture of us like that?
Wasn’t everything about consent these days? I didn’t consent to this.
And even though I knew I was here for a verbal beatdown after making out with a parent in public, all I could ask was, “Who sent you this?”
“That’s not important,” Rutton snapped. She looked at Lilly, and with the same sharp tone, asked, “Did you know Mia was seeing Mr Hudson?”
Lilly straightened, put a hand on her stomach, and opened her mouth.
I blurted out, “No,” before she could say anything. “Lilly didn’t know. This just happened. It’s not like I’ve been with him all term.”
Rutton’s glance was razored so thin, she could have cut me with it. “I hope not. Otherwise, the two of you would have an extremely dysfunctional relationship.”
I twisted my lips to the side, like I’d just sucked on a lemon.
“Lilly didn’t know,” I repeated. “And she shouldn’t be punished for something I did.”
Lilly’s gaze whipped to me. “Mia, you can’t just–”
“Yes, I can. You had no idea this was happening.” I folded my arms and grumbled, “I can’t believe someone caught us.”
“Mia, you honestly amaze me.” Rutton sat back in her chair and looked up at me with a smile. Only, this smile didn’t look like a happy one.
“You know what something like this means for us, but instead of apologizing and asking how to make it right, you’re making fun of it.”
“Because this is being blown out of context,” I yelled, and it was so sudden that both Lilly and Rutton jerked in their seats.
I pointed at the screen. “Someone took a picture of me kissing a parent, and yes, I agree, that’s a big no-no. But Lilly had nothing to do with it, my students have nothing to do with it, and it doesn’t affect my ability to do my job in the slightest.”
Rutton stood. “I disagree. It was your job to remain professional in the classroom–”
“–I have–”
“–and keep the best interests of your students in mind–”
“–I’d never do anything to–”
“–not go behind your head teacher’s back–”
“–upset any of them–”
“–and get caught kissing a student’s father.”
We stopped yelling at the same time and stared each other down.
“Just tell me what I need to do to fix this,” Lilly begged softly.
Rutton was still angry when she fixed her glare on Lilly.
I ground out, “She had nothing to do with this. It wasn’t her fault–”
“Regardless,” Rutton shouted. “This happened under her management, right under her nose.”
“But–”
“And I know how close you two are. As far as I know, this has been happening for months, and you two have been keeping it from me.”
Lilly shook her head, desperate for Rutton to see reason. “Just give us a chance to fix this, like we fixed the marking discrepancies last year.” Lilly took a breath and let it out. “No one else has to know about this. We can keep it between us, can’t we?”
Rutton surprised us by barking out a laugh. “You think this parent is going to keep this picture to herself?”
“Maybe they would if we talked to them?” Lilly asked.
“I don’t think so.” Rutton shook her head. “Lilly, I’m sorry, but you’re no longer acting Head of Literature.”
“But she had nothing to do with it,” I yelled.
“And you, Mia. You’re no longer running our program.”
Lilly deflated, already accepting it, while I tried to sit there and swallow all this horrible, useless rage.
“This isn’t fair,” I said. “You’re blowing this out of proportion.”
Rutton stared at me then, and the look she gave me said, How can you not see the trouble you’ve caused?
“You want to know what the worst thing about this is, Mia? Do you want to know what you’ve done?”
I was silent, waiting. I didn’t have to wait long.
“Not only have you put our school in a bad position with the parents–because they will find out about this–but you didn’t stop to think about how this–” Rutton pointed at the screen “–would affect Kira.”
At the mention of her name, my chest tightened. She was right. I might not have cared about what the parents thought of me, but I cared about our students. I cared about Kira. And if the parents found out about this, it meant she would too.
A brief knock interrupted us, and Miles opened the door.
He glanced nervously around at our drained, frustrated faces, then said, “Principal Rutton, there’s a problem in the amphitheater. Miss Gem needs you.”