Smoking Project, Part 4

Smoking Project
Part 4 of 4

Brianna was putting in her usual three hours of work on Sunday morning when 
the phone rang.
    "Bree, it's Janice."
    "Hey, thanks for having Tiffany over the other night."
    "Well, you've done the same for Doug and I more times than I can 
remember."
    "Yeah, but this was a little different."
    "The girls could not stop talking about you and Bethany."
    "Well, they think being a lesbian is like having a cool wardrobe or 
listening to the right music. I was a little worried as to how you might feel 
about it."
    "Why on earth would that worry you ?"
    Bree settled back in her chair and lit a cigarette.
    "I- well, you're not a sixteen year old girl."
    "Let me tell you something. Doug is pretty- well, he's damn good in bed, 
when he has the energy and motivation- but if I had a dollar for every time I 
wished he could feel it the way a woman does so that he would understand 
certain things- I envy you."
    "Man, Gary absolutely thought sex began and ended with his sticking his 
dick inside me. He simply wouldn't go down on me unless I went down on him 
first and even then he usually wanted to after he was done. At least with 
Bethany I get the best of both worlds."
    She could almost hear Janice's confusion.
    "That woman is magic with a dildo. And at least she let's me smoke while 
we're having sex."
    "Gary didn't ?"
    "No. I could dress up in black leather nasties, handcuff him to the bed, 
smoke until I was dizzy, but as soon as his dick left the launch pad, I had 
to put it out."
    "That's so funny. Doug is almost done with the taxes. When he finishes, 
we lock ourselves in the bedroom with what's left of his cigars and we have a 
blast. I keep trying to get him to extend it beyond tax time, but he's got 
his-"
    "Pecularities ?"
    "Yes."
    "But you didn't call to talk about our sex lives, did you ?"
    "No. I wanted to talk about Leah."
    "I hope you're not pissed off at Tiffany."
    "Just the opposite. I've been waiting for this to happen."
    "Really ?"
    "I don't know how you feel about Tiffany smoking, but- well, Doug and I 
have always felt a little bit guilty, smoking around Leah. And she hasn't 
always made it easy. This is a big step forward for the three of us, as far 
as I'm concerned."
    "Well, I'm not going too far with that. If you're happy, I'm happy."
    "I am definitely happy about this and so is Doug. And I'm even more happy 
that you're having some good sex again."
    "I'm not all that bad with the dildo either."
    They laughed.

    Kelli Morgan put her big grab bag of salt and vinegar chips and her diet 
Coke down on the counter.
    "Will that be all, Miss Morgan ?"
    "A box of Marlboro 100s, please," Kelli said, slightly nervous. "How's 
college going ?"
    "It would be better if Dad didn't tie paying my tuition to working my 
open times here. I should be studying for Sensation and Perception. We have a 
quiz this afternoon."
    "I'm sure you'll do fine. You drink textbooks."
    Monica handed over the cigarettes and asked for five dollars even.
    "Here you go. If you want me to put in a word with your dad-"
    "I may take you up on that, Miss Morgan."
    The teacher walked out into the dingy Monday. It was going to snow again.
    She wanted to light a cigarette, but the kids were hanging out in what 
was the school's undesignated smoking area. Monica's father, who obviously 
didn't think much of the laws about selling cigarettes to minors, had gone as 
far as to build an overhang off the side of the store so the kids could hang 
out when the weather was bad.
    She looked to her right and there was Tiffany, smoking as usual. But she 
was surprised to see Leah. Well, not surprised to see her, but surprised to 
see her smoking.
    Kelli had an idea. Stowing her lunch in her backpack, Kelli took out her 
cigarettes and lit one. She did it with an odd mix of enjoyment and 
trepidation. She hated smoking around the kids, but not as much as she 
enjoyed smoking. Still-
    "Hello, ladies."
    Tiffany and Leah turned to their psychology teacher and showed her twin 
smiles.
    "Hi, Miss Morgan."
    "I didn't know that you smoked, Leah."
    "Well, I just started Friday, Miss Morgan."
    "I thought that you might be working on your paper right now, girls."
    "But we are," Leah said. "We decided to do our paper on teenage smoking. 
And I decided that I needed to do some first hand research."
    Kelli blanched. So what she had heard the girls talking about before 
first period was true. The careless snatch of conversation that she had 
caught in the hallway as she passed by, and here it was, out on the table and 
what was Kelli feeling ? Nothing more than cold fear, nothing but the 
possible that the rent might become more difficult to pay sometime soon.
    "Teenage smoking ?"
    "Yes, the psychological implication and behavioural modelling of the 
teenage smoker," Tiffany said.
    Drawing on her cigarette, Kelli tossed her her short red hair and tried 
her best to stay calm.
    "Sounds ambitious."
    "It is. We wouldn't set out to do anything less than A work, Miss Morgan."
    Leah trimmed, inhaled, cast a serious look.
    "You look a little tense, Miss Morgan."
    "You try teaching study hall in the Cave every third period, Leah," was 
the best Kelli could come back with.
    "That would make a great paper if we didn't already have one that we 
really like, you know," Tiffany said.
    Kelli could only wish.

