I sigh inwardly as I glance around the school parking lot. I was the last one here again. Which means all the coffee would be gone. I smooth back my light brown hair and push my black framed glasses back unto the bridge of my nose as I make the hike from the teacher's parking to the school. One day I would learn to not wear my black heels, but then again I've been saying that for the past two years.  As I pass a car I realize that the back of my white button down shirt has come untucked so after a brief check to make sure nobody is around I quickly re-tuck it into my black knee length pencil skirt before resuming my fast pace. 

"Hello Mr. Tulds." I declare with a smile so fake not even Barbie could replicate it as I wave at my boss. He doesn't bother with a smile, not that I find it surprising, but he does manage a wave before he rushes down the front steps to walk in tune with me.

"Miss Sharp as you are well aware we have a few interns joining us for the next couple of months." he states while he and I walk into the building, "and well I'm putting one of them with you for your first class."

"I didn't know there was an English major in our lot." I reply as I go over the list of interns in my mind.

"He was a late entry." was my boss' final word on the matter as he bustles away in search of one of the history teachers. Wait, my intern is a 'he'? This time I let my sigh out, as I'm alone in the hallway. I'm what you would call guy crazy and while I may not flirt with every guy around my age I sure do ogle a lot. Like a whole lot. I shake my head to try and dampen my overactive hormones before I step into my classroom.

"Ah you must be Mrs. Sharp, I'm Matt Hawkens." a masculine voice calls out to me and my gaze, which had been on the cup of coffee placed on my desk, shoots up to my left and lands into the dark pool of chocolate that is this man's eyes.  

"Miss." I correct while I force my eyes away from the sharp lines of his face and again from his spikey blonde hair.

"What?" his eyebrows bunch together and once again his eyes are the center of my focus. What can I say, I'm an eye girl. Well unless you have a shirtless guy with a six pack in front of me.

"It is Miss not Mrs. I assume you are the intern." I tell him sweeping away the image of six packs from my brain before I do or say something embarrassing.

"That would be me." he nods with a toothy smile and how did I not notice how full his lips are? I subconsciously finger my own un-attractively thin lips but I quickly realize what I'm doing and drop my hand down. His eyes follow my hand as one of his thick brows cock. I glance down to see what he looking at and see my hand resting on my breasts. My hand shoots down to land on the desk beside me and I frantically will away the heat that threatens the back of my neck.

"So what am I supposed to do exactly?" he questions and I silently thank him for the distraction. I hastily grab a small stack of paper and hand them to him.

"Place one paper on each desk." I demand and he shrugs before carrying out my order. 

"So what grade do you plan on teaching?" I ask as I place extra pencils in my desk.

"High school. What's it like?"

"To be honest I hate teaching at high schools. The kids can't control their hormones and if they don't pass its my fault." I mentally scoff at the whole can't control their hormones bit, talk about calling the pot calling the kettle black, but at least I do try to reign myself in.

"And you're teaching here because?" at this he stops to turn to look at me with an adorable look of confusion. Well I did say try. 

