Whatever It Takes (curtainwith83 & Fey)

[Julius0803]

It was a warm, almost hot day in early June at Madison High School. Given that it was the last week of school, the students there were already tuned out enough, and the arrival of summer weather only served to decrease their focus on school even further. Mr. Duncan, one of three of the school's guidance counselors, had the not so fortunate task of dealing with his delegated group of students to meet with regarding their selected coures for the upcoming year.

Mr. Duncan was 38, and though he kept his job at Madison, his employment there was not really a necessity. He had done quite well for himself trading stocks and bonds, getting in on certain companies at the right time and dropping other assets at the right time as well. On this particular Wednesday afternoon, as the day wore on to a close and the sun beat through the blinds of his office window, he wondered why he even still bothered doing what he did. As he looked at his list of student appointments for the day, he was not only relieved to be at the last name, but somewhat excited. The name was one which he recognized...which he had heard in the halls, heard from teachers and associated with a cute young lady he had his eye on for some time.

As Mr. Duncan got up from his desk and opened his office door, his suspicions were confirmed and the girl he associated with the name on his list was indeed outside his office. He took a breath, knowing full well where he intended to take this appointment but trying to remain as serious and professional as possible. As he set eyes upon the young girl in one of the chairs outside his office, he purposely acted dumbfounded, showing little enthusiasm...

"Umm you must be..."

He stepped slightly to the side, inviting the young lady into his office, mustering up his confidence and his courage to go through with what he had in mind. At 38 years old, he was no slouch...he stood and 6ft, about 210lbs, short light brown and slightly wavy hair, pale blue eyes...in good shape for his age but not overly muscular...moreso lean with a runner's body...he was dressed somewhat casually today in khaki pants, brown Skecher shoes and a black polo with Madison High logo on it, and though he felt confident, this was also not an arrangement he had ever attempted to enter into before.

 

[Fey Fateful]

Fey waited impatiently outside Mr. Duncan's office. She was annoyed that her appointment with her assigned guidance councellor had been scheduled last when all the other kids were already beginning their summer holidays. It was hot, and all she wanted to do was go home and jump in the pool.

This school didn't have a uniform requirement exactly, but it did have certain regulations about skirt length and skin exposure that was often tossed out of the window on the last day of the semester when girls turned up in micro-minis and revealing tank-tops. Fey was no different although her mini reached to her thighs at least, covering everything that needed to be covered while revealing her long, tanned legs. Her shirt was strapless, but demurely covered her chest and stomach. This didn't detract from her figure which, as a cheerleader, was pretty and petite, curvy in the right places even for a 15 year old.

Finally Mr. Duncan called her in and she went into his office and flopped down on the chair opposite his desk, wanting to get this over with but knowing how important the meeting was. Mr. Duncan wasn't one of her regular teachers and so she'd never really paid much attention to him. She looked at him now properly for the first time and flicked her hair, figuring he wasn't so bad for an old guy.

"Yes, I'm Fey Phillips. I'm trying to get into City College after I graduate next year. I think my grades are ok, right?" She knew her grades weren't all that but she intended to work hard her final year of high school to improve them.

 

[Julius0803]

As Mr. Duncan listened to the young girl state her name, he couldn't help but smile just a little, but did his best to restrain his enthusiasm. He nodded, confirming her name, though he knew full well who she was. He directed her to one of the two chairs on the other side of his desk, staying behind her and marveling at what had just stepped foot into his office.

As he sat down, he grabbed her folder and pulled out her transcript. He pretended to look it over, though in actuality he was subtly stealing glances at her nubile, young figure. Any hesitation he may have had before Lana walked through the door was quickly being overpowered by sheer physical desire, as he had not anticipated the cute young thing to be in such skimpy clothes. He also took his time before speaking, slowly going through the pages, in an effort to purposely let the anxiety build up.

"Well Ms. Phillips...I've been reviewing your transcript here. Your grades aren't bad..." He intentionally paused, allowing the tension to rise more. "But, well...I don't think you're ready for a lot of the advanced courses that you're scheduled to take next year."

He let that point sink in before continuing. He knew she had been softball before, and now volleyball, so activities were certainly important. Already becoming quite calculating, Mr. Duncan appealed to that interest, among others.

"Now, I know you want to take those courses so you can be with your friends probably, and eventually go onto college, but it's gonna be an awful lot of work for you. Plus, I'd hate to see you do poorly and not be able to play volleyball."

This was all, of course, complete BS. Fey was not going to be valedictorian to be sure, but she was mostly a B student with some Cs sprinkled in, and an occasional A even. But, Mr. Duncan knew she would rely on him to guage the difficulty of these courses and her abilities, and she would trust his opinion as an administrator and authority figure.

