Mrs. Laramie knew her own body well, and as a teacher, she wasn’t just a good teacher of Geography, so true to her word, Vic was out of there in ten minutes, finding himself in a school hallway he had hoped was empty.

It was Marek that saw him first, gave him a goofy grin, and then aggressively propositioned him for a high five while shouting “Nice!”

Vic returned the high five, it seemed rude not to, and then shuffled in the direction of his friends and their lockers.

“Ah, there he is, I told you he wouldn’t be long,” it was Marcia that had spotted him first.

“So, I heard that you’ve been officially baptized,” Agnes said with a bit of a sarcastic smirk. It was always hard to read Agnes, she seemed to be dissatisfied by many things, and somehow her pointed nose and chin, and wild curly hair seemed to complement that.

“Uh, baptized? I wouldn’t say that.”

“Oh please,” Agnes said, “You still have a little something on your …” she waved her finger around her lips.

“Shit,” Vic said, scrambling to wipe Mrs. Laramie’s wetness from his mouth with the back of his sleeve.

“Well I for one am just glad that you joined the fold now, buddy,” Owen, the other guy member of their group said. “Maybe now you can stop acting all weird around here.”

“Ugh, speaking of weird,” Agnes said, spotting something behind Vic and then pushing past him. He turned around and saw that she was marching to an open classroom door, where one of their classmates, tall and elegant Tanya, had one foot up on her desk to provide easier access to Mr. Tourette, one of the older teachers with a great grey beard to prove it, who was moving at a clip one would not expect from a man his age.

“Have the decency to close the damn door, Tanya, no one wants to see that,” Agnes said, putting her hand on the doorknob.

“Says … you,” Tanya answered, annoyed and between grunts before Agnes slammed the door shut.

“I draw the line at having to see either Mr. Tourette or that giraffe going at it,” Agnes said, and Liz, who at that point had said nothing, snickered.

“Anyway, can we head down to Aphrodite’s Landing or not, or do you need a few minutes, Vic?” Agnes asked.

He wasn’t sure what she meant at first, but then looking down at his own pants understood everything and turned what he imagined was a bright beet colour.

“He’ll be fine,” Marcia laughed and grabbed him by the elbow.

“Are you sure?” came the somewhat screechy catlike voice of Kit, who along with Laine were the two girls who seemed to show unhealthy interest in Vic. “We can help out if you want, Vic.”

“No, he’s really good,” Marcia said sternly and pulled on Vic’s arm. “Go peddle your flat asses elsewhere.”

Kit and Laine both scoffed and Vic couldn’t hide his own smile. Conventionally, both the other girls were ‘hotter’ if you went by the shorter skirts, the makeup and the buttons that were unbuttoned all the way down to where you could see their bras. Compared to them, Marcia would be more accurately described as ‘cute’ but whenever she got this strong and bossy, that was when her true beauty was revealed. At least to Vic anyway, who was still trying to make heads or tails of his day with Mrs. Laramie’s taste on his tongue.

“Alright, we good now?” Agnes asked, and them having all agreed, Vic, Marcia, Agnes, Owen and Liz headed towards the front doors of the Academy.