Not Your Average High School Experience

Working at a bar.

Today was Elaine's first day off since she had started working at the school and she was rather happy due to the fact that it was the beginning of her Thanksgiving Break as well. Monday and Tuesday had passed just like any other day and she found herself wanting to be able to get away more and more, despite the fact that she knew that she wouldn't get to see Elizabeth for almost a week. The moment that this thought entered her head, Elaine closed her eyes slightly and shook her head to try and clear the thought away.

"I can't afford to think like that. She's my student! Plus, she's most likely straight." Elaine mumbled to herself as she slowly opened her eyes, grabbing the remote for her TV off of her coffee table. She paused the movie that she was currently watching, sighing heavily as she stood up from her couch and ran a hand through her hair. Elaine needed to get out of the house and find something to do in this little town otherwise she was going to lose her mind sitting around all day.

For a moment, Elaine just stood there and thought of the different things that she could do before she was forced to make her way out into the town to find something to do and remembered that she had some essays that she needed to grade. Sighing heavily, she walked to the stairs of her house, walking up them and making a left once she got to the top, walking into her office area.

Elaine grabbed her teaching bag from the door as she walked over to the desk, sitting down in the rolling chair that was in front of the large oak desk before she pulled out the stack of essays that she needed to get grading. She huffed slightly and ran her hand through her hair before getting a red pen out of one of the little pen holders on the desk, grabbing the first essay of her 8th period class, starting to read it. She wanted to go ahead and get the essays for her largest class out of the way, not to mention that there was one essay that she was looking forward to reading more than any of the other ones that had been turned in.

It took her what seemed like ages to reach the essay that she had been looking for the whole time. The name was clearly written in neat scripted handwriting. Elizabeth Grey, Ms. Watson's 8th period class. The handwriting itself made Elaine smile as she sat there and started reading the essay, which she soon found out was one of the best essays that had she had read so far. That said something, seeing as she had maybe five more to read and the class had about 26 students in it.

Elaine had chosen to give the students an essay over an issue that affected the world in a similar way that the issue of unfair treatment of the Jews during Hitler's reign due to the fact that that was the topic that they had been covering in class recently. The treatment of the Jews. Elizabeth had written a beautiful essay on how gays were being treated in a similar way to the Jews. Now, there were no concentration camps for the gays, but Elizabeth mentioned how they were treated differently because they themselves were different and how unjust she thought it was.

It didn't take long for Elaine to grade the essay, easily giving it a 100, despite the fact that it had a few grammar issues, but after all, Elaine was a History teacher and not a Language Arts teacher so a couple of misspelled words and missing commas didn't bother her. She was grading for content of the essay and by far, Elizabeth's had been the best that she had seen so far.

It didn't take Elaine much longer to finish up her grading, finding that there were a few essays that she thought would be good to use as examples or excellent essays when school was back in session, so she set those to the side before leaning back in her desk chair. She had just enough time to run her hand through her hair before she heard the familiar tone of "Misery Business" by Paramore playing on her phone, which caused her to groan slightly. It was still the first day of vacation and she was already getting calls that were most likely about work. Elaine rubbed her eyes for a second before reaching into the pockets of her faded blue skinny jeans, pulling out her iPhone before sliding the answer bar. When she looked at the caller ID she raised her eyebrows slightly, wondering why a member of the theater club would be calling her.

"Hello?" She asked once she put the phone up to her ear, her eyebrows still raised slightly at the fact that she was getting a call from this number out of all the numbers that it could have been. Almost immediately the slightly worried voice of a girl by the name of Sarah answered the phone, speaking a little low because there seemed to be something going on in the background.

"Ms. Watson? You remember when you told one of us to call you if we had anything to say about Elizabeth?" Sarah said on the other line, her voice clearly worried now that she was actually about to say this. She was a little worried that the very girl that she was talking about would hear how she ratted her out and would do something about it.

"Yeah, what about her? She's not hurt or anything like that is she?" Elaine asked, sitting up slightly in her chair as she thought of Elizabeth having fallen and gotten hurt or something like that. The idea worried her more than she knew it should have, but she couldn't help how she felt about it though. She had a feeling that her voice held her worry and she tried to hide it, but knew it wouldn't do her any good.

"No, no. It's... it's just that she's not here. She hasn't showed up and we've been at rehearsal for almost 45 minutes. I just wanted you to know that." Sarah said before saying goodbye once Elaine thanked her for the news. Elaine hung up, feeling a little disappointed. Elizabeth had made the bet that she would go and followed through with that on the first day, so why wouldn't she come back to the second rehearsal? Elaine thought about this as she put her phone back where she had got it, leaning back in her chair once again.

