Her time with Ms. Farron had left Hannah with more questions than answers. Merely learning that Coach Knight had once taught kindergarten, while very intriguing, wasn't sufficient to explain that 'pleasy-weasy.' Again, it had seemed like she'd become a whole different person when she'd said it. Moreover, Hannah had encountered a few kindergarten teachers in her time- both her own and her younger sister's, for starters- and she knew that they weren't all the sort of teacher to use baby talk. In fact, Hannah knew enough about teaching (having been around so many teachers in her quest to fatten them up) to know that baby talk was generally discouraged when dealing with young children. Coach Knight would be the last person to use it. So why had she?
She needed more answers. So, after class, and after dropping off her daily cake to Ms. Walker, Hannah hurtled up the winding staircase to the very top floor of Buttercombe, went down a long hallway, and turned right to a shorter hallway, at the end of which was a great door marked 'Headmistress.' As Hannah approached, she noticed with approval that the paint around the middle of the walls on the hallway was a bit worn.
Opening the door, she stepped inside and saw the Secretary to the Headmistress. "Hey, Candace," said Hannah. "Is Ms. Polluck in?"
"URRRRPP!!"
The belch rippled out from the open door. Candace Scott smiled sheepishly, chubby cheeks dimpling as she did. "Well, clearly she is."
"Thanks!" said Hannah, and headed into the office proper, coming face to face with Shannon Polluck, the Headmistress of Buttercombe.
Ms. Polluck was currently cramming the last bite of a very large burrito into her waiting maw. Stuffed into her tight skirt-suit and blouse, and stuffed, in turn, behind her increasingly small desk, Ms. Polluck looked rather like an overfilled burrito herself. Hannah had been Ms. Polluck's T.A. her junior year, and the pampering, plumping, training, and reprogramming number she'd done on the headmistress was still in full effect. Indeed, Hannah considered it her crowning achievement to date- well, that or what she'd pulled off with Kenzie. But Polluck surely ranked second at least.
"Hello, Ms. Polluck!"
"BuuuAARRrrpp!" belched Ms. Polluck again, jowly fat face rippling as she did. Hannah's loins were on fire. At the end of last year, all her work and effort had pampered Polluck into a scrumptious mid-four hundreds weight. The summer break had clearly been very good to her indeed, for now she looked dangerously close to a full-blown quarter-ton. Her huge belly could be seen sagging far down from her chair, swelling up and out against the fabric of her skirt. Her massive, bulging breasts sagged to either side of this enormous paunch, while on top of her breasts her plump, protruding double chin drooped down until it touched her blouse. Hands free at last, she folded them over her luxuriant belly, and smiled in a way that made her face look especially fat. "Oh, *hic* Hannah, it's you! So good to see you, my dear."
"It's great to see you too, Ms. Polluck!" said Hannah brightly. She whipped a box out from behind her back. "Can I tempt you?" She pulled the lid off the box, revealing a banana cream pie.
Ms. Polluck's face jiggled, and her eyes twinkled. Hannah grinned. Of all the huge headmistress' porcine changes, the eyes were her favorite bit. When Hannah had first signed on as Ms. Polluck's T.A., those eyes had been keen and sharp, eager to sniff out flaws and errors in school administration, or to find new ways to bring comfort to her students and staff (in fact, Hannah suspected Polluck had been something of a feeder herself before). With Hannah prodding, nudging, spoiling, and glutting her, however, Ms. Polluck's eyes had grown beady and hazy. They were a glutton's eyes now, dull and uninterested except when food was scented, at which point they became crazed and animalistic in their urge for food. "Hmm hmm... well, my dear," rumbled Polluck, licking her lips, "why I suppose you can."
Hannah set the pie down on her desk, and Polluck pulled out a fork from a nearby drawer, at which point she happily started cramming huge bites of pie into her mouth. "I'm glad you like it," she said. "I just wish I was still your T.A."
"*Smack* *gulp* Oh, me too, darling..."
"I've been assigned to Coach Knight this year, though," said Hannah. "Say," and she pretended the idea had only just occurred to her, "that reminds me, what do you know about Coach Knight's history before she came to Buttercombe?"
"Oh, *chew* Ashley?" Polluck swiped up a huge dollop of whipped cream and popped it into her mouth, where it smeared the edges of her lips. "I'm afraid I don't quite have all her information. I *guzzle* know she used to be a BUUAARRP!! kindergarten and early childhood teacher, though."
"So you don't know any more than that?"
"You'd have to ask her old *gulp* school," Polluck was plowing through the pie, "the Tenderfoot Institute for Talented Youngsters. It's in Wellington."
"Wellington?" Hannah repeated. "You mean, like, the less-than-forty-miles-away-from-here Wellington?"
"BUUUARRRPPP!!" belched Polluck, popping the last of the pie into her mouth. "Yes, that Wellington."
"Hmmmm," hummed Hannah. "Say, Ms. Polluck, I don't suppose I could convince you to give me a few days' leave of absence from school, could you?"
For just an instant, some of that old sharpness returned to Polluck's eyes. "Hannah, dear, it's the start of the semester. I can't just have you leaving the Academy, not now."
Hannah gave a little smirk. She waltzed to the phone on Ms. Polluck's desk, picked up the receiver, and punched in a few numbers. A voice sounded through the receiver. "Oh, hi Ms. Klipsch! It's Hannah!"
"I don't know BUUURRRP! why you'd be calling the cafeteria-"
"Do you think you could send a large chicken fried steak dinner to Ms. Polluck's office?"
That huge belly gave a gurgle. Polluck's eyes dilated. "Now, now Hannah, you... you can't..."
"Let's see... let's cook the steak with extra buttermilk..."
Polluck licked her lips. "Maybe... maybe I might give you a few hours..."
"How about cheddar-mozzarella mashed potatoes?"
"I suppose I could give you a day."
"I want an entire pound of those mashed potatoes."
"Two days, no more."
"Let's do that horseradish gravy- the secret one, the one I helped you invent!"
"Three days..."
"And... a butter-pecan pie. No, make it two!"
"All right! Fine!" Drool was seeping down Ms. Polluck's massive chins. "You can have as much time off as you'd like. I'll write you permission!"
"And how about a pint of the secret sweet milk ice cream to top it off." More talking through the receiver. "Mm-hmm. Okay, thanks!" Hannah hung up. "It'll be up in fifteen minutes."
"Mmm, mmm, yum yum yum," gurgled Polluck. Those eyes were food-crazed now, and Polluck smacked her lips, a little drool flecking out as she became totally focused on her coming feast.
"Thank you, Ms. Polluck!" said Hannah brightly.
"Yum yum, no, dear, thank you... yum yum yum, all for me..."
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