    Two hours later, Kelli was faced with what was usually a very enjoyable 
thing- lunch.
    But today was different. She knew that the right thing to do was to make 
the call. Of course, the girls would probably hate her for it, but this 
wasn't about them. She could lie to herself and say it was about doing the 
right thing for Leah, but it wasn't that. It was about tenure, about how she 
wanted it.
   After all, she wasn't sure what the right thing for Leah was- that was what 
her parents were for.
   She was sitting in her car with the window rolled all the way down, smoking 
the first of her lunchtime cigarettes. She took the cell phone from her purse 
and dialed the number, half-hoping that Tiffany's mother would be out at 
lunch as well, but somehow instinct told her that wouldn't be the case.
The phone rang once, twice, and then was answer by a pleasant sounding woman 
who merely said her name.
    "Brianna."
    There was a pause.
    "Hello ?"
    "This is Kelli Morgan, your daughter's-"
    "Psychology teacher. It's a pleasure. But it's going to have to be a 
brief one. I have a meeting in 30 seconds."
    "Well, I wanted to spend some time talking about your daughter's unusual 
research project-"
    "Oh. Well, Tiffany has my permission to smoke and Leah's parents are cool 
about her smoking as well. I hope that's-"
    "Unfortunately, that's not what it's really about. I would like to meet."
    "Well, I'm sure I'll have plenty of work after this meeting of mine that 
I can take home. If you don't mind meeting at our house instead of at the 
school-"
    "I'd prefer it, actually. A private setting would be better in this case. 
The only problem is that I don't know where you live."
    "Then grab Tiffany at the end of the day and she'll tell you where to go."
    "I have no doubts of that, Ms. Helena."

    Tiffany was more than a little nervous as she stood outside the north 
door to the school waiting for Miss Morgan. This couldn't be good.
    It was funny. She had always thought Miss Morgan was cool, maybe just 
because she was younger than most of the teachers, and of course, because she 
herself was a smoker.
    But if she was upset about the project, that was bad. And it didn't make 
sense. Other groups, most of them larger, were doing reports on teenage sex, 
underage drinking, teenagers and the rave scene. Teenage smoking seemed tame 
in comparison.
    "Hello, Tiffany."
     "Miss Morgan."
    "Please, call me Kelli, and relax a little Tiffany."
    They started walking towards the car. 
    "Relax ? You're-"
    "I have a concern about your project, but it's not what you think. I 
would prefer to wait until I can talk to you with your mother about this. I'm 
asking you to trust me."
    "Well, I can tell you the best way to gain my trust-"
    "Wait until we get out of site of the school. I'll do the same."
    They settled into the car and Kelli drove out of the school parking lot. 
As soon as the school was behind the hill, Kelli cracked the windows of her 
Altima and the two women lit up.
    "I can't believe I'm sitting in a car with one of my teachers smoking a 
cigarette."
    "I remember the first time I smoked with one of my teachers. A much 
different situation."
    "Tell me more," Tiffany said, drawing on her cigarette. She looked at 
Kelli, who was taking a deep drag on her Marlboro 100. Tiffany had tried them 
once and found them too strong. She also thought the cork filter looked wrong 
in her hand. But it was perfect for Kelli, who executed a sweet exhale.
    "All I'll say is that I was on the other end of something I would never 
do as a teacher, and if I had understood how wrong it was, I would have 
passed on it then as well."
    "You went out with one of your teachers ? Was he, like married ?"
    "Yes and I feel very guilty about that. But at least I learned the easy 
way. Tell me, how long have you been smoking ?"
    "Close to six months. But Mom only knows that I've been smoking for about 
three. It was easy to hide at first because by smoking I mean I was sneaking 
two or three a day."
    "And then it was five, and that gets a little harder to hide, and then it 
was half a pack a day and sooner or later that gets back to your parent or 
parents, right ?"
    "How do you know that ?"
    Kelli drew on her cigarette. "Well, I followed the same path. I started 
when I was fifteen, but it wasn't until after my sixteenth birthday that I 
realised I just didn't care anymore if my parents did find out, and of 
course, once you make that decision, they do find out."
    The way she smoked, it was easy to believe that she had been smoking for 
ten years or more.
    "So you really don't have any problem with Leah and I smoking, do you ?"
    "No, not at all. And if you ask me any more than that, I'll just say you 
have to wait again."
    "So when your parents found out ?"
    "They acted like they didn't care. My mom was an occasional smoker- she 
always had a pack in her purse, but if she smoked half a pack in a day, that 
was a lot. My dad smokes a pipe, but he thinks that is different somehow. 
They obviously thought if they acted like it was no big deal, I would lose 
interest. So I started smoking more, and pretty soon that rubbed off on Mom. 
Instead of getting me to smoke less, she ended up smoking more."
    "My mom was pretty ripped at first, but things change, I guess. I'll let 
her tell that story if she wants."
    "Fair enough."
    

