The Affection Multiplier - Chapter 220: Helping former enemies. (Patreon)

“Think about the flow of the story.” Katherine tells the three other girls sitting at the table with her. They’re at a small coffee shop she comes to every so often with David and the others.

“It’s always up and down, right?” Olivia says. “Something bad happens, then something good happens and almost immediately something bad happens again.”

“Exactly. Now the title of the book makes sense, right?”

“Okay for now…” Lilian reads it aloud. “Yeah, when you look at it that way.”

They’ve been working since 4:00 pm. It’s now 7:00 pm and they’re about to be done with David’s report. It’s been three hours of non-stop work with Olivia typing most of it on her laptop while Katherine guides their brainstorming and makes suggestions on how to make what Olivia is writing sound more academic.

“What should we right about the ending?” Jessica asks.

“It’s shit.” Lilian pouts, crossing her arms.

“It’s open ended,” Katherine says, holding back a laugh. “It’s up to you to decide what happened after that.”

“Then I choose to believe they both live happily ever after. I will not hear any other opinions on this matter.” Lilian nods to herself.

“That’s fair,” Katherine shrugs. “Besides, I agree.”

“Then we should write how the open-ended finale lets readers decide how they want the story to end?” Olivia suggests.

“Yeah, that’s good.” Katherine nods in approval. “You could also compare the pros and cons of an ending like this.”

Olivia starts typing, with Lilian and Jessica offering assistance whenever needed. In only 20 more minutes, the report is ready.

“Holy shit, I can believe it’s finished!” Olivia groans, slumping in her chair along with her friends.

“Take five minutes while I check it for spelling errors.” Katherine tells them. “Then we’re moving on to your reports.”

That makes the three girls flinch.

“I give in. I need sugar. This’ll be my monthly fix.” Lilian sighs. “My brain can’t go another minute.”

“Same.”

“Same.”

Her friends nod in agreement and each of them orders a slice of cake to eat while Katherine is reading. Problem is she’s done before the cakes even arrive.

“What the hell? How are you so fast!? Those are like 15 pages!” Lilian asks, baffled.

“It’s magic.” Katherine shrugs.

“Very funny.” Olivia says, unamused.

“I’m serious. David has magic powers. It’s why you all stopped hating him so quickly.” The redhead casually says as she fixes some typos and replaces a few words on Olivia’s laptop.

“What on earth are you talking about?” Olivia asks.

“It’s fine if you don’t believe me. Just don’t say we didn’t warn you.” Katherine shrugs again.

The three girls share a quick, curious glance. Seriously, what is this girl even talking about?

The cakes arrive and the matter is put on a shelf for the time being. The girls eat and Katherine is done checking the report before they’re done.

“I’ll be honest. I don’t know if this’ll get a perfect score.” She admits. “A high one, sure. But I don’t know about a perfect one. I guess it’s all up to Emm… I mean… Ms. Campbell.”

“…” The three girls look at Katherine with narrowed eyes full of sleazy curiosity.

“W-What?” Katherine asks, flinching at those looks.

“Nothing.” Olivia shrug’s. “I guess I just realized your group dynamic must be preeeeeetty interesting.” She smirks even with half an empty spoon still in her mouth.

“I-I have n-no idea what y-you’re talking about.” Katherine turns her face away, her cheeks heating up.

“Why are you getting embarrassed? We didn’t mention anything specific.” Lilian grins teasingly.

“Aaaah! I wish I could be there, too.” Jessica sighs heavily with closed eyes. “I had a dream the other night I was cuddling with David and it was so vivid that I was really sad when I woke up.”

Olivia clicks her tongue. “I want to do more than just cuddling.”

“W-W-W-Whaaa…” Katherine’s face is now beet red. She’s blinking rapidly and her jaw is hanging open.

“Come on, Katherine.” Lilian says. “You’re not gonna tell us you and David haven’t gotten to business already.”

“T-T-THAT’S NONE IF YOUR CONCERN!”

“Sheesh, calm down.” Lilian puts her hands in font of herself. “We’re just teasing.”

“Speak for yourself. I really do want to do more than just cuddling with David.” Olivia states, crossing her arms. “Just answer me this. Is he good?”

Jessica swallows and turns to Katherine. Meanwhile, Lilian’s face starts to redden as well and she has a hard time meeting Katherine’s eyes.

“…” The redhead swallows hard. She bites her lip as she contemplates whether she should even answer or not. Then, she decides. “He’s better than whatever you’ve experienced or whatever you can imagine! Now get started on your own reports or I’m leaving!”

Olivia nods in satisfaction. “Alright. There’s the motivation recharge I was looking for.”

“Wow. I got shivers.” Jessica says, giggling.

On her part, Lilian seems to be fidgeting in her seat, her face getting even hotter before she finally gets out her own laptop to start her report.

The girls drop the subject right then and there, getting back to business mode as they start writing their own assignments. However, Katherine now can’t get the images out of her head.

Picturing these three. Naked. Submitting to David. Pleasing him however he wants. Completely under his control.

…

…

…

She seriously didn’t think she’d come to understand Emma and Anzu HERE of all places, but Katherine can now understand the appeal.

Perhaps Sophia has something like that in her notebook? If not, she should.

______________________________________________________________

Emma Campbell is faced with a difficult decision.

In front of her, in the screen of her laptop, is the assignment those three girls wrote for David with a bit of Katherine’s help. And truth be told, it’s far better than anything they’ve done up to this point. It obvious they got help from Katherine from the way it’s written, but it’s also obvious she didn’t do the work for them.

