"Lesbo Lessons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Twacht Twyla)

Chapter 2

Mara followed Ruth into the other rooms of the splendid house. Ruth had inherited it from her father, a wealthy physician, and had decorated it lavishly. Each room had its own decor, its own personality, But what intrigued the young Eurasian girl most was the erotic flavor of the decorations, the paintings, even the scents. It was as if Ruth had made her home a rich palace for a sensualist. A sensualist for whom men did not exist. Men had no place in this home except for a large picture of her mother and father in a small TV-viewing room far in the rear.

All of the front rooms had portraits of women. There were beautiful nudes by well-known American artists, a fine copy of Renoir's bathing woman, statues of beautiful female goddesses and nymphs. But the biggest surprise was in Ruth's largest bedroom. Above her bed was a large canvas of a woman by a well-known woman painter of erotica. It depicted a beautiful, statuesque woman with magnificent, ballooning breasts lying down on a bed with her superb thighs outspread. Her large pink labia had been detailed with great care. They were not only very real looking, they were obviously ready for love because they were moist. The insides of the woman's thighs were wet. On her face was a look of desire, of great expectancy.

At the foot of the bed stood a pretty young girl, also nude, her eyes filled with a passionate longing for the older, very lovely woman on the bed. It was clear that the two women were lovers. Indeed they seemed ready to have another go at each other. Their lust was unmistakable to the viewer.

"How do you like it?" Ruth asked casually. "It cost me a fortune. It's by Renee d'Antoine, the French painter who lives in Tangiers. Her portraits of women are the rage in every top art gallery. Most of them are just of women in ordinary situations but she does a few erotic oils for special customers."

Mara gazed fixedly at the picture. "It's exquisite. It's so real you want to-to reach out and touch… to… to… " She flushed deeply as she cut herself short. The words would have been too embarrassing for her. But Ruth finished her sentence for her.

"Real enough to eat those magnificent breasts, to lick that superb vulva. Isn't that what you wanted to say, dear?"

Mara blushed but remained silent.

"Don't be shy about such things, my dear. That's why its hanging there. To arouse my friends. Somehow lovemaking between women gains, I think, by little helps like that picture, don't you? Men are different. I was told by one of my gay men friends that with them it's a more routine thing. They meet a boy they like and almost at once they're in bed together. I can't do things like that, can you? I feel that there must be something leading up to the sex part."

She looked questioningly at Mara, who gulped and nodded. She was still not sure of what was going to happen, still not sure she wanted it to happen. And yet Ruth Peter suddenly seemed so attractive now that she felt a tremor when the woman looked into her face. Despite her cautiousness, she could barely suppress a feeling of excitement. She was drawn to Ruth. There was no sense in denying it. The physical pull was strong.

"You haven t answered my question, darling." Ruth whispered. "Can you just hop into bed with a woman you've just met unless-?"

"No," Mara said hoarsely. Oh God, she thought, what am I doing here? I don't really want to get involved with a woman again. "I agree with you," Mara said finally.

"Yes, I rather thought you would," Ruth said. "Let's have an aperitif and then dinner. It's nearly ready to eat." She put her arm affectionately around Mara's waist as she led her into the living room. As they moved, Ruth's finger slid slowly over the outside of Mara's shapely buttocks.

"You know," she said as she served the Eurasian girl a glass of chilled French vermouth spiked with cassis, a strawberry flavoring from the south of France, "I had a daydream about you.

"I dreamt you and I were swimming nude on some white beach in the Fiji Islands-I love that place-and that you had laid down to nap and that I had the oddest desire to go down on you. And in fact I did. I licked your lovely little pussy. You don't mind my telling you this? Using frank Anglo-Saxon sex words?"

Mara shook her head. Ruth's candor made her a little dizzy.

"Good," Ruth cried, "because I am going to tell you a little secret about myself. I arouse myself that way. I love to talk that way to people I really want. Do you know what I mean?"

Mara nodded nervously. She was afraid to say any thing. There was a strange quality in Ruth Peter's eyes, a kind of wildness that seemed barely under control. It was as if the Dr. Jekyll she had seen in the school office had turned into a Miss Hyde. Except that Miss Hyde was infinitely more attractive sexually than the prim schoolteacher with glasses and hair done in a bun.

The dinner was exquisite, as Ruth had promised it would be, and true to her word, she continued to talk erotically all through it, telling Mara amusing stories about famous lesbians on the Hollywood scene.

