227 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
227 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
TEST ANXIETY
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Fiction by LAWRENCE MORGAN
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PO BOX 314
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GROVE CITY OH 43123
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I still remember the midterm exam that I gave in the summer of '94
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like it was yesterday. I was teaching an introductory algebra course that
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quarter. I had only ten students in the class; algebra was not a popular
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course during summer term, because it met five days a week for two solid
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hours.
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There were four guys in the class and six girls. Lynn was the
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prettiest. She was about twenty years old, and she had just finished her
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first year in college. This was her first time taking a summer course. She
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was also one of my brightest, most attentive students. She was rarely
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absent, always prepared for class, and usually sat in the front row.
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It was a hot day in late June, and Lynn came into class in a white
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tee shirt with some sort of environmental message on it (I think it was
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something to do with Earth Day) and a pair of baggy khaki shorts. She was
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barefoot, her sneakers tied to the straps of her backpack.
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She had a large soft drink with her, and I could hear the ice
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sloshing around as she took her seat in the front row. It was about eight
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minutes before the hour. Other students filed into the room slowly,
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chatting idly about the exam, the weather, and other things. I looked over
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the exam one last time, searching for any errors that my teaching assistant
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might have missed. Lynn took a long drag on the straw of the paper soft
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drink cup, and I heard the ice protest once again. It sounded like the cup
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was empty. She searched through her backpack, lines of frustration crossing
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her face, and finally produced two pencils and an eraser.
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I studied her long dark hair, her tanned legs and her bare feet. I
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often had trouble taking my eyes off this girl during class. I wished I was
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younger.
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With four minutes to go, I asked the class if there were any last
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minute questions. Tom, the guy who had been absent most of the quarter,
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wanted to know how to divide two complex numbers. A few of the other
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students groaned. If he hadn't mastered that by now, it was unlikely he
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would pass this test.
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The bell rang. To an observer from another planet, we must have
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looked like rats in some of sort of operant conditioning experiment. I
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picked up the stack of exams, and my students cleared their books off their
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desks. I distributed the exams. Some students began working on the first
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page immediately while others leafed through the exam to get a general idea
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of what was involved. "You should have three sheets with five pages of
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text," I announced. "Make sure you aren't missing any pages." I then
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informed the class that they had the whole two hour class period for the
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exam.
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The room was warm, so I went over to the thermostat and adjusted
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the air conditioning. Then I sat down to read the paper. Exams like this
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can be incredibly boring for professors. My students were seated far enough
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apart that I really didn't have to worry too much about cheating. But I had
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to stay in the room, otherwise the temptation would be too great,
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especially for someone like Tom. I leafed through the paper, occasionally
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glancing up to see if anyone was trying to get my attention to ask a
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question. And of course I would take a peek at Lynn and one or two of the
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other girls in the class.
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After about twenty five minutes, I noticed that Lynn seemed to be
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shifting her weight and adjusting herself quite a bit. Once she dropped her
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pencil, and it rolled under another desk. She looked up and leaned
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forward, but couldn't reach it. So she sat back a bit and retrieved it by
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grabbing it with her toes. She looked at me briefly and smiled.
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She continued to shift her weight from time to time, and it
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occurred to me that perhaps the soda she had drunk was beginning to catch
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up with her. If this was the case, I thought to myself, this may well
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become the most interesting exam I have ever given. Normally my students
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get a five minute break in the middle of the period; but today no one was
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permitted to leave the room until they turned in the exam. And I expected
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even my best students to need most or all of the period for this test.
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Some fifteen minutes later, Lynn got up slowly and approched my
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desk. She leaned toward me, and said in a whisper, "Can I go to the
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bathroom?" I had to struggle to keep from smiling too broadly. I couldn't
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believe what I was hearing. "You can't leave the room during the exam," I
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said gently. She looked down, disappointed. "Okay," she said quietly.
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Well, I thought, this is definitely going to be better than reading
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the horoscopes for the rest of the exam. I got up to stretch my legs, and
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walked around the room a bit. I stopped for a side view of Lynn. She now
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had one leg crossed under the other; the bottom of her right foot was
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lightly covered with dirt from running around barefoot. One hand held her
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pencil, while the other rested on her forehead, giving her a look of
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intense concentration. I wondered if my hard-on was noticeable. But no one
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in the class was looking at me, of course; everyone was wrapped up in the
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test.
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As the time passed, Lynn's discomfort increased significantly.
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With about an hour left to the period, Lynn now had her legs crossed with
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one on top of the other, in the more traditional female style. But after
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another five minutes, she shifted her position again, this time placing her
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left leg under her right leg. She looked up at the clock. I was back at my
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desk now, and she looked at me briefly. I smiled, and she smiled back. She
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returned to her exam, uncrossing her legs and placing one hand in her lap.
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A few more minutes went by, and Lynn crossed both her legs in a yoga style.
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I got up to walk around again. As I circled the perimeter of the
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room, I saw Lynn bite her lower lip. She uncrossed her legs once again,
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this time squeezing them together. I returned to my desk and pretended to
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look at the paper again. Lynn was slowly relaxing the tension in her legs,
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and looking down at her lap. Sure enough, a wet spot had appeared right in
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the middle of her light khaki shorts. She crossed her legs once more,
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looked around nervously, and finally turned her attention back to the exam.
