Author's Notes:
1.) There are some references to The Green Mile in this chapter, including the title, which is a famous quote said in the movie
2.) Mr. Moore is the counterpart of Sir Thomas More; my character of Mr. Moore is the dean for the Tudor Six and Whitehall High's senior class
Cate and Felipe were getting ready to head to a Fashion Club meeting on the afternoon of Friday, March 6, 2009.
Fashion Club was one of the newer extracurricular clubs at Whitehall High. It was started by Cate only a year and half prior, and it took off really quickly thanks to her efforts plus those of Kitty and Felipe, who were the club's vice president and secretary, respectively. The major premise of the club was to discuss and share their thoughts on some of the major fashion trends of the day, including the hottest trends among teens and young adults.
When Cate and Felipe were walking through the halls, Cate realized that she had left her purse in Mr. Hart's room in haste after darting to the front door to leave class as quickly as possible.
"Oh, shit! This is, like, the third time today I almost forgot to take my purse. I am so sorry, boo," she exclaimed to Felipe in embarrassment.
Felipe kindly responded, "Girlfriend, don't sweat it. I know that exam has been stressing you a lot over the last week. We all have our off days."
"Thanks. I truly appreciate it," Cate said with much gratitude to her good friend. She then asked him, "Can you let Kitty know that I will be on my way after I grab my purse?"
"Of course, Sista," Felipe said enthusiastically.
"Thanks, doll! You rock," Cate said as she made way towards Mr. Hart's room and blew Felipe a kiss as he departed.
When Cate approached Mr. Hart's room, she saw him reading a book while sitting at his desk with his legs stretched out. Knowing that Mr. Hart always demanded that people knock on his door whenever they needed anything from him or to get his attention, Cate gave a firm knock on the door so she could let herself in. She rolled her eyes at the fact that Mr. Hart felt he was entitled to make up as many asinine rules as possible, which included the ludicrous door knocking routine, all because he thought he was special and had to be treated like a king or an emperor.
As she knocked on the door, Mr. Hart became uncharacteristically startled as he heard the noise. At first, Cate found his reaction peculiar as he usually was not jumpy when people knocked on his door. A fraction of a second later, however, she understood exactly why he reacted the way he did. In the moment he was snapped out of whatever zone he was in, a pornographic magazine slid out of his book.
Hiding her disgust and horror over her discovery, Cate calmly said as she entered the room, "Just coming to grab my purse."
"Oh. Very well, then. Phew! I got scared for nothing. Good day, Ms. Parr," said Mr. Hart in a rather nervous, yet slightly relieved tone.
As soon as she retrieved her purse, Cate observed the book Mr. Hart was using to conceal his dirty reading material lying on his desk with the spine and book cover showing. The text he was using was none other than On the Origin of Species, the book on which Mr. Hart had tested his students on during the last period of the school day. At this point, Cate couldn't help but shake her head in reaction to this observation.
"Oh, by the way, Mr. Hart, I noticed your dirty magazine drop on your lap when I knocked. You are absolutely repulsive! Imagine what Principal Beaufort and the school board would think if it was revealed that you sneak in such disgusting material onto school grounds," Cate calmly replied in a mocking tone.
"Don't you dare talk back to me like that, young lady! One more outburst from you, and I will send you straight to office detention at Mr. Moore's office," Mr. Hart threatened as sweat began to drip down his brows and his temples.
Shaking her head and sighing, Cate responded, "Go ahead! I will tell him about your perverted behavior once he asks me why I am in his office. Carrying porno around at school is unacceptable, and I just know that one day your actions are going to come back to bite you."
"Oh yeah? How are you going to get him to believe you? There are no cameras in this room to prove that I carry porn around here. Mr. Moore will want concrete proof, and so will Principal Beaufort and the rest of the school board," Mr. Hart said with much haughtiness in his voice.
After about a second of processing and analyzing Mr. Hart's words, Cate said, "You know what? You're right. My words won't mean anything unless I had secretly videotaped or recorded everything that just transpired on my phone. Too bad it is off right now." She then added, "You are lucky this time around, but I cannot reiterate enough that someone will probably record anything about you that he or she finds suspicious or illegal. So, smarten up for your own sake. The consequences of paying for such actions are never pretty."
