Chapter 6

By Monday morning, April had lost the edge of her anger at Judson Gray-and herself. She had felt alternately outraged and disgusted with herself and had ended by blaming the number of drinks she had had. But, running through her rationalizations was the damning knowledge that her own body had betrayed her into a loss of control of the situation.

She had hurried about so this morning preparing for school that Peg had commented. "You act as if you were running toward a bomb shelter instead of a job."

"Oh, it's first day of teaching-kind of exciting-"

"Come off it, honey. You've acted mean as a dunked cat for two days. I doubt you're even fit to teach."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be unpleasant."

"Something happened the other night with Judson Gray. Just guessing."

"No, nothing happened-not really."

Peg eyed her shrewdly, shrugged and turned toward the door. She asked over her shoulder, "Now what could that mean?"

April flushed. The door opened and closed and Peg was gone. Her car purred down the drive into the street. A few moments later, after a last critical examination of herself in the mirror, April drove to school.

The day was hectic, made up of short classroom periods during which April met with her students, collected enrollment slips, introduced herself, announced the textbooks. Young faces soon became a blur and the names meaningless. She knew she would eventually sort them out but right now all was confusion.

One face leaped out at April-that of a girl seated halfway back in a class April could not later remember. The face was thin, framed in straight hanging hair and below it was a ruler-straight body-suddenly April saw the Corners. She looked around at the others, boys and girls who had barely begun in high school. She forced the image of the Corners from her mind, kept her thoughts from drifting beyond this room. She succeeded. She spoke to her students pleasantly, introduced herself, made them welcome. On this first day of short classes, it seemed that neither she nor the students were more than seated before the bell rang for the next class.

She watched this group file out. The girl she had noticed made a roundabout route to the door as though to keep the others between herself and April. As she reached the door, April signaled her to the desk.

The girl hesitated, came slowly forward. She watched April covertly.

April smiled and asked in a friendly tone, "Haven't I seen you the last few days?"

"No, Miss Williams."

"I'm sure I have."

"This is the first day in school this year and there ain't-isn't any other place we could have met, Miss Williams."

"What's your name?"

"Mabel Corey."

"How old are you, Mabel?"

"Thirteen."

April suppressed a shock and her eyes grew sharper. "Have you ever been at the Corners?"

The thin cheeks flushed but the lips thinned slightly in defiance. "No, ma'am. I ain't-I'm not-allowed to go to places like that."

"Do you have a boy friend?"

"Sometimes."

April studied her, sensed nothing was to be gained by pressing the girl. She would simply lie.

April sighed, "Well, my mistake, Mabel. I hope well be friends."

Dark eyes, too large for the thin face, lifted and dropped. "Yes, ma'am. I hope so."

"That's all. I don't want to make you late for your next class."

The girl scuttled out. April gathered up the enrollment slips, consulted her schedule and walked to her next assignment.

Chemistry was a senior-year course and April sat behind her desk watching with interest the group of older students who entered the classroom. She suppressed a little start when Bill Collins came in after parting in the hall with a girl whose face April had no chance to see. But she had the impression of blond hair and an extremely ripe figure.

Bill gave April a swift look and the shadow of a smile played about his lips. As he moved through the room April noted that many of the girls watched him covertly and she could almost read their thoughts. Her lips thinned slightly.

Bill looked over the room. There were no desks, only stout chairs with one arm expanded for books or writing of class notes. Bill moved to the first row. It was completely filled. He touched a boy on the shoulder.

"This seat something special, Mac?"

The boy looked startled. Bill smiled easily down at him. "I dig the front row in this class, so I can read the blackboard easy. Have to take care of the orbs this year."

"I just sat here. You can have it."

"Thanks, old buddy. Do you a favor some time."

"That's all right, Bill."

The class bell rang and April lifted her head with a friendly smile for the whole class. The group was small compared to some others she had met and she felt she would swiftly come to know the twenty-odd boys and girls. In any case, her worth as a teacher would be proven in this advanced class and in the laboratory in the next room. Gaining the friendship and confidence of these students would be the first step.

She asked a girl to collect the enrollment slips and bring them to her. She shuffled them and then read a name, asked the student to stand up. She gave a brief smile.

"William Collins," she read.

Bill stood up with the easy grace of an athlete. She looked up to find his eyes boldly on her and again she felt the impact of them. She hid her self-anger because her smile had become a hint more than impersonal but her voice held a slight edge. "I understand you're the athlete in the class, William."

"Yes, ma'am-football and basketball."

"Very good."

"The best," someone said in a loud whisper from the back of the room.

Bill looked around with a satisfied, pleased smile as low laughter swept over the room. April let it subside before she spoke. "I'm glad to hear that. So I'll expect as good a record from you here as you have in sports."

Bill's eyes narrowed slightly. "No teacher's complained yet.

"I'm sure no one has and I don't expect to. However, I feel that grades are more important than scores, don't you?"

He caught the implied warning that his playing on the field might depend on his work in this room. So did the class and April sensed a subtle, sudden hostility. Bill's bold eyes and manners had caused her to assert her own demands too quickly. She had made a mistake.

He resumed his seat with the same animal ease of movement. He slouched a little but April had a feeling of controlled power in his slack muscles. She tried not to notice him as she introduced the class to her subject and tried briefly to give them a beginning interest in, if not enthusiasm for, chemistry.

Throughout she sensed Bill's bold but lazy eyes upon her. She felt them almost tangibly-they probed her face, her breasts and fingered over the rest of her. She wore a conservative dress but whatever she had worn would have made no difference. Bill's eyes were evaluating her, not her clothing.

She tried not to look at him but now and then her eyes cut his way. He seemed to be listening attentively while not missing a single gesture or movement she made. She stumbled over a word, lost a phrase and knew a momentary confusion.

