Last Christmas (Private 0.60)

was so clever. They both did. Thought they

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were getting away with something. They couldn't have been more wrong.

Ariana waited for the last of the students to take their papers and dribble out the door and into the hallway.

Quietly, she slipped into her trench, gathered her books, and headed for the front of the room. Mr. Holmes

was hunched over the crossword puzzle, muttering some -thing to himself. She stood in front of his desk,

looking down at him. Waiting. After a few minutes, he looked up.

"Miss Osgood." He looked genuinely surprised to see her. "You didn't happen to stay behind to give me a

six-letter word for 'precious jewels,' did you?" He smiled, tucking his pen into his shirt pocket.

"Bijoux." Ariana let her paper slip from her grip. It fluttered to his desk, landing on top of the newspaper.

"You gave me a C-plus."

Mr. Holmes exhaled slowly, leaning back in his chair. "You deserved a C-plus," he said, flipping through the

pages. "This wasn't your best work, Ariana," he said gently. "You're better than this. We both know that. But

I had to be fair."

"Fair?" She laughed bitterly. Reached into her purse, her hand closing around a cell phone. She ran her

fingers slowly over the keys, happy in the knowledge that she had the power to get exactly what she deserved.

He nodded. "I know you'll show me something better on Les Miserables, and don't worry about it. You still

got an A for the first semester." He smiled warmly, interlacing his hands together in his lap. "Any other

questions?"

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She nodded, pulling his phone from her bag. "I was just wondering ..." she began as shock and surprise

passed briefly over his features. Her fingers flew across the keys, and she tilted the screen toward him,

holding it just out of his reach. "What's a seven-letter word for sex with a seventeen-year-old student?" She

pressed the button on the side of the phone and smiled at the sound of Mr. Holmes moaning Isobel's name.

"Stop." His voice was strained. Desperate. "Turn that off. Now."

"But we were just getting to the good part." She paused the video, batting her eyelashes at him. "Oh. I've got

it," she announced sweetly, tilting her head to the side. "I-L-L-E-G-A-L."

The color had drained completely from Mr. Holmes's face. "Where did you get that?" He was trying to sound

stern, but his voice wavered with fear.

"Does it matter?"