Chapter 2

The guy had been precise with the directions so it wasn't difficult for me to figure out the classroom. I slipped into the class which was semi crowded, most of the people chatting away about pointless things, no one glanced up to see me walk in. That was a good sign. Being the center of attraction wasn't the kind of position I liked being in. I settled in a row where both the seats beside mine were empty; hoping the guy from earlier would want to catch up. Then I realized, I'd been stupid for not bothering to ask him for his name. But, then, neither had he. Oh well, there's always a next time.

A chubby, dark curly haired girl in the row towards my right, tsk-tsked me, she said, "Hi."

She was cute in the cuddle worthy sense with expressive green eyes.

"Hey." I had never been a social bee, but, I was going to try being friendlier this year. Maybe I'd be successful in finding a female friend after all.

"You look brand new." She narrowed her eyes at me.

"That's because I started today."

"Oh." She pointed at the stack of books on my desk, "Did you bring your Economics text book, volume three?"

I frantically searched through, and failed to find it. I laughed nervously, "Guess, I did not."

I had bought Volume 1-2. The man at the book store told me they'd ran out of stock. What could I have done? Tell him to print me a custom made copy? I think not.

"You're in for a joy ride." Sympathy washed over her. "Strap yourself tight and enjoy."

"Why?"

She leaned in; the scent of strawberry bubblegum filled my nostrils. "Mr. Masters doesn't take shit for no reason. He will torture you slowly, slit your throat from the back in a way you wouldn't even notice the pain. Pretty sly, arrogant even."

Yes, she was a lost case.

"I think I have an excuse. I'm new here." I explained.

"Wouldn't be good enough for him, I am sure, considering you missed a term. You should have a copy of the notes from the earlier term." A second later she added, "I could have helped you since I'm a desperate escapade, but running away from this class will only mean I'm getting closer to my impending doom."

What did she just say?

She went back to skimming the pages. She was the only one who had bothered to open a book.

The last warning bell had the loitering species file into class sheepishly, looking more like a herd of sheep followed by Mr. Hot-Shot from earlier, who strode briskly towards the center of the room, and slammed the binders and paperbacks on the teacher's oak desk.

You heard me, teacher's oak desk, the slamming being too loud had the rest of the loitering herd of sheep file back in.

This guy had to be kidding me, slamming books on the teacher's desk and all.

"Good morning, class." He leaned his butt on the desk, folding his arms across his chest, scanning the room with those mocha eyes I'd found myself falling into.

I was definitely imagining this.

"Alana Hayes."

Just the way I imagined him call out my name in front of god knows how many people.

"Ms. Alana Hayes."

That's when his gaze locked with mine, holding out my economics notebook. My Economics Notebook.

I stood up abruptly without missing a beat, all eyes zeroed in on me. My hands were shaking. Goddammit! The first guy I ever thought I could develop a crush on is a teacher?

A professor who taught my class, no less. My head buzzed with the aftershock. I noticed he wasn't smiling warmly at me, the way he was doing just a few minutes ago, like he'd switched on the hulk button, the gorgeous boy demeanor had vanished into thin air.

"I'm assuming you're having my notebook, Ms. Hayes." He asked me softly in that authoritative voice.

I spread the books frantically all over the desk and found one addressed to Rowan Masters. I grabbed it and made my way through the aisle. We exchanged our books without a word, and then I walked back to my seat, realizing we must have swapped the books during our last interlude.

"Those of you who aren't carrying the text book, I suggest you walk out. Now!"

"Told you so." The girl chimed in.

I stood up once again, overwhelmed with shame, heads turned once again in my direction. Another guy, sitting right at the back with his legs hoisted on top of the desk earlier, climbed to his feet as if his butt had caught some serious fire, and walked out the classroom, without so much a second glance. Leaving me all alone to deal with the demon professor. I noticed everyone else had brought their text book materials unlike me. Nightmare.

"Alana," Mr. Masters called out to me, "I'll excuse you this time only because you're a new student."

I blabbered on about why I didn't carry the book with me and that the store was due to get the books by next week. The professor offered me his text book for the time being.

He was Demon Professor with a good heart.

The rest of the class dragged on with him lecturing us over chapter seven, which I hadn't the slightest idea what it was about, because I was too busy checking him out. I'm telling you, he was so great looking, too good even for a professor. Definitely in his mid-twenties.