She moved hastily to the protection of the desk and dropped into the chair. She recovered her confidence and her train of thought. Her words came more easily as she folded her hands before her and spoke of the great names in science.

She became aware that Bill's eyes had now fixed on some spot below the desk top. She caught another young male eye transfixed on the same area. She realized that she had crossed her legs carelessly and, at the same moment, realized the desk's kneehole had no protective apron.

Her face flamed and she stood up. Bill's eyes knowingly and slowly lifted to her face. She read lustful male approval in their brief flash before he unconcernedly turned his head toward the corridor door.

When the final bell sounded April felt she was being rescued from complete catastrophe. She held herself in an unconcerned stance at the side of the desk, smiling as the students moved out into the corridor. Bill Collins waved to a friend, spoke to a girl but remained close to his chair.

When the last of the students moved through the door, he came forward. April braced herself but his expression remained innocent as he said courteously, "I think I'm going to like this class, Miss Williams."

She suppressed a gasp of anger-he was trying to get her off balance and at a disadvantage this first day. She successfully fought down the color that wanted to stream up her neck and into her cheeks.

Her voice held a hard-won, impersonal note. "You might find it dull tomorrow-when the work starts."

He said nothing, only shrugged and walked calmly out of the room. April picked up the small stack of registry slips. She walked to the chair Bill had occupied. She could plainly see under the teacher's desk.

She hurriedly jumped up to find the maintenance man. By morning, there'd be a wooden apron on that desk.

On this first day, school ended at one. There were no more incidents but April watched the students stream to the street and away with a definite sense of relief. She gathered up her accumulated slips and rollbook and hurried to the office. Peg Mason turned from the row of pigeonholes where teachers picked up notices, bulletins and memos.

"Sticking around or going home?"

April sighed. "Home. I'll do my paperwork there."

Peg's face lighted. "See you there, then. This girdle is killing me."

When April entered the house, Peg called from the kitchen, "Get out of the work clothes, honey. Lunch is about ready."

April changed from dress and hose to lounging pajamas so light and sheer that the shadows of her skin showed through. She hurried downstairs, dropped her school work on the coffee table and went into the kitchen. Peg looked up from the dining nook.

She stood poised a long moment. Her eyes grew round.

"Quite an outfit."

April flushed. Peg indicated a chair by the window. "Sit down and let me get used to that. I've never seen it before."

"I was a bit afraid to wear it, I guess. The girls at the sorority wore these on study nights in our rooms."

"It hardly looks safe even there." Peg dropped into her chair across the table. "More like a seduction outfit."

"Peg!"

Peg indicated the twisted cloth that covered her own full breasts. "I thought this barely did the job. Now I feel as if I were wearing a Mother Hubbard. If Judson Gray had one quick look at you in that, you'd be fiat on your back."

"Well, he won't. Or in anything else."

"Oh-oh. There was trouble the other night."

"Well-some."

"I take it you fought him off." Before April could answer, Peg continued carelessly as she attacked her salad: "That was smart, honey. I can't think of a worse entanglement than Judson Gray."

"I never had any idea of becoming involved with him," April said shortly.

"But Jud did-and I bet he tried. I don't blame him."

April saw the uselessness of delving further into her evening with Judson Gray. They finished lunch in silence. Later April worked, transcribing names from registry slips into her rollbooks. She had barely finished when Peg appeared with two large beach towels.

"Catch," she said and tossed one to April. "Last afternoon to get the sun for a long, long time."

April started to protest, changed her mind. She followed Peg out into the fenced and sheltered yard. Long hot rays of golden light slanted onto the grass as she spread the towel. Peg placed a bottle of ointment beside her blanket, loosened her bra and stepped out of her shorts. She dropped onto the blanket, face down.

April hesitated, then shrugged out of the light pajamas. The sun instantly bathed her body, caressing her bare breasts and stomach, wrapping a soft blanket of heat about her. She dropped down on her towel, buried her face in her crossed arms and luxuriated in the warmth, the pleasant stir of a vagrant breeze across her back.

Peg stirred after a moment but April didn't look up. Peg said, "Honey, you're hardly tanned at all."

April's voice came muffled. "I had my choice-tan or a job."

"You'll blister."

"I don't think so."

"Well, just in case, we'll use the ointment." April started to lift her head in protest but Peg's fingers and palms touched her shoulders. The lotion felt good on April's skin and Peg's touch was light and soothing. She surrendered, relaxing. Peg worked steadily.

Her hands moved along April's back, her sides, fingers lightly brushing the outer curve of her breast and swiftly away again. Then they moved to the small of the back and over April's hips softly and gently. Peg said softly, "Honey, you have a beautiful body."

"Mmmm." Sleepily. "Thank you." The hands moved. "Really, honey-beautiful."

Now the fingers had a different touch, almost as if they were trying to evoke a response. They seemed to touch little nerves along her back, low on her sides and hips. Lazy sensuousness caused by sun and touch was transformed into a strange and urgent sensation as though passion lightly flicked through Peg's caressing fingers.

Startled, April could not move for a moment. Then the sensation came again, vibrating from hips down into her stomach and up to her breasts. She jumped to her feet.

Peg, naked, crouched back on her heels and April caught the fading flicker of some strange expression on Peg's face. But Peg's eyes and voice remained cool and merely friendly as she asked, "Had enough, honey?"

"I-yes. I'd better go inside."

She stood up and Peg, with a careless shrug, dropped prone on her own towel, cushioning her head in her arms. April swept up towel and discarded pajamas and walked swiftly into the house.

In the doorway, she looked back.

Peg, a naked Venus, apparently slept in the sun.