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There were now 50 minutes remaining in the class period, and I
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noticed that Lynn had just started the fourth page of my five page exam. I
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walked to the back of the room and looked over the entire class, while
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reaching into my pocket to adjust my hard-on. Lynn was definitely going to
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need the remaining class time in order to finsh the exam. Her little leak
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that had probably released a lot of the pressure in her; I wondered if she
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would be able to hold on until the end.
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Fifteen minutes later I found out. Lynn drew in a sharp breath, and
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snapped her mouth shut quickly. Her legs were not crossed at this point;
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she squeezed her legs together tightly, but a large damp patch quickly
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spread across the front of her shorts and began to stretch toward her
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knees. I looked right at her now, unable to resist this visual treat. She
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was staring at her lap in horror. It seemed that she had once again been
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able to stop the flow, but the wet spot had grown substantially in size.
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Anyone looking directly at her could tell that she had peed in her pants.
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Fortunately for her, there was only one other student sitting in the front
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row today, and he was five seats away from her. So no one except me had a
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frontal view. She looked up from her crotch and stared at me. Her face was
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bright red. I gave her a half-smile, not knowing how else to react.
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Certainly she didn't want me to say anything. I simply couldn't let her
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leave the room. Besides, at this point, getting up would attract attention
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to her situation and let other people see her condition.
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Lynn looked down at her backpack, and then went back to the exam. I
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began to feel sorry for her. Lynn lived in an apartment off campus,
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probably with a couple of roommates. Did she have a change of clothes in
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her backpack? It seemed unlikely, unless she had athletic clothes for a
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workout or something. She was going to have a hard time getting home
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without everyone seeing that she had wet herself.
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I wondered what would happen if other students noticed what was
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going on. This seemed inevitable, since they would eventually approach my
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desk to turn in the exam. Because of the weather, no one had sweaters or
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jackets of any kind; Lynn had only her backpack and her shoes, and these
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weren't going to be very effective at covering up her mess. She looked wet
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enough that I was pretty sure it wouldn't dry before class was over; in
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fact, if she wet herself much more, I estimated, it might start dripping
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onto the floor. I wondered if she was wearing a pad or feminine napkin.
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Probably not. If she was, it had soaked through quite a while ago. There
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was even a possiblity that she had only a bikini bathing suit on under her
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shorts. Sunbathing was a popular way to pass the time between classes at
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this time of year, and judging from her tan, it was something she did on a
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fairly regular basis.
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With twenty minutes left to the class period, the first two
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students got up to turn in their exams. One walked right past Lynn, handed
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me the exam, and went back to his seat, passing her again. If he noticed
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anything, I couldn't tell from his behavior or facial expressions. He
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picked up his backpack and left without crossing the front of the room.
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Since I already had a full view of Lynn's accident, it seemed like
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her best bet for avoiding some major embarrassment was to wait until
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everyone else had left the room. She had apparently come to the same
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conclusion, because she was indeed the last one to turn in her exam. As the
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others handed theirs in and left, I saw some of them looking back at Lynn
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as they opened the door to the room. But no one actually said anything
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because others were still taking the test. When the last two girls left the
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room, I heard excited voices out in the hall, which slowly receded into the
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distance.
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Finally, Lynn was the only one left in the room. She looked up at
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me, her face turning a bright shade of pink again. She stood up slowly,
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and I noticed a dark stain on the fabric of the chair underneath her. She
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handed me her exam slowly, looking down at her shorts.
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"Well," she said nervously, "I guess next time I'll know to go to
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the bathroom before the test."
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I wasn't sure how to respond. I really didn't want to embarrass
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her any further. If she had simply handed me the exam and left, I never
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would have said a word about the matter to her or anyone else. Well... OK,
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maybe I would tell a few friends about it, but I wouldn't mention her name.
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I counted myself lucky just to have seen it.
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But her comment caught me off guard. It sounded like she wanted me
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to acknowledge what had happened. She seemed to want to get it out in the
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open. Did she want me to apologize for not letting her leave the room? She
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looked at me.
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"You couldn't quite hold it, huh?" I finally said.
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"I shouldn't have had all that soda right before the exam," she
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said. "We usually get a break during class."
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"I'm sorry I couldn't let you go," I stammered. "But we can't have
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people going in and out during a test. It would create a lot of problems
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with cheating."
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"I know. Don't worry about it." She seemed more comfortable with
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the whole episode now. Her shorts had begun to dry, but it was still
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obvious that she had wet herself.
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She collected her things and picked up her backpack. A final
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thought struck me. "Can I give you a ride home or something?"
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"Would you?" She asked. Her face lit up. "This is pretty
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embarrassing." She managed a nervous laugh. I agreed, and we headed toward
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the door.
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We headed down the hallway. "Uhm... I still have to go," she said
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quietly. I waited patiently while she disappeared into the ladies' room.
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On the way to my car, she stopped and bought a newspaper, which she
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carried in front of her to cover the wetness on her shorts. But she still
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couldn't do much to hide the backside. Then she sat on the paper in my car,
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trying not to get the seat wet. As I drove her home, she wondered aloud
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what she would tell her roommates. But by the time we arrived, her shorts
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were almost dry from the sun and the heat. If you knew what you were
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looking at, it was still obvious; but her roommate probably wouldn't notice
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it if she disappeared straight into her room.
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She thanked me for driving her home, and then looked over her
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shoulder and smiled as she went up the steps to her apartment.
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Needless to say, she got an A on the test. |