He walked rounds across the area as he taught, occasionally drawing a shitty diagram on the white board with a marker, his delicious mouth opening and closing as he explained. I wondered how it would feel to have his lips on mine or have those delicate masculine hands all over me.

A girl cannot stop having wild delusions now, can she?

I plunged back into the pond of reality when he stared back, his penetrating gaze lingered on me until I was forced to look away. I bet my cheeks were crimson. There was a smile plastered on his face because he knew what effect he had on women in general.

Forty minutes in, and I wasn't sure what I'd understood so far. As if on cue, the bell rang and the class was dismissed. Relief and disappointment washed over me in equal measures.

The girl from earlier spun to face me, "Do you stay in the dorms?"

I started to jab the books back in my bag, "Yeah I do. You?"

"Me too." she continued, "The elite rooms, huh?"

Yes, the elite. The dorm rooms were classified into two the general rooms where two or more girls shared a room depending on the size while the so called Elite rooms only allowed one girl per room, so apparently, the girls living in the dorms had named it that, although I refused to think of it otherwise. It had nothing to do with me being snobbish or tantrum throwing, being the only daughter of a brain surgeon and a lawyer came with a benefit of its kind.

"Yeah." I figured she must live in the general dorm since she dropped the dorm hierarchy discussion and jumped to fast introductions, what was the deal, really?

"My name's Nina."

I started to open my mouth to tell her mine, when she asked, "Alana, right?"

Right. Of course. She heard the hulk man call me out. Who didn't?

I nodded, as she offered me her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Alana."

Numbers, Facebook id's and other communication mediums were exchanged. She was nice enough to offer me to show the next class, which would have saved me the time for navigation. I picked up my bag and crossed the aisle.

Mr. Masters appeared to be busy with putting away things back in his briefcase. He looked up, not making any eye contact, he asked, "Alana, would you mind staying back for a minute?"

Nina looked at me apologetically; she waved her long finger nails at me, mouthing me a see you later. I sat in the desk nearest to the lovely Greek god, drinking him in. His muscles flexed as he began writing in a blue file. When most of the class was cleared, and a few nerds walked out after clearing their silly doubts, we were completely alone. The clock ticking, was the only distraction on the depth of silence.

He stood up. "Alana, have you picked the notes from the earlier term?"

"No, sir."

"Figured." I was relieved to see him smile again. "I have a few extra copies of whatever you might have missed from the last term. It's in my office, if you'd kindly follow me."

I followed right behind him to his office which was on the same floor towards the end of the hallway. He halted right outside a door that had a name plate stuck on it that read Mr. Rowan Masters. He led me inside. I scanned the office as I stepped in. The office was a cozy one; the huge office desk occupied most of the center space. The sunlight poured from the large windows was suffocating bright, but it highlighted the color of his dark hair. I noticed the money plant growing with the support of the wall. It felt refreshing and had a Go Green vibe.

"Here it is." he found it, and thrust the copy in my hand.

"Thank you, sir." He studied me, doing that sexy thing with his eyes again.

I swallowed hard, wishing I could squirm under that table.

I wasn't dismissed yet, the office door was shut tight, couldn't get any better. If he decided he wanted to sexually harass me, I would be glad to oblige. I smiled to myself and the smile quickly faded when I noticed I was still under the hawk eye.

"Are you shocked to find out that I'm your teacher?"

"Yes." I admitted. "Very much."

He grinned, almost teasingly, I smiled. "Just so we are clear, I don't date teenagers, and definitely not my students."

He was so straight forward, it was unnerving.

"I realized as much."

"Good, also I'd like to inform you about the two hour study group sessions I take during the afternoons every twice a week, for students who have difficulties understanding certain units, and since you're new it occurred to me that you could use some help. So if you're interested, you're welcome to join."

"Oh." It took a while to sink in, "Uh sure, sir. Yeah. I'll be there."

Like Totally.

He smiled in approval.

"So, I've already written my number on the back of your study material copy. Okay? In case you need some help feel free to call me."

"Yes, sir." My heartbeat was so rapid like it wanted to jump out of my chest.

"Good." With that I was dismissed. "Off you go."