As I said, I had finally recognized the teacher. Her name was Susan Tumolo. Before the founding of U-town, she had been the secretary of the mayor, Mike Sheldon, known as "Uncle Mike." Immediately after the founding, Uncle Mike had vanished. The common assumption, hers and ours, had been that he had been removed, since he had (from the government's point of view) bungled things so badly that U-town was able to take over one area of his city.
She had been upset and angry about what had happened to her employer, so much so that she had come to us and told us of a plot against Doc's life, even though she thought the whole idea of U-town was a big joke.
When we had met her, she'd disapproved of cigarettes, and that opinion (and the facial expression which went with it) hadn't changed. Some things had changed, though. When we'd met her, she'd been wearing a blouse, a skirt, nylons, and pumps. Now, she'd "gone native" enough that she wore jeans and flat shoes, but she was also wearing a nice blouse, a touch of makeup, nail polish, and some unobtrusive jewelry. Of course, sitting next to Jan Sleet, she still looked rather casual.
Ms. Tumolo made the mistake of hesitating for a split second before responding, so my employer continued, "Why don't we all get introduced to start off? I'll be able to help a lot more if I know you all better. That way, we can make the best use of our time here." She glanced at Ms. Tumolo, which I thought was a nice gesture, but apparently the teacher didn't have any objections.
In fact, as my employer turned back to face the class, I noticed a smile quirk Ms. Tumolo's full lips. She knew where the authority was in this situation (authority which I knew from past experience she considered to be at least somewhat questionable), but she had figured out what I had seen earlier that morning, that this was going to be much more than a brief presentation on career choices. I had the idea that she was curious to see where this was going to go.
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