    "Come on in, Miss Morgan," Brianna said, meeting them at the door.
    "It's Kelli, Brianna. Even most of my students call me that."
    "Well, have a seat and please, feel free to smoke. The girls mentioned 
that you're a smoker. Do you want something to drink ?"
    "Maybe just water."
    "Come on. You're not on school grounds. Have a beer, Kelli."
    "All right."
    Bree disappeared, came back with half a glass of beer for Tiffany and two 
bottles. She handed one to Kelli and took a deep pull on her own.
    "You're fairly permissive, aren't you ?" Kelli said neutrally.
    "That doesn't bother you, does it ?"
    "No. I actually think the european model is better suited to teenagers. 
All things in moderation."
    Kelli lit a cigarette and both Bree and Tiffany followed suit.
    "Obviously, smoking isn't the issue here," Bree said, wading right in. 
"And Tiffany told me what some of the other projects are about. So what is 
the problem ?"
    Kelli smiled. "You are direct, like your daughter. I like that. So I'll 
be honest. I don't have tenure yet. And yes, some of the other projects are a 
lot more- uh- racy than your daughter's. But none of them have come to me and 
said that in order to do their papers they needed to conduct first hand 
research. Which is almost exactly what Leah said to me this morning."
    "Well, I have it on good authority that Leah has been fantasising about 
smoking for some time."
    "Mom ?" Tiffany said. Her mother was silent for the space of time it took 
Tiffany to draw and exhale and draw again.
    "Beth told me."
    "Beth ?"
    "Mom's girlfriend," Tiffany said, matter of factly.
    "Your-"
    "I prefer companion. She is in her late twenties." Bree shot Tiffany a 
look and her daughter had trouble not laughing.
    "The point is," Kelli said, pausing to smoke. "The point is, Leah said 
what she said to me. If she says it to other people or it shows up in the 
paper- and the students are presenting their research in front of the whole 
class- well, I don't have tenure. My review is at the end of the year, and if 
a parent- just one- came to the board and said that one of my students 
started smoking because of me, because of the work I gave them-"
    "Well then, we'll just have to see that Leah doesn't say that. I think 
Tiffany can assist in that regard."
    "But if she did-"
    "This isn't going into the American Journal of Psychiatry, Kelli. If they 
fudge, they fudge. And trust me, Leah will go right on smoking. I've seen her 
smoke the last few days. No one in their right mind- or any sort of wrong 
mind- would think you caused it."
    "That all sounds so rational, but-"
    "Did I mention that Mrs. Jackson and I go out for drinks a couple times a 
month because her company advertises in one of our magazines-"
    "Mrs. Jackson of the school board Jacksons ?" Kelli asked incredulously.
    "No, Mrs. Jackson, the actual school board Jackson. One and the same. I 
think I can safely say that with her on your side, you will have zero
problems."
    "Hell, if Mrs. Jackson is on my side, I could show up at school naked and 
not worry."
    "Exactly."
    Kelli smiled and looked at Tiffany, who was trying unsuccessfully to make 
a smoke ring.
    "Do your paper. But if it's all the same-"
    "We won't mention a thing." And they didn't.
    
    They present on Thursday, the last of all the groups. On Friday, Miss 
Morgan handed out the grades and the girls notched an A.
    It was Saturday morning and Leah had wandered over for breakfast because 
her parents were out of town. While Mrs. Helena cooked, Tiffany and Leah 
settled down on the couch to listen to Limp Bizkit.
    Leah took her cigarettes out of her coat pocket and lit one.
    "I thought you were going to quit when the project was over," Tiffany 
said, holding out her hand. Leah passed her the cigarette and she drew deeply 
on it before handing it back.
    "I decided that the gist of the research was that I like smoking, and I 
like being a teenager. Therefore, it's only logical to be a teenager smoker."
    "Does this mean you are going to stop calling me smoker ?'
    Leah inhaled sharply, handed it to Tiffany again, and exhaled. "No. It 
means you can start calling me smoker, too. Okay smoker ?"
    "Sure thing, smoker."
    The two girls dissolved into giggles, and listening in the kitchen, that 
sound made Bree think of Beth's girlish giggle.
    It was funny how things worked out sometimes.
    Now if she could only understand that music they were listening to-

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