The New English Teacher Sucks (GxG)

Part 2

Miss Addington studied us some more and I took that time to shamefully admire her features again. She was so breathtaking — literally. The urge to ask if she had just walked out of a fashion magazine lingered on the tip of my tongue but I swallowed it quickly. She barely looked a day over 26 and I concluded then she was the youngest teacher we've ever had since I started here. Everyone else was above and beyond 30. Coming back to my senses, she was still wearing that suspicious smirk as if she knew something no one else did. She seemed to be deep in thought now and I wondered if she was actually considering listening to Jayda.

"Actually," The gray-eyed beauty focused her attention on me. "I had no intention of commissioning any punishments to err...?" She paused, then asked very carefully. "What is your name again?"

Ignoring the tight squeeze in my chest at the fact that she had forgotten my name so quickly after it was recently mentioned multiple times to her, I choked it out in a hurry as if I couldn't tell her fast enough. "Aurora." I then cleared my throat and tried again "Aurora Hallewell." I added more slowly, relaxing my shoulders a bit.

"But she's mostly known as Rory to everyone around here," my best friend pointed out politely.

Miss Addington stared at me for a long moment, her left eyebrow twitching slightly in thought. Finally, she nodded once in acknowledgment of Jayda's words. "Rory..." she trailed off slowly, testing the nickname on her lips. They tilted down slightly and she shook her head disapprovingly. "Aurora," she then corrected and I felt a small twinge in my chest. "I have no reason to punish you. I just want you to be more careful next time. I understand Mr. Donavon is a close peer of yours, but enabling this kind of behavior from him will not help to shape him into the intelligent and well-rounded young adult he needs to be after leaving the academy." She said everything in one breath, as if it had been rehearsed or as if the principal kept some secret button on all the teachers that he used to program certain words and phrases for them to repeat to students.

"I understand, Miss Addington," I mumbled and lowered my gaze from her slightly, feeling stupid for some reason.

"However," the teacher began again. Of course, there would be a 'however', "you can stay back after school later to help me with something."

"You're not going to try and molest her, are you?"

"Jayda!" I slapped my best friend behind her head since she had clearly lost all her senses.

Miss Addington seemed quite uncomfortable now and was fidgeting with the collar of her blouse. This is the first time since I met her that she seemed so unsure of herself.

"On second thought... never mind. Excuse me." She turned to leave but something compelled me to grab her hand so she wouldn't. The moment was short-lived, however, as I pulled back my hand in shock, my apology to her for Jayda quickly dying in my throat. There was no jolt of electricity or whatever silliness people felt, but her hands were surprisingly scorching to the touch and I felt like she had burned me. For a brief moment, it felt like what I imagined touching the surface of the sun would feel like.

Why was she so hot— Literally?

The woman stared at me in horror as if I had just committed a crime.

"I'm sorry," I tumbled out quickly, feeling the need to apologize at her icy stare. But before she got another word in, the assembly bell rang and students began filing out of the lounge.

"Rory!" Jayda called out to me. I glanced behind me to see a worried look on my best friend's face, but when I turned back to the front expecting to see Miss Addington there, she was gone.

"Rory!" Jayda was at my side now and she held onto my arm tightly as we pushed our way through the swarm of students. I was still cradling the hand I touched the new teacher with close to my chest, the after-effects of a third-degree burn still lingering behind. I almost wanted to cry at the pain I felt in my palm.

I bit back tears and turned to Jayda. "Where did she go?!" I yelled to Jayda over the loud chatter of students.

"Who?"

"Miss Addington?"

"I don't know! She probably got swallowed in the crowd!" Jayda continued to tug on my arm, practically dragging me along behind her as we made our way towards the gym for assembly.

I paused when we neared the double doors, unable to stop a stray tear from sliding down my cheek, and winced slightly as a wave of hot pain shot up my right arm. "I think I need to use the washroom," I said to an alarmed-looking Jayda in a hurry, making a 180 and speed-walking down the empty halls in the opposite direction.

