Watching NiS

Chapter One

Monday

I checked the street name on the card I’d been given at the meeting on Saturday, against the half painted-over sign on the street corner. This was the right street, so that had to be the school. I looked at the building in front of me, stark grey concrete surrounded by a high iron fence topped with barbed wire, but that fence hadn’t stopped many of the windows from being broken. Even the bright sunshine couldn’t make this place look any more welcoming or friendly. I began to wonder if the advisors had been right when they advised me against choosing an inner city school in such a problem area.

I showed my ID at the gate and the security guard pointed me to a ramp which led down to the underground car park. I parked my car, took a deep breath and open the door. I grabbed my bag and walked back up the ramp to the sunshine outside, then turned and entered the building.

Inside it was bright and colourful. The corridor I was in turned into a larger corridor full of students standing around chatting. I smelt cigarette smoke coming from a group of them, but chose to ignore it as I asked, "Can you direct me to the school office, please?"

A girl who had been chatting in an animated manner with her friends turned to face me. She had long black and rather greasy hair and slightly smudged black eye shadow. "Up there, second left, third right."

She’d already turned away from me as I said, "Thanks."

I found the office easily enough and knocked on the door.

"Come in."

I opened the door and saw a middle-aged woman talking on the phone. She held up her hand to stop me speaking.

When she put the phone down, she said, "Can I help you?" without looking up.

"I’m supposed to report here at half eight," I began.

"You’re late. It’s almost quarter to nine."

She got up and without knocking, opened a door which had a small sign "HEADMASTER" on it. "Someone to see you." She propelled me through the door and closed it behind me, leaving me to face a slightly greying man on my own.

"Sorry I’m late," I began. "I had trouble finding it."

"Everyone does." He looked up and I had the feeling that he’d assessed me in a second and found me wanting. "How long are you here for?"

"Every day for three weeks, then three days a week for the rest of the term."

"First practice?"

"Not quite. I’ve done quite a few days and a one week secondment. But this is my first long practice."

"Hmm," he said. "Well, hopefully you’ll be able to find your way here on time by the end of term." He looked back down to the papers on his desk.

"Yes, sir."

"And don’t think you’ll get any special treatment."

He was finally beginning to irritate me. "I don’t want any. If you’ll ask someone to show me where I should go, I’ll be out of your hair."

"Not so fast. You done the Program yet at college?"

"Yes."

"You well up on Program rules?"

"I know a bit about them," I replied mildly.

He looked up and almost smiled. Almost. "That was a silly question, wasn’t it?"

I smiled back.

"My Program teacher has gone and gotten herself pregnant and we’re too short staffed for anyone to take over until we get a replacement. Think you’re up to running the Program while you’re here, on top of your teaching?"

I felt like he was challenging me, so of course I had to say, "Yes."

"Right." He got up, and walked out to his secretary, the woman I’d seen a few minutes before. "Mrs. Dawson, this is Ms… what the hell are we supposed to call you?"

"It’s probably easier to call me Townley, as that’s the name everyone knows. I’m just Downing on your records. And Miss Townley is fine, or Sam."

"Okay." He nodded. "This is Sam Townley. Show her the staff room and her rota. And find someone to cover her first lesson. She’s taking over from Mrs. Laramy as Program Officer, so you’d better get Mr. Davis to give her a hand in the office."

Mrs. Dawson’s eyes and mouth had opened wide when she heard my name, but by the time he’d finished speaking her eyes had narrowed with annoyance and she was all business again.

"Right." The headmaster disappeared back into his office as Mrs. Dawson leaned over to a microphone and pressed a button. "Mr. Davis to staff room." She turned to me and said coldly, "Follow me."

I got a few turned heads as we walked. "Sorry I didn’t tell you who I was before," I said to her.

She stopped, looked at me for a moment, then admitted, "I shouldn’t have said what I said."

"Why not? It’s true. The length of time they made me spend in make-up before a performance, they’d better have made me look prettier on stage. How about we start again? I’m Sam Townley, pleased to meet you."

