Chapter 2

"Hey, kid, how's your ass?"

"Probably a hell of a lot better than anything you've been getting."

Ellen's head shot up from the papers she had been studying at her desk and her shocked eyes followed the young couple who had just walked past her and were now moving down the aisle to seat themselves at two desks in the rear of her classroom. Admittedly the husky dark-haired boy's question was not in the best of taste, but the flippant answer given by the leggy, attractive young blonde had absolutely flabbergasted the teacher. They didn't sound like teenaged high school students, but middle-aged drinking buddies who had just met in the neighborhood bar!

"Edie! I've been trying to find you all day! You should have come to that party up at the cabin Saturday night. God, everybody was there! The police finally showed up around one and Shelly had to hide under the bed because she couldn't find her blouse!"

Ellen's head swung around again to see the little, brunette whirlwind who had just rushed into the classroom from among the throngs of students moving in the hallway in between classes.

"Well, you weren't exactly reading in the corner, Merrilee," a deep, masculine voice chortled from among the half dozen boys who had followed the pert-faced, mini-skirted girl into the room. "As a matter of fact ... "

"Oh, Tom, now let's not get too personal," the girl cooed, pausing to rub her buxom little body against a tall, blonde boy behind her. She gazed up at him and fluttered her long, dark lashes, adding, "It's different with us. We're going steady. But that Shelly ... "

"Well, I'd rather have you, baby, but Shelly'll do until the real thing comes along," one of the other youths interjected. "Jesus Christ, for a damned little freshman, old Shelly certainly does know how to ... "

"Oh, for God's sake, children, when are you going to grow up? You're all beginning to sound just like the rest of the nurds around here! One of these days, you'll get invited to a fraternity party and then you'll find out exactly what does make the world go around!" the blonde impatiently spoke up from her seat on the other side of the room.

Her voice was sultry and bored and, as Ellen turned to look at her, she could see that the girl's lovely, fine-boned face had the same look ... as though she had already seen everything and couldn't be less interested in the enthusiastic conversation going on around her. The languid blonde was slouched gracefully in her chair, her short woolen skirt riding high on her long, slender thighs, and she smiled indulgently at the others as they walked across the classroom to settle down in the other desks nearest the windows.

In the few remaining minutes before the sound of the bell signaling the beginning of the fourth period of classes, other students gradually filtered into the room, in groups of twos and threes, but Ellen noticed that almost all of them took seats on the other side of the room, leaving the first group, and the few others that joined them, in almost complete isolation in the far corner. Far from appearing disturbed by the division, the small, well-dressed group chatted excitedly among themselves, only occasionally throwing a condescending remark to one of the other students outside their circle.

Ellen was dumbfounded, not only by the way the tiny group deliberately held themselves apart from the rest of the pupils in the class, but mostly by the snatches of conversation she could overhear before the bell rang. They were sitting there laughing and joking about intimate subjects that Ellen had never before heard mentioned in a high school ... except maybe between close friends in the intimacy of a deserted girls' room.

All her other students in the three periods earlier that day had seemed like fairly typical teenagers: some friendly, some shy, but all peer-conscious and very aware of how they acted in front of their friends. But, this little group obviously could not care less about what the others thought of them. In fact, they seemed to enjoy making jokes at the expense of the other students who sat in the room. And, most of the jokes were more than a little off-color!

Then, suddenly, Ellen remembered something she had heard the other teachers talking about this morning as they had sat drinking coffee in the teachers' lounge. Someone had mentioned something about "that snobby little clique," and then one of the other teachers had mentioned that they referred to themselves as the "in crowd." Ellen hadn't really been listening until one of the men had laughingly turned to her and warned her that not all high school students were as innocent as she, herself, might remember from her own high school days. Her curiosity aroused, Ellen had asked the man for an explanation, but he had only chuckled and said that she would understand when she ran into them. Unable to elicit any more information, the young redheaded teacher had listened for any other references to the group, but had heard nothing more than some bitter comment about over-permissive parents and a final warning to keep a tight rein on the group if she didn't want more than she could handle.

Now, she thought she understood a little better what the other teachers had been talking about. As the bell rang, the other students stopped talking and waited for their new teacher to begin the class. However, the ten or twelve teenagers in the rear corner continued their chattering, insolently oblivious to the silence around them.

Ellen nodded a greeting to the quiet students on the one side of the room, then stared pointedly at the tiny, whispering group in the back. Determined to start the class on the proper note, she decided to wait them out and studied them, one by one, making mental notes for future reference.