I had almost completely forgotten about the new teacher then, my only focus at the time being to quickly get some cold water running on the hot scar I felt branding my palm. I heard quick footsteps following behind me as I nudged the door to the girls' washroom open with my shoulder, sprinting to the nearest faucet and placing my palm under the sensor.

Coldwater immediately gushed out and splashed against the heat in my palm at full force, making me flinch. I swallowed the soft groan at the back of my throat as the pain slowly began to fade. I was too overcome with relief to register Jayda hovering behind me, her mint green eyes gazing at my hand under the faucet in concern.

"Rory, what's going on? Are you feeling okay?" I shook my head slowly in reply, clarity drifting further and further away from me. I looked down at my hand in confusion and removed it from the faucet as the pain finally began to subside. "Rory, what the f**k is that?" Jayda all but yelled in my ear, tentatively grabbing my wrist and tilting my hand this way and that. "Did you go to Jeremy's and get a tattoo without me, you little b***h?" It was almost comical at how quickly her concern for me morphed into rage at something I didn't even quite understand myself. But I was too engrossed in my sudden growing fear to even chuckle. I stared at my hand in horror, the words dying as they burned in my throat like acid.

"I–I... I don't know where that came from. I certainly did not get a tattoo, Jayda. You know my mom would murder me." Her eyes narrowed to slits and drifted back to the tiny yin-yang sign branded into the center of my palm. It was as if someone had taken a piping hot piece of metal and pressed it into my palm, leaving behind raw flesh. My best friend seemed to be examining the mark more carefully now and her forehead visibly began to coat with a thin layer of sweat.

"Yeah, it doesn't really look like one now. More like someone or something burned you." She agreed, shakily wiping away a piece of white curl that clung to her forehead. "What happened? Did you hurt yourself somehow this morning with some fancy flat iron? I know your parents are always sending you some ridiculous s**t from South Korea."

I sighed heavily with frustration and pulled my short fish braid around to rest on my shoulder, chestnut brown curls of fuzz poking out from the once neat braid. "Woman, does this look like I had the time to be anywhere near a flat iron this morning?"

Jayda's small pink lips curled up in disapproval at my frizzy hair, her fingers reaching out to finger it. "Very fair point." She snickered and when I glared at her she was back to business. "Well, maybe it was that scary but hot new teacher, Miss Addington."

The corner of my lips dipped in a frown and my head tilted in thought. "Why do you say that? I don't remember touching her. Ever."

Jayda's head tilted back slightly in disbelief, her eyes surveying me with a crazed look. "What do you mean you don't remember? That was barely five minutes ago."

"W-what? I don't know what you're talking about..." I confessed slowly, a slight feeling of dizziness overcoming me as I forced myself to remember anything within the last five minutes.

"Are you being serious? Not the best time for you to be having your five-second amnesia, girl." When I didn't say anything, her pale eyebrows knitted together in concern again, her just as pale features growing serious. "You really don't remember anything, Rory?" I shook my head and she took a cautious step closer to me. "James got in trouble for skating in the halls this morning. The new teacher busted him and then lectured you about being a better influence on him. I think as your punishment she said you were to help her with something after school but I... said something stupid and she was about to walk away, but you touched her arm then pulled away. She kind of disappeared after that."

"Oh," I mumbled softly, soaking in her words as the memory of James complaining about getting hollered at by the new teacher replayed in my mind. I remembered Miss Grace showing up with the new teacher, Miss Addington, telling me to stop covering for James, but after that, my mind hit a hard brick wall. It was as if something was physically restraining me from remembering anything beyond that point. I told Jayda everything I remembered and she agreed with me that it was really weird. "But how and why would she burn me? She didn't have anything in her hands besides James' skateboard..."

"Well do you remember bumping into anyone on your way here? Maybe someone's cigarette grazed you or their hot lunch in a China bowl branded you."

