Double Grades

by Kristine Robinson

  “You’re already so wet,” Mary said, grinning against her mouth before tugging at Kari’s lip. Kari laughed, breathlessly, and she spread her legs further, allowing Mary’s fingers to reach deeper inside. They stroked against her walls, making her wetter, letting it slip out onto Mary’s hand. Her thumb was able to circle and pleasure the sweet bud between Kari’s legs, wetting her further. Kari’s lips never left Mary’s, enjoying the feel over her kisses against her mouth as they sat together. They used the cover of the desk to keep at least some modesty – so there would at least be some small amount of cover should someone barge in, but that as unlikely.

  They got lost in each other, kissing and with their hands on each other. Kari’s hand had snaked its way between her legs, too. Mary’s parted as willingly as hers had, and they pleasured each other, getting closer and closer to the peak of climax, that sweet release –

  They both started when they heard a sound at the door – something akin to a knock. Kari jumped, startled, looking frantically to the door before sighing in relief – it wasn’t open. Thank God. Her free hand went to her chest, and she could feel the erratic pat of her heartbeat against her palm.

  “My God, that scared me. I thought someone had come in,” she muttered. “Just someone at the door.”

  Mary laughed, sliding her hand from between Kari’s legs. They straightened themselves up, and Kari stood, moving from Mary’s lap.

  “Come in,” she called to the door. No one answered. They looked at each other, and were silent. “Come in,” Kari repeated. Again, there was no answer. Kari went to the door, opening it to peek out. There was no one there.

  Kari shut the door behind her, and Mary began to laugh in full.

  “We really are like a couple of teens, spooking at any sound of us getting caught.” She grinned. “You think if we lock the door we’ll have some time to finish up?”

  Kari thought about it. They really shouldn’t. However…

  She locked the door. They had already started – and like a teen, since they so adequately compared themselves to, she was already lit up, her body excited for what could come.

  “We’d need to make it really quick,” she said, walking over to Mary. “Really quick.” Mary smirked.

  “I have an idea.

  What would her students think, if they knew that she let herself be led to the floor by their history teacher? If they knew that without hesitation, she loomed over the other woman’s face after sliding off stockings and panties, pulling up her skirt to give the other full access? Would they be disgusted to know how much she enjoyed the feeling of Mary’s tongue buried deep against her wanting sex? Horrified to know that as she rode the pleasures of Mary’s mouth so tantalizing against her dripping folds, Mary’s own thighs were spread wide, panties down, and her fingers were shoved inside her. Kari knew this – she could feel it against her every time Mary moaned, assumingly hitting a spot just right, or working her fingers feverishly over the bundle of nerves that would bring her over the edge.

  She fought to keep her voice down, biting on her lip. Mary loved her insides with her tongue, and it was self-indulgent in the way she let her own fingers play with herself, too. Stroking and rubbing her most sensitive part, bringing her pleasure quickly.

  It didn’t take long for either of them to finish. It was a rushed sort of job – but it felt amazing nonetheless. Her release had her spasm against Mary, and she enjoyed the feeling for a few moments before sliding off of her.

  “Well that was unexpected,” she said breathily, standing to slid her clothing back into place. Mary laughed, following suit, already getting herself resituated and professional looking.

  “Unexpected, but oh so satisfying. You know, I never had this much fun when I actually was in high school,” she mused.

  “Oddly enough, neither did I.”

  They laughed together, coming in for a kiss. Kari indulged in the taste of herself on Mary’s tongue – she should probably clean herself off properly in that case, before class started.

  “Mmm, I really want to stay here and get up to a little more,” Mary said. “But, I should get back to my class. Free period is almost over and I have more exams to grade and students’ lives to ruin with homework,” she said deviously.

  Kari laughed, shooing her off.

  “I’ll see you later tonight?” she questioned.

  “Yeah. I’ll be over around six. Have a good day, darling.”

  ***

  “Mom!”

  There was a half-foot layer of snow on the driveway as Kari blustered through it, getting snow in her shoes. It was the first week following break, and while Kari usually wasn’t able to visit her mother often, given she lived in the country just outside of it ‘away from civilization,’ as her mother called it. Between that, a busy school schedule and, admittedly, her relationship with Mary, she had only been calling her mother once a week.

  Holiday break gave way to that, though, and her mother stood, thin of body and slight of height. Her father’s death years back had made her mother, who had been dependent on him from the moment they were together, somewhat stronger, if only in her resolution to hold up his standards – always keeping a proper house, giving glory to God, and being as every bit of a Southern woman as Southern was.

  Kari embraced her mother, arms wrapped around her frame tight.

  “It’s so good to see you, Mama. How’re you? Been holding up well?”

  “As well as I can in this cold,” she said, returning Kari’s hug loosely, though that wasn’t much of anything new; the smaller woman didn’t have much arm to wrap with no muscle to squeeze with, either.

  “The heater working?” Kari asked as they came inside. She had brought an overnight bag, to stay with her, setting it just inside the door as she took off her jacket and hung it on the rack.

  “When it wants to, but the fireplace always roars when I want it to. It’s all the snow outside, you know. Makes it hard to get into town and back for the essentials.”

