The New English Teacher Sucks (GxG)

Part 3

I felt Jayda pressing further into my side, struggling and desperately wanting to be a part of the conversation as well. "Cameras?!" She whisper-yelled incredulously and Sir Leon chuckled. "Isn't that a little invasive of everyone's privacy? I mean, what if he saw me picking a booger in the halls? Is he going to watch me change my tampon too?"

I facepalmed myself and then tried my best to rid my head of the very graphic image my best friend just burned into my brain. Sir Leon simply smiled in amusement, looking anything but uncomfortable and I appreciated the fact that he didn't seem at all perturbed by Jayda's ridiculous outburst. Then again, it wasn't very surprising since he had had to deal with her for the past three years. Well, four years now, since she miserably failed Chemistry last year and was forced to retake the course this year.

Must suck.

"Don't get too paranoid now, Jayda. I'm sure it wouldn't reach that far." He tried to reassure us both but then contradicted it with: "I hope."

"Aren't there enough cameras around here? I'm sure there are plenty of other ways he can keep an eye on three hundred and thirty-seven students," I pointed out, remembering the queasy feeling I always felt in the halls, knowing I was being under surveillance 24/7. "And, well, 18 teachers."

"Oh? I don't suppose you have any other feasible suggestions then?" he countered, raising his eyebrows challengingly. I shot him a dirty look and shook my head, not being able to come up with anything as lazy and efficient. "That's what I thought." He smirked but not in a way to belittle me. It was more of an 'I understand and at least you tried'. "I'm not saying I don't agree with you. It is a little extreme if I do say so myself. But you girls shouldn't worry your heads though." He continued to say, suddenly very interested in adjusting his orange silk tie. "It was just a rumor I heard going around in the teachers' lounge this morning."

"Better cut that conversation short right there, Sir," Jayda mumbled and fell back into her chair. "We all know how fast rumors spread around here, eager to destroy careers and students' futures."

I wanted to counter that it was just a harmless rumor. But I knew better. By this afternoon it could be transcribed into something much worse and suddenly we'd be back to last year's incident that involved one too many cameras and a single locked classroom door.

"She's right." I sighed, siding with Jayda, and leaned my head back into her shoulder, ready to pretend like this entire conversation never happened. "Let's go back to why we're all gathered here in the first place."

"Stodgy speeches and sweaty principals, yes, of course." Sir Leon quickly added, taking the hint and zoning back into whatever was now going on at the podium.

Miss Addington was wrapping up her speech by the time we had all zoned back in on the assembly and I only slightly regretted that I had missed the rest of it. She returned to her seat and sat motionless for the rest of the hour, only turning to glance at me once and caught me shamelessly checking out her side profile.

I felt my heart skip a beat at her sudden sharp gaze and quickly attempted to redirect my attention to the front.

The morning assembly dragged on as usual with the principal giving another lengthy speech to us seniors about staying focused and getting all the help we can from teachers for extra credit – something about it being a nice highlight on our college applications and blah blah blah. If there was one thing I particularly didn't want to hear about this morning, it was college. I had already been lectured about it more times than I can count on both hands by my parents over the summer break. Every time I left the house to hang out with Jayda and James, I either came home to my father's judgmental looks while he sipped from his four hundred dollar bottle of whiskey, or my mother's disapproving glare from behind her glasses as she obsessively scrubbed away at a wine stain on her precious marble countertop. And every time, I felt just about ready to crawl back into bed and sleep for days, shutting out the obnoxious world around me.

"Damn, that man really ensures he makes the best out of his one hour every Monday morning." Jayda yawned from beside me as we stood up and began to slowly trail behind the line of students and teachers filing out of the gym.

"We should start a petition to get his time cut short." I joked, stretching my tired limbs like a cat. It was always a real pain in the ass – literally – to try and have your body cooperate with your brain after being confined to a wooden bench for one long and torturous hour.

"And then tell him we're doing it so we can get more class time." She agreed and I snickered.

"Pfft, as if."