I stared at her with a dumb look. "I ran into dozens of people, Jade. Everyone was rushing to get to assembly, remember?"

"Speaking of..." She lifted her index finger to the ceiling where the Principal's muffled voice was heard over the intercom, giving his usual lengthy and otherwise unnecessary speech in the gym at assembly. "We better get going and try to sneak in before a teacher catches us in here and thinks we're ditching."

"Yeah..." I agreed, half-listening, my eyes glued at the burn on my palm. "Maybe I just burned myself this morning somewhere and didn't notice. Right?" I asked the albino for clarification, her eyes shining with doubt but ignoring it as she nodded.

"Sure. We'll figure it out later." She promised, tracing the outline of the symbol in my palm with her fingertip. "It's warm." She acknowledged, frowning. "Is it still burning?"

I shook my head and stared at her soft features, the look of concern that never left them as she followed me in here. Suddenly she pulled back as if feeling my worried stare on her, and reached into her backpack. Jayda pulled out a small flowery scarf that smelled strongly of her expensive-as-hell Taylor Swift perfume and gingerly wrapped it around my palm, covering the burn mark. She then plucked a pink hairpin from her silver hair, a stray curl falling free after it, and secured the scarf on my hand. "There," She said smiling at her little handy work. "For protection. I imagine it's still sensitive to touch since you flinched a mile away from me just now."

"Thanks," I whispered and flexed my fingers, testing the security of the scarf. It was pinned in tight with a promise to uphold for a few hours.

"And last but not least.." She trailed off gently, grabbing my wrist, and lowered her lips to my covered palm. Jayda pressed a feathery kiss into the center of my palm where the burn mark laid hidden beneath her scarf. Immediately my cheeks warmed at the small gesture and I watched in awe as she pulled back and smiled at me sweetly. "...For the pain." She clarified with a playful wink, then took my unharmed hand in hers and held open the washroom door. "Ladies first," she joked and I rolled my eyes before stepping out into the deserted hallway.

"If I'm a lady, then what are you, Jayda?" I shot up my eyebrows at her playfully in question and without missing a beat, she replied:

"On all levels except physical, I am a wolf."

Releasing a chuckle that echoed throughout the empty hallway, I hooked arms with my knucklehead for a best friend as we fell into stride. "You're an ass is what you mean."

"That's an insult to donkeys, take it back." I bit back another laugh as I tripped over my own two feet and stumbled forward into something soft. A firm pair of hands caught me by my shoulders then slowly pushed me away from them at arm's length.

I was suddenly overcome with dread to look up into the pair of piercing gray eyes that I knew for a fact were there. My eyes were leveled with her plump red lips so I stared at that instead and tried to ignore the sudden hot pain in my palm.

"Rory, Jayda.. why are you two not present for this morning's assembly?" I heard the calm voice of Miss Grace from behind the towering figure in front of me. Warm hands released me and I took a cautious step back, desperately searching for my best friend. She was standing next to Miss Grace ahead, shooting cautious glances at me now and then, and said something quickly in a hushed voice to the secretary. "Oh. Everything okay now?" I heard her ask Jayda before giving me a worried glance.

I nodded, not knowing what excuse Jayda made up, but it had to be a good one if Miss Grace was willing to brush off our tardiness with a light wave of her hand. "Well. come on girls, Miss Addington and I will help you find some seats. We're heading there now."

Jayda abandoned me for the calm and secure presence of our sweet secretary ahead and I was stuck striding awkwardly beside Miss Addington, my tail tucked between my legs. I couldn't help but silently acknowledge the harsh change in atmosphere as I trailed behind the chatty pair up ahead. The cheery and comfortable air that had blanketed Jayda and me only a few moments ago was quickly iced out with a small chill up my spine the second I accidentally ran into Miss Addington's ample chest.

Gosh, could I be any more embarrassing in front of this woman?