I offered her my hand. She took it, "Anne Dawson. Welcome to Hell High."

"Hell High?"

"That’s what the kids call it. And they’re not far wrong. Here’s the staff room. This is Sam Townley everyone. She’s here for teaching practice."

The chattering stopped.

A man in a dark stained suit looked towards me. "Oh, great. That’s all we need. Some stuck up celeb doing her bit for charity and slumming it."

I’d had this reaction at least once in my previous school visits, not to mention from some students and even tutors at college and I’d already decided that I wasn’t going to put up with it. "I’ll tell you what. Give me two weeks, then decide what you think about me. In the meantime, you forget I was a celebrity and I’ll forget you’re an inverted snob with a big mouth."

After a slight gasp, Mrs. Dawson burst out laughing and almost everyone else joined in.

During the laughter, a younger man burst in. "Did I miss something?" he asked, then stared at me.

"Pat. This is Sam, our new Program teacher. You two had better get to the Program Office."

He looked at me and lifted an eyebrow, then nodded. "Come on."

As I followed him, I heard Mrs. Dawson speaking again behind me, "Now which of you has a free period now?"

The next door was the Program Office. Like the other rooms it was painted in bright colours, but this one had a row of lockers along one wall. Pat unlocked one of the lockers and took out six green belts, each about one and half inches wide. Then he clipped a small black tube to each. I must have look puzzled as he explained, "Rape alarms. Everyone in the Program wears them. Pull on it and it’s enough to wake the dead."

"You’ve had girls raped in the Program?" I asked.

"No. Well, there was one before I came here, but it’s mainly to stop bullying. Though quite a few girls buy the rape alarms on their own, or the non Program belt."

"Non Program belt?"

"Same as this, but red. They were originally for anyone going naked who wasn’t in the Program, but quite a few girls wear them on top of their clothes. Come to that, some of the female staff as well."

I remembered. They’d tried wrist bands, but they weren’t visible to someone coming from the other direction. They’d tried necklaces, but they were invisible from behind if someone had long hair and the boys didn’t like them anyway. So they’d settled on red belts, though I hadn’t seen the rape alarm attachment before.

"I’ll let you handle it when they come in," said Pat.

As he was speaking the door opened and a boy walked in. He was big and immediately looked at me with a sneer.

Before I could ask his name another boy and two girls walked in. The other boy looked nervous and one of the girls looked terrified.

"Okay everyone. By your faces I can see you know what you’re all here for."

"Yeah. Come on girls, let’s get yer kit off. It’s playtime." That was the obnoxious boy who’d come in first.

I glared at him.

"Hey. It’s tradition. Program boys get first crack at Program girls, okay?"

"No, it’s not okay."

"First lesson on Mondays, we get ‘em, before anyone else can."

"Only if they’re willing."

"Oh. Give me a few minutes with them and they’ll be willing."

As I saw one of the girl close her eyes, I wanted to knock his block off. Instead I said, "You don’t touch them unless they tell you it’s okay. Is that understood?"

"Who’d you think you are?"

"Just a teacher trainee," I answered. "But I’m a teacher trainee that’ll take you out of the Program and have you exempted if you step out of line."

"You can’t do that."

"Want to try me?" I challenged. "Right now?"

He looked me in the eye and almost said something, then shrugged his shoulders. Actually, I probably couldn’t do that although having friends on The National Program Committee might help.

"Okay. Let’s have your names."

"Kevin Dale," said the obnoxious one.

"Simon Forrest," said the other boy.

"Maria Lorn," said one of the girls.

"Sharon McGee," said the other, who was obviously trying not to cry, but couldn’t prevent a tear escaping.

"Thank you. Now it’s time to undress."

Sharon folded her arms in front of her and look even more unhappy, if that were possible.

"Kevin," I said. "Why don’t we start with you?"

"No probs." He took his clothes off and put them in a locker. Turning back to us, he put his hands on his hips and thrust his pelvis forward three times. Maria just rolled her eyes while Sharon looked positively scared.

