I frowned, staring at the clock. It was now half way through first period.

And Arden wasn’t here.

Was he sick? Or was he ditching? No, I thought with a frown. Arden wouldn’t ditch me— I mean, his punishment from the whole food fight thing… Suddenly it felt like a weight had dropped in my gut. The one-month quota was almost up.

A frown appeared on my face. I knew I should be happy for Arden, but I really liked the help and company. I would even miss Oliver’s company when the time was up. Sure, the boys were a lot to handle, but they were also, in some weird way, fun. A sigh escaped my lips as I put my head down on my desk.

When I heard the door open I abruptly sat up, turning my head so fast towards the door my neck cricked. “Arden?”

Zak was staring back at me, raising an eyebrow. “No… Zak.”

“Oh.”

“Why do you sound disappointed?”

I looked away from him quickly, positive my face was the slightest shade of pink. “I’m not.”

“Sure.”

I turned back to Zak with a frown. He grinned back at me, coming over to my desk and hovering by the edge of it. “I brought you something.”

“Really?” I asked curiously. “What?”

Zak tossed an envelope on my desk. “Well, it’s more for Elliot… But because I’m an employee for Build-A-Bear I get really handy coupons that save a lot, but the problem is… I don’t make Build-A-Bears.”

I laughed, sliding the envelope closer to myself. “Is this some way to make me spend money at your store?”

“Maybe.” Zak smiled mischievously. “Anyway, was Tucker in your room again this morning?”

“Yeah,” I responded, giving him a quizzical look. “How did you know?”

Zak shrugged. “I just figured he went in every day. What happened this time? Did he punch you?”

I rolled my eyes. “No, Zak. Nothing happened.”

“Did you find out what he was doing?”

“Umm,” I hesitated, turning my attention to the white envelope that held the Build-A-Bear stickers. “Yeah.”

“What was he doing?” Zak questioned, leaning against the edge of my desk.

Now it was my turn to shrug. “Nothing really. Homework. I guess this is where he comes to do homework before class.”

Zak pursed his lips. “He seemed too suspicious to me to just be doing homework in here.”

“True,” I agreed, “but it really was what he was doing.”

“Weird.”

“Do you have class now?” I asked Zak, glancing at the clock. “Don’t you have to go back? I’m not trying to imply anything,” I added quickly. “I just don’t want you to get in trouble.”

Zak made a face. “But Ms. Allen, I hate math.”

“Me too,” I agreed quickly. “But if you get too far behind it’ll be hard to catch up, so I suggest you get going.”

“Fine. Make sure you put those coupons to use.”

I smiled at him. “I will, soon. I promise.”

Zak grinned back. “Good.”

He left the room, and I returned to my mindless daydreaming. I really wanted to know where Arden was. What if he was sick? Well, there wasn’t anything I could do about that… He was probably just skipping. Not this period, but the whole day. But it’d be nice if he came in later…

I shook my head. Why was I so caught up with Arden? I still needed to get ready for second period. The freshmen were quite the handful. Frowning, I marched to the supply closet to get the necessities for the chili we were making.

Third period was dedicated to working on Tucker’s lunch. After I had scanned the cabinets, I realized I didn’t know what Tucker liked or didn’t like, so I decided to go with something everyone usually liked— or if they didn’t like it, they’d still eat it: Pizza. I also had some chili from second period left over. Starting to whistle, I began spreading pizza sauce on the pre-made dough. The school literally had every kitchen necessity, and ingredient, known to man.

Five minutes after the lunch bell rang, Tucker came stumbling into my room, looking embarrassed. I beamed up at him from my desk, which only seemed to increase his embarrassment. His face was tinting the slightest shade of red. When I started to smile, he shot daggers at me.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he snapped.

“Like what?” I asked innocently.

“Like I’m some kind of animal you’re taking pity on.”

Well, he had the animal part right…

I frowned at him. “I’m not taking pity on you. I like to cook, you can’t cook, and you need lunch. It works out fine. However…”

Tucker looked at me questioningly. “What?”

I gave him a sheepish grin. “Do you think you could make me a list of things you like? I wasn’t sure.”

To my surprise, a small grin appeared on Tucker’s face. Before I could make a comment about it, he quickly rearranged his face into a nonchalant expression, and gave me a casual shrug. “Whatever.”

“That’s not going to help, Tucker.”

“I’ll eat whatever you want to make.”

“I want to make something you like.”

“Anything.”

“Tucker.”

“Ms. Allen.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine, but if you don’t like it, don’t blame me.”

“Have you told anyone?”

“Hmm?”

Tucker frowned at me, his lips pressed in a firm line. “About why I come in early…”

“No!” I responded quickly, shaking my head. “I won’t tell anyone, Tucker.”

He nodded once. “Good.”

An awkward silence settled in, and the only thing I could hear was the clock making quiet tick sounds as time passed. Tucker stood by the door quietly, his hands jammed into his pockets. His face was blank, and he was rocking on the balls of his feet. Eventually I had enough of the silence.