"I hope we don't miss your introduction." Miss Grace declared over her shoulder with a hopeful smile, addressing the eerily silent woman beside me. Out of habit, I glanced to her at my side, hoping to catch her reaction, and felt my bones seize up as my hazel orbs locked onto her intense gaze. I faced forward quickly, heat crawling up my neck as I realized she had been staring at me all along. Did I have something in my hair? Or smelly for some reason? I lifted my arms slightly and subtly sniffed at my armpits.

Nope, fresh as a daisy.

"We won't." She spoke up suddenly, her voice carrying a silent promise through the empty halls. Her gaze never once shifted away from me, even when she had addressed the secretary ahead. Miss Grace, unaware of the staring contest with a party of one, pushed open the double doors leading into the gym and paused at the entrance.

The large room was preternaturally silent aside from the loud booming voice of the Principal bouncing off the walls as he spoke at a podium placed in the center of the squeaky clean gym floor. Surveying the bleachers for empty seats for Jayda and me, Miss Addington stepped forward to stand beside the secretary and Jayda fell back beside me.

"I'm sorry for leaving you, Rory." She quickly apologized, lacing her fingers with my own. "But I'm not sure I would survive even a second next to Miss Addington. She looked so serious and I was afraid she had it out for me after my earlier comment."

I sighed and shrugged off her apology, understanding her fears. "It's fine. What did you tell her anyway?"

"You seriously don't remember?" She whispered close to my ear. I shook my head and looked around for empty seats as well. The gym was crowded, not a single student seemed to be absent today. Four empty seats caught my attention eastward and I felt my heart plummet. The only seats available were on the opposite end where all the teachers sat, paying keen attention to the Principal and his still ongoing speech. Miss Addington pointed out the seats to her coworker and Miss Grace turned to face us with a wide smile. "Well, maybe that's for the best." Jayda quickly tumbled out, avoiding my suspicious stare.

"You'll have to sit with us today, girls," Miss Grace declared, gesturing with a delicate hand towards the four empty seats. I grabbed Jayda's hand and tugged her behind me towards the seats, desperate to not end up sandwiched between either her or Miss Grace and our bossy new teacher. I collapsed into the first chair next to Sir Leon, my former Chemistry teacher. I took his class the year prior to complete my third and final science credit. Ah, it felt so nice to finally be done with weird numbers and formulas I barely understood.

I whispered a soft greeting to the thirty-something-year-old man and sat forward in my seat as he smiled at me in greeting, half-listening to Principal Banks. I felt Jayda stiffen next to me and one glance in her direction quickly told me why. Miss Addington had occupied the seat next to her, leaving Miss Grace to take the remaining seat opposite the new teacher. I snickered silently to myself, happy to have avoided the situation Jayda was now in.

"You set me up," she hissed from beside me and I feigned innocence. Miss Addington unnecessarily cleared her throat next to us, silently telling Jayda to shut up and pay attention to what was happening upfront. My best friend visibly paled, which seemed impossible to me because her albino skin was already as white as snow. She gritted her teeth then, a silent threat to me before facing forward, zoning in on the Principal and his flashing pearly whites. I leaned back in my chair, hugging Jayda's arm as my silent apology, and pressed my head against her shoulder as I took in whatever the hell was going on in front of us.

"Please, students, I urge you to be kind to one another. I can assure you that bullying is not taken lightly in this institution; peer to peer, peer to teacher, or even teacher to teacher. I will not stand for it." I realized almost immediately why he had emphasized the 'teacher to teacher' specifically. Saint Stanhope was anything but a perfect high school. Normally, in any other high school, the students were responsible for a majority of the unnecessary day-to-day drama. However, my high school in particular was something special. The teachers here can spread gossip like the plague. News traveled faster than the coronavirus – the horrific pandemic which, thankfully, ended twelve years ago– and affected every person in its path.

