Chapter 16 #2
“This is what I’m saying.” Piper shuddered so theatrically that the carrier bag in Bryn’s hand, laden with food, shuddered too.
“So, as I understand it, this is a thing that happens every year, but usually it’s just a sort of friendly walk-through, you know, catching everyone up, blah, blah.
But this year, it was basically a full inspection. ”
Bryn glanced around to ensure they were alone. “Because they’re trying to find a way to get Amelia to leave?”
“You said it, not me. But it sure felt like we were being investigated for crimes or something. I halfway thought they were going to call out a forensics team—or dismiss me on the spot.”
“It went that badly?” Bryn asked sympathetically.
“It was all right. The governors, of course, don’t buy into the program at all, but when you start with that as your basic premise, then it’s actually pretty easy to let it go.
I knew I wasn’t going to impress them, but a few of them were tolerably engaged in the idea that moving the body is good for minds and magic. ” They rolled their eyes.
“As if we don’t literally know that’s true,” Bryn said.
“I know, but Amelia and I talked about it beforehand, and we decided that continually saying we have studies to prove the concept wasn’t going to make a difference.
So I laid off all of the, you know—” they hooked their fingers in sarcastic air quotes “—‘scientific evidence’ and just talked about how the kids seemed to really enjoy the program.”
Bryn reflected on how the enjoyment of students actually seemed to be working against some of the things she was doing when she talked to the governors. But no point in bringing it up.
“But I’m free now,” they said, then nodded at her load of food. “What are you doing?”
“Oh, gathering supplies. I think I might do a work-in day tomorrow, try to lesson plan for the next—well, until the MSEs.”
“At least I’m spared that trial,” they said. “How’s it going? I mean, after the cheating scandal.”
It hadn’t really been a scandal, but that’s what she and Piper were calling it, just for fun. They’d done it once around Amelia, who had winced, so they hadn’t done it again.
“Well …” A long silence drew out, filled only with the sound of their steps on the gravel and birdsong all around.
“That good, huh?” Piper asked, when it was clear that Bryn really didn’t know what to say.
“Yeah, pretty much.” She glanced over, assessing whether after the day they’d had, they would be interested in entertaining what was probably a ridiculous idea.
“I was thinking. What if we set up some kind of mentoring system, or a group-work scenario? What if we get the kids who are more or less up on things to teach the kids who aren’t? ”
“I don’t know how effective that would be.” It wasn’t the most positive response, but they sounded thoughtful.
“I don’t mean teach formally. I just mean …” She struggled to find the words. “I was reading about the use of group-work activities.”
“I mean, vomit, but okay.” They grinned to show they didn’t mean it.
“And you’re into team sports!”
Piper opened their mouth as if to argue, then shrugged. “Fair play, so to speak. So team studenting?”
“Maybe. Hear me out. Teaching helps cement concepts, right?”
They nodded. “Yeah, I’ll grant you that.”
“Right. Teaching a skill is known to help you remember that skill for longer than just learning it from someone else. If we can do this across the board, most of our students will have opportunities both to teach things and to learn things from their classmates.”
“Okay, but if you’re already struggling in one thing, how does being taught it by another student help you?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know exactly yet, except I think maybe, in smaller groups, there might be less pressure, and they’ll be able to solidify their gains a little bit more.”
Piper didn’t look fully convinced, but they did look intrigued.
“I like the idea a lot and it doesn’t feel like I have much to lose,” Bryn admitted as they turned towards her cottage. “I mean, at this rate, I can’t teach them everything they need to learn before the MSEs, unless I could open their brains and download all of it directly.”
“Have you done another practice test?” they asked.
She sighed. “Once. The results were so depressing, to me as well as the kids, that I vowed I wouldn’t do it again. They don’t need the mindfuck of it.”
“I get that.”
She realized suddenly, almost at her door, that she hadn’t cleaned up.
Clothes were probably still strewn about.
She’d tossed the comforter over her bed, but not really made it.
What other evidence was there from last night?
Burned-down candles. Things she didn’t have time to consider.
Did it still smell like sex? There was no way she could invite Piper inside.
She cleared her throat. “Back to work, I guess. I’ll see you around.”
Piper blinked. “What, you’re not gonna ask me in to share some of your snacks?”
“Um, not right now. Maybe tomorrow.” Don’t blush, don’t blush, do not blush.
This time, Piper looked at her more cannily. “You’re hiding something.”
“I am not. What would I be hiding?” She could feel the blood in her cheeks and willed them to cool down.
“Hmm.” Piper raised a single eyebrow, arching it expertly. “I don’t know yet, but I think I’ll find out at some point. Maybe Amelia knows.”
Bryn should have been able to keep her expression totally blank, except at the mention of Amelia’s name, she looked away, and then, realizing she’d done it, she looked back. She had no idea what her face looked like, but she’d been thinking about it way too long for it to be natural.
“Oh, my gods,” Piper said. “Amelia knows. Are you— Is something going on?” They waved a hand between Bryn and the empty air beside her, where apparently phantom-Amelia stood. “It is!” they said delightedly. “Oh, my—”
Bryn used the hand not holding a sack of food to lightly shove Piper down the path. “Time to go.”
“Are you getting ready to see Amelia?” they teased, though they did keep their voice down.
“No, no, I’m not. No.” That third “no” sounded confident and assured. The first two sounded like guilty denials. Dammit.
“Are you hoping to see Amelia later?”
This time, her mouth fell open in what she felt certain was an emoji-worthy O of surprise. Piper laughed, turned their back, and started to walk away, looking over their shoulder only once to say, “Good luck,” then cackling as they left.
Bryn escaped inside and shut the door, feeling like her face was probably steaming, but also, obscurely, reassured.
Piper was acting like anyone whose friends might or might not be hooking up: amused and unconcerned.
Had she ever had a friend in this role before, or just read about it in books?
Sometimes she felt like she’d been so apart from people her whole life that she’d missed out on a lot of “normal” activities.
The memory of Piper’s good-natured cackles made her smile, until she caught sight of her bed and the memory of Amelia, naked and open, made her blush.
She distracted herself by putting the food away, then pulling it out again, then telling herself that she needed to calm the hell down and putting it away for good.
She did manage to make the bed and clear up from last night, including putting fresh candles in the candle holders, even though it felt a little bit like jinxing the whole situation.
Finally, as dusk was falling over the grounds, Bryn decided to take the bull (or the headmistress) by the horns and go to see Amelia herself.
Her message was still on delivered. She spent twenty minutes drafting, revising, and finalizing a two-sentence note she could leave in case Amelia wasn’t back in her rooms. Who knew what the governors’ tour included?
Did they stay for a meal? Was Amelia in the refectory with the other professors right now, wishing she had a bottle of wine instead of sparkling grape juice?
Was Bryn making an absolute fool of herself and overthinking literally everything?
Even if it had been a one-off, it had been a fantastic one-off, she reminded herself. She had a ton of snacks for lesson planning in the morning. She and Amelia would go back to Professional Mode. Everything would be fine. Probably better, actually. Less chance of heartbreak that way.
She gathered her note, her Sapphic Pride hoodie, and her wand. It was no big deal. Just sex. A fling. A one-off. What was the difference? A month or two? Bryn could handle disappointment.
She pulled open her front door, bracing against the chill …
To find Amelia standing there.