The tiny brunette who had been called Merrilee dominated much of the conversation with her animated gestures and exclamations. By the way she sat and moved her body, Ellen could see that the small girl was well aware of her generous curves and enjoyed every bit of attention she received. In fact, it was obvious that almost every boy, not only in the small group but in the rest of the class as well, was fascinated by her, and she seemed almost to expect the admiring glances from the boys, doling out her attentions as a queen would bestow favors on her courtiers.

The slim, lanky blonde, Edie, seemed merely amused by the boys in the group, and Ellen remembered the girl's comment about fraternity parties. Apparently, Edie depended on college men for her social life. She seldom bothered to join the others in conversation except to interject an occasional sardonic comment about their innocence and immaturity.

All the others in the clique were boys, each dressed amazingly like the others, as though to differentiate themselves from the other students who might not be able to afford the obviously expensive clothes they wore. Ellen felt an instinctive dislike for most of them on sight ... they were clearly included in the group only because they were willing to follow the rigid social code involved and because they had enough money to do so. She could tell by most of their faces that they had little more to offer than their self-proclaimed social superiority over the other students who did not "belong."

Only two of the boys held her eye for more than a moment. One, the medium-height, dark-haired boy who had first come in with Edie, seemed clever and quick, somehow more mature than the others. Also, Ellen sensed a certain, well, she thought it was a certain animal sexuality about him. Whatever it was, it made her uncomfortable and she turned her attention to the other boy.

As her eyes lit on the tall, blonde youth, the one Merrilee had snuggled against, Ellen had to stifle a gasp of shock. He was the most astonishingly handsome boy the teacher had ever seen! Tall, broad-shouldered, with wavy blonde hair, he seemed like the reincarnation of some ancient god and, as she stared at him, she began to wonder what he would look like with his clothing off. A strange, light-fingered quivering settled deep between her thighs and Ellen was horrified at her reaction to him. She had never felt this way before by just looking at a man and she tried to think of something else. It was absurd! Why, the boy was almost eight or nine years younger than she was! Then, suddenly, she realized that the boy looked a bit like someone she had known before her younger brother, Tommy? Or was it that boy who had taken her virginity that terrible night in the drive-in movie, the first person she had ever imagined herself to be in love with?

The connection upset Ellen even more and she angrily tried to force her body into calmness, but she could still feel her nipples stiffening and tightening under the thin bra she wore. It had been more than two weeks since she had left Richard and she had vowed that no man would ever touch her again, unless she was already married to him. And, now, this! Her body was betraying her, and all because of a boy that she dared not even think of involving herself with!

Angry and confused, Ellen decided that she could wait no longer for the little group to realize that the rest of the class was ready to begin. She grabbed a ruler off her desk and rapped sharply on the black board behind her. She glanced at the clock on the side wall and realized with surprise that only two minutes had gone by since the bell had rung. Nevertheless, the "snobby clique," as the other teacher had called them, were going to have to learn their place in her classroom.

"I hope you don't mind if we interrupt your conversation," she addressed them coldly as the chatting students looked up in surprise at the sound of her ruler. "The rest of us have been waiting to begin for some time and I'm sure that your conversation is not as important as your class work."

Ellen's spine stiffened in indignation as she heard one of the coterie mutter, "Yeah, but it's a hell of a lot more interesting, baby."

"All of you! Come up here!" she snapped furiously.

The little group looked around as if they didn't know who she was talking about, small smiles playing on their lips.

"All right, we'll do it your way," she said coolly, rising from her seat behind the desk.

As she stood up, revealing her curvaceous form to the class for the first time, she saw every young male student in the room almost snap to attention. Uncomfortably wishing she had worn something less revealing than the clinging yellow sweater and short bright plaid skirt, Ellen started down the aisle toward the group, self-consciously aware of the astonished stares she was receiving from every boy in the room. She had forgotten the effect she had had on the boys in her own high school and somehow, had managed to stay seated throughout the other classes during the day. Now, with dozens of hungry, young, boyish eyes locked on her beautifully rounded body, the old sense of embarrassment and shame came back in full force, as though it had never left her. What was it about her that she should affect young boys this way? she wondered unhappily as she tried to keep her chin high, her face composed and calm.

"Now, in case you really didn't understand, I was speaking to you," she announced as she arrived at the group of desks where the isolated cluster of students were seated. She tried to assume a curt, professional expression of cool disapproval and looked down at them. "Every one of ... of ... you ... " her voice faltered and then stopped.

Her heart was beating a wild, thundering tattoo and she found herself struggling to catch her breath. The two boys she had noticed before were both staring at her with burning eyes, almost ripping the clothes from her body with the intensity of their gazes, and, to her dismay, she was again beginning to feel that same urgent tension growing deep in her belly. Her eyes fell to the crotch of the blonde boy's tight trousers, then as she realized what she was doing, she tore her gaze away and suddenly found herself staring into the face of the other, dark-haired youth. His deep brown eyes locked with her own green ones, and she saw him smile slightly, insinuatingly, as though he could see through her to her very soul and knew exactly what she was feeling and thinking.

