Page 28 of The Mentor
“That’s right. You’re completely safe and don’t have to worry about me throwing myself at you like… what was it that you said?…a cat in heat.”
“Huh!” He huffed. “I completely misread your signals then. I was sure you were horny.”
That comment had me flashing bright red, pivoting around and leaving with an offended snort.
CHAPTER9
Status Meeting
Archer
On Saturday night, we had a meeting with all seven members of the school board while the kids enjoyed a bonfire outside, supervised by Marco and Shelly.
“So, tell me, are you happy with the first week?” Khan placed both hands behind his neck and leaned back in his seat.
“Yes, I’m proud of the children for making such a great effort,” Kya said softly.
“Hmm; from what I’ve heard, not everything has gone smoothly,” Khan said challengingly and looked to me for a more honest report.
I drew in a deep breath before I spoke: “There have been some successes. But we’re also facing some challenges that we need to work through.”
“Such as?”
“The boys are definitely pushing boundaries and we’ve had a few, ehhm…” I thought about how to put it and ended up using the word “…incidents.”
Boulder started chuckling softly and received the stink-eye from Christina. “It’s not funny,” she said.
“Oh, come on, you’ve got to admit that it was funny when the boys took it upon themselves to expand the vocabulary of the children from the Motherlands.”
“Teaching them the foulest curse words they know isn’t funny,” Kya insisted.
Boulder and I had a hard time not smiling. “What did you expect?” I asked.
“You might find this innocent, but in my classroom such language won't be tolerated,” Kya said in a firm voice.
“But that's just it, isn't it? It's notyourclassroom, it'sourclassroom,” I reminded her.
Kya angled her head and used that same patient teacher tone she used with the children. “Then maybe you men could show a good example and stop using foul language,” she suggested. “It really is very unsophisticated.”
Khan leaned over the table, his eyes narrowed and his brow wrinkled. “Did it ever occur to you that we don't like how you speak either? You may call it sophisticated, but we call it fucking annoying with those honeyed voices and childish words. We like how we talk! It's colorful, it's precise, and I'm not fucking changing how I speak because you girls don't like it.”
“We’re not girls,” Christina pointed out quickly. “Unless you wish to be referred to as a boy, you’d better call us women.”
There was a charged moment between the two until Pearl placed a hand gently on Khan's arm and spoke. “We knew there would be cultural challenges and that's okay. Ultimately it will have to be up to each child how they wish to speak. I'm confident that the children from the Motherlands will quickly readjust themselves once they go back.”
That seemed to calm Khan down and he turned his attention on me again. “What other incidents have you had?”
“There's been more teasing at night than we normally see in our schools,” I said and stretched my feet under the table. “You know, the boys turning on the light in the girls’ dorm, the girls reciprocating, lots of giggling and daring to do things they shouldn't.”
“That sounds pretty innocent,” Khan said.
“It is,” I confirmed but Kya cut me off before I had a chance to continue.
“You call the snake in Willow's bed an innocent prank? Didn’t you see how terrified she was?”
“It wasn’t a poisonous snake,” I pointed out dryly.
“Still. And what about the frog in Victoria's boot, or the two spiders in Raven’s hair?”