 

[Fey Fateful]

Her pink lips parted in shock. "No way! Really?" She had been sure her B average would be enough to scrape by. But then, grown ups kept telling her to work harder, and that competition for colleges was fierce. Nuts, had she screwed up? She began to get a little panicked when he talked about not playing volleyball. That was her life!

She sat forward, her worry evident on her face. "Mr. Duncan, I really can't afford to not get in. My parents will kill me! There has to be something you can do, right? I'll take extra classes. Or summer school, or something!"

 

[Julius0803]

Mr. Duncan didn't say anything at first, instead allowing Fey's mind to wander and search for an answer to her own question. He noticed her fidgeting and was quite pleased to see that his ever so simple choices in delivery had served to amp up the nerves in the girl. Though he could notice slight differences in her body language, he took comfort in knowing that, at her age, she lacked the mental capacity or maturity to even know she was doing these things, giving off these 'tells.'

"Well Fey..." He started, pretending to look over her paperwork some more and feigning an expression of pondering, as if he was mulling over some idea in his head. Truth be told, he still had some apprehensions about continuing with this plot. After all, it was not something he engaged in everyday. But, he reminded himself of his considerable resources and knew if he appealed to her immature interests, she'd at the very least be intrigued. He leaned slightly to his left, as if to peer over her shoulder and double check that the door had been closed tightly.

"...just so we're clear, I don't do this for just any student...so don't go telling all your friends. Now, what if you could take all these classes you want to take, and I can guarantee you an A...all you have to do is just show up everyday?"

The question was more or less rhetorical, but Mr. Duncan paused still, giving her a moment to fully digest that proposition.

"See, I don't know if you knew this, or cared Fey, but I'm a senior administrator here at Madison High, so I have access to the entire grading database. So, naturally, that means I could fix your grades to whatever you need

 

[Fey Fateful]

Sitting forward in her chair, Fey nodded franticly. "I won't tell anyone, Mr. Duncan, I swear!" she vowed fervently then fell silent to listen to his proposal.

"Fix them? My grades..." she repeated a bit naively, trying to make sense of it. "I don't know, Mr. Duncan, that sounds too good to be true. Would I have to do summer school or extra classes?"

The girl took a breath and pouted, thinking. What did she have to lose? She had to get the grade for college or she was sure, with the certainty that came with dramatic teen years, that she would die!

"Like I said, I'll do anything for the grades, Sir. What do I gotta do for this?"

 

[Julius0803]

"No no, no summer school..."

He almost had to laugh, but restrained himself. He wrote his address down on a pad of paper and slid it across the desk for her.

"I could use some help around the house this summer though. I don't live far, so you can walk or ride your bike. If you do a good job you could earn a little extra money too."

 

[Fey Fateful]

"Wait, what?" Fey's eyebrows drew together in a puzzled frown. She took the slip of paper and looked at it. Go to Mr. Duncan's house and help out, and he'd fix her grades. That felt a lot like cheating but she really desperately needed to get into the right college or her dad would never buy her that car... She bit her lip and sighed.

"So all I have to do is help you out over the summer?" It never even entered her naive little mind that there was something fishy about that. Mr. Duncan was a teacher and therefore impeccably trustworthy. And if she was able to make some extra money, then it was kind of like having a summer job AND getting good grades which could only be a good thing, right?

Her decision made, she nodded. "Ok Mr. Duncan. Wow, thanks for this! My folks won't mind if I have a summer job especially at a teacher's place." She beamed, bouncing slightly and getting excited that things had worked out so easy. "When do I start?"

 

[Julius0803]

"Yup, that's all..."

Mr. Duncan smiled a bit, but had to control his enthusiasm. It all seemed too easy, and Fey was even more naive than he had hoped.

"We're pretty busy here with finals...how does Monday sound? 10AM?"

He stood and opened the office door, inviting her to be on her way. Though technically his last statement was posed as a question, it was clear that it was anything but.

 

[Fey Fateful]

"Yeah, ok Mr. Duncan!" Fey jumped up when it seemed she was dismissed. "See you Monday!"

((I'll skip ahead to Monday...))

There was no problem convincing her dad that she was working odd jobs for a teacher this summer, and, although he said he'd have to call Mr. Duncan to check up on her, she was pretty confident he never would because he was a busy man with his own business in the city. She spent the weekend hanging out with her friends and wondering what sort of work Mr. Duncan wanted her to do.

On Monday morning at 10 sharp, she knocked on his door. It was hot once more, and this time she was in a little sun dress although she'd brought her backpack with shorts and a t-shirt in case he wanted her to work in the garden. She'd also brought her school books in case there really would be lessons.

"Morning, Mr. Duncan!" she called. "It's Fey, are you awake?"