She felt strangely light-headed and a string of seemingly unrelated ideas and scenes began to flash through her mind ... that night in the drive-in movie, other nights when she had struggled with high school boys in the front seats of their fathers' cars, her beautiful nights of love with Richard when they were first married. Then, though she tried to hold back the memories, she thought of other nights, in later years, when she had lain beside her sleeping husband, her belly filled with his sperm, but still feeling lonely and unfulfilled because he had treated her with such disinterest, so impersonally. She had known that he didn't care about her body anymore, but those boys in high school, these boys in this high school ... they cared about her body. They didn't want other women ...

My God, what are you thinking of? she suddenly asked herself as she realized the thoughts that had been going through her mind. She couldn't believe that she was that warped and perverted as to be thinking of these young boys as sex partners. Shocked and horrified, she drove the thoughts from her mind and forcibly got a grip on herself.

"I want you all to move up to the front of the room," she snapped furiously at the now openly-grinning knot of students before her. "I will not have you talking or in any other way disrupting my classroom. Now, find yourselves some new seats!"

She turned on her heel and strode back to the front of the classroom, determined to forget her own momentary lapse. She would never, never allow herself to even think of anything like that again!

In her distraught condition, she had not even noticed the faces of the two girls in the little group in the back of the room. While the boys had been so openly admiring her body, the girls had felt true competition for the attention they expected, perhaps the first competition they had ever known since the "in" crowd was formed as a social circle. It was not a pleasant experience and, with a silent glance between them, it was agreed that the competition would have to be eliminated.

Unaware of anything but her own inner struggle, Ellen waited until she saw that the group had been at least partially dispersed by her order to find new seats, then once again sat down behind her desk in the front of the room. To her relief, she found that the old axiom, "out of sight, out of mind," was still working to a certain extent, and the majority of the teenaged boys quickly lost their moon-struck expressions of inflamed yearning.

Ignoring the salacious grins still lingering on the faces of the male members of the little clique, she again rapped for attention and began the class.

"I am Mrs. Ames," she began in her best professional voice. "As you know, Miss Bixby has been taken ill and I will be teaching you for the rest of the year. Now, I am going to give you a little quiz today, just to let me know how far you have progressed through the course." She smiled at the students' horror-stricken faces, then added, "Don't worry, there will be no grade, but I'd still like you all to do your best."

Ellen reached over her desk to hand a sheaf of mimeographed papers to the girl seated closest to her and asked her to distribute them to the class. She waited the few remaining moments until the students were bent over their work, then sighed and went back to studying the results of the other classes' tests. The results she had already were not encouraging. Ellen didn't know what the elderly Miss Bixby had been doing with her classes for the first month of the school year, but here it was mid-October and none of the students she had tested so far seemed to have the least inkling of the principles behind the study of psychology. Either the woman had been a terrible teacher or the students had no interest at all in the subject. No matter which was true, the young teacher could already see that she was going to have quite a job to bring her classes up to par.

Before this class had begun, Ellen had concentrated entirely on mapping out her classes for the next few weeks, but now, it seemed that she couldn't keep her mind from wandering, especially toward thoughts that she knew she had no business thinking. She willed the hands of the clock to move faster, hoping that once those boys were out of her classroom, she would once again be able to concentrate entirely on her work, but each time she nervously checked the time, no more than another minute or two had passed. She felt shaken and exhausted by the strange experience she had just undergone, but, nevertheless, she was confident she could avoid it happening ever again ... if she could just get through this class without incident. After all, she rationalized to herself, she had been nervous today, and naturally, she was still upset about leaving her husband of three years. It was silly to worry about it, she kept telling herself. She had probably just imagined the whole thing. It was nothing, nothing at all.

As if to convince herself, she looked up from her papers to where the two boys were sitting, one behind the other, near the front of one of the rows of desks. The handsome, sandy-haired boy was hunched over the mimeographed quiz, almost hidden from her sight. But, in the seat behind him, his friend was still watching her, the same fire glowing in his dark eyes. Ellen stared back at him for a moment, trying desperately to wordlessly reject the suggestion in his gaze. Then, her eyes fell away, unable to meet the brazen presumption in his stare.

She felt disturbed and a little frightened as she went back to her paper work. There had been something more in that boy's look, something more than a simple sexual implication. She had almost felt as though he were measuring her, sizing her up, trying to place her in some sort of scheme in his mind.

But, no, she thought to herself, shaking her head to banish the disquieting feeling. That's ridiculous. After all, he's only a boy ...