  “You could always move in with me,” Kari suggested, as she usually did. Her mother shook her head.

  “You know I couldn’t leave this house. Your father and I built this house. No. I’m fine out here. Your father wouldn’t have wanted me to.”

  Kari dropped the conversation from there, knowing that it was an argument that her mother would not budge on. That was alright, however; she couldn’t say that she would have liked to see the home that she grew up in abandoned, or put into the hands of someone else who may or may not appreciate it.

  They retreat into the living room, her mother sitting at the loveseat while Kari sat on the couch. Her father’s armchair remained unoccupied, as it usually did; Kari didn’t think that her mother even sat in it anymore, leaving it to be a small monument in the house as a testament to her father. Her mother had already made tea, and there was a tray with a pot. Kari made herself a cup with the free cup that was left out; her mother had always had a liking for sharing fresh tea when she came to visit.

  “So. How’s work, honey? Everything going well?” her mother asked after she had had a sip. There was something tense in her voice that Kari couldn’t place; perhaps her mother was upset that she had been taking so much time to work and so little time to visit? But she had never had a problem with it before… at least not one that she didn’t outright say to her.

  “Work’s fine, Mama,” she said. “We’ve been really busy, especially with exams.”

  “Mmm.” Her mother regarded her for a moment, before taking another drink of her tea. “And what about your personal life? Are you seeing anyone?”

  Kari blushed, unable to help herself. She wondered if her mother had heard anything… but that couldn’t be possible. She and Mary were careful at least about not appearing too familiar in public, just as if they were close friends.

  “Um. Nothing really serious,” she said, evading the question. She didn’t know if this was the right time or place to tell her mother about Mary, but she knew that s
he didn’t want to sour the holidays with any sort of negativity.

  Her mother set her tea down, neatly on the saucer that it belonged on. She eyed her mother as her mother stared back at her, her eyes suspicious in her gaze.

  “You’re lying to me.”

  The venom in her mother’s voice surprised her, and she sat back from the weight of the fury in her look. She, too, set her tea down, and braced herself.

  “Mama, I’m not –”

  “Don’t you lie more to me, Kari,” her mother said, stern. “You know what people are saying about you? Do you?”

  Kari swallowed, dreading the response. “No. No I don’t. What are they saying about me?”

  “They’re saying that you’ve locked lips with some woman you work with. That you’ve been out to town with her. You’re having relations with her. Is it true? Are they lying? I don’t think Ms. Nessa’s boy would lie about something like that, but I didn’t raise you like that and everyone and their mother who I’ve talked to about it been gossiping since the break started.”

  Kari was stark white by the time her mother stopped talking. How had people found out? And Ms. Nessa’s boy… did she mean Frank Nessa? She had him in one of her classes but when had he seen her and Mary in any compromising position? Unless… Had he opened the door the last time they had been in her classroom and seen them? How much had he seen?

  All of these questions, and fear, coursed through Kari. She was put on the spot, unprepared for her mother’s series of questions and the forced outing she was likely about to face. How could she turn this around how could she –

  “Well? Do you have an answer for me Kari?”

  Kari swallowed. She looked down to her hands, hoping that the tears that threatened to fall wouldn’t; she didn’t want to cry in front of her mother.

  “I’m seeing a woman,” she said. “A coworker. Her name is Mary and I like her very much –”

  Her mother stood, suddenly. Kari jumped, staring up at her as her mother’s body loomed over her. While her mother wasn’t large, it didn’t make her unimposing, especially with the situation.

  “You live with your father’s good name and you besmirch it like that,” her mother said, her voice shaking in anger. “What would he say if he were alive right now? If he knew what you were doing? When Ms. Nessa told me that her boy had seen the two of you kissing in your classroom, I was appalled at the accusation. I couldn’t believe it. My girl wouldn’t be so filthy, so trashy – but then I started to listen while I was in town and how it spread all over. Did you even think about your actions, how they would reflect on me? What kind of woman are you?”

  Kari had never heard her mother speak with such vitriol. The woman had grown harder since the passing of her husband, but this… borderline hatred was something new to Kari. She had never expected her mother to throw that at her like that. She knew the woman would be disappointed when she told her, but this level of disgust hurt her more than she ever thought she would be by her mother.

  She tried to placate her mother, tried to calm her down.

  “Mama, it’s not… it’s not as bad as you’re making it. Plenty of people are gay –”

  “Plenty of people aren’t my daughter!”

  “Mama,” Kari pleaded. “Please. I… I like her. I think I might even love her. You’d understand if you could talk to us, maybe if you meet her and see for yourself it’s not –”

  “No,” her mother interrupted. “No. I’m not meeting that woman. I’m not having that defile my house.” Her mother’s eyes almost seemed to pop out of her head, bug-eyed and deranged, infuriated. “Get out,” he mother said suddenly. “Get out, get out. I don’t know who you are. Get out!”

