The Teaching Assistant

Chapter 43
The Teaching Assistant, Part 43

Part 43

Amelia tried to point out, “But, you said-”

“I didn’t say anything, bitch,” Summer interrupted, “Think about it. You just added two days; that’s all. If you wanted conditions, you should have included them.”

That wasn’t true, was it? Amelia had suggested the extension to avoid swearing out a prefect, but Summer was technically correct in that they never actually agreed on it. Without waiting for the young blonde to verbally affirm the details, Amelia had stated what her degrading role would be for the next few days. All for nothing, apparently, if Summer was going to manipulate it into an offer that Amelia would never have made with no strings attached. Trying to explain as much, she said, “No, I was-”

“Ooh, here she comes! Fuck you, Maxine. Like you mean it,” Summer said in a hushed tone. Locking eyes with Amelia, she concluded with, “Or I guess Piper could be my bitch for a whole week. Your call, Millie. Three . . . Two . . . ”

Amelia’s eyes widened. “Wait!” she hissed. It was so frustrating that the same threat was working over and over again. Things would be so much easier if she were a slightly worse person, but Amelia still felt committed to protecting Piper. At least, until all this nonsense was sorted out. Then, as an adult, she could get Summer in proper trouble and make sure she didn’t do this shit to anyone else. For now, however, Amelia felt cornered into doing exactly what the girl wanted. “Fuck you, Maxine!” she called over to the dark haired prefect. 

Maxine hadn’t been walking directly towards their table, but she was only a few feet away. At Amelia’s words, she immediately shifted course and strutted right over. “Excuse me?” Glaring down at Amelia, she crossed her arms and waited. For an excuse, or an apology, or maybe just to make her sweat. 

Summer and the other girls synced up effortlessly. All of them reacted as if they were surprised in their own way, even if each of them had been present while their ringleader had dictated the words. A couple looked appalled, the ones who couldn’t pull that off played into the ‘someone’s in trouble’ kind of amusement, and Summer just kept up her little smirk. As she had proved yesterday, she wasn’t particularly intimidated by prefects. 

As for Amelia, she had no idea what to say. What possible explanation was there for blurting something like that out in the middle of public? 

When no one else said anything, Maxine took the lead. “What, are you playing ‘Truth or Dare’ at breakfast? Or just hazing the new girl?”

Summer scoffed. “Nothing like that, Ms. Maxine. Little Millie here was just whining about how you should have gone easier on her on her first day. We didn’t know she was going to go off like that.”

Maxine frowned, “Last time I checked, Millie, I did go easy on you yesterday. You only got one infraction, and a couple of warnings. I guess you didn’t learn anything from our chat, did you?”

“I’m sorry,” Amelia muttered. Unlike Summer, she was kind of intimidated by the prefect. Even though Maxine looked to be only seventeen or eighteen to Amelia’s twenty-two, Maxine was currently the standing authority figure while Amelia was seated and believed by everyone but a couple girls to be the same age as the students at her table. “I didn’t mean it.” While she had been coerced into the rude words, there had been no stipulations about what she could or couldn’t say afterwards. 

“Then why did you say it?”

Amelia was tempted to rope Summer into the hot water she was in, but pushed the idea away pretty quickly. If the whole point of swearing at Maxine had been to keep Piper from being harassed, then Amelia had to keep the attention on herself to follow through on that endeavor. “I don’t know . . . ” It was all she could come up with in the heat of the moment. 

“Okay, then,” Maxine said. She pulled out a small notebook from her blazer pocket, along with a couple of pink slips that were clipped together behind it. “No more warnings, Millie. As of today, you’re officially a Westridge student, and you will be treated as such. If you haven’t done so already, you should give our handbook a thorough read, like I advised you to do yesterday. Would you care to guess which infractions you’ve earned for yourself just now, or shall I just tell you?”

“Inappropriate language,” Amelia replied. The prefect’s question had some parallels to getting pulled over and being asked why, not that the would-be teaching assistant had any personal experience with that. At the same time, it was a trap, as not answering at all would make it sound like she was either playing dumb or in fact hadn’t read the book that Ashley had sat her down to thoroughly peruse the evening before. “And not using your proper title.” Amelia was intelligent enough to recognize that Summer had purposely left off the ‘Ms.’ when compelling her to swear at the dark haired girl. If it were anybody else reprimanding her, Amelia might not have mentioned her second guess, but she had been present when Maxine had given Summer a similar infraction the previous day. 

“That’s two,” Maxine nodded, “And a third for violating the uniform policy you should be aware of by now. Please do up your top button and tighten your tie, Millie. If it’s not done by the time I write you up, I’ll be giving you a fourth infraction for not respecting a prefect. You’re lucky I haven’t added that to the list already.”

Amelia had been so flustered by everything else before, she hadn’t had time to stop and think about why Summer might have messed with her uniform in such a way. Now she understood, but it was way too late. Feeling plenty self conscious already, both from the way Maxine was talking to her as well as how the girls around the table were all an audience to it, Amelia was quick to undo the minor damage Summer had done to the uniform that had been perfect mere minutes ago. 

“There.” Maxine tucked the three slips into her opposite blazer pocket. “From now on, I expect you to be on your best behavior. Do you understand, Millie? You have been taught to answer like a proper Westridge girl, yes?”

“Yes, Ms. Maxine,” Amelia replied. She probably would have messed it up without a reminder. Echoing the words to the best of her ability, she said, “I’ll be on my best behavior from now on.” 

“Good. Perhaps you should apologize to your classmates as well. That’s your decision, of course. I have to continue my rounds.” With that, Maxine turned her attention to the other half of the dining hall to see if anyone else was acting up in the meantime. 

The second she was out of earshot, Summer smirked. “You heard her, bitch. Apologize for almost getting us in trouble. Ooh, and tell me what you’re going to do for three days.”

Amelia had half a mind to slap the young blonde again, to hell with the age difference, but she managed to restrain herself. Still committed to getting through breakfast as smoothly as possible, even if that meant allowing herself to be degraded in such a way, Amelia didn’t push back in the slightest. 

“I’m sorry, Summer. And I’m going to be your bitch for three days.”