By the time I get back to the room, Hieronymous is in his desk chair, reading. I hadn't really expected him to do anything else. "You took your time," he says, without looking up at me.

"Yeah," I scratch my head, trying to figure out how to approach the issue of Virginia with him.

"I figured you would be a little quicker with the incentive I gave you," he muses, eyebrows raised.

"Incentive?" I ask, my eyebrows shooting up. "Oh, I forgot about that."

The book nearly topples out of his hands, but he manages to catch it in time as he looks up at me. "You forgot?"

"I'm going to go take a shower," I say quickly, ducking into the bathroom. I didn't really forget; how could I forget, but I wasn't about to let him know that. I still had my own thoughts to puzzle through, and taking a shower would be a good time for me to continue to think without being distracted.

It doesn't take me more than ten minutes to shower, and my thoughts are too preoccupied with how Hieronymous is going to react when I get out to get much thinking done. Strategically, I wrap the towel around me and head back outside. He is still sitting on his chair, reading a book. He doesn't look at me when I come in.

"Oops, look at me, I forgot my clothes again," I say loudly, making no attempt to go towards my suitcase.

"Hmm," he says, not looking at me.

"Yeah, I'm only wearing a towel right now." I look down at my own body. "It's not covering much of me."

"Is it?" he asks, continuing to read his book.

"Yeah, I'm wearing a towel and I'm just dripping wet."

"Perhaps you should dry off then," he mutters between his fingers as he turns a page.

I place my hands on my hips. "Interested in helping me with that?"

"Perhaps in the future," he says. "Right now you're being punished."

"And how do you plan to punish me?" I smirk at him, but he doesn't respond. "Oh, come on. I didn't forget. But there were important things-"

"I'm sure they were very important," he says as he turns another page.

In spite, I grab my towel and throw it onto the bed beside me. It takes him a moment, but slowly he looks up from his book and looks me up and down, one eyebrow raised. His eyes flick to mine as he takes me in, and that's when I realize I've just lost his game.

"I hate you," I squeal as I storm towards my suitcase, but he is on top of me in a minute, pushing me against the wall, invading my mouth with his tongue.

"Mm-" I break the kiss. "I thought I was being punished."

"You are," he says, kissing my neck. "I'm not."

I gasp as he starts to kiss down my neck. Immediately I see where this is going to go, and I can't have it. Not right now. Not while I'm distracted by other things. "Hieronymous? Hieronymous stop." He freezes instantly, his lips against my navel, as if he's been touched by a live wire.

"I'm sorry," he says immediately. "I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"It's fine," I say quickly. He just stands there awkwardly as I fumble with my suitcase, pulling out a tank top and shorts. I dress quickly while he just stands there, watching me uncomfortably. I sigh and pull him over to the bed and force him to sit before straddling him. "This?" I say softly, pressing my lips to his. "This is okay."

He threads his fingers through my hair as he kisses me, keeping his hands over my clothes. He kisses me back, but that's about all he does. "Don't punish me for telling you to stop," I whisper against his lips, and he kisses me back, a little more fervently this time, his hand dipping under my shirt to caress my lower back. He begins to trail kisses across my jaw and down my neck, but it's just not the same.

"Dammit," I hiss, rolling off of him. "She had to go and ruin everything."

"She?" he asks.

I think about it for a moment. "No. He. He ruined everything."

He sighs. "He?"

"Jason."

The effect on him is immediate. He sits up, eyes blazing. "What did he say to you?"

"Nothing….directly," I say slowly. "Virginia held up her vacation to talk to me. Apparently Jason stopped by there last night and told her some things."

"Some things?" he asks.

"That you were using me, for, you know," I manage slowly, averting my eyes. He rubs his mouth with one hand and stands up.

"Tori," he says seriously. "I'm sorry, I never meant…it's just that you…and I thought…and today in the mail room-"

"No, wait, what?" I ask, looking up at him. "No, I want it. I mean, I want you." I shift my eyes. "I guess it's just…I don't know, it just doesn't seem like a good time right now." He doesn't look convinced. "Hey, if I hadn't run into Virginia today, I would have let you take me on the mail room table this morning."

His lip pulls in the semblance of a smile. "You don't have to pretend to be ready-"

"I'm not pretending," I say loudly, getting up to face him. "Stop sulking. Listen to me." I grab his face with both hands and kiss him square on the mouth. "I want you, okay? I really, really want to. But I don't want our first time together to be at seven in the morning when I've just been arguing with Virginia about you. I want-" I pause. "I want it to be special. Romantic. On a day when you haven't talked about punishing me."

He considers this for a moment. "I suppose I can oblige."

I kiss him back gently. "Good." I take his hand and lead him back to the bed, helping myself into his lap. "Because I am going to be begging you to do that to me again, probably in the near future."