It was the reason why, last year, two students were expelled, one teacher fired and another suspended. Miss Addington was most likely the replacement for Sir Jacob, the former English teacher and supplier of all teenage gossip he had no business getting involved in. I guess that's what you get for being too nice with some of the pricks for students around here.

I lifted my head from Jayda's extremely comfortable shoulder and surveyed the area for the face of a familiar teacher. Sure enough, one row behind us, sat Miss Price with her bony figure leaning into another teacher's personal bubble, hand partly covering her mouth as she whispered something into the now annoyed woman's ear. I recognized the teacher listening as Miss Aaliyah, my art teacher who was now gazing in the direction of Miss Addington with a slight frown on her lips. Not two seconds later and Miss Aaliyah was shifting away from Miss Price, a firm scowl set on her pretty face as she tried to adjust her blue hijab in a way to dismiss any more conversation from her annoying coworker.

I turned around in my seat with an eye roll that almost gave me a headache. Of course, she was already gossiping on her first day back. And about a teacher she knew absolutely nothing about at that. Only god knows what lies she was just formulating in that poor woman's ear. I lightly poked the half-asleep albino beside me and jerked a subtle finger in the direction of Miss Price, singling her out to Jayda whose face immediately scrunched up in disgust.

"This bitch." She muttered softly in my ear, her voice laced with disbelief as she eyed the eyesore for a teacher who was already bravely chatting up another one of her coworkers with false claims about Miss Addington. "Ignore her, Rory." Jayda quickly told me, gripping my chin between two fingers and tried to redirect my attention to the front.

"It's not fair." I gritted between my teeth, already getting worked up. "She should have been the one to get fired. Not Sir Jacob." I proceeded to complain to my best friend, not realizing I had subconsciously raised my voice a little too high and accidentally caught the attention of the ice-cold dark-haired beauty beside Jayda.

"What's the matter with you two?" She questioned, her tone more curious than annoyed with her gray eyes skimming over a nervous Jayda before lingering on me with a cold stare.

"Uhm, nothing Miss. Please excuse Rory. She's having a bad morning." Mint green eyes shot up to me desperately and I bit back anything else I was about to say. I sunk back in my chair and tried my best to hide from Miss Addington's line of sight but I could still feel her silver gaze on me.

"Well, it must be since this is the second time you're asking me to excuse her behavior." Thankfully she didn't sound as upset with Jayda as I expected her to be and my best friend audibly exhaled in relief and stopped trying to make herself shrink in her seat. "What is that on your hand?"

I glanced beside Jayda and realized this time she was talking to me, her gray eyes firmly focused on the colorful scarf secured around my palm. Out of instinct I reached out and touched Jayda's scarf almost in a protective manner and her eyebrows dipped suspiciously. "Nothing. I hurt myself earlier and didn't have a bandaid."

She didn't say anything for a long moment, her gray eyes slowly trailing upwards from the cradled hand in my lap until they locked firmly with my hazel ones. I began to shift uncomfortably in my seat, momentarily forgetting how to breathe.

"How?" She finally asked and I frowned, already forgetting what we had been talking about. "How did you hurt your hand?"

"Oh." I forced myself to tear my gaze away from her spellbound-like features and glared at the scarf on my hand, the burning sensation gradually returning. "I can't remember." Something shiny caught my attention from the corner of my eyes and I caught myself staring at the yin-yang pendant dangling between her breasts. That's strange, it looked almost exactly like the one in my...

"Well, I hope you feel better," was the last thing she said to me, yanking me out of my train of thought as her lips twitched slightly with the hint of a smile before facing forward in her seat.

"Thanks..." I mumbled more to myself than to her since she was already distracted by something the principal was saying in front.

"On that note, I would like for you all to give a warm welcome to your new English teacher." Principal Banks' unwavering gaze flickered to the raven beside us with an encouraging smile as he beckoned her forth with a wave of his hand to join her by his side at the podium. "Miss, if you will."