"Take X," she said giving the name of a woman who had come very close to winning an award for her films. "X has a body that makes men drool. She is in fact a nationally known sex symbol. But I happen to know that she cannot do a major scene unless her hairdresser licks her cunt in her trailer before the cameras roll." Ruth laughed. "I'll tell you even something funnier than that. Once the regular girl was off for some reason so they had a substitute, some little nitwit fresh from the farm.

"X was about to follow through with a big love scene-some handsome detective etc. etc. was going to bed her down in the film. As usually happened, X was nervous as hell. She hated sex scenes with men, loathed them. But she was a sex symbol, had her image to think of. So in every film she has at least one torrid bedroom scene. She has to roll around the bed sheets with some grimy, sweating man and it's a terrible ordeal.

"The cunt licking acts as a pacifier, yon see. X never formerly asks for a blowjob. The hairdresser gets down on her knees as X picks at her hair or eyebrows and opens her thighs-she never wears underwear-and the hairdresser buries her lips and nose in X's bush."

Ruth laughed as she paused to put a mouthful of the tasty food in her mouth. "Now comes the funny part. X is used to this.routine. She is all ready for her big male love scene outside, she has thoughtfully sprayed her pussy with a mist of Chanel No.5, which she knows her hairdresser dotes on, and waits.

"She waits and waits and nothing happens. This twenty-year-old ninny simply pats her face with cosmetics, snips a few hairs here and there, does her eyebrows and puts in the right eye shade just as her training had taught her, and X is panting to get sucked. Finally in desperation she whispers, 'Jennifer, you'd better do me. I have to go on.'

" 'But I'm nearly finished,' the girl smiles. 'Just look at yourself in the glass. You look terrific.'

"X winced. 'I mean do me like I always am done before a love scene. Didn't Harriet tell you, for heaven's sake?'

"The girl shook her head. 'I never saw Harriet. All she said on the phone was to make your hair look great, to study the pictures the publicity photographer took for the picture.'

"'Yes but I want you to… ' As X fumbled, being unable to make the request a blunt order, there was a knock on the door. A deep male voice belonging to an assistant director told her the crew was ready to go now.

" 'In a minute, Joe,' X yelled out. To the girl she said. 'Look honey Harriet should have explained. You have to! Do me… er… '

"'Do you how?' the girl asked nervously. 'What else can I do before you go on, ma'am?'

"Frantic by this time and still unable to articulate the words, X turned around and spread her superb thighs, showing the astonished girl her voluminous bush.

" 'Do me down there honey and hurry. They're waiting for me.' "

"Jennifer blushed. 'You mean you want me to comb your hair down there? You mean they're doing a shot of you with your legs open and no pants on?'

"X, tongue-tied, shook her head. 'I thought they did that only in hard core porno films,' Jennifer said. 'Nobody told me to fix your hair down there! she added in amazement. 'Nobody said this was an X rated film or anything: " 'Hey come on X,' the director's basso profound voice barked through the trailer door. 'I've had everything ready ten minutes ago. This is a big scene and we may need several retakes. Are you coming?'

"'Just a goddamned minute AI,' X roared. To the hairdresser she rasped. "Get on with it, will you. If I have to go roll on that bed with hot homey bastard without it, I'll go crazy. It's all done between the sheets so the damned film will get an R rating instead of X. But every time the son-of-a-bitch plays a bedroom scene, he tries to put his finger up my pussy or my ass, any damned hole he can get into. Do me!"

"'You mean trim your, 'er, pubic hair so it ",Jill look better or-' " Jennifer began, puzzled.

"'I MEAN SUCK IT, YOU DUM DUM,' X screamed.

"With that she opened her thighs wider. Jennifer stared. 'Oh no… I can't. I've never done it to a girl.'

" 'You've done it to a man haven't you?' X barked.

" 'Well yes… but…' the girl backed away, then stared as x began to move her finger in and out of her pussy. The expectation of getting sucked off by the girl was so great, she could not hold back again.

"'You're through after today, you little bitch: X snapped. 'I haven't had to do that to myself for years. Get out… out of here. And don't let me see you around this lot again.'

"For a second the girl stared at X with terror, then seeing her dream of working in a studio with glamorous stars, go down the drain, she acted with such alacrity that she nearly knocked X off of her chair.