However, this really isn’t a perfect grade. It’s more than enough to prove to Emma that the girls put a lot of effort into it, sure, but it’s still a lower grade than David would’ve gotten. What should she do? She doesn’t want to give David this grade, but it’s not like she can just fake it.

What’s more, those girls also managed to get above average scores in their own assignments. That nothing short of impressive, even with Katherine’s help. It really speaks of their efforts, especially when literature is NOT their forte.

…

There’s something her grandmother used to say.

‘It’s either everyone, or no one.’

In that class, no one has a perfect score. So she’ll give the whole class a chance to improve their grade with a complementary assignment during class hours. If those three can do it, it’ll be enough to give David a perfect score, like usual, and none of the others students will complain because they’ll also get the same chance.

Her colleagues will complain, saying she’s giving too many opportunities and making the curriculum less strict than it should be, but doing it every once in a while is fine. Let them say what they want.

______________________________________________________________

Ugh. Your stomach is hurting due to the nerves. It’s literature class and Emma is just about to announce the grades for the assignment.

You haven’t spoken to Olivia, Lilian, Jessica or even Katherine about it. You have no idea how it turned out.

Just… just relax. It’s no big deal. No matter the grade, you’ll be able to recover from it. You just need to put in the effort, as always. Noooo big deal. Yes.

“Alright guys. I’ll be announcing your grades.” Emma says, standing behind her desk.

GAH!

“Or that’s what I should be doing. However, I’m feeling kind today.” Emma grins. “I’d say the general performance this time was a little lower than I was expecting.” She says, shaking her head in disappointment. “Therefore, I’ll give every one of you a chance. In a single page, answer the following question: ‘Was it worth it to read this book?’. As long as you explain your answer coherently, I will give you some extra credit for the assignment.”

“Wooo!!!” There are cheers in the classroom as everyone starts singing Emma’s praises as the kindest teacher in the world. Sighs of relief echo around the room and everyone quickly gets to work.

You glance at Emma who only gives you a short nod. Then you glance back at Olivia, Lilian and Jessica and see them already working, writing on their notebooks.

So they spoke about this beforehand? Is the grade they got THAT bad?

Guh. Your stomach is hurting even more!

______________________________________________________________

It’s next class that Emma announces the real result.

“David Walker: Congratulations. A perfect score.”

“Woah. What a surprise.” A girl mutters, completely unamused.

“When’s the day we see him get a bad score?” Another one asks.

“Hell, I’d settle for one point below perfect.” Another one comments.

“I think it’s cool. I’m rooting for him to make it to the end of the year with a perfect record.” Yet another one says, giggling.

On your part, you can’t believe your ears. Did that really happen? You left your assignment in the hands of someone else and… they delivered? Of course, you know Katherine and Emma intervened, but… still. And from what you heard, those three even scored well in their own reports, making their achievement all the more amazing.

It’s you who approaches them a minute after the recess bell rings and when everyone is out of the classroom.

“I hope you’re satisfied with the result.” Olivia says, crossing her arms below her chest and grinning.

“Not like there’s anything I can complain about.” You laugh nervously. “Still. I’m sorry we put you through that.”

“Oh, shut up.” Lilian sighs. “You were more worried we’d screw up than any extra work for us.”

“Not gonna lie. That’s true.” You shrug. “I guess now you have a better idea of what I had to go through at the start of the year?”

“Pretty much.” Jessica sighs. “How on earth did you do it?”

“School is easy. It’s people I have trouble with.”

“Could’ve fooled me.” Olivia comments, raising an eyebrow.

“People can change.” You shrug again. “Can’t they?”

“Ugh. Shut up.” Olivia says, turning her face a way as her cheeks start getting just a little red.

“I don’t like to admit it, but this is all because of Katherine.” Lilian groans. “She helped us a lot. And I do mean A LOT.”

“Ms. Campbell was also more merciful than we thought she would be.” Jessica giggles.

“I doubt that mercy was directed at us, though.” Olivia grins at you teasingly. “Anyway, you act like this was all that dangerous to your record, but I bet you wrote your own report and would’ve replaced it if ours hadn’t been up to standard.”

You give her a curious raise of an eyebrow. “No, I didn’t.”

“What?” Lilian asks, blinking.

“I didn’t write another report. If you hadn’t done a good enough job I would’ve had to bite the bullet.”

“Told you.” Jessica sighs, sounding a little frustrated.

“W-Well, whatever.” Olivia dismisses the topic. “There you have it. They gave us a task, we delivered. With help, but we did.”

“You did. And I’m genuinely impressed. You did amazing.” You smile.

“Y-yeah. Well, we need to get going. We should probably tell Katherine about this.” Olivia says.

“Yeah! If you see her first, David, don’t you dare tell her! We want to be the ones to do it!” Jessica insists.

“Alright. I won’t say anything.” You nod. Then your face turns serious. “…Be honest with me. How is she?”

“I think she focused so much on helping us with the reports that she forgot about everything else.” Lilian sighs. “It was like watching her old, high school self. Back when she was annoying. Only now it didn’t feel annoying.”

“Pretty much.” Olivia nods.

…Well, you did ask them to be honest.

“Would it be okay if… we tried to hang out with her a little more?” Jessica asks, a little hesitant.

“It’s her you have to ask.” You chuckle. “But if you’re honest with her, I think she’ll answer in kind. Just…” You swallow. “You might want to prepare for her to lash out at you at first.”

“I was expecting it all throughout the study session.” Olivia sighs. “Don’t worry. We’ll take it.”

“Thanks.” You say, smiling honestly.