Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 97337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
For the rest of the evening she didn’t let her eyes touch him again, but she was very aware of his presence and the fact that every once in a while he’d lift his head up and stare in her direction.
Her skin grew feverishly hot under her clothes and there were butterflies playing tag in her nervous tummy. It was very unsettling to be the recipient of his silent looks. But worst she felt like he was seeing more than she wanted him to with that stare of his.
It made her restless, this new feeling. Almost like she was exposed in front of the classroom, that old anxiety nightmare of coming to school naked has never seemed more real.
Because she was so out of her element, it took her a little bit of trial and error to get things rolling. But surprisingly once they did, they were off to a good start. She did notice that Drake seemed to be the leader of sorts in this group.
She’d seen more than one of the others look to him for the answer to something. And the way they treated each other, was not what she’d expected even after all the stories she’d heard. She guessed everyone was right after all; there is something special about Drake Davenport.
Her mind wandered slightly as they worked on the problem she’d just given them to solve. She wished she’d had the foresight to look into their social media activities. You can learn a lot about kids these days by following them on one or the other of those platforms.
But she still wasn’t clear on the correct protocol for that. Since the kids she usually dealt with were between the ages of five and eleven, she’d never faced the question before. But something told her she needed to learn as much as she could about Drake.
Just thinking about it gave her a flutter in her tummy, and she skated back away from the danger of feeling anything other than what she’s supposed to feel as a teacher.
Not that her thoughts crossed the line or anything, it’s just that she was a bit unsure of how to deal with the unwanted nervousness she felt. It was a different sort of nerves and unease than she was used to.
She’d never experienced anything quite like it, and wondered if it was the build up from all the stories she’d heard about the young man that was making her this nervous. It was kind of like meeting a legend after hearing of his accolades.
He had his head down as he wrote when she happened to glance his way again after promising herself that she wouldn’t. When did eighteen-year old boys start looking like full-grown men?
Just then, as if sensing her interest, he picked his head up and asked her something about the equation she’d given them to configure.
Even his voice when he asked the question didn’t sound like a child’s but a man’s. The tone did something strange to her nerve endings and the longer she sat there the more desperate she became. Especially when she felt his gaze.
“Pardon?” She felt the heat of a blush when she realized she’d just been staring absently and had totally forgotten what he’d asked just a few seconds ago. His knowing smile as he repeated the question didn’t help matters any either.
He took pity on her and kept his head in his book after that. Or more rationally, she told herself, he never even noticed her as anything beyond the fact that she was the new substitute teacher and was busy doing the work she’d laid out for them.
When she wasn’t letting her mind drift where it ought not to, she realized from the questions they asked and the diligence with which they approached the class, that they were indeed serious and what’s more, intelligent.
Still she couldn’t get out of there fast enough and head home to her lonely little cottage to hide when the hour and a half was up. She was equal parts ashamed and intrigued. Ashamed because although he’d already turned eighteen, he was still her student and the teacher student relationship has always been frowned upon when it crossed certain boundaries.
And then she was also ashamed for even thinking about that because it implied that she was interested, no tempted…Oh what’s the use? She accepted the fact that she was in way over her head in any case. The intrigue was self-explanatory.
Even though she’d heard the stories, she’d told herself they were just a lot of hoopla for the local boy done good. But something told her after that first meeting that they hadn’t been far off the mark. There truly was something special about the kid.
She’d never been attracted to anyone a day in her life, and because of her anti-social tendencies, she had no idea what to do with the new unwanted and very inappropriate feelings that had decided to plague her now.