This choice: You’ll begin the first of many days in detention. • Go Back... "...so starting tomorrow," Ms. Polluck had a pink infraction slip already prepared for her meeting with Alice, picking it up from where it had sat on the side tale in Megan and Alice's room. "You'll begin serving detentions with Rita Nelson in her classroom, do you know where that is?"
Alice, still trying to contain her outpouring of tears over having done the wrong thing, could only shake her head. She thought one of her friends might have mentioned the teacher in question, she taught History? But not the Western Civilizations she had with Megan.
"It's all there on the slip," Ms. Polluck said with a slight frown. No doubt there would be no further trouble from dear little Alice Carlyle but rules were rules, as were the punishments assigned to breaking each of the rules. "You're to report to her room at 4pm after your classes are over. Do be on time because you're required to serve the full length of your detention."
"Y-y-yess, of-f c-c-c-course." Alice couldn't help her stutter when she had been crying so much.
"Chin up, dear." Ms. Polluck began the process of heaving herself up from the couch. No easy task as the cushions had been so flattened by Megan parking her tuckus there almost 18/7 (taking classes and meals into consideration). Finally the doughy headmistress was able to stand although an audible strain was heard on every overtaxed seam on her pencil skirt and suit.
In the wake of Ms. Polluck's departure the rest of the night was a miserable one for Alice. Sam was nowhere to be seen. Megan and Ronnie had shown up at the same time and after hearing the story from Alice had proceeded to bicker back and forth. Ronnie, although she too thought Alice had done little wrong, had to side with the school's governing decision as she was an RA, the hypocrisy of which Megan picked right up on.
"Since the rules are right there at the start of everyone's handbooks," Ronnie said, "then Alice should have known them but not knowing the rules doesn't mean you don't face the consequences."
Megan made a derisive snort from the couch, her irritability also from discomfort as somehow a ten-minute sit from the hefty figure of the headmistress had through Megan's 'mould' on the couch out of whack. "Two minutes ago you said the rule was to keep people from not meeting dress code."
The circular logic of the argument continued between the Buttercombe veterans. As for sweet Alice who had never put a toe out of line anywhere and face no stronger punishment than what her mother could cook up, she was in her bed under the covers wishing she had never taken her sewing needle to Sam's uniform.
( ( ) )
Rita Nelson had been a history teacher for quite some time at Buttercombe and most would say she stayed here out of stubbornness. For while she hated teaching, hated the faculty and hated her own subject she stubbornly stayed at Buttercombe because it paid the bills. A big wonder then that she could never keep a Teaching Assistant. Mz. Nelson's legendary poor attitude and rough treatment of former TA's was as legendary as the size of her tits.
Huge, heaving breasts that dominated her figure giving her nothing but heartache and back pain. Oh yes, her considerable chest was to thank for her messy divorce with the former Mr. Nelson. If she had been smarter when she was younger and not marry the first man enamoured with her breasts she would have avoided 'domestic bliss' with such a conniving, backstabbing, two-timing son of a bitch.
And yet even her generous salary at Buttercombe couldn't pay for what she needed. Rita Nelson needed to change her name again, have breast reduction surgery, have weight loss surgery so she could have the breast reduction surgery, and contradictorily a year's membership in the International Chocolate of the Month Club.
Plus, they had Rita doling out detentions now and even passing her misery onto others did little to relieve her own. The Nelson brand of bitterness was that extensive, her idea of fun times were numerous hours spent in the teacher's’ lounge spewing malicious gossip with her friend Joan Price.
So as her latest detention occupant showed up early Rita breathed heavily as she bookmarked her trashy romance novel, readjusting the reader glasses on her nose. Said detention occupant being an extremely extra nervous Alice who hadn’t eaten much at lunch.
“Name?” Mz. Nelson held a pen to a record sheet.
“Alice Carlyle.”
Rita heaved herself from her seat, prodigious pontoons swaying in a dangerous fashion. “During your time with me you’ll be correcting my history tests. White forms are the tests, yellow forms are the master answer copy.” She gave Alice a critical eye after setting out the two massive stacks of paper. “And don’t think you can sneak the answers for future cheating, I always change my tests.”
The meek Alice simply shook her head.
“You should be done with these by eight o’clock. Now get to it. I’ll be double checking that you are grading these correctly.”
Detentions such as these were the only ways Rita could get any help with her schoolwork. Although given that she still had to oversee the detention it didn’t really save her time, it was putting the work off for a delinquent student to do. If anything Rita used it as an excuse to catch up on whatever steamy romance reading she and Joan were up to.
Alice, for her part, was efficient at marking the tests with the answer guide for reference, though she knew a few of the answers herself depending on the grade of the material. That these tests would take over four hours to grade was the really daunting aspect of her detention. There were so many tests, it was as if everyone in the school but her was currently enrolled in one of Mz. Nelson’s classes.
And there was another aspect of the length of her detention that Alice couldn’t place, though the notion troubled her in the back of her mind. Up until six o’clock rolled around and the fragrance of a rich, meaty pasta and cornbread permeated the room, making Alice’s stomach rumble. Like many with an uptick to their weight she had fallen in love with what food the cafeteria served.
Rita Nelson was busy eating her dinner, a carry out box crammed with pasta and side items. And that’s when it clicked. The cafeteria would be closed by the time Alice was done serving her detention!
Alice raised her hand, ignored for several moments until Mz. Nelson looked up with her fork held with a glob of pasta and cheese that threatened to land on her bosom. She swallowed. “What? You already used your bathroom break.”
That had been embarrassing, whilst serving detention Alice only had one five minute bathroom break and Mz. Nelson had to stand outside the door like a prison warden. But surely that wasn’t her only break, as was Alice’s logic.
“Um, Mz. Nelson, don’t I have a dinner break?” Or even if something was provided during the detention, it looked like Mz. Nelson had a second carry out box. However the history teacher’s attitude was completely indifferent as she dug into her second portioned box heavy with chopped steak and gravy.
“No,” Mz. Nelson said with her mouth full. "Your duty during detention is to get that work done. And you won't leave a minute early."
The full extent of Alice's detentions suddenly hit her then. It wasn't only the busy work it was being denied dinner! Already pangs of hunger in her stomach were becoming more pronounced. It made the remaining half of her detention session stretch on all the longer.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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