Higher Learning (The Charlie Davies Mysteries Book 4)

by Clare Kauter

  I jumped and knelt and pom-pommed all over the place. I was a little shaky on the first tricky move, but I hid it reasonably well. The next couple went off without a hitch and before I knew it I was done. And the crowd was cheering. (As in, like, clapping.) James and Elliot looked astonished. I couldn’t blame them. That was easily the most coordinated thing I’d ever done in my whole life. I hadn’t fallen once! No broken bones! My god, had I just found my single talent in life?

  Chelsea thanked everyone for trying out and said she’d be in touch to let us know who was on the team. She and her closest minions huddled together to confer. I knelt down and pretended to be doing up my shoelace, trying to overhear what they were saying. They were speaking too quietly for me to listen in, though, so eventually I stood and made my way to the changing rooms. Once I was back in my uniform, I headed to the library to get my wire from Tim. When I arrived, I found both Tim and Adam.

  “Morning,” I said.

  “How did it go?” Adam asked.

  “Good,” I said. “I didn’t even break anything.”

  “You on the team?”

  I shrugged. “Not sure yet. They said they’ll let me know when they decide.”

  “Do you think you’ll be picked?” Adam asked.

  I frowned a little. Why was he so worried? I mean, I knew it was an important case, but even so. Didn’t he trust Tim to watch over me? Oh shit – had Tim told him about Jared? Surely not. He would have warned me if he had. And Adam would already have fired me. No, it was more likely that Adam was just wondering if it was actually worth giving me a morning off training.

  Adam helped me put on the wire and then the bell rang. I headed off to English class, hoping I’d be able to talk to Chelsea there. No such luck. Abhati grabbed me before I even had a chance to approach her.

  “Don’t,” she whispered. “If she thinks you’re being pushy she won’t put you on the team.”

  I sighed exasperatedly. “Why does she have so many weird rules? Shouldn’t it just be that the best cheerleaders are on the team?”

  “It should,” Abhati hissed, “but you aren’t captain, so you don’t really have a say in that. And if she hears you questioning her, you aren’t going to be picked.”

  This was ridiculous. I spent all of English glancing over at Chelsea, hoping she’d give me a thumbs up and mouth “you’re in!” or something. No such luck. Second period we had a school assembly which was equally as forgettable. I spent recess hanging out with Abhati, away from the main group of cheerleaders, telling her about the cute guy I’d met and feeling like a creeper the whole time. Jared owed me big for this.

  When the bell rang, Abhati and I made our way to PE theory. I was dreading it, but it wasn’t like I had a choice. Fucking James McKenzie, ruining my high school experience both times around. As I walked into the classroom and saw what was on the screen at the front, however, it soon became apparent that this class might be even worse for James than it was going to be for me.

  “Good morning,” he said as everyone took a seat. Abhati and I sat in the middle of the front row and took out our computers, ready to learn.

  “How are you, sir?” I asked.

  He gave me a strained smile, the message behind his eyes clear. Charlotte Regina Davies, don’t you dare make this worse than it already is. “Very well, thank you.”

  “What are we learning about today, sir?”

  “Contraception,” he answered, doing a very good impression of someone who wasn’t furious with me for asking that question.

  “What’s that, sir?” I asked, throwing in a hair twirl for good measure.

  “Charlotte...”

  “I’m serious, sir,” I said. “I don’t know what that is.”

  He looked deeply unimpressed with me as he answered, “It’s anything used to prevent pregnancy.”

  “Oh, you mean like a condom?”

  He nodded. “Yes, that’s one example.”

  “I always feel weird buying condoms,” I said. “Like the cashier’s judging me.”

  James paused for a moment, looking resigned, before saying, “Just use the self-serve checkout, then.”

  “Is that what you do, sir?”

  “I don’t discuss my sex life with my students,” he replied.

  I nodded knowingly. “Has it been a while?”

  “Charlotte, you’re behaving inappropriately.”

