SubscribeStar Story: The Teaching Assistant, Part 41

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Part 41

Amelia started dragging her feet at the last second, but it was a little bit too late for that. Claire was already a few feet away from Summer’s table, and Amelia was following right behind. Even if she wanted to change course, how was she supposed to pull that off? Amelia had been told to follow Claire, and she also didn’t really know anyone else in the spacious dining room. Short of plopping down at some random table and hoping that Ashley’s conspirator wouldn’t get on her case about it, Amelia was stuck with the choice that had been made for her.

“I hear you two kind of had a thing yesterday,” Claire explained, when she saw the reluctance on both Amelia’s face and in her hesitant body language, “Best to bury the hatchet sooner rather than later, yeah?”

Theoretically, sure. As a responsible adult and future teacher, Amelia could see herself getting two difficult girls to work through their issues somehow. Only she would aim to start that process in a more private setting, rather than in public and in front of all of one of the girl’s friends. Also, based on how antagonistic Summer had come across yesterday, Amelia doubted anything would come of this.

“Umm, I guess?” Amelia muttered. Was it too late to ask if this could wait until later? As in, never, if she could get off campus as soon as she was planning. Maybe Amelia could aim to reform Summer once she had the authority to discipline the girl. The smallest silver lining to this degrading ordeal, in terms of knowing at least a couple of the problem students ahead of time. “Actually-”

“Hey, Summer?” Claire called over.

The tall blonde was in the middle of a bite, and something as simple as that gave her an opportunity to showcase her disregard for authority the same way she had done with Maxine the other day. Rather than replying right away, she took her time to chew and swallow, dab her mouth with her napkin, and to neatly set down her fork and knife. “Yes, Ms. Claire?” she finally asked. Her eyes briefly flitted to Amelia, then returned to the prefect taking the lead.

If Claire heard the subtle trace of annoyance in the young blonde’s tone, she chose to ignore it. “Can you come here for a moment?” In response to a whisper or two around the table, Claire scoffed. “You’re not in trouble, don’t worry.”

“Well, that’s no fun,” Summer replied. Still, she casually pushed back from the table and stood up. Circling around to approach Claire and Amelia, she crossed her arms once she was a couple feet away. “Yes?”

“I heard that you and little Millie had a bit of an altercation yesterday?” Claire said. She gestured towards Amelia, “Honestly, I don’t really care about the she said/she said. I just want you both to shake hands like mature young ladies.”

It was such bullshit. Summer had started everything, and the way she had twisted Amelia’s ear hurt. And yet, the word ‘mature’ was enough to keep Amelia from trying to offset the blame. She already looked so young thanks to the uniform and everything else; bickering with another student definitely wouldn’t do her any favors.

Before she could suck it up and extend her hand, however, Summer smirked. “Little Millie?” she echoed.

“Millie,” Claire corrected. Way too late, of course. And although she had claimed that this was supposed to be Amelia and Summer making peace, it quickly became clear that she was more than happy to mess with the wannabe teaching assistant in the process. “Guess I’ve been hanging out with Ashley and her family too much.”

“And that’s what they call her?” Summer asked, taking the false information that Claire was offering up to the mean girl on a silver platter.

Amelia glanced back and forth between the two of them, unable to believe what she was hearing. ‘Millie’ was bad enough, as was her current appearance. Was Claire really adding insult to injury with a more demeaning nickname?

“She’s the smallest cousin,” Claire shrugged, “Like, by a mile. Anyway, we’re getting off topic. I just want an apology and a handshake from both of you, and then we can all get on with our meal.”

“Sure thing,” Summer nodded. Stepping forward, she extended her own hand, essentially stealing the high road by going first when that’s what Amelia had been on the verge of doing before she was interrupted by the smug teenager. “Sorry for yesterday, little Millie. Friends?”

The goal was still to get through the morning as efficiently as possible. All she wanted to do was access a computer and, as backwards and ridiculous as this was, Amelia didn’t want to do anything that might jeopardize that goal. “I’m sorry, too,” she said, trying to feign a genuine tone despite how there was practically no meaning behind the words. Trying to not react to the way Summer had immediately picked up the nickname Claire had provided, Amelia shook her hand. Now that they were face to face, she was reminded just how tall the blonde was for her age. This was why Amelia wore heels. So she wouldn’t be noticeably shorter than everyone around her, especially when she was supposed to be a teacher.

Summer clasped her hand for a few seconds, then let go and stepped back. Rather than simply returning to her table, she smiled and exclaimed, “Oh! Little Millie! Why don’t you sit with us? We’d love to get to know the new girl.”

“Oh, umm- That’s okay. I’ll . . .” Once again, Amelia was lost for words. She wanted to say ‘sit somewhere else,’ but that ran into the same problem she had considered before. Amelia was the new girl. She really only knew Ashley and Claire, and it’s not like she could sit with a bunch of seniors when she was assumed to be thirteen years old. Ashley probably hadn’t informed very many people about Amelia’s real identity, considering how bad the average high school girl was at keeping someone else’s secret. And since Amelia and Summer had just made a show of apologizing to each other, there wasn’t a great excuse for avoiding her table.

Claire was more than happy to throw her to the wolves as well. She gestured to the nearby table with a smile, “Go on, little Millie! You can’t stay glued to Ashley forever.”

Amelia blushed at that. The brunette was making her look SO bad. Although Amelia had stood up for herself at the end of the other day’s class, displaying that she wasn’t particularly shy or a pushover, Claire’s teasing would still damage her reputation.

On the surface, Amelia knew that things like that didn’t matter. She didn’t need to prove anything to Summer or her friends. Deep down, however, the trapped blonde was still the kind of girl that appreciated the approval of others. She had always been more academic than popular, which meant she still had some lingering self conscious feelings from her own teenage years. And, since she was currently perceived as a girl Summer’s age, it was hard to ignore the amused judgment coming from both her and her table.

“Come on, little Millie.” Summer walked over and placed her hand on Amelia’s upper back. With her arms still occupied with the tray holding her breakfast, Amelia had no choice but to step forward in order to keep everything balanced. Nudging her again, Summer smiled and said, “You can sit next to me.”

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