The Teaching Assistant

Chapter 35
The Teaching Assistant, Part 35

Part 35

Ashley closed the door to Millie’s room and made it all of five steps down the hall before she had to pause and clasp her hand over her mouth to avoid laughing out loud and potentially drawing attention to herself. She took a moment to lean against the wall and texted Claire while getting her shit together at the same time. 

Technically, Ashley was allowed to be here. The curfew for girls her age was a bit later in the evening, and it would be simple enough for her to lie and say she was unofficially tutoring one of the intermediate girls. While not formally registered for something like that, the older Westridge students were encouraged to help out the others in such a way. Or Ashley could say she was helping her younger cousin settle in or whatever. Still, she’d rather avoid the hassle of dealing with any of the prefects that actually took their job seriously. 

Containing her amused grin down to at least a tiny smirk, Ashley made her way to the dorm’s exit. She kept an ear out for any footsteps, but ended up being just fine. It was a little early for the halls to be patrolled, but there was no harm in being careful. Any time wasted here was time that couldn’t be spent scheming with Claire back in her room. That’s where the brunette actually went when she was sent off with Millie’s clothes, as Ashley’s ‘cousin’ would probably think twice about trying to sneak out if she was naked. She could have a clean uniform tomorrow, once she had stayed the night and fully accepted that she would be here for at least another day. 

This was going better than Ashley could have ever imagined. 

Putting little Millie in a schoolgirl uniform and swapping her heels for flats had totally stripped away her more mature appearance; braiding her hair and stacking her arms full of books only added to the image. On top of that, apparently the blonde wore push-up bras and went so far as to add a bit of padding to the cups as well. Upon that discovery while Millie was in the shower, as well as how the toweled girl looked without make-up afterwards, it was pretty clear no one would believe her story about how she was supposed to be observing classes as an interviewee or whatever. Not that any of that was real, as Millie had already been informed. 

Honestly, the craziest part was just how much of a pushover the girl was. For a girl who was supposed to be a teaching assistant at arguably the strictest school in the state, Millie proved time and time again that it didn’t take very much for her to roll over. Caving to ‘Millie’ when Ashley subtly insisted on it, continuing to play out the day as a student even after learning how she had been set up, and then letting herself get talked into doing homework and reading the handbook without much of a fuss? It was pretty insane. Yeah, her identifying possessions had been confiscated, but still. The now transfer student could have done something. 

For starters, the best play would have been blowing off Ashley and Claire earlier and going right to the office. Even without her cell phone, she could have called someone from the office. Her parents, or maybe her best friend. Then again, not every girl was like Ashley, who memorized a fair amount of contacts in case something happened to her own stuff. As one of the most popular and most intimidating girls at the school, she constantly walked the line between being prepared and low key being paranoid. She always viewed it as the former, of course. The latter only applied in the healthy sense of the word. Maybe that’s why it was so easy for Ashley to think of things that Millie could have done. No parents or friends to call for whatever reason? She could give the office the name of her apartment and have them call the number on their website to verify that she lived there. Even though she was officially registered as ‘Amelia (Millie) Roberts,’ it wouldn’t take much for that to unravel. The car in the parking lot, registered to her real name. Maybe a photo of her somewhere on her recent college’s website? A false name and the fact that she was a ‘compulsive liar’ would only do so much. If someone wanted to call her out and catch her in one of those ‘lies,’ there was a pretty big risk of them stumbling onto something that proved them as truth. 

So far, it seemed that the teachers and administrators that interacted with Millie had been dismissive enough that she hadn’t made any headway with such things. Or so Ashley assumed. She hadn’t been there for most of them, but the fact that the petite blonde was still on campus was enough for Ashley to infer how this and that must have played out. The devious senior had plenty of her own experiences with the adults at the school, so she knew how curt and no-nonsense many of them were. Not many would have patience for Millie’s whining about how she wasn’t actually supposed to be here. 

Ashley and Claire had managed to get Millie signed up and subsequently trapped as a student, but there were countless variables that threatened the continuation of their little scheme if the wannabe TA thought of a way that might get her out. Which, of course, led to the big question: How long?