"Jennifer got on her knees and dug her mouth, nose and tongue into the film star's pussy with a pretended hunger that was unbelievable. Grasping X's big thighs firmly, she kept running her tongue in and out of the older woman's vulva, then all over her inner thighs, then on her clit until X nearly went out of her mind. But she loved it, loved every second of it. So much in fact that when the director, in a towering fury, clobbered the door with his fist ten minutes later, all that X could do was groan with pleasure.

"The director, hearing the star's moans, began to get worried. 'You sick baby?'

" 'Yeah, no… I'll be all right,' X said as Jennifer's hot tongue whizzed in and out of her vagina.

" 'You sure you can do the scene?' the director asked anxiously. There was a lot riding on the film for him.

" 'Oh yes… oh yes, AI,' X said as she began to have a series of never-ending orgasms. 'I'll do the best scene you ever saw. Just give me five minutes to pull myself together. I-I've just had a bad night.'

"The director hastily withdrew, not wishing any further complications, and after a minute so did Jennifer's hyperactive tongue. Whereupon our lovely, glamorous star," Ruth chuckled, "dried the young girl's saliva from her sopping bush as well as the effusion of vaginal juice that had flowed down her own meaty thighs and walked into the sound stage like some noble queen." Ruth's eyes crinkled with amusement. "And that, dear little Mara, is the real reason she's always late on the set. She needs the time for her hairdresser to do her."

The story was so amusing and Ruth Peter's retelling of it so masterful that Mara could not help laughing.

"You're making it all up." Mara chided.

"No. Word of honor I'm not," Ruth protested. "As a matter of fact, when another star, a British girl, came up from London to do a scene in the film a week later, she had to borrow the same girl, Jennifer, to set her hair." Ruth mentioned the name of a young actress who was already a household name among movie fans.

"This English girl smiled at Jennifer and simply said, 'Can you do me fast? I'm supposed to get out there half an hour ago.' Before she could get the words out, young Jennifer fell to her knees, spread the astonished star's legs and began to suck her pussy. The Englishwoman wore panties, but that did not deter our girt She simply swept aside the crotch piece with an impatient forefinger and slipped her tongue into the English hush. The whole thing happened so fast, the British actress could not so much as say boo. But she obviously loved it.

"When she got back to London she told every actress she knew about it and told them to ask for Jennifer, the girl with the magic tongue. She's still at the studio. If you ever get called on to play Tondelayo or some Malayan beauty, I'll get you her studio extension."

"You're wonderful as a storyteller," Mara said sincerely. She felt good. Not just good, wonderful. She was full of a feeling of something approaching nirvana or what her Zen Buddhist acquaintances in the east called satori. The excellent food, the wine, above all the charm of this strange woman opposite her, had brought it about.

"You feel okay?" Ruth asked tenderly, touching Mara's full breasts.

"I feel great."

"Great enough," Ruth's lips wet each other as she stared at the girl, "to do me?"

Mara hesitated a moment and then nodded.

She got down on her knees. But Ruth pulled her up. "No darling, I'm not X. Let's go to my bedroom. We'll be more comfortable there."

A few minutes later she was undressing Mara slowly, enjoying the pleasure of pulling the dress over the girl's head, of rolling down her pantyhose. When Mara was completely naked, Ruth posed her on the bed with her thighs spread open. The sight of the Eurasian beauty's breathtaking coral-hued slit, already milky with Mara's sexual desire, and the whole framed by curling black hair, made Ruth Peter shiver.

"Your bush is just as I pictured it," Ruth said. "It makes me feel faint just to lo k at. I want to eat it."

Mara smiled understandingly. It was the same reaction that Wendy had had in Rangoon. She knew the effect she would have on Ruth. She could not explain why. But the combination of high cheekbones, slanted eyes and a cafeau-lait smooth skin combined with her thick black bush and the long slit drove women who went for her wild. It drove the men who saw her pussy wild too, but not in quite the same way.

"You've had the same reaction from women before darling, haven't you?" said Ruth reading her thoughts.

Mara nodded. "Yes and I don't understand why. I mean I don't think I'm especially beautiful down there, am I. It's the same as everyone else. I mean," she blushed. "I don't mean that I am an expert or anything but the few women or girls I've seen in showers and all that… they all seem alike."