  “Am I, sir? I’m so sorry. It’s just that you’re not that much older than us. You’re so easy to talk to. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

  He gave me a tight smile. “That’s OK, Charlotte. Maybe you should just think before you speak in future.”

  I shrugged. “I’ll try, sir.”

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Chelsea biting her lip and staring down at her table, trying not to laugh.

  “Are we going to be putting condoms on bananas, sir?”

  James massaged his temples and said, “Charlotte, if you don’t shut up I’m going to send you to the principal.”

  “Sorry, sir,” I said, trying not to smile. The sight of James squirming made me feel a lot better about recent events.

  The class passed quickly for me, although I’d imagine it passed at an excruciatingly slow pace for James. Teaching your former worst enemy turned former friend turned former kiss buddy turned enemy again about sex in a room full of high schoolers couldn’t be the most enjoyable way to pass the day. From where I was sitting, though, it was a lot of fun. I made a couple more comments, causing Chelsea to nearly burst out laughing again. The bell rang all too soon.

  “Charlotte, can you stay back please?”

  “Private tutoring, sir?”

  The other students left, all trying to hide their laughter, and I walked over to James’s desk. He folded his arms.

  “Could you not try make me look like a paedophile?” he said. “Please?”

  “Oh, that’s funny,” I said. “I seem to remember you accusing a certain other teacher of something very similar. Another completely innocent teacher.” A teacher who was horrible at kissing, but still innocent. Probably. Maybe.

  He sighed. “I know, and I’m sorry for that, but that doesn’t make flirting with me in a sex ed class OK.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s not a big deal.”

  “It isn’t when you do it, but what if someone else joins in?”

  “Oh, please. I’m sure you’ll be safe,” I said. “The girls aren’t fawning over you like they used to. You’re not even the hottest teacher at the school.”

  “Great, thanks. You can go now.”

  “No need to get all mopey.”

  “Just go, Charlie.”

  * * *

  My mind wandered a lot during science. It was a boring theory day and we were just answering questions on a worksheet. I wrote crappy answers, probably getting half of them wrong. My mind was still on PE. Or, rather, it was on James McKenzie. Why did I keep getting so hung up on him? Elliot was nice to me, not to mention interested, and yet I was just as bad as my friends when it came to picking holes in him. And as much as I hated to admit it, our relationship had been weird. I may not have agreed with James getting drunk and saying it straight to Elliot’s face in the middle of a dinner party, but he had a point. I didn’t want to get with Elliot, and the thought that Elliot spent so much time with the cheer squad made me uncomfortable. Even if he wasn’t the meth dealer, he was still not the kind of guy who should be hanging around a bunch of teenage girls.

  And James... Argh, this was all so much easier when he was just an arsehole. Why hadn’t I dealt with this all months ago in the aftermath of The Incident? Then I would have moved on by now and everything would be much simpler. I’d probably have another totally inappropriate, unattainable crush to consume my waking hours. I glared down at the worksheet I was meant to be filling out and sighed. I needed to talk to James. I needed to sort this out properly, like a grown up would do, otherwise it was just going to get worse. By the time the bell rang for lunch, I w
as ready to head back to the PE classroom where I was hoping James would still be. However, Elliot stopped me before I could leave.

  “You did really well in tryouts today,” he said.

  I nodded distractedly. “Thanks.”

  What if he wasn’t still in the classroom? I couldn’t exactly talk to him in the staffroom, could I? I’d have to call him and get him to meet me somewhere.

  I realised Elliot was still talking.

  “... dinner sometime?”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Sorry, what?”

  “I know we’re still working together and all, but –”

  Eek. “Oh, we can’t –”

  He cut me off. “No one has to know. We can keep it a secret.”

  “Elliot, I –”

  He touched my face. “Thought I’d never ask? I know. It’s just that after you broke my heart the last time, I wasn’t sure...”

  I tried not to look as disgusted as I felt as he caressed my cheek.

  “Elliot, this is not –”

  He leaned towards me.

