Page 34 of In Her Own Way
Juicy_Babe: No.
Should she leave her answer like that? Was it too short? Others left lengthy responses. She had a lot of thoughts on the matter, and if anyone asked for more from her, she’d elaborate. It was kind of black-and-white to her. She was absolutely not sustained by her casual liaisons and was frankly getting tired ofthem. Ever since she’d turned thirty, right around the time she left Miss Marta, she’d been searching for someone who sparked something in her. Someone she could make a connection of the heart with, and not just the lustful bits. She wanted someone who might turn into a more permanent partner. Mistress Marta, as wonderful as she was, simply wasn’t the right Domme for her.
It was time. She looked at the message icon, which showed that she had three messages. Maybe none of them were from Daddy Vic. Maybe Daddy Vic had chosen not to reply. And that would be fine. Jessica had kind of overstepped, anyway. She girded her loins and clicked open the messages. Her stomach dropped. Daddy Vic had replied three times.
Daddy Vic: Daddy Cheese here. LOL. It’s absolutely fine to DM me. I appreciate your compliments about my participation in the group. I think you’ve created an awesome space, away from the thirsty zone that prevails onKinks. And your posted questions make me think, too.
Jessica visibly relaxed. Daddy Vic wasn’t mad at her or offended. She took a deep breath and read on.
Daddy Vic: I’ve also recently moved (back to the city where I grew up), and I get what you’re saying about finding comfort in the things you’ve surrounded yourself with—friends, community, job (not being the newbie again). It’s hard. And you’re right. It’s hard for me to admit that I’m lonely and searching for connections, because I’m supposed to be strong and resilient all the time as a Domme. Weakness just isn’t in my nature. But as I stare at these four walls (here at work), I wonder WTF I got myself into. But it’s more about what I felt I had to leave,I guess. I’m NOT going to pull you into my drama, but I think I needed to step back from the situation to give them all some freedom from me and to give myself time to just think. I’m trying to figure shit out.
Daddy Vic: Okay, I am totally NOT going to burden you with a bored and soul-searching Vic this morning, or ever. No, you don’t need to use honorifics—You’re not my sub, JB. But many of my subs have called me ‘Ma’am,’ and some have called me ‘Sir.’ Isn’t that interesting? I always tell them that either of those works. Anyway, I appreciate this group you created. It gives me a chance to share my knowledge and to learn from others (now that I realize that I don’t know it all. LOL). And, sure, feel free to DM me anytime.
“Whoa,” Jessica said as she sat back in her executive chair. She needed to read all of that again, but one thing was for sure: she had dodged a bullet. Her impulsive messages to Daddy Vic were totally out of character for her and could have been ill-received.
“But she’s so obviously hurting,” Jessica said as if trying to justify her actions to the action police. “And, right, she didn’t ask for your help.” Jessica stood up. “Okay, fine. I am officially done meddling.” She sat back down and replied, short and sweet.
Juicy_Babe: I guess we’re both starting over, aren’t we? Feel free to DM me anytime, too.
She couldn’t think of anything else to add without prying or making herself a pest, so she simply signed out and closed the app. “Time for lesson plans,” she said, although she typically leftschoolwork for Sundays. She kind of didn’t know what to do with herself, so schoolwork it was. It had to be done anyway.
She loaded her school laptop and reviewed her Intro to Hamlet lesson. All seemed well, and the video links were working. She checked the entire week’s worth of Shakespeare lessons and was satisfied that they would accomplish the task of pushing Shakespeare into the resistant brains of ninth-grade students.
Satisfied with that, she went back to her opening grammar lesson on adjectives. She wanted to modify it. Something Daddy Vic said in one of her messages had stayed with her. “Her subs can call her Ma’am or Sir. Was Daddy Vic non-binary or genderfluid? Was Daddy Vic trans? An evil thought came to mind. She had to do it. It was a bit passive-aggressive and a sly way to teach an important life lesson. Yes, yes. This could work. She set about rewriting Monday’s ten-minute grammar lesson. After that, she basically spent the rest of the weekend catching up on her recorded shows and cooking so much that she’d have ample leftovers for lunches during the week.
On Monday morning, she felt more relaxed and rested, probably because she’d stayed away fromKinks. Monday morning had started the beginning of the second quarter, and as she hustled back to her classroom after cafeteria duty, she was grateful that her first few classes of the day had gone well. She prayed the Principal Herrera wouldn’t make an appearance, though. Word may have already gotten around about the grammar lesson in Ms. Bennett’s room. During teacher prep week, one of her new colleagues tipped her off that the man was very predictable, so whatever period he observed the first time would most likely be the one he came to every time. Her colleague had also said that newbies were observed frequently. Great, no pressure there.
She unlocked her classroom door, and as her period seven students filed in, she said a prayer to the universe for a smooth class with no one observing. Her grammar lesson could be misconstrued as something else—a teacher with a ‘woke’ agenda. Heaven forbid that.
She got her class notes in order and as soon as the bell rang, handed Kai the kitchen timer and said, “Ten minutes of knowledge—”
“Gets us into college,” the students enthusiastically finished.
She projected the first part of the grammar lesson onto the whiteboard behind her.
“Adjectives,” she said. “We know what they are. They’re words that describe nouns or pronouns. You learned this forever ago.” She pointed to the first sentence and read, “The lovable cat slept. The wordlovableis clearly the adjective that describes the nouncat.” She nodded and said, “Nothing new here. Adjectives can come after the noun, too, like in this example. “Misty is cute and furry.Mistyis the noun, while the adjectivescuteandfurrycome after the noun using the linking verbis.”
She clicked to the next page. “Adjectives can answer several types of questions. Which one? What kind? How many?” She pointed to the cat sentences. “What kind of cat?”
“Lovable, cute, and furry,” several students said out loud.
“Yep, and it’s so true,” she said with a grin. Several students smiled back. She read the next sentence off the board, “Those kids are rambunctious.”
“Adjectives?” she asked the class. They shouted out the obvious word, “rambunctious,” and Jessica nodded her approval. “The wordthoseis also an adjective. It answers the question, which one? Which kids?Thosekids. The wordthoseis an adjective.” She chuckled at their groaning. “Yes, you’llbe making up a few sentences illustrating this kind on your worksheet.”
She clicked to the next page. “And then there’s the kind of sneaky adjective that answers the questionHow manyorhow much?” She read the question. “The Titanic was on a transatlantic journey. The adjectivetransatlanticdescribes the journey. What doestransatlanticmean?” And here’s where she both literally and figuratively held her breath.
She nodded at Liam. “Like going across the Atlantic Ocean, right?”
“Mm hmm,” Jessica affirmed with a head nod. “It answers how much did the Titanic move? How many miles or kilometers? Thetranspart of the word means achangein location with respect to a starting point, Southhampton England, and an ending point. It was supposed to be New York City, but we all know it didn’t quite get there.” She hoped they’d registered the word ‘change.’The next sentence went up. “The transparent glass let the artifact be seen but not touched. The adjectivetransparentdescribes the glass. What doestransparentmean?”
She nodded at Emma. “See through.”
“Right,” Jessica said. “Transparent means to allow light to passacrossone side, the starting place, to the other side which is the ending place, without interruption.”
A hand shot up. She nodded at Sophia. “So, the wordtransbasically means across, or like, movement? A change of some kind?”
“Sure,” Jessica said nonchalantly. “A transcutaneous cut is a cut that goes from the top layer of skin to the underlying tissues. The surgeon’s blade is moving, right? Across or through the skin. Changing where it is.”
