Ranger Records
A Hot Teacher?
Dear Diary,
Things really sucked when I first started out. Being late for orientation, meeting that ungrateful old woman, having to deal with Mr. Dolesbury, being assigned the capture of a Pikachu, sleeping outside, being locked out of my classroom, and having a fight with all of my classmates (mainly Josh)—but things are finally looking up. Aria, my roommate, is completely crazy, but we're becoming really, really close. Sometimes I still need a translator in order to speak with her, but it's getting easier and easier and she's becoming funnier and funnier to me.
Riley is the typical nerdy-and-proper glasses girl. It's sort of a cliché, especially when paired with how shy she is, but she's super nice! The only people I haven't been able to make friends with yet are Charlie (chubby boy) and Josh. Josh I don't really care about, but Charlie refuses to talk to me, and I think it's because he's bitter about me calling him out in front of the whole class. But, whatever, his loss.
Shade is still really quiet, but whenever I have a spare moment I always go and sit next to him. It's nice to have someone calm to go and spend time with. We never really say much, just sort of stay and enjoy each other's company. Usually he'll nod to me when I arrive and offer me an ear bud so we can both listen to his iPoké.
I'm still not awesome at capturing, but I'm at least average now. I don't know but I just…I'm starting to feel like I really belong, you know? It's nice.
School had become routine. Get up, get dressed, go to three hours of lessons starting at nine, have lunch, and then we could use the rest of our time in three different ways: extra practical training in the gym, capturing Pokémon around the grounds, or spending time with friends outdoors. We weren't allowed back into the classrooms, dining hall, library, or dorms until seven. Eight was dinner, then another hour of free time to be used indoors only, and then bed.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, I did practical training in the gym. On the other four days of the week I usually just spent time with my friends, and if I saw a Pokémon I wanted to capture along the way, then I would capture it while with them. Most of the time I'd be with Aria, but, despite their bickering, she and Josh were actually very close, and whenever she wanted to hang out with him I'd make excuses and go off to find Shade.
Today, however, before I could make a skillful escape, Josh actually brought up a subject that was interesting enough to make me stay.
"Dude," he said, directing the comment to Aria. "Mrs. Corder is a babe."
Aria quirked a brow at him, and turned back to toying with her school styler—which totally was not allowed, but she was an aspiring mechanic and she couldn't really help herself. "Well, I wouldn't call her ugly, but she's hardly babilicious."
"No, get this; I was just in the classroom—"
"You're not supposed to be inside at this time," I pointed out.
"Yeah, well, bite me, I had to get something. Anyway, Mrs. Corder came in, right?" He shifted in front of us, making us stop, apparently trying to get our full attention. "So I hid in the back behind a desk, and she didn't see me. Then, she takes her hair out of her bun thing and takes off her glasses. It was like one of those movies wear the librarian turns out to be a total hottie. And then, she took off her sweatshirt and she had this white button-up blouse on, with the first two buttons undone, and it was all tight fitting and—"
"Don't get too excited," Aria snorted, jamming her screwdriver into a spot I was sure it wasn't supposed to be.
"Hey, don't be mean. I'm getting to the good part."
"There's more?" I asked.
"Yeah. I think she has a thing with Mr. Dolesbury."
That made Aria look up. And made me gag. "Mr. Dolesbury," she repeated, clearly in disbelief.
"Yup. Mr. Dolesbury."
"Wait, though," I interrupted, tucking my hair behind my ear. "She's Mrs. Corder. Married."
"That's what I thought, too. But Mr. Dolesbury came in shortly after she took her sweatshirt off, and when they were talking—and his eyes weren't focused somewhere other than her face—she brought up this guy named Thomas. Apparently he asked her for money. Mr. Dolesbury looked really pissed, called him a waste of space, and asked her why she bothered keeping his name. Meaning that she's divorced." His face contorted in a perverted kind of grin. "Think I'll be able to hit that by the end of the year?"
"No," Aria said matter-of-factly. "But why do you think she and Mr. Dolesbury have a thing?"
"Why else would she take off her geek-making-gear? And the way that he was looking at her made it totally obvious that he wanted on that."
"You know," I said, looking over to Aria. "He may be right. When I was late to orientation and Mr. Dolesbury was laying in to me, Mrs. Corder kept silencing him with just looks. I doubt that he's the kind of man to settle down just because his colleague told him to. But if it was a colleague that he liked…"
"So, what," Aria said, lowering her styler and screwdriver to her sides. "You think there's Luvdisc in the air?"
"There isn't a doubt in my mind. And I think we should help them along. If Mr. Dolesbury got laid do you know how much pressure would be off our backs?"
Aria rolled her eyes, but I seriously considered it. Ever since I had been late, Mr. Dolesbury had been especially hard on me. And it sucked. Royally. Maybe if he had a girlfriend to distract him he wouldn't be so worried about making my life miserable.
"I'm in."