"Oh no… oh no," Ruth protested. "Not in a thousand ears. You are very different. For one thing, your cunt lips are so wonderfully thin. You must have had a French ancestor somewhere because most of the beautiful French girls I've had as lovers, when I was in Paris, had the same immeasurably thin cunt lips. 'Fines attaches,' the French call them. They have an old wives' tale that if a girl has thin wrists and small feet, she will have thin cunt lips and a very tight pussy. Is yours tight?"

Mara flushed and nodded. "Terribly. My boyfriend has awful trouble putting his thing in… I need a lot of butter."

"Don't talk about him," Ruth snapped irritably. And then she smiled, as she put a finger tenderly into Mara's vagina.

"Don't mind me, dearest. It's just that I'm terribly jealous and I'm put out if anyone talks about a bloody man when I'm hot and wet for her myself."

"I'm sorry," Mara said. "Do you, 'er, want me to kiss you down there."

"Not quite yet, dear." Ruth stood up from the bed. "I want to do a couple of things first. Spray myself with a new rich cologne you'll just adore. And I would love to spray your pussy with Ma Reve. It means 'my dream' in French… I just go out of my gourd when I smell that on a woman's cunt. The combination of her natural cunt odors and the perfume… wow. Do you mind?"

"No but do it lightly or it will hurt. I'm quite tender own there and perfume stings if it is too strongly rubbed m… my boyfriend-" She stopped quickly. Ruth smiled approvingly.

"Just a fine mist on your pussy lips and then we can have a kind of second dessert," she said.

"I don't understand what you mean?" Then she flushed. "Oh, you mean like soixante neuf, sixty-nine."

"Exactly my darling. I see you're not all that naпve about sex, are you?"

A few minutes later she brought a spray bottle over to the Eurasian girl's pussy and spread it about so that it covered most of her thighs. Then she took another scent bottle and did it to herself. After that she sighed and got into bed beside the younger girl. Slowly she raised herself on one elbow and gazed lovingly on Mara's reading slit.

"Forgive me… I have to look on it for a minute or two. It's not just a sexual pleasure. It's an aesthetic pleasure. I think I would like to paint your lovely cunt." She laughed. "Maybe finger painting it would be better. Then I could enjoy both pleasures. Now let's get cozy with one another and enjoy."

Carefully placing her naked form close to Mara's, Ruth arched herself so that she could bury her head between the Eurasian girl's beautiful thighs. Then she flipped over so that her buttocks faced the girl, moving slowly so that her own pubic area was directly over the younger woman's face.

For a moment Mara stared at Ruth's voluminous light brown bush. It was so thick and luxuriant in its dense growth that for a moment she could not see where the slit was. It was almost as if someone had tumbled a full head of hair on her own face. Then applying her lips to the mass, she began to try to ferret out the opening of Ruth's vagina. She was overwhelmed by the heavy, sweetish scent Ruth used on her pubic area. She had to cough and then catch her breath as she inhaled the alcoholic content of the rich cologne.

"Are you all right, darling?" Ruth inquired solicitously, hearing Mara cough. "Did I drench my pussy too much with that thing? It's a bad habit of mine. I do want my lovers to enjoy the sucking and the scent is important."

"I'm all right," Mara said. "But don't let any Alcoholics Anonymous member go down on you," she added jokingly, "Or she won't be able to drive home."

For the next half hour the two women thrilled each other with their tongues. Mara found herself gasping for breath as Ruth Peter played with her vaginal lips the way a frisky puppy might play with a rubber ball. She would take the lips of Mara's sweet smelling vulva in her mouth, then let go in playful fashion. A moment later she would repeat the maneuver.

Alternately she would slip her pointed tongue in and out of Mara's slit, driving the girl to the point where she wanted to flee, then she would stop. If Mara had any hesitation herself, it soon vanished under the overwhelming flood of sensations she was experiencing. This was nothing like what happened when Mike went down on her. True, she enjoyed her boyfriend's passionate sucking of her pussy. But this thing that was going on now was so much richer that it was like the difference between night and day.

She found herself wanting to scream as Ruth focused on her clitoris, nipping at the little pink bud, lapping it from all angles. It was a scream she suppressed and then, finally, could no longer hold in. As Ruth pressed in on her most sensitive area, she let a wild howl escape from her lips.