  Without a word, Kari stood. Her tea left behind, unfinished, and cold, she walked away from her mother. It pained her, the way her mother stepped out of her way, as if she were intent on not letting Kari touch her – as if she were some sort of contamination that needed to be avoided. She grabbed the bag that she had left by the door. The slamming of it behind her jolted her a bit; she had barely hit the porch before her mother had done so.

  Kari was on autopilot as she made her way back to her car. She got in, her bagged tossed to the passenger seat. She gave a forlorn look back to her mother’s house, the house she had grown up in. Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes, but she drove off, down the long and winding drive that lead to her mother’s house.

  Somewhere around a mile or so down, she pulled to the side of the road. There was too much weight on her, too much sorrow in the way her mother had kicked her out of her house, for her to be able to drive any longer as the tears came down in full. She sobbed, her forehead on the steering wheel of the car.

  It wasn’t supposed to be that way. She was supposed to have been able to tell her mother, her friends, everyone… when the time was right. Not have her relationship with Mary spied on by a child and then gossiped about to the entire town, leaving her open to have whoever felt the need to nose themselves where they didn’t belong give their input! How was she going to fix this… how was she going to tell Mary? Her own mother had looked on her in disgust and disdain…

  How was she going to survive with this out in the open?

  ***

  “Hey hun. You feeling better?”

  Kari sat on Mary’s couch, a blanket wrapped around her and a cup of cocoa in her hands. After pulling herself together and wiping away her tears, she had decided to make her way over to Mary’s house, and tell her what had happened. Mary had experienced something similar before, and reacted better than she had, but she was still worried. The town knowing about them was the least of their worries – it would be rough, yes, but they had known that once they decided to be open in their relationship that it would be, regardless. The pressing matter was how much had been seen by the boy who had caught them – and how much would be reported. Their jobs were at stake. It was one thing she was having a relationship with Mary, and an entirely different one that they had fooled around in her classroom. Something so daring and thrilling at the time now seemed quite foolish.

  She sighed, shaking her head, trying to will away the bad thoughts that piled and piled up on her.

  “As well as I’m going to be, for now,” she said, sighing. She looked over to Mary. “What are we going to do?”

  “Well,” Mary said. “We can lie, and say it was nothing more than a nasty boy making up rumors – oh don’t give me that look, you know Frank Nessa is a nasty little pervert.” Kari frowned, knowing that Mary was right, but she didn’t know if she wanted to lie on this…

  “I don’t want to lie, though. Especially now that so many people are apparently talking about it, and I’ve already told my mother that it’s true. I said that I wanted us to be out at some point –”

  “But not like this, Kari. I don’t want to force this on you too soon.”

  Silence fell between them, and Kari mulled that over. She hadn’t wanted it forced, either, but what were they to do about that now? The rumor was already spreading. If Frank Nessa told more people than his mother, than all the more people were gossiping than just those who her mother had spoken to. It would reach the school – the principal, likely. Could they honestly deny it at this point?

  Kari looked to Mary, determined. She set aside her cocoa, and took Mary’s hands in hers.

  “It may have been forced, but I don’t want to back out on this,” she said, voice shaking but resolve steady. “It isn’t the ideal way that we wanted to do this, but this is the way that it’s been and this is what we have to deal with. It was going to happen sooner or later… we just have to deal with it sooner and the fact it came about before we wanted it to. But… I’ve got you, and you’ve got me. Right?”

  Mary smiled at her, bringing their hands up so she could brush her lips over Kari’s knuckles.

  “You’ve got me, hun. You always will.”

  ***

  The coming months were a roller coaster for Kari and Mary. The saving grace was
that, while Frank Nessa had certainly seen them kissing together in Kari’s classroom, that was all he had seen. He hadn’t noticed their hands wondered in places they shouldn’t during work hours – or if he had, he had kept that information to himself. They couldn’t get fired for kissing, but they were warned that anymore inappropriate conduct would be punished.

  Kari and Mary knew that that meant any obvious displays of affection together would not be tolerated.

  They also couldn’t be fired on the principal that they were gay, and together. Even in a town as small as theirs, they had to adhere to federal law, no matter how much parents wished that they didn’t. When neither Mary nor Kari were fired after returning from winter break, several students were pulled from both of their classes by request of parents, regardless of the fact there was no second art instructor and any children pulled from Kari’s class would not be able to continue art classes.

  There were small slivers of sweet, however, interspersed in the sour. Despite the tone her mother had set, hardly the entire town knew or gossiped about her and Mary. Those who did, Kari didn’t associate often with, and among them only a few actually had a problem with how she and Mary were. That didn’t stop stares, nor did it prevent people from making snide comments when she would walk by, or go out on a date with Mary. Kari had to think it was because she was already liked by most people around her in the town – and most people who liked her seemed to decide that it wasn’t worth picking a fight.

  Mary, to her credit, took everything in stride. She didn’t have the luxury of being well-known in the town, and most of the fault of Kari’s ‘gayness’ tended to fall onto Mary. Gossipers theorized that it was Mary who turned Kari gay – that such a nice girl like Kari was simply brought in by the teacher from the city with too many big ideas and not enough humble pie. Mary let the accusations slide right off her back, knowing they held no weight; Kari was glad for Mary’s resilience.