She stood in front of the door to her own room, delaying her arrival for another few moments. Claire would be waiting for her, and would want to hear all about how the rest of little Millie’s night went. Ashley would be happy to share, naturally, but then what? The two of them were a perfect duo, but Ashley was still the girl who always called the shots. Because she was the more wicked one, and more clever, and all kinds of qualities that ensured that she remained at the top of the food chain. And, while Ashley often presented things like she was coming up with them off the cuff, that was rarely the case. She was methodical, almost obsessively so, which made this game with Millie quite the interesting challenge. Even with a few days of lead time after the initial idea that sparked her to send the girl home, there was only so much that she was able to get done before the fake interview. 

So was her dear younger cousin going to be here for another day? A full week? A month? The lengthier options were fun to imagine, but how? The car was easy enough. Girls that were old enough to drive had the option of purchasing a parking spot by semester. Westridge was a boarding school, but it was only a prison for the girls that didn’t behave properly. The rest had plenty of freedoms. Ashley could take a shift at the office on Monday and figure something out. It wouldn’t be a perfect solution, but tucking Millie’s small sedan behind someone’s larger car in the student parking lot would be enough. Trying to point out her car in the guest lot, only to see it missing, would feed into the ‘compulsive liar’ thing if someone decided to humor her enough to follow her to the parking lot. 

Then there was Millie’s phone. Ashley already took a crack at getting the password, but hadn’t pushed too hard on the issue. Considering how easily the girl caved to everything else, it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to convince her to give it up. But also, tomorrow was Saturday. Ashley could always be less patient and get one of her more tech savvy friends to break into the device. Not only was that more efficient, but it also had the huge perk of Millie not knowing what Ashley had access to. Keeping her little cousin in the dark would be more fun, especially if phone access gave Ashley more of an edge. Ashley wasn’t even sure what that edge would be yet, but she was sure she’d find something useful there. After all, a girl’s cell phone was about as personal as it got. 

Speaking of Saturday . . . 

Perhaps that’s where Claire could come in. Ashley would be her usual amazing self in terms of laying out all the ways she could personally limit the potential escape routes Millie had until the girl more fully accepted that she was more student than teacher. In the name of letting Claire feel useful and involved, however, Ashley would open the floor in terms of ideas for the weekend. Since Millie had done so poorly on a few sections of her aptitude test, she would have a couple tutoring sessions, even on a Saturday. But that was it. There were no classes, of course, and Millie’s only ‘extracurricular’ was in the form of one that was part of her weekly schedule. Maybe that could be part of the coming day–dragging her cousin to something sporty. It would be difficult for Millie to pull off ‘adult and mature’ when she was all sweaty from running around. 

Well, there was time to brainstorm. Lightly rapping on the door twice to give Claire all of one second to prepare for her, Ashley opened the door. It was her own room, after all. Knocking had been enough of a courtesy. “Hey,” Ashley said. She stepped in and closed the door behind her. “What’cha up to?”

“Fucking calculus,” Claire said. She was lying on Ashley’s bed, propped up on her elbows with her textbook and binder both open in front of her. The brunette was easily one of the only girls who would dare make themselves this at home in Ashley’s room. Claire emphatically closed the textbook before shifting to just the one elbow to face Ashley. “So?” Raising an eyebrow, she asked, “Did you see her naked?”

“Please,” Ashley scoffed, “I might have a thing for older girls, but Millie hardly checks that box. Besides, she’s my cousin. How could you possibly ask me a question like that?”

“Older girls, hmm?” Claire asked. As if that was news, when she was well aware of Ashley’s preferences. “I could dress up as ‘Mrs. Thompson,’ if you like. Call you a ‘bad girl’ and everything. The whole nine.” 

“Tease. It doesn’t work when I know you don’t swing that way.” 

“I know. And after all your efforts to turn me.” 

“If I haven’t succeeded by now, it’s never going to happen.”

“Never say never,” Claire winked. 

Ashley just rolled her eyes. “Shameless fucking flirt.” She shrugged off her blazer and haphazardly tossed it towards the girl. Naturally, Claire didn’t flinch in the slightest, causing the outer layer to land on her head like she was a coat rack. Not fazed by the girl’s usual antics, Ashley sauntered over and plopped herself down on the other side of the bed. “So. Millie’s here for the night, unless she runs off campus barefoot wrapped up in her sheets. We should probably figure out how to keep her busy tomorrow, yeah?”