"Now you please, Maria."

She shrugged her shoulders and slipped off her clothes, folding them neatly before putting them in a locker.

"Simon?"

He took longer to undress, too long for Kevin, who said, "Hurry up or we won’t have any time with these two. I’m gonna make her forget those tears and show her what a real man can do."

"You’d better grow up first then," quipped Maria. Good one, I thought, as even Sharon giggled slightly at that.

Simon put his clothes in his locker, then we all turned to Sharon.

"I can’t."

"I’m sorry, but you have to."

Her hands went to the top button on her blouse and she just stood there biting her lower lip.

"Sharon," I said. She looked up at me miserably. "I have a Reasonable Request." She looked even more frightened. "It’s my first day, and they like Program Teachers to go naked at least some of the time, but I’m a bit nervous. I want you to undress me. Can you do that?"

Thankful for any delay to the inevitable, she nodded and began undressing me. I ignored the comments from Kevin as she undid my bra and pulled down my knickers.

"Thank you. Now I’ll do the same to you, okay?"

Hey eyes widened, but she didn’t say no, which I took as a good sign. I undressed her as quickly as I could to get it over with. When I took off her bra to reveal her rather flat chest, Kevin commented, "See you ain’t got nothing worth worrying about anyway." I wondered for a moment what the sentence would be for pupilicide as Sharon immediately covered up what little she had and burst into tears.

"Bastard," said Maria to him and put her arm around Sharon.

Not giving Sharon a chance to change her mind, I quickly pulled down her knickers and put her clothes in a locker.

"That was real manly of you, Kevin," I said. "Take a girl who’s already upset and scared half out of her mind and make her even worse. Which book did you get that seduction technique out of?"

"I don’t have to seduce girls," he boasted.

"You mean you can’t."

"I get laid often enough. They like it enough to come back for more."

"Probably to see if practice makes perfect," spat Maria.

"I bet I’ve fucked her by the end of the week," retorted Kevin, then he said nastily, "Right. I’ve got a Request for both of you. I wanna see your pussies so spread ‘em."

Maria looked at me and I nodded. They had no choice.

Maria sat on the bench which ran along the wall opposite the lockers and opened her legs. Kevin knelt down and put his head between her legs and sniffed. "Touch me and I’ll make a Request on your balls so bad you don’t even think about getting laid all week," Maria threatened.

Then she led Sharon to the bench and made her sit down. She pushed Sharon’s legs apart, while Sharon leaned her head on Maria’s chest and kept her eyes firmly closed.

Kevin knelt down again and put his mouth almost up to Sharon’s pussy. Realising that with her eyes closed she couldn’t even see him there, he blew on her pussy.

Sharon jumped, her eyes wide, and then she farted.

"You bitch!" screamed Kevin.

"Sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do it," she cried, holding her arms in front of her face.

Kevin looked as shocked as we were by her reaction. He took her hands and pulled them down. "I’m not going to hit you." He sounded almost gentle for him.

She looked at him warily.

Maria took Sharon into the bathroom to wash her face. Kevin said to me, "She’s a basket case. She won’t survive five minutes out there."

"Then you’ll have to help her, because I’m making you responsible for her," I said.

"Me? Why? I don’t even fancy her. No tits, skinny, frightened of her own fucking shadow."

"Good. You’re supposed to be helping her, not seducing her. So at least that’s one thing she won’t have to worry about. Unless, of course, you’re not man enough for the job."

"Funny."

Maria and Sharon came out. Sharon’s face looked more presentable than it did, but she still looked ready to snap.

"You okay?" I said, turning to Simon, who’d just stood where he was while all this had been going on. He nodded, although without any enthusiasm.

"Right. It’s time to go," I said.

"Just a minute," said Pat. I’d forgotten he was even in the room. "You’ll need this." He handed me a red belt.

"I hardly think I look young enough to be in the Program," I argued.

"Best to be safe," he countered. "Anyway, rules are rules."

Maria opened the door and led us all out.