Clearing my throat, I stood up from my desk, gesturing Tucker to follow me. “Because I didn’t know what you like to eat, I made pizza… Do you like pizza?”

“No.”

I stared at Tucker in surprise. “I’m sorry. I didn’t…” I trailed off when a smirk appeared on Tucker’s face. I sighed at him. “Aren’t you the joker?”

Tucker shrugged. “Pizza is fine.”

“Do you want to eat in here with me?” I asked automatically. When the question left my lips I realized how odd it sounded. Tucker was probably a little unsettled now. “Uh, never mind. That was a weird question.”

“I don’t mind,” Tucker responded, surprising me once again. “What?” he asked when he caught me staring at him.

I quickly adverted my gaze. “Nothing… You’re just unexpectedly nice.”

“Well, part of our deal was that I had to be nice to you.”

“Oh, so you’re just being nice so you can use me?” I responded playfully.

Another rare, striking grin appeared on Tucker’s face. “Basically. I don’t want you to poison my food.”

I chuckled, putting on some oven mitts, and pulling the pizza out of the oven. “So your mean persona was just a ruse?”

Tucker shrugged. “Not really. I usually act like that. Especially when Arden is around.”

“Where is Arden?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“I don’t know,” Tucker responded, oblivious to my disappointment. “I texted him this morning, but he just said he was out with a girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend?” I repeated. It felt like something had shifted inside my stomach. I didn’t like the feeling at all.

“A girlfriend,” Tucker corrected me. “I don’t know which one.”

“Which one?”

Suddenly Tucker’s eyes shot open. Then his eyes quickly narrowed and he glared at me. “Don’t repeat what I just said to anyone!”

“I won’t,” I squeaked, still taking in this new information.

Arden had multiple girlfriends? Arden was a playboy? A small knot appeared in my stomach and I swallowed. Why did I feel so upset about this new information? It wasn’t like it affected me. I wasn’t his girlfriend. There wasn’t something between us. He was my student, and I was his teacher. It was as simple as that… and yet still…

“If Arden finds out I told you, he will personally murder me,” Tucker told me, now picking at the pizza still in my hands. “Ow!”

Frowning, I pulled the pizza away from him. “It just came out of the oven. Don’t burn yourself.”

“Too late,” Tucker responded with a scowl, shaking his finger.

“Clearly.”

Tucker scowled at me for another moment before heaving a sigh. “Look, if you want, I can text Arden again.”

My eyes widened. “Why would you think I want that?”

Tucker rolled his eyes. “I can see it in your expression.”

“But I wasn’t thinking that,” I protested. “If you’re willing though…”

“For a teacher, you’re pretty lax about me wanting to use my phone in school,” Tucker teased, whipping out an iPhone. When he noticed me eying it, he lowered his gaze. “Birthday present… I told my parents not to, but they insisted… It’s just a waist of money.”

I softened my look. “That’s nice of them.”

“Yeah, but they also could have bought heat for the house,” he pointed out, his eyebrows furrowing. “They do stuff like that sometimes.”

I smiled. “I can understand why. You know I have a brother, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, when you don’t have money, it’s hard to have to say no to everything you’re child, or in this case my brother, wants. Elliot literally wanted everything, but I had to say no because we couldn’t afford it. But sometimes I’d give in and say yes, and then I’d have to give up buying Tylenol or something.”

Tucker frowned at me. “But I’m seventeen-almost-eighteen. It’s different than when I was younger.”

“But to your parents, you’re still that little boy,” I pointed out. “Nothing will change that.”

Tucker’s face tinted red, and he quickly looked away from me. “Let’s just drop it. I texted Arden.”

“Has he texted back?”

“I just texted Arden,” Tucker responded, turning to me with a smirk on his face. “Anxious, are we?”

Now it was my turn to turn away in embarrassment. “No. I just don’t appreciate people skipping out on my class.”

Tucker gave me a guilty look. I smiled and rolled my eyes at him. Hopefully his habit of skipping my class would go away now. My class wasn’t even that bad— it was cooking for crying out loud. There wasn’t that much you had to do in it. The easiest A, if I ever saw one.

Suddenly a familiar song filled the room. Tucker quickly snatched up his phone, looking at it.

“Ice Nine Kills?”

He looked at me in surprise. “You know them?”

“Love them,” I responded with a crooked grin.

He began to grin back at me, but then the bridge of The Greatest Story Ever Told played again. Tucker quickly hit a button on his phone and put it to his ear. “Hello? … Yeah, she’s here. Sure.” Tucker turned and held out the phone for me. “He wants to talk to you.”

“He?” I echoed, reaching to take the phone.

“Arden,” Tucker stated as if it were the most obviously thing in the world.

I pursed my lips at him, bringing the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

“Harley,” Arden greeted in a joyful voice.

“Where are you?”

“Not at school.”

I frowned. “I noticed that. Why aren’t you?”

“Umm,” Arden hesitated. “I’m taking a personal day.”

