“Why don’t you suggest the punishment this time, Mr. Kingsley? After all, you are the one who reported the incident.”
The blood soared through my veins, injecting me with a sense of power that went straight to my head. This was it, my chance to make her proud.
I threw back my shoulders and fixed the two boys with my meanest glare.
“Let’s start with you.” I nodded at the quivering boy who went by the name of Reggie. “Tell us what happened.”
“I…” Reggie peeked at the bigger boy and hunched his shoulders like he was attempting to disappear. “He…uh…he took my milk.” The last part was mumbled to the floor.
Pitiful. So pitiful that sympathy flickered to life inside me. I slid my gaze to the headmistress to gauge her reaction, flinching when I spotted the curled upper lip and narrowed eyes.
Shame spread like oil through my veins. Here she was, handing me an opportunity to prove my strength, but instead of rising to the occasion, I’d almost blown it. The headmistress loathed weakness. I’d spent enough time around her to realize that. In her eyes, if I defended a wimpy boy who allowed himself to get picked on, then I’d be guilty by association, and she’d be right.
I turned back to Reggie with a hardened heart and a sneer. “How is anyone supposed to take you seriously when you speak like that? Stand up straight!”
Reggie’s pale face turned even more ashen, but he obeyed. His shoulders snapped back, and his head jerked up. Controlling him was so easy, like pressing a button on a doll to make her talk. Beside me, Headmistress Letitia purred her approval, and my chest puffed with pride.
Skin flushed with renewed confidence, I advanced a step closer. “Now, tell us again what happened without muttering like a mouse. Enunciate.”
Reggie’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed and cleared his throat. “I said that he took my milk.” His shoulders still trembled, but he spoke with more volume this time, his voice high-pitched and clear.
Her chin lifted. “Took my milk…what?”
The Adam’s apple bobbed again. “He took my milk, Headmistress.”
That was what she wanted everyone to call her, even though she was really only the headmaster’s wife. I didn’t care.
“Much better.” I shifted my attention to the bigger boy a few feet away, who was pretending to be bored. Sean. “And what do you have to say for yourself?”
Sean met my eyes with a defiant glare and shrugged. “I was thirsty for milk, and I didn’t have any, so I took his, um, Headmistress.”
Pleased at how quickly I’d gotten to the bottom of the incident, I turned to Headmistress Letitia to discuss the punishment I’d decided upon. Before I could make the suggestion, though, she leaned in and murmured in my ear. “Doesn’t it seem odd to you that Mr. Tanner didn’t fight back?”
“Uh…”
My first instinct was to say no. Not really. Even at my age, I understood that the world was full of Reggies, and they never fought back. But I worried that the headmistress would be displeased if I disagreed with her. Plus, I was struggling to focus.
Up close, the musky-sweet perfume she wore was even more distracting, leading my thoughts down forbidden paths. For a dizzying instant, I breathed in her scent and toyed with the possibility that the headmaster’s wife realized the effect she had on me, or better yet, felt the same about me.
“‘Uh’ is not a complete sentence, Mr. Kingsley. You disappoint me. Would you care to try again?”
As she retreated and space opened up between us, I gouged my nails into my palms until the pain snapped me back to my senses. Idiot. If I wanted to impress Headmistress Letitia, I had to prove myself better than the rest of the horny teenagers who walked the academy halls. Superior. Uncommon. Strong. “Yes, Headmistress.”
It was the correct answer because she edged closer again. “Don’t you think we should ask a few more questions and find out what made them play out these particular roles?”
I whipped my head up and down, eager to show my agreement and climb back into her good graces. “Yes! Exactly. I’m sorry, I should have thought of that right away.”
She skimmed my jaw with a fingernail and smiled with so much warmth that I desperately wished for a pause button so I could live in the moment forever. “That’s why I’m here, to give you the training you need to succeed in life.”
I drank in her validation the way the lacrosse team guzzled stolen beers and probably felt every bit as inebriated.
“Go on, then.”
The headmistress gave me a playful little nudge. Cheeks burning from her attention, I began pacing in front of Reggie, more to snap my brain out of its Letitia-induced haze than anything else. “When Mr. Foster stole your milk, how did that make you feel?”
Reggie licked his lips, his little mouse eyes darting between the headmistress and me as if he might find the correct answer written across one of our faces. “Bad?” He offered the word in a tentative voice, but when neither of us reacted, he found the courage to elaborate. “I like milk.”
A heartbeat passed. Then five. Enough time to allow Reggie’s forehead to bead with sweat. I’d absorbed enough of the headmistress’s tactics to learn that playing with the mouse was half the fun. “If that’s true, then why didn’t you fight back when he stole it?”
The boy froze. Less a mouse and more like a deer in the headlights. “I…because fighting isn’t allowed.”
I double-checked Headmistress Letitia’s reaction. Her lips turned down, and I agreed. Rules were for wimps. For the dimwitted boys and those without an original thought in their heads. “I understand that, but Sean took something that belonged to you. He stole from you. Don’t you think that’s grounds for defending yourself?”
“I…” Reggie’s freckles stood out in his face like splatters of brown paint