"OH-OH-OH MY… OR… MY… AAAAMAAH… AAAH… AAAH… AAH… OH… I CAN'T STAND THIS… I CANNOT STAND THIS RUTH… YOU'RE DRIVING ME OUT OF MY MIND… OH AAAH… OOOOH… AAHHHH… I'M COMING… OR… I'M COMING!…"

And in another moment she did, feeling as if her vagina had exploded and with it her entire nervous system. Hardly pausing for breath, Ruth continued to lap away until Mara experienced a renewed series of fantastic orgasms that seemed to go on forever. She found herself almost unable to breathe as they continued to detonate in a flow that astonished her. Ruth Peter was the most fantastic lover she had ever known. Wendy had been marvelous but nothing like this, she told herself. Or was she simply not remembering correctly.

She tried to give Ruth equal pleasure, tried her damndest… but it was no use. She was nowhere on Ruth's level when it came to reaching the top layer of her sensitivity. No matter how hard her tongue worked to lave the older woman's slit and bush, she could not achieve the same results.

"Oh dear, I am so sorry," Mara apologized. "You were so terrific with me… and I've… I've failed you."

"Don't fret love," Ruth said soothingly. "I've had a lot more experience than you." She described how when she had attended the Sorbonne during her junior year at Vassar, she had become acquainted with a dress designer from one of Paris' best haute couture houses. The woman had taken her to her apartment high above the Rand Point of the Champs Elysees and between sips of champagne had taught her how to use her mouth to give a woman the fullest, most exciting sexual satisfaction.

"It took us months of practice," Ruth said with a broad smile, "but it was delightful educational practice and the tuition couldn't be beat. We'll do the same with you my pet. You're coming to work with me starting two weeks from now and we can have our little sessions here several times a week. By the time I'm finished, you will be an artist of the highest rank in the practice of cunnilingus."

Later, as they took a shower together, Ruth thrilled her again by sucking her nipples. Over the noise of the cascading water, Ruth told her they would be having a faculty picnic a week later and that she was invited.

"You'll have a chance to meet the staff and department heads of the school," Ruth said, as she dried Maya's body with a rough Turkish towel that soon buffed the Eurasian's skin to a healthy pink color.

"It is a bit of at bore, Mara," she went on, "but it's good politics for a new teacher to mix early in the game. For one thing it gets you in solidly at the beginning with the people who matter. You know, you have a drink, talk, joke with them and it eases things later when you need favors."

"What sort of favors?" Mara wanted to know.

"Well, suppose you need help from one of the other teachers to cover your absences," Ruth grinned. "I want us to duck out here for some lovemaking whenever we can. I don't have a terrible lot of free time during the weekdays, but occasionally time does turn up. If you can come here too I'd be delighted, naturally."

But in addition there were other things to keep account of. The faculty, meeting as a group, okayed requests for passing on such matters as field trips, special equipment that Mara wanted or might want later. It was good to have friends in the faculty.

And there were all sorts of things that came up during the school year that often required cooperation from other teachers or departments. Supposing a kid in one of Mara's classes was under great pressure because of term paper deadlines or tests from other teachers. Mara could help the boy by asking another teacher to give him more time. Mara might want to take a few days longer at Christmas or Easter to travel. She could ask another teacher or several other teachers to take over during the time period. Mara explained that new teachers also had to teach in summer session the first few semesters. There was no option. But the faculty could excuse her for good and sufficient reasons during one of their association meetings.

"Sounds like a good idea. Plenty of fringe benefits in being nice to your fellow workers," Mara smiled. "Why not?"

Ruth Peter's eyes changed and her voice became a little ominous. "I'd better warn you that there are also some fringe penalties involved when you mix with faculty."

Mara laughed. "Really? Like what?"

"Like having some male bastard of a teacher go after you and pawing you at faculty parties or picnics. Or calling you at night, trying to date you."

"Oh I can handle that," Mara said quickly.

"I hope you can." Ruth said evenly, "because as you must know by now I am quite possessive and the mere thought of some man pawing you gives me the willies. So be careful at the picnic next week. Don't come on too strong with the men. Just give them a big smile, a firm handshake and make a little small talk. You know about Burma and London and European life-styles. Then move on to another person."

Ruth warned her that there were several swingers in the faculty. "They'll try to get you to bed in every clichй maneuver you ever dreamed of or saw on the silver screen. Ask you to come up to their apartments to dine, to discuss pupils-too busy to do it at school, don't you know-and even pretend to be ill so you can come up and cook for them. One girl did just that and got raped an hour after she arrived."