"So, you guys totally ditched me to hang out with those old stale farts this morning," James suddenly complained as we exited into the main hallway, forcing his muscular frame in between Jayda and me as he slung his arms around our shoulders.

Immediately, an intense scent of Axe body spray and his Old Spice deodorant overwhelmed my senses and I nearly choked. That was one thing about him I never got used to.

"Not by choice, love," Jayda assured him and pinched his jaw playfully. "Rory here got burned by Casper The Friendly Ghost and made a big deal about it in the washroom. Long story short, we were late for assembly and Miss Grace and that new teacher made us sit with them."

"Oof. That must have been punishment enough," James huffed, pulling a face at the mention of our new English teacher, and politely offered to carry our backpacks for us. As he shrugged the straps onto his shoulder, one of his basketball teammates was passing by us in the hallway with a familiar cheerleader clinging possessively to his side and he reached a hand out to James for a high five. James happily slapped palms with his playboy buddy then firmly wrapped a hand around my waist in a protective manner. The cheerleader's bright blue eyes made a show of slowly dipping all the way down James' leather-clad towering frame, then all the way back up again before abruptly stopping at his arm that was secured tightly around my waist. A barely noticeable frown dipped the corner of her lips, but it was only for a split second and she was back to biting on her bottom lip in what was supposed to be a sexy manner. In reality, she only looked like she had been starved for days.

"Good morning, James." She addressed my friend with her seductive gaze, purposely trying to get a reaction out of me by ignoring my presence. She didn't acknowledge Jayda either, but that was probably because my best friend was already glaring daggers at her.

"Morning, Cecilia," James mumbled lamely under his breath, barely sparing her a glance before redirecting his full attention to his teammate. They chatted wildly about something I couldn't bother to care about, having been too caught up in shooting imaginary laser beams from my eyes at the ginger in front of me. Cecilia twirled an orange lock around her finger in a flirtatious manner, still shamelessly ogling James and practically undressing him with her eyes. No longer being able to stomach the sight of her, I tugged on the sleeve of James' leather jacket, silently telling him to cut his conversation short so we could head to class. But he knew very well I needed to be as far away from Cecilia as humanly possible if he didn't want me ignoring him for the rest of the day.

"I'll see you at lunch, Christopher." He hurriedly dismissed his friend with a handshake then glanced at Cecilia. "And I'll see you in Algebra."

"Can't wait." She winked at him suggestively before following behind Christoper.

James quickly tugged both Jayda and me forward and away from the retreating couple.

I tossed a glance over my shoulder and locked eyes with the busty cheerleader, her blue eyes piercing mine with a cunning stare as the corner of her lips curled up wickedly. I fought back my urge to give her the finger and redirected my gaze to the front with an inaudible groan. James quickly caught on to my sudden annoyance and offered me an apologetic look in his eyes.

I shrugged it off and ignored him, not wanting another replay of the s**t show that was junior year.

"So is Christopher her new boyfriend now?" Jayda voiced my thoughts and I looked up at James expectantly. He nervously scratched his nape and focused his attention on the front of the crowded hallway.

"Something like that," he answered, shooting me a nervous glance.

"Right." I scoffed and Jayda rolled her eyes in agreement. "How do you know what class she has this morning, anyway?"

He hesitated on his answer and shot Jayda a panicked look, but the albino turned her face away, clearly not wanting to be a part of it.

"We texted a little the week before school reopened." He finally sighed out, fingering the mop of gold curls on his head.

I nodded slowly, allowing his words to process before I got myself worked up over nothing. "So you're talking again." I finalized and he immediately raised a hand in his defense.

"Aurora, whatever the hell it is you're thinking right now, it's not like that." He quickly defended and I reluctantly removed his hand from around my waist.

"Okay," I told him in a soft voice, forcing down the horrible memories that threatened to resurface and ended the conversation there. After a long stretch of silence, I decided to fill him in on this morning's events. "Anyway, before you say anything, in our defense the only seats available were in the teachers' section. I don't know about Jayda, but I'm happy Miss Grace was kind enough to not make us stand through one hour of a wannabe church service this morning."