"Begging?" he asks softly. "I thought you told me to stop."

"Because of the timing," I say again. "Not because I didn't want you to do that. Because I think I really sort of do."

He musses my hair. "There's no rush, Tori."

"When I tell you I'm ready, will you listen?" I ask. "When we're together and, I'm ready, like, really ready, and I tell you, will you listen?"

He pauses for a moment before placing a kiss on my temple. "Yes."

"Okay then," I sigh, settling back into his arms. "That makes me feel better."

"Good."

"But in the meantime, please don't be afraid to touch me. Or kiss me. Or do…other stuff to me."

"Other stuff?" he raises an eyebrow.

"I don't know," I reply casually. "Just…thinking thoughts."

"Tell me about the conversation you had with Ms. Danson," he says. "It's obviously upset you."

"The weird thing is, it didn't," I explain. "I went to drop Virginia's package off at her door and she was there, like she waiting for me. She told me Jason had stopped by last night and she tried feeding me that same crap that you were bad for me."

"And?"

"And," I hesitate. "And I may have sort of said that you weren't as mean as you can be in class. I may have sort of said that you and me and her and Ellen can all go out for like, dinner together one night or something."

He sighs, rubbing his temple with one hand. "Tori-"

"No, no, it's a stupid idea," I say, and he lets out a small murmur of agreement. "I mean, they remember you setting a book on fire in the beginning of the year. And they remember you threatening me to lock me in the dungeons last year. And they remember when you tried to throw me against a wall this year, but no you're right. We can't let them see that you're secretly a nice person. They'll just have to keep on going believing all the rumors and everything that Jason says about you is true because they don't know any better."

He stops rubbing his forehead and looks at me. "You really are a crafty little thing, aren't you?"

"I don't know about crafty," I shrug. "But I'm not sure if Virginia was trying to be my friend or because Jason told her to try to be my friend to get information on me."

"So you're going to outmaneuver a manipulator with manipulation?"

"Precisely."

He sighs again. "Maybe you are turning into me."

"Hey, please, give me some credit," I huff, slapping his shoulder lightly. "I mean, that's all social politics really is, isn't it? Just mind games and more mind games?"

"Yes, but for some reason I seemed to think you were outside all that," he sighs. "I assumed your friendships ran more towards common interests than protective alliances."

"Can't it be both?" I ask. "I mean, it's like in Sports Club. I'm not really, like, friends with a lot of people there, but when we're playing soccer and choosing teams, if I saw that picking the last person would put Jacob on Virginia's team, then I would pick Jacob for my team."

"Because-?" he asks slowly.

"Because Virginia hates him," I explain. "She doesn't want him on her team, so I'd go ahead and pick him even though he's a terrible player, just so she wouldn't have to be stuck with him."

"Hmm," he says thoughtfully. "You really are a kind person."

"Kind?" I ask, shaking my head. "No, no, that's not kind. That's just, I don't know, code? Learned social conventions?"

He shakes his head and decides to change the subject. "Do you like it? Sports Club?"

"Yes," I say. "A lot. I like running, and I like soccer. And sometimes we have special magic tournaments where we try to do weird things with the ball, like we have to try scoring it without anyone touching it. I don't know, it just reminds me of gym class back at my old school, minus the magic part."

"Hmm," he says. "Did you like your old school?"

"Not really," I shrug. "I mean, it wasn't bad, but there were a ton of weird classes we had to take like woodwork and cooking and stuff. I liked gym and I liked soccer and I liked track and okay, yeah, I guess I liked English because of all the reading and writing and stuff, but the rest of it was just bleh."

"Hmm," he says again, and appears deep in thought.

"What is it?" I ask, looking up at him.

"Nothing," he replies, looking down at me. "Just trying to get to know you better, that's all."

"Ah," I say softly. "Did you like sports?" He raises an eyebrow at me. "What? It's a fair question."

"No, Tori."

I don't want to ask him about his past. I don't want to hear her name. I'm slightly curious about what his life was like before her, but I don't ask about that either. I don't ask about what life was like for him in all the years teaching here. I don't ask him why he wanted to become a teacher. It's not because I'm not curious or because I don't care; it's simply because I don't know if I'll like the answers I'll hear, and I don't want to spend an entire week with him with sour thoughts hanging over my head.

"You can get back to reading, if you want," I say softly.

"For a little bit," he says, setting me down so he can get off the bed. It suddenly feels cold without his arms around me, and I walk over to the suitcase to get a hoodie. "I'll give you the book that you were reading last night back if you promise not to drool on it."

"Maybe later," I shrug. I fish my newer diary out of my suitcase, snap the top on my pen, and begin to write.