Suddenly I heard giggling in the background, and then someone say something. Arden chuckled, and then I heard him say, “Shh, you’re going to get me in trouble.”

“Are you ditching to hang out with your girlfriend?” I demanded, sounding more irritated than I had meant to.

Arden cleared his throat. “What—”

“Arden,” a loud, girly voice whined in the background.

I raised an eyebrow. “Uh-huh.”

“Well, I… It’s not…” Arden trailed off, clearly at a loss for words.

“I wouldn’t be telling a teacher this,” I finally snapped. “You can get in trouble for skipping school to fool around with girls.”

“Harley—”

“Ms. Allen,” I corrected him. “You better be in school tomorrow. Goodbye.”

“Wait—”

I pulled the phone away, glancing own at it, and locating the end button. When the call was finished, I gave it back to Tucker with a scowl. He raised an eyebrow at me, shoving his phone back into a pocket.

“You know, right there you sounded more like a jealous girlfriend than a teacher,” he pointed out.

A small, startled gasp left my lips. “I did?”

Tucker nodded. “Very unprofessional.”

I resisted the urge to beat myself over the head with something hard. What was I doing? Was I jealous? A scowl appeared on my face. I had no reason to be jealous. I wasn’t jealous— I was just angry with him for ditching my class… no, ditching school altogether. I wasn’t jealous…

“Eat your pizza,” I finally grumbled at Tucker, shoving the hot pizza plate towards him.

He stumbled back in surprise, throwing his arms out. “Careful with that thing!”

I immediately stopped pushing it so it wouldn’t fall off the table. Tucker’s words still lingered in my head. Unprofessional. For some reason they made me feel really irritated. I was still a teenaged girl! I had hormones just like everyone else. Sure, I wasn’t a young girl, but I wasn’t an adult either. Unprofessional… I shook my head, letting out a sigh. How could I become more teacher-like?

Seventh period rolled around, and I stood at my desk as my class of seniors trudged in, looking wiped. A smile of amusement appeared on my face as they slinked into the seats, yawns escaping their mouths.

“Hard Monday?” I asked as Luke, coon-tail boy, trudged by me.

He gave me a flat look. “If you count three tests and two quizzes as a hard day, than yes.”

“Ooh,” I commented, wincing. “That’s a lot.”

“Yeah,” he snorted, going to his seat.

“Dude, move!”

“You move!”

“I was here first!”

“No you weren’t!”

I turned my head to the yelling voices, a frown appearing on my face. Joel and Joey were standing at the door, glaring daggers at each other. Suddenly Joel shoved Joey backwards. Joey only took a half step back before sturdying himself, and glaring threateningly at Joel. Before any more could happen I quickly hurried up to the pair of men, putting myself in the little space between them.

“What’s the problem?” I asked Joel, trying to keep my tone light.

Joel scowled at his twin for a minute more before turning his gaze to me. “Nothing,” he muttered, brushing by me.

I turned around to look at Joey, who looked irritated and hurt. When he noticed my gaze he immediately looked away, striding past me and into the room. A soft sigh escaped my lips. Joey and Joel were twins. How in the world could the fight so much, and so seriously, about the pettiest things? It made no sense to me.

But then again, my inner voice reasoned with me, you don’t know anything about them. That was very true. Just like Tucker had family troubles, maybe Joel and Joey did and that was why they argued with each other constantly… I shook my head. It wasn’t my business, so I shouldn’t involve myself.

The bell rang, signaling the beginning of class, and immediately everyone went silent and stared up at me expectantly. I smiled at all their patient faces. It wasn’t too long ago when they would totally ignore me at the beginning of class until I got angry. This was a pleasant change… it was too bad I was going to ruin it.

“Since there are a few people out today, for now you can keep your usual spots,” I started, my eyes darting around the room as I took attendance. Arden, Mason, Aaron, and Jeff were all out. “So, starting tomorrow, you will have new partners.”

A unanimous groan swept through the room, and I heard a few snorts. I looked towards the corner just in time to see Oliver roll his eyes. When he noticed I was staring at him, he smirked slightly. Immediately, I turned away, back to the rest of the classroom.

“Ms. Allen, you do realize there’s going to be problems if you set up… say… Luke and myself,” one of Arden’s followers who had dyed black hair like Luke, commented. I recognized him as Greg.

“I do realize that,” I told him. “But that’s the point. I’m tired of you guys arguing all the time, so you’re going to make friends with your partner.”

Once again there were a few snorts through the classroom, and even some mocking laughter. I narrowed my eyes at Jake, who was the one snickering. He immediately sobered up, directing his gaze to the floor.

“You’re serious?” someone asked.

“Completely.”

The class stayed silent as I stood in front of the classroom, trying to keep positive. To be honest, it terrified me a little bit to be mixing up the boys in separate school gangs. But it was what had to be done… tomorrow. I could enjoy the remote peace for at least today.

___________________________________

Phew! Two days early! :}

And no, I'm not updating APR early too.

[Today's Song: The Greatest Story Ever Told - Ice Nine Kills]