Lovely Girls by Hunt Margot

Author:Hunt, Margot
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2023-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

The meeting was held in a classroom that smelled like sneakers, body spray cologne, and hormone-infused sweat. Lines of desks faced the teacher’s desk and whiteboard. There were already twenty parents there, all of whom looked worried. I spotted Emma and Ingrid sitting together in the back, but they didn’t look up when I entered. They either didn’t see me or were studiously ignoring me. Genevieve was not there, which was a relief. I certainly wasn’t looking forward to our next confrontation. I took a seat in the front of the classroom.

“Thank you all for coming,” Principal Hopkins said as she strode into the room, shutting the door firmly behind her. She was wearing a conservative bottle-green suit paired with stylish booties. “I know it was short notice, but there’s a situation that you all need to know about.

“Seth Townsend, the coach for the girls’ tennis team, has been arrested for allegedly having an inappropriate sexual relationship with one of the girls on the team. The . . .” She paused, her composure slipping for the first time. “. . . sexual act in question was filmed. Someone, I don’t know who, texted the video to a number of our students, and some of them forwarded it to others. I believe that quite a few students at the school have seen it.”

I stared at her, her words slowly sinking in. A sexual relationship? Caught on video? With which girl? And then, panic set in. Had he targeted my daughter?

Apparently, every other parent was wondering the same thing. There was an outburst of noise as nearly every parent in the room started to talk at once.

“Who filmed it? And what’s on the video?”

“Which girl was it?”

“The kids have all seen it?”

The principal raised her hand.

“Please, let me finish,” she said, raising her voice to be heard above the din of parental outrage. “I’ll tell you as much as I can. But I can’t disclose who the victim is. Please be assured her parents have already been notified.”

The noise level went down a notch or two at this, although a low-level buzz of whispering remained. From what I could pick up from the snippets of conversation around me, everyone was wondering which girl was involved.

“The girl in question is a minor, and Coach Townsend is both an adult and an employee of the school district. The case seems rather open and shut. However, this remains an open investigation, so the police may be in contact with some of you,” Principal Hopkins continued. “We have obviously terminated Coach Townsend’s employment.”

One of the fathers raised his hand. When the principal nodded at him, he asked, “What about the team? They’re in the middle of the season.”

“Practice has been canceled for the rest of the week. We’re going to look for a replacement who will hopefully be able to step in quickly,” Principal Hopkins said. “We’ll send out an email as soon as we have a new coach in place. Any other questions?”

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