Josh looked surprised, and I swear I saw Aria's mouth drop before she said, "What? Really?"
"Yeah," I said unwaveringly. I didn't want to deal with Dullsbury anymore.
"Well, you two are as crazy as Spoinks. I'm not getting into that." She shoved her screwdriver into her back pocket, closed up her styler, and weighed it in her hand before beginning to walk away. "Have fun!"
I watched her walk away, my mouth open to say something but no words coming out. Josh, however, was more than able to speak. "Why are you leaving me with her?" He called after Aria, getting nothing but a hand wave in return.
I glanced at him and coughed, one of those awkward, breaks the silence coughs. "Look, I'm sure that I'm the last person you'd want to be doing this with—"
"Feel free to say that again."
"—But I want to get Mr. Dolesbury off my back as much as you do. So could you just put up with me for now? Like a truce or something?"
He sighed, looking over at me with his hands shoved into his pockets. "I…guess. If you have an idea of how to go about this, that is."
Oh, so now I had to have the idea. Jerk. "Uh…"
"Actually, I think I do! Follow me."
"Is he up there?"
"Yeah, I got him up."
"Alright. I'll go get Mrs. Corder. Wait ten minutes and then go get Mr. Dolesbury."
"Yeah, yeah, I know the plan!"
"I was just making sure! God, you're a pain." I rolled my eyes and started making my way towards Mrs. Corder's office. I heard him mumble 'ditto' behind me, but ignored it. It was seven, so everyone was making their way to lunch now, but the teachers always came a bit late, so Mrs. Corder should have been in there. Hopefully.
I had forsaken knocking and just barged in, mustering up my best acting skills to make my face look panicked and my breathing just erratic enough. "Mrs. Corder! There's a Pikachu on the roof! It's running around like crazy, probably trying to figure out how to get down, but I think it's going to fall off!"
She started a bit when I barged in, but after hearing my anxious plea, Mrs. Corder pushed away from her desk in a rush and ran by me to the staircase leading up to the roof. I followed her, but when she went onto the roof, I hid behind a trash can near the door. But a moment later I heard Mr. Dolesbury and Josh running up the stairs, and one of them pulling open the door and hurrying onto the roof. Then I heard the lock click into place.
I poked my head out and smiled when I saw Josh. He smirked in return, jangling the keys we had swiped from the janitor earlier that day. "Alright, time for phase two," he said, going ahead down the stairs. I followed.
We ran outside and over to my old sleeping spot, where we had hidden a sheet behind my bush-bed. We both took two corners and stretched it as far as we could, looked at one another, nodded, and whistled simultaneously. Suddenly a blob of yellow had appeared jumping off the side of the roof, and after its impact with the sheet, I heard a "Piiiika."
Josh and I dropped the sheet back behind the bush and Pikachu jumped into my arms. We ran back to the main doorway and hid ourselves under the overhang. We waited until we couldn't hear their questions about Pikachu's whereabouts anymore before we bolted for a tree that had a big enough top of leaves that they couldn't see us, but was close enough that we could see them.
Josh poked his head out and lifted a pair of binoculars to his face, then started narrating to me what was going on. "They gave up looking for Pikachu, I think. Oh, now they're trying the door." He laughed. "Oh, awesome. Mr. Dolesbury tried ramming it and hurt his shoulder. Mrs. Corder looks really concerned, but he waved her off, probably playing tough. That looked like it killed. Mrs. Corder went to sit down now. Oh—Mr. Dolesbury sat next to her! They're talking about something. She's looking down. Ew, he's staring at her in this rapist way. Whoa—whoa, Phay, he's touching her!"
"What?" I said, grabbing the binoculars, trying to pull them my way. Josh wouldn't give them up, though, so we just each took a lens and used them like joint-telescopes, our ears and shoulders pressed together uncomfortably.
He was right, Mr. Dolesbury was touching her. Patting her on the head, actually. Then his hand slid out of sight behind her, and a second later her hair was down. She looked up at him, and he tilted his head like he was admiring something beautiful, before taking her glasses off, as well. She opened her mouth, probably going to question him, but he kissed her—
"Eww," we said in unison, both lowering the binoculars at the same time.
We looked at each other and laughed, and Josh held up his hand for a high-five. I went for it, and he pulled away. I narrowed my eyes at him, but he held out his fist with a smirk, and I pounded it.
"Mission success."
When I got back to my room Aria was still awake, reading her book titled Gears, Guys, and You. She closed it when she noticed me, folding the corner of the page in order to keep her place. "How'd it go?"
"Complete success. Mrs. Corder and Mr. Dolesbury are making out on the roof."
"Oh, ew."
"We said the same thing."
"Did you get along with Josh?"
"Surprisingly, yes," I said, a small smile on my face. I started changing into my PJs.
"Oh. That's as cool as a Snover."
"Yeah," I replied, twisting my fist around, my line of sight following my knuckles. "I guess it is."