  “I just wanted to check, cheer practice is tomorrow during sport, right?” came a man’s voice from the corridor. Not just any man’s voice, either. Three guesses whose.

  James McKenzie stepped through the doorway, stopped and said, “Oh, fuck. Shit. Sorry. Bye.” Then he turned and left in a hurry.

  I looked back at Elliot who rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. “Could he make his crush on you any more obvious?” Elliot asked, then resumed the leaning.

  What? He thought James had a crush on me? Well, he couldn’t have been more wrong about that. James had told me himself that he wasn’t interested, and that was that. He couldn’t have been clearer. Although I had asked him kind of a leading question... Had he just said that because that was what he thought I’d wanted him to say? I frowned. Well, now I definitely needed to discuss this with him like an adult.

  I put my hands out in front of me and pushed Elliot away. He resisted, so I pushed harder, causing him to stagger back. Just as I was about to hurl a torrent of abuse at him, I remembered what Tim had said about keeping him onside. I needed to make Elliot think I liked him, just in case he was responsible for the drugs. Then maybe he’d let his guard down around me.

  He looked a little startled that I’d pushed him away.

  “Not here,” I said, trying not to sound as pissed off as I felt. “Someone might see us.”

  He nodded. “Right, of course. How about –”

  “I have to go now, but I’ll talk to you later, OK? Facebook me.”

  He smiled. “OK. Looking forward to it.”

  That made one of us.

  I rushed out of the classroom and headed upstairs to the room where I’d had the sex ed class earlier, hoping to find James inside. I knocked once and pushed through the door, finding James sitting alone on his desk eating a sandwich.

  “James, this is the single most depressing image I’ve seen in my life.”

  He raised his eyebrows at me as I shut the door. “I thought you’d be busy elsewhere.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I would rather not be busy at all than be busy in that particular elsewhere.”

  Furrowing his brow, he said, “But you’ve been defending him all week.”

  I sighed. “Mostly just because I was angry with you.”

  “Angry with me for what?”

  I thought for a moment and then unbuttoned my shirt.

  “Uh, Charlie, what the hell –” he began, shocked, but then he caught sight of my wire and a look of realisation passed over his face. “Right.”

  I removed the tape and hid the wire in the bottom of my schoolbag before turning back to James, who had now finished his sandwich.

  “You, uh – you didn’t –” he stammered, but I cut him off. If I didn’t say it now, I didn’t know if I ever would.

  “I was upset because you said you just wanted to be friends and I don’t just want to be friends.”

  He opened and shut his mouth. “But – but you said –”

  “You said it first. I was just following your lead.”

  “I was following your lead!”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “I asked you straight out.”

  “You asked if I wanted to be friends. That’s a leading question.” He folded his arms. “I’m not accepting responsibility for this.”

  “So you – you don’t just want to be friends?”

  “Of course not!” he said. “Why did you think I got that drunk and started bagging out Elliot?”

  My jaw dropped. “You were actually jealous of Elliot?”

  “You keep telling me how great he is, and how he’s the hot teacher. It’s not that much of a leap.”

  “Oh, James, that is an Olympic level leap,” I said.

  “So what, you’re saying you – you do like me?”

  “Of course I do,” I said. “That’s why I got so awkward after The Incident.”

  He frowned. “You can just call it a kiss.”

  I sighed. “Fine. The kiss.”

  “With pincers.”

  “That’s it,” I said. “I take it all back. You’re a total –”

  But my last words were kind of muffled because at that point I somehow found my lips on his. This time I made the conscious decision to wrap my arms around his waist, so that was one crisis averted. He was still sitting on the edge of his desk which put him at a good height. He placed his hands on the small of my back and pulled me in closer. My lips parted and our tongues touched and my stomach flipped (in a nice way, not a ‘oh dear get me a bucket’ kind of way) and I leaned in closer, pressing my chest against his. Eventually we broke apart.

