The Teacher(54)

Principal Higgins flashes Mrs. Bennett a look. Neither of them seem thrilled with me, but it’s not like she has any proof.

Deny everything.

“All right, Addie.” The principal leans back in her chair. “Whatever happened last night, I expect there will not be any repeat episodes. You can return to class now.”

I get up from the plastic chair, astonished that nothing more has come of this. And most importantly, they didn’t ask me anything about Nathaniel. I was so sure it was going to be like last time, when Principal Higgins was grilling me about me and Mr. Tuttle. I expected questions about whether Nathaniel has ever touched me, and I was already anxious about trying to answer them because I figured they would see the truth all over my face.

But Mrs. Bennett assumed I was there entirely because of her. Because she knows that I despise her. That I wish more than anything she wasn’t in my life.

And in that sense, she is right.



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Chapter Forty-Six

ADDIE

AFTER THE MEETING with the principal, Nathaniel doesn’t answer any of my text messages.

By the time lunch rolls around, I’m almost hysterical worrying that he hates me now. But he did try to protect me. He told me to deny everything, and the strategy worked. Even so, I’ve worked myself into a big ball of stress.

While I’m sitting in the cafeteria, trying to force down a cheeseburger that tastes like it’s three days old, Lotus plops down across from me with her own tray containing a veggie burger. I’m not excited to talk to her after the way she betrayed me, especially today. My poem might have won that contest if she hadn’t intervened.

“Hi, Addie,” she says.

“Hey,” I mumble, not looking up from my burger.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m great.” I drag one of my french fries through the little pool of ketchup I made on my tray. “I’m just not interested in being friends with someone who is two-faced.”

Lotus’s jaw drops open. “Excuse me? How am I two-faced?”

I don’t generally speak up for myself, but I’m having a hard day. I want Lotus to know that I know she betrayed me. And it’s somewhat gratifying how flustered she looks. “Nath… Mr. Bennett was going to enter me in that poetry contest. And then you went to the principal about it and made him enter you instead.”

She stares at me for a moment, an astonished expression on her face. She had no idea I knew what she did.

“Are you serious?” Her lower lip juts out. “That isn’t what happened at all.”

“Yeah, right.”

“It isn’t!” she insists. “I never said a word. Mr. Bennett took me aside a week after you told me about the contest, and he said he decided to go with my poem instead.”

I can’t believe she’s lying right to my face. I get up out of my seat, grabbing the tray still mostly filled with food. I don’t have any appetite even if this burger were edible. And the fries are weirdly uncooked and yet soggy. “Whatever,” I say.

“Addie!” She calls out my name, but she doesn’t follow me or try to convince me of her lies. I’m glad, because there’s no way I would ever believe her. Nathaniel told me exactly what happened.

Nathaniel. I’ve got to see him.

Nathaniel has a free period now, and in the past, I had suggested sneaking off together since I am free at the same time, but he insisted meeting during school hours was far too risky. But I am losing my mind, and I don’t think I can get through the day without seeing him. So I walk through the empty halls until I reach his classroom, hoping I’ll find him there instead of in the teachers’ lounge.

Sure enough, Nathaniel is sitting at his desk, looking over some papers while noshing on a sandwich. I watch him for a moment, the same way I did last night and every day in class. He’s so handsome. I love the curves of his face, his thick dark hair, the way his brown ties match his eyes. And when he smiles at me, it gives me this wonderful warm feeling.

This maiden has no other thought than to love and be loved by him.

But when he looks up now, he’s not smiling.

“Addie,” he hisses at me. “What are you doing here?”

I slip into the room, closing the door behind me. “I’m sorry. I just… I’m freaking out…”

“Well, coming here isn’t going to make that better.” He rises from his seat, a frown on his lips. “You should not have come to my house last night. That was a huge mistake.”

I chew on my lower lip. “I know…”

“Now you’ve put yourself on the radar. You’ve put us on the radar.” He shakes his head. “I can’t believe you would do something so stupid.”

The tears that have been pricking at my eyes since I went to the principal’s office now threaten to fall. One escapes my right eye, and I quickly brush it away. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I feel so stupid.”

Nathaniel notices my tears, and that takes some of the fight out of him. He glances out the small window on the door to his classroom to confirm that the hallway is still empty, then he comes around the desk. “Addie, don’t cry.”

“I just…” I wipe my nose with the back of my hand before I end up with a snot bubble. If he sees a snot bubble come out of me, it is definitely over. No, I shouldn’t say that. He wouldn’t be so superficial. “I don’t want you to hate me. I made a dumb mistake.”