Elaine couldn't help but feel disappointed because she had truly believed that Elizabeth would stick to her word and go to all of the rehearsals, but then again, maybe everything that people said about her was true. Maybe Elaine should just let the girl be. Immediately she shook her head at the thought, slowly standing from chair and walking downstairs as she thought to herself. There was no way that she was just going to give up on this girl. Not after everyone else had. Elaine was going to find out why Elizabeth didn't go and was going to work things out for when the girl was going like she was supposed to.

Though, before she did that, Elaine needed some time to herself. She walked down the stairs, making her way to the couch where she grabbed her light brown leather jacket and pulled it on. From where she was, she could see the stove in the kitchen and saw that it was almost 6. Knowing that a walk to the mall was not too far from where she lived, she grabbed the keys to her orange Dodge Dart, pulling on her riding boots that matched her jacket before she headed outside, into the cold before climbing into her car. She planned on spending the day at the mall and then cruising around tonight to see if there were any places that grabbed her attention.

Elaine did just as she had planned for the day. After she got to the mall, she found a place to eat and then started looking around in the different shops that the mall had. She stayed in there until almost 10 that night, just enjoying the time that she had away from school, though when the mall started closing, she left empty handed. This got her to where she was currently.

She was driving her little Dart around downtown Elgin, looking for a place that she could have fun at tonight and after about 10 minutes of driving she found a little place that she thought would be perfect. 'Club Demon' sat in a parking lot all its own, right across from Sonic and a few other eating places. Elaine smiled to herself as she pulled into the parking lot of the club, finding more cars there then she had expected for a club in such a small town, but she soon guessed that it must have been a place that people from nearby towns also came to visit.

Elaine managed to get a parking spot that was practically right in front of the door and her eyes widened slightly as she read a sign that was hanging in the window right beside the door. Turning off the car, she unbuckled and leaned forward slightly to make sure that she was reading it right. "Only LGBT club for miles around." Reading this sign made Elaine smile happily before getting out of the car, which she locked as she walked towards the front door.

When Elaine walked in she was immediately hit with the smell of several different types of alcohol as well as the smell of gin which was most likely due to the fact that a waitress with brown hair, long legs and a nice backside had walked right past Elaine as she stepped inside. Elaine took a look around as she headed over to the bar, taking a seat in one of the bar stools while she watched several pairs of people and some single people dancing to the upbeat music that was being played loud enough to be heard throughout the whole club, though it wasn't too loud.

Smiling happily to herself, Elaine turned around in the stool and looked at the rather pretty red haired bartended that had walked over to her. The red head flashed Elaine a rather large, white smile before asking when she wanted to drink. Elaine ordered a beer and when it got to her, she started drinking it while watching the different people in the bar. She was looking to see if there was anyone here that she would have known from school. Perhaps a teacher that came here often or maybe even a student that had managed to get in off of a fake ID. So far she hadn't seen anyone, but then again, who was to say that she wouldn't meet someone later seeing as she didn't plan on leaving any time soon. She needed to relax tonight and she planned on doing just that.

It had been about two hours since Elaine had walked into the bar and she had talked to several different woman, most of them already drunk and rather flirty. Elaine herself had already had quite a few beers and knew that she would pay for it in the morning, but it would be worth it. She was currently talking to an attractive woman with blonde hair and green eyes, who was drunk and flirting with Elaine the entire time that they talked. The blonde, Stephanie, asked to be excused for a moment and got up once Elaine nodded. She walked to the corner of the bar, most likely getting ready to order another drink though something completely different happened.

There was a sudden shattering sound, followed by a few curses then some slurred apologies. Elaine couldn't see what was happening from where she was sitting, but she had a pretty good idea of what had happened. Stephanie had just spilt her drink on someone and they were not happy. Elaine was listening for some shouting to come the blonde's way, but it never did. Instead a rather familiar voice spoke. It was a voice that Elaine knew she had heard before and just the sound of the voice caused her to smile like a crazy woman.

"Steph, I think it's time you go home. Hand me your keys and I'll have Nathan call you a ride so that you're not out on the road like this." The voice said. With each word that was spoken Elaine found herself struggling more and more to identify whose voice it was. She wanted- no, she needed to know who that voice belonged to. There was a string of protests from the blonde, soon followed by a rather loud huff and then the clanging of keys on the bar counter-top.

"You're lucky I like you Liz." Stephanie slurred as she practically stumbled her way to the door. Liz? Elaine bit her lip slightly as she thought on the one name that she could think of that made sense when shortened to Liz. Elizabeth. There was no way to know for sure until Elaine saw the person that the voice was connected to. Liz called out to Nathan in a back room of the club to call Stephanie a cab before she started asking people what they wanted to drink, slowly getting closer and closer to Elaine.

When the girl belonging to the voice stepped in front of Elaine, she couldn't believe her luck. Standing in front of her, wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and a low cut grey t-shirt, long black hair pulled back into a sloppy bun and her bangs in her face was none other than Elizabeth Grey.