  “It’s really weird to make out with you when you’re wearing a school uniform,” he said, frowning. “I don’t –”

  “Then shut your eyes,” I said, leaning in and kissing him again. He seemed to take my advice, because he wasn’t all that worried about kissing me after that point. His mouth tasted slightly like Vegemite and my stomach began to grumble. I realised that I hadn’t eaten lunch yet. But was I willing to abandon the kiss for a sandwich? My stomach grumbled again and I considered breaking away, but then James placed his hand on the back of my head and the kiss deepened, my lunch forgotten.

  In hindsight, stopping for a sandwich at that point probably would have been a good idea. Or, like, not making out in a classroom at the school. Because, you see, while we were lost in smushing faces, someone else walked into the classroom.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “What the hell is going on here?” cried a voice. James and I broke apart and I stepped back as he stood. I turned to face the door and found a teacher I didn’t recognise.

  “Julie, I –” James began, but Julie cut him off.

  “What – I –” she stammered.

  “It’s not what it looks like,” I said.

  “Oh, really?” Julie replied. “Is that why your shirt is unbuttoned?”

  “What?” I said, confused. I looked down and found my bra on show. But when... I groaned. I’d forgotten to rebutton after I took off my wire.

  “My shirt was unbuttoned that entire time and you didn’t tell me?” I hissed at James.

  “I tried to, but you kept telling me to shut up,” he whispered back.

  I glared at him as I buttoned it. He turned back to the teacher.

  “This isn’t – we’re not –” James said.

  “Enough excuses,” she said, snarling. “You two are coming with me to the principal’s office. We’re going to report you for this.”

  James looked stricken. He’d probably never been in trouble in his life. What was going to happen now? Helen obviously wouldn’t have him arrested, but she’d most likely tell our bosses.

  Oh, shit. Shit shit shit.

  Adam was going to kill me. Or at least fire me. As Julie led us through the school towards Skinner’s office, I hoped against hope that Adam was no longer at the school, that he’d just dropped in that morning to see
how my tryouts had gone. Maybe only Tim was here. Maybe he wouldn’t tell Adam. Maybe I was safe.

  Julie burst into Principal Skinner’s office without even knocking. I raised my eyebrows. Somebody had a flare for the dramatic. Adam was inside, presumably discussing the case with Skinner. His back was facing the door, but he turned when Julie announced, “Helen, I need to speak to you immediately!”

  “My god, Julie, calm down,” I muttered. What was she so worked up about? She wasn’t about to be fired. Again.

  Adam looked me in the eye, then his gaze flicked down to my shirt. “You might want to redo your buttons.”

  I looked down. Damn it! I’d screwed it up again when I rebuttoned. I turned to James, who shrugged and mouthed ‘sorry’. He hadn’t noticed.

  “This isn’t what it looks like,” I said, hastily fixing my shirt and glaring at James.

  “Really, Charlie?” Adam said. “Are you sure about that? Because I’m pretty sure I know exactly what just happened.”

  “Who are you?” Julie asked Adam.

  “Julie, come in and shut the door behind you,” said Helen, looking concerned. Once the door was firmly closed, Julie began blathering.

  “Helen, I just found these two –”

  “Oh, god. What now?” asked Skinner, putting her face in her hands. “They weren’t...”

  “They were!” said Julie.

  Helen sighed. “The number of times I’ve had to pull them apart with my own hands,” she said, shaking her head.

  “I – what?” said Julie, shocked.

  Helen shrugged. “I know, Julie. They can get pretty heated.”

  “Helen!” Julie cried, horrified. “You knew about this? And you did nothing to stop it?”

  “I did what I could,” said the principal. “You’ve seen them going at it. What more could I have done?”

  I felt my face burn as I realised what was going on. Principal Skinner and Julie were having two entirely different conversations.

  “Call the police on him!”

  “Oh, it was never that bad,” said Helen. “Besides, Charlotte always came out on top. If I were to call the police on anyone, it would be her. She’s the only one who ever gets her fists involved.”