The Teaching Assistant, Part 53

Amelia had been so concerned about cameras, other students/prefects, and how this might all play out if XYZ happened when she returned, that she hadn’t considered what would happen if she ran into an actual authority figure. Because it was Saturday, the office was closed and there weren’t many staff members around save for those who ran the library, dining hall, etc. It was another reason she was stuck at the academy, since she couldn’t run to any administration members and try to tell her side of the story.

What she didn’t expect, however, was security. And not in technology form.

The woman approaching her was in police-adjacent attire, with enough splashes of green on the ensemble to instantly make it clear that she worked for Westridge. “Don’t you dare run,” she firmly said, “I asked you a question.”

It was true; Amelia had considered running for a second or two. Not because she was scared of getting caught breaking any number of rules, but more that her instinct when nearly naked was to avoid anyone else seeing her so exposed. Quickly throwing her other arm over her chest to join the first in covering, Amelia stammered, “I- umm, I’m sorry, it was a dare, and- Please, I’m not even supposed to be here! I was tricked, and-”

“Enough.” She held up her hand. “You’re right. You’re not supposed to be here. Although you’re obviously not trying to run away or sneak off campus without permission. We’ve had plenty of those. What’s your name?”

Amelia hesitated. This had to be a nightmare, right? She had never so much as gotten in trouble for being tardy, and now she was caught streaking. “Millie,” she mumbled, “Millie Roberts.” It was the first time she had gone out of her way to introduce herself with the nickname. Flustered as she was, she was still smart enough to know that avoiding linking her real self with any of this was a good idea. Though Ashley was ultimately the one to blame, there was no good way to explain how things ended up playing out. That Amelia, who was supposed to be a young adult candidate for the student teacher job, ended up attending classes, sleeping in a dorm room, and did such an extreme and inappropriate dare. All as a ‘student.’ And somehow, she hadn’t found a way to convince anyone otherwise.

“You better not be lying, Millie Roberts,” she said, “We’ve had plenty of those, too. Now, come with me. I need to verify that you are who you say you are, and then we’ll figure out where to send you. Rest assured, you’ll be disciplined for this either way, but I guarantee it will be worse if you don’t cooperate. Understood?”

“Yes, Miss. I understand.” Leaning on the ‘proper’ responses that had been drilled into her again and again throughout the last day, Amelia opted not to make any attempt to further explain herself. She had already tried as much with the librarian, who literally had a computer within arm’s reach. Between wanting to protect herself with the false name and not wanting to prolong her time in just panties, Amelia decided to let herself be escorted to wherever she was being taken. Once she had something more decent to wear, and a minute or two to calm down, maybe she could tackle the big picture again.

The female guard took a moment to briefly explain the situation to someone on the other end of her radio, causing Amelia to blush at the phrase ‘half naked girl’ that someone else was hearing completely out of context, then led her away from the fence and through the trees until they reached a more clear area. They only had to wait a minute or two before another guard was driving up in a golf cart.

In retrospect, it made sense. Amelia had needed to check in at the gate when she first arrived, so of course there would be security in charge of the perimeter as well. Between wanting to keep the rebellious girls in, as well as perhaps boys from across the river out, it seemed like the academy did a good job of keeping tabs on its borders.

Wait, Summer and Irene probably knew that. They had both been students for some time, or so Amelia assumed, so sending her over the fence could easily have been a set-up. Had Summer ever actually intended on letting Amelia into her clique? Though Amelia couldn’t care less about being one of the popular girls when she was supposed to be a teacher who prevented girls like that from messing with the more vulnerable ones, she was still trying to keep her options open in terms of escaping. And Summer was still her best chance at getting a phone that could be accessed without supervision.

For the time being, however, Amelia had to focus on the issue at hand. She was given a towel by the security guard that came to pick them up, and directed to sit in the other main seat. As usual, no one seemed to trust her.

The good news was, the towel allowed her to cover a lot better than she could do with just her arms. The bad news was, being wrapped in a towel basically screamed ‘I’m not wearing any clothes’ to anyone who might glance her way.

Rather than taking her back onto campus, she was taken to a small building just off the main gate. She vaguely remembered seeing it on her way in between the two drives. The security room was secluded, thank goodness. And at least the guards were both female. But Amelia still wasn’t particularly comfortable as she was told to sit and wait. Flushing as she replayed the events of the morning in her mind, wondering what she could have done differently, the initial woman eventually interrupted her roaming thoughts. “Millie?”

“Yes?” Amelia reluctantly asked.

“A prefect is coming to retrieve you. She will be the one to officially write you up and reprimand you, though I will also be making a report of my own and passing it on to your advisor. From the information I have access to in our system, it looks like this is your second day here. Now, I don’t really need to know why you ended up like this, nor is it my business,” she gestured to the towel protecting Amelia’s modesty, “My job is just to keep everyone safe and secure here. The she said/she said stuff is someone else’s problem. But a word of advice? Keep your head down and behave yourself for a little while. If you pull another stunt like this, I guarantee it’ll be worse than a warning and a few infractions next time.”

Amelia was left to stew for another few minutes. Then, to her relief, she was handed a student uniform that had been brought for her. Though dressing like a schoolgirl was embarrassing in its own way, it was far preferable to going back on campus in nothing but a towel and underwear.

She just had to pray that whatever prefect was on duty was one that would show more mercy than Claire or Maxine.