"Blah, blah, blah! Head off to your silly Fashion Club and stop lecturing me," Mr. Hart replied with a sense of annoyance.
"Gladly! Just remember to be careful. Not everything stays here on your Green Mile. Gossip travels fast here at Whitehall High, especially when it comes to scandals. Goodbye, Mr. Hart," Cate said as she departed the room.
As soon as Cate was gone, Mr. Hart went right back to reading the latest issue of Hustler while mumbling to himself, "Stupid bimbo knows nothing! Now where were we, sexy ladies?"
When the meeting for Fashion Club was over, Cate took Felipe and Kitty aside to tell them what had happened in Mr. Hart's room. Lizzie, who had just come back from the ladies' room across the hall, joined in on the conversation. All three of Cate's friends gasped in disbelief and squirmed with disgust after she was finished telling them everything that went down.
"OMG! That is, like, so wrong on all levels. I think he broke the arrogance meter thinking he will never get caught for his actions," Felipe responded. He then acted out a scenario where he was an arrogance meter that had just exploded, causing his close friends to laugh.
"I know, right?! The fact that he claimed he could get away with it makes my skin crawl. It's bad enough that he is always staring at girls and fellow female colleagues on a regular basis…let's just hope he never goes to the point of…well…you get the picture," Kitty added.
"Let's pray that never happens! It would be deplorable if he tried to force himself on someone without consent," Lizzie said.
"Thankfully he isn't THAT sadistic…at least, I hope he isn't. He makes everyone suffer enough with his attitude and his actions he commits on a regular basis," Cate replied.
Lizzie then said, "The only funny thing about what happened is that he tore a page out of Percy Whetmore's memo of concealing lewd material with scholarly literature. And I know for certain that he has never read the book or seen the movie to understand this piece of irony. Ha!"
"Bingo! Right on the money, honey," Felipe replied while giving Lizzie a high five on noting the similarities between Mr. Hart and the heartless literary villain.
"At the rate Mr. Hart is going, he could be called for an interview to work alongside Larry Flynt himself," Kitty joked.
All four of them laughed heartily over Kitty's remark as a job with Hustler or as a pimp seemed perfect for Mr. Hart.
When she regained her composure, Cate said, "Great zinger! You should tell that to the rest of the gang."
"Oh, you bet I will, Sis," Kitty said while giving a wink.
Lizzie then inquired, "Anyway, what's everyone's plans for the weekend?"
"Relaxing and being relieved that the exam for the material in On the Origin of Species is finally over," Cate said.
Kitty then asked, "How did that go, by the way? I know you've been extremely stressed about it."
"Rotten! I will be lucky if I passed this one. I swear he adds material that is not in our textbooks, class notes, and extra source material noted in our syllabus."
"Yeah. I would say that in just about all of our exams this year, at least a quarter of the questions in each test made me think to myself, 'What the hell is this?' He is a real sneak," Felipe said. He then added, "I too am glad that this test is over and that the weekend is here. I will also be relaxing."
"Damn! Now we can add that Mr. Hart is an energy vampire, too," Kitty said.
"Yup. Anyway, I am going to be heading home now. Really tired and exhausted," Cate said.
"Same. I am drained," Felipe said.
"Take care of yourselves, guys. And don't forget your purse, Cate," Lizzie replied.
"Thanks, girlfriend. I plan on it. Talk to you all soon," Cate said as she blew everyone a kiss goodbye.
"Bye, Fashionista," Felipe said as Cate left for her car.
Felipe then bid Kitty and Lizzie goodbye for the day as he departed to walk to his house, which was only a block away from Whitehall High.
Kitty then asked Lizzie, "So, you got any plans this weekend?"
"Not really. Just going to the mall to see if any of the spring styles are worth adding to my closet," Lizzie said.
"Sweet! Thinking of getting a mani-pedi tomorrow. Gotta update my nails with spring colors," Kitty said.
"Neat," Lizzie said. She then added, "Maybe I will join you if you end up going to the nail salon this weekend.
"Awesome! Sounds like a date. I will keep you posted," Kitty said.
Noticing that her mother had texted her that she was at the front entrance of the school to pick her up, Lizzie said, "Gotta go, sweetheart. Mom just got here. Have a great rest of the day."
"You too, love. Bye," Kitty said as Lizzie headed to her mother's car.