"Ahh, I see." He hummed and I noticed his grip on my backpack tightened. "I saved you guys some seats but the cheerleaders crowded me and took them over. I would have politely told them to 'beat it' but you guys know how they get when they can't have their way."

I tried my best to mask the scowl on my face and decided it was best that I didn't respond to his comment.

"Yeah..." Jayda supplied awkwardly.

James seemed to be regretting his choice of words now and tried to change the topic of conversation. "Uhm, so did you guys hear Miss Addington's speech by the way? It was kinda mean, in my opinion."

"Rory doesn't think so," Jayda commented unnecessarily in a mocking tone. I rolled my eyes in her direction.

"I just think she was making it clear that she would like to be left alone to avoid all the s**t that inevitably goes down at this school every year. Can you guys really blame her? Especially after last year?" I added in my defense.

James shot me a funny look, his eyebrows dipping in confusion and the corner of his lips curling slightly. "Did you even hear the entire thing? Or were you too busy ogling her from a mile away?" I didn't say anything, remembering how I had completely zoned out after getting caught up in my talk with Sir Leon.

"No..." I finally answered, tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "I was a little distracted."

"Of course you were." He snickered at me and I shot him a glare.

"Shut up. She doesn't even seem that bad. Cold, strict, and has the personality of a rock, maybe. But I think we'd all be fine if we just stayed out of her way."

He scoffed and glanced at Jayda to back him up. "I agree with Rory on this one, dude." The albino chimed in, sounding slightly unsure of her words and I could tell she was being careful with them to not make James pissed like earlier. She then added, "But she was also being a little bit of a b***h to James this morning."

I didn't really give a s**t about James' child-like temper at the moment after having to see that walking piece of plastic miserably attempt to flirt with him barely a few moments ago.

"She wasn't." I snapped and paused at a division in the hallway, bringing them both to a firm halt as well. I snatched my backpack off of James' shoulder and tried to control my temper. "Maybe if he stopped acting so childish then he wouldn't see the need to hate on her simply for doing her job."

"I am not childish. Why are you defending her so strongly anyway? Have a crush on her already?" James interrogated unnecessarily, refusing to take me seriously at all.

"It's nothing like that, dude. What the hell?" I frowned, not particularly enjoying where this conversation was headed. A smirk broke out on his face and I wanted nothing more than to punch it right off.

He shook his head disapprovingly and eyed me with an accusing stare. "Christ, it's not even noon yet and your hormones are already raging."

"Oh, they're definitely raging, alright," Jayda concluded quickly and held James back by the arm from getting closer to me, realizing I was no longer joking with him. "Come on, James. Stop teasing her like that. Why are we even fighting about this? We should be comparing schedules." Her dainty pale hands began to dig through her backpack in a hurry, desperate to find literally anything to redirect the conversation. "Look, it says here I have Chem first. At least now I know I'm not sharing a class with either of you this morning." The disappointed look on her pale features made me sad but I suddenly wanted to be alone for a while and hoped I didn't have to share a class with James either. I retrieved my schedule as well and I quickly skimmed over it, hoping to god that I didn't have to inhale his annoying Axe-infused male scent much longer.

James glanced down at the paper in my hands with his curious brown gaze and I saw the smirk slowly reappear on his pink lips. "Of course. English with your new teacher crush."

Deciding I had finally had enough, I glared up at him and stated coldly, "Try not to go about spreading a nasty rumor like that when Little Miss Perfect Cecilia is feeling you up during Algebra. I don't feel like dealing with any more of her s**t this year. Especially because of you." I jabbed a finger in his solid chest at the emphasis on the 'you', ensuring he understood every bit of what I was saying.

"Rory–" He began to say, regret filling his pool of brown eyes as he reached a hand out to me.

It was too late though. I was already annoyed and had begun to walk away, saying to Jayda. "See you at lunch, babe."

"What? You're heading to class already? We have five more minutes of freedom left!" I heard her holler behind me but I waved her off with my hand.

The longer I stayed in James and his smug presence, the more irritated I was becoming. The best decision back there was to leave.

So leave I did.