The worst offenders, Ruth informed her, were Joe Mills, a paunchy middle-aged type, who was in the English department and went after everything in skirts or pantyhose, and Tom Leonard, a young history instructor who thought of himself as God's gift to woman because of his striking resemblance to Paul Newman.

Mills was by far the most odious type, Ruth said with a scowl. He liked to get into crowded elevators when the cafeteria on the top floor emptied and press his member against a girl's bottom.

"One day he just got behind me and pressed! Hard against my backside," Ruth recalled with a wince. "I could feel his damned cock growing against my bottom but he had a perfect excuse. The elevator was heavily crowded. Then to my horror, he began to move his cock. At first I thought I was imagining things. But no, the bastard had an enormous hard-on and was pressing it between the cheeks of my behind. If he could have he would lifted my skirt and tried to plunge into my bare ass. I could even hear the rat breathing hard as he got worked up, dry screwing that way. I wanted to tell him to stop, complain, but then I realized how embarrassing it would all be. There would have to be an official hearing, like the time a physical ed instructor was found in the cubicle of the ladies room after hours, going down on a teen-aged pupil, some dumb little girl who wanted solid A's for a scholarship. The hearing was noised all over town, in the papers.

"Which reminds me," Ruth said. "You may run into trouble from boys in your class, too. Some of these kids are eighteen and they get a lech for a beautiful young teacher and try to make her. Best thing is to be on your guard against anyone who has a glint in his eye. It means he's trying to get into your panties. And I'm the only one who will be doing that from now on. Right?"

"Right," Mara smiled and then remembered Mike.

"But this man I'm seeing, we're already-" she began.

"I don't want to hear about it," Ruth said quickly, "Just cut him off. Cut him off and don't let anyone make passes at you. This school will give you problems enough in that area, you don't need a stupid stud of a boyfriend complicating things too. Oh and be careful of Leonard. He's a sneaky type, he'll try to take advantage of you in every way he can. Even brutally."

Ruth explained. Leonard was always offering female teachers or female students free rides. He managed to combine them with efforts to get sex and often succeeded.

"Last year he took a delightful girl, a big beautiful black senior, home. On the way he pretended he had car trouble just as they reached a heavily wooded area, far from a phone or much traffic.

"By the oddest of coincidences, he also had an unopened fifth of Scotch in his trunk. He offered the girl a drink, just to keep warm, as he put it. Well, the inevitable happened. After they had had three drinks and the girl was woozy, he made her have sex with him."

Mara snorted. "He'd better not try anything so idiotic with me or I'll use my fists on him."

"Well Lucy wasn't able to cope with it. She told me the whole sordid tale later in my office and let me tell you it was ghastly. First he made her get into the back seat. It was dark by then. He took out his damned cock and made her swallow it. The girl told me it was so huge it made her gag when he rammed it into her mouth. He kept telling her she'd like it once she got used to it and when she refused to suck him, he just pumped away at her until he came in her mouth."

"Oh no," Mara said astonished. "That must have been awful."

"Not as awful as what came later," Ruth retorted. He told her to take some more liquor to get rid of the taste and the silly girl complied. Well by that time she didn't know or care what would happen to her. So he forced her to lie on her stomach, lifted her leg over the back seat and… " Ruth paused and shook her head. "He ripped the poor girl's panties off and forced his damned cock into her anus. Can you imagine what that must have felt like to the poor girl. This big bastard pushing his rod into her. Not bothering to lubricate it even with his saliva.

"He just shoved it into her backside and she could hear him grunting like a wild buffalo as he got his stupid, selfish pleasure. When he finally came he lay back and fell asleep. She didn't get home till after midnight. After he forced her to have intercourse one more time."

"Did she file a complaint against him?" Mara asked.

"She wanted to but he had warned her that he would accuse her of turning him on, of playing with his cock as they drove. And since she was no virgin and had been caught necking in the yard with one of the basketball players, she already had a history of fooling around. There were some things like that and also using foul language to a teacher in her personal file. Who would have believed her story? I told her to forget it and just be on her guard against him."

Mara shivered inside as Ruth finished. She would have to be on her guard too, she realized. Against Leonard and Mills and maybe a lot of others.

She was not looking forward to next week's picnic. Nor to the prospect of telling Mike she could not go out with him any longer. Mike bothered her most. He had at fierce temper. She would have to come up with an excuse that at least let him save face.