The teacher stood to her full height, her lean frame hovering over me as she tried to squeeze through the clustered space in front of my knees and the adjacent chair. Her long and obsidian tresses of soft hair brushed against my fingertips as she passed and I had to physically refrain myself from reaching out and running my fingers through it, desperate to thread them through their full length.

By the time her strong but indistinguishable perfume had left my nostrils, her elegant frame had already bypassed me and she was descending the short stairs leading out to the open gym floors. Her blindingly hot red heels clicked against the wooden floor in an anticipated rhythm as she approached the smiling principal, her slender arms firmly placed behind her back in a tight clasp.

Principal Banks bravely placed a comforting arm around Miss Addington's slim waist and guided her the rest of the way towards the podium, urging her to take his place in front of the microphone. For the first time that morning, I actually saw that woman smile. And my god was it beautiful. Small and barely noticeable if one's eyes weren't squinted at the perfect angle, but gorgeous nonetheless.

"Rory, pinch me if I'm dreaming, but I think that woman actually knows how to smile," Jayda declared with a small gasp from beside me. For the fun of it, I gripped onto a mound of soft flesh on her arm and pulled harshly. Jayda swallowed back a yelp as she shot me a vicious glare and I smirked at the red bruise already beginning to form on her pale skin. "Abusive bitch." She frowned and began to vigorously rub at the rapidly forming mark on her arm.

"Love you," I whispered to her playfully then kissed her cheek apologetically.

Redirecting my gaze back up in front, I caught Miss Addington shooting the principal an unsure gaze over her shoulder which surprised me since so far she seemed so well collected and self-assured. The chubby man simply gave her a thumbs up with his pearly whites on full display as he dabbed at a thick coat of sweat on his forehead and under his arms with a handkerchief. He reminded me then of my pastor in church on Sunday mornings when he would sit and take a water break from hours of preaching a gospel I never quite understood, the underarms of his shirt soaked through with sweat and droplets of the salty liquid dripping down the side of his face as if someone had just poured a bucket of water over his head.

I bit back a scoff. Nothing like powerful men who enjoyed hearing the sound of their own voice too much to care about keeping track of time.

"Good morning, students," Miss Addington suddenly spoke up, immediately grabbing my attention. Not like it had drifted elsewhere before. In fact, I don't think my eyes ever left her retreating frame the moment she stepped down from the bleachers. "As of today, I will be your new English teacher. You may address me as Miss Addington and nothing else. I believe my job here can be a lot easier if you can all cooperate and communicate with me only if necessary." She then paused for a few seconds as if allowing her words to sink into our slowly processing minds, then cleared her throat and addressed the teachers. "To my coworkers, I suppose the same applies to you." There was a chorus of 'wow's and 'okay then' from the surrounding male and female teachers around us, clearly offended by the new teacher's very blunt speech.

"She seems like fun," Sir Leon commented from beside me, the sarcasm in his tone not flying over my head as he clearly intended for me to hear him. I shifted in my seat and caught him smiling slyly at the scene before him. "I hope she teaches as well as she looks if that's the first impression she's trying to make."

"I don't think she's trying to make anything," I answered him after a long pause, gazing at the dark-haired beauty as she gave a speech to us seniors that I probably should have been listening to. However, for some reason, I wanted to know what an actual teacher thought of her so far and not some bird that yapped the moment it was fed. Brown eyes slid over to me in curiosity and the older man narrowed his already naturally slanted eyes, silently prodding me to go on. "I mean, it just seems like her personality you know. Maybe she really doesn't want to be bothered outside of anything concerning work."

Sir Leon sighed and fingered the brown stubble on his chin. "I suppose you're right. I wouldn't blame her if that's what she's aiming for considering last year's incident." We both visibly cringed, sharing one memory of what had happened. "It feels like Banks is going to make things a lot more difficult for you guys and us teachers this year too. I wouldn't put it past him to send in a team of technicians to install cameras in every nook and cranny of the school."