"None of the Universities around here are hiring." I shrug in a 'what can you do' way and after a few more beats of awkwardness he resumes his job. I tap my long fingernails against the dark wood that makes up my desk as I stare up at the clock and count away the final ten minutes before the start of the my first class.

 ~~~~~~~~

"Alright class first fill out the paper on your desk and then we'll begin with your oral reports on the books you were assigned." I tell the class and after a groan that lasts a full minutes, I timed it, they start on their assignment. I grin at the only sound in the room being the scratching of lead on paper but soon a hand pops up.

"Mr. Hawkens would you be kind enough to get that?"

"Yeah sure." he states as he slides out from his seat beside my desk and heads toward the back of the room but just as he begins to leave my area of hearing he mutters under his breath, "Since you don't want to."

    My eyes widen but I shrug it off, after all what can I really do in front of the students. I watch him carefully though as he squats next Harry Liams' desk to help the poor kid. Shockingly within what seems like no time at all Matt leaves the boy's side and returns back to his spot.

"What are you looking so surprised about?" he whispers to me as he sits down.

"Normally Harry doesn't grasp things that quickly." I say before I remember that I should've bit my tongue at that. Despite my hate for teaching them I really do try not to talk bad about my students. Well not as individuals.

"Maybe he just didn't have the right teacher." Matt smirked slightly and my jaw dropped at the barb but before I could whip back my retort another hand shoots up and he rushes to go help her. My fist clenches beneath the cover of my desk but my face remains neutral as I peer at the man who insulted me twice in less than ten minutes.

This is going to be a long day. I think to myself as I ease my fingernails out of my skin and discreetly wipe the blood off with a Kleenex. Luckily for me, and maybe even him, another hand pops up and I rise to answer it instead of hitting him over the head with my keyboard.  

"What do you need help with Jackie?" I ask somewhat sweetly as I stand next to her.

"I can't diagram a sentence for the life of me." she complains and one glance down at her paper confirms her theory.

"Well do you know what the subject of the sentence is?" I ask her and she nods while pointing to the word.

"I know how to pick apart the sentence but how do you diagram it?" she tells me while she slumps lower in her chair.

"Well we start by putting the subject and a verb on a line together but with a line between them." I wait for her to do what I said before I continue, "then you make a line that connects to the verb and on that you write your adverb."

"So that means that this word would go on a line connected to this." she exclaims before she writes the words into place. I smile at her warmly and for a second I actually kind of like my job.

"Impressive." a voice pips in from behind me and the urge to hit the man I have only just met rises again at his condescending tone.

"Thank you." I practically spit out with a smile etched deeply into my face but I don't turn around to face the big jerk.

"Alright everybody why don't we start with your book reports now." I declare loudly and a few of the students give me strange looks but I ignore them and go on, "Um Jackie you start."

      Jackie let out a strange sound that was created by mixing a sigh with a groan but slides out from her seat and trudges to the front of the room. She waits for Matt and I to get back to our seats though before she starts her report on The Count of Monte Cristo . I keep my eyes focused on my grade book as she nervously stammers though her rather short essay.

"Yeah teaching high school is so hard." a mumbled voice just barely reaches my ears but I already know who it belongs to.

"What does that mean?" I hiss out but I keep my eyes off him. 

"I mean what's so hard about listening to your students talk?" I can practically hear the smirk in his voice and my left eye twitches but I do try to keep my anger in.  My resolve breaks however the moment a muffled "That's what I thought." reaches my ears.

"Stop it!" I shout as I slam my hand on my desk and glare at the man who on all accounts is suppose to be helping me. "You are an insufferable imbecilic now shut up or leave."

"If I don't" his eyes narrow into thin slits and his already sharp feature seems to become like knives as his jaw clenches.

"Listen Hun, I have enough on my plate already so I don't need some better than thou college student who is still waiting for New Year's Day to be on my back too. So I say it again shut up or leave." I grit my teeth as he and I have a staring match but I refuse to back down. Even when an emotion that looked strangely like lust mixed with admiration stirs in his eyes. Finally he turns  away and sits in his seat but his eyes seem to trail after me as I move back to the front of the class. My face is red and each and every stood looks terrified, well except the one trouble maker in the back, but I just smooth my skirt down and try to act like I didn't just have a freak out  in the middle of class.

"Now Kandice I believe it is now your turn to read your book report."

    The young girl nods her head so quickly I'm almost afraid her head will snap off her thin neck but she reaches my side without a decapitation so I slip away to my own seat. Mr. Hawkens' eyes are still burning holes into me but I make a silent pact to ignore the agitating man for the rest of the day. My vow is quickly broken though when he places a piece of paper in front of me with the words What does waiting for New Year's Day mean? scrawled in a messy manner that only a man can accomplish. 

    Means waiting for your ball(s) to drop. I hastily cover my answer up by folding the paper in half and slide it back to him, never once letting my eyes leave the girl reciting her horribly written report.

    Ah clever. Can't let a class of dirty minded teens know their teacher is talking about balls. My face begins to burn once more and I discretely crumble the note before shoving it into the back of my desk drawer.

"Lovely Kandice. Now if-" Briiiiiiing  The bell cuts me off and in an instant the room is void of any teenage life. I stand up to collect their papers but I bump into a hard large mass the moment I step out from behind my desk. I glance up right into the stormy eyes of the guy I just insulted and dread fills my body but as I peer deeper into his eyes I find that they are void of any anger. Without warning he pulls me against him and lowers his face to mine.

"You shouldn't have yelled at me in front of the students." he whispers coarsely in my ear as he slides the dictionary back on my desk.

"W-why?" I stammer out as I try to rip away from him but the hand on my back keeps me in place.

"Check the book." his lips are practically in my ear but the second the last syllable leave his lips he pulls away and rushes out the door. My hands shake as I reach for the dictionary and open to the page that has a bookmark stuck in it. A gasp bubbles past my lips as a word highlighted in yellow stands out on the page.

Masochism n - 1: a sexual perversion characterized by pleasure in being subjected to pain or humiliation. 2: pleasure in being abused or dominated

"Maybe I should yell at him tomorrow?" I think aloud to myself but quickly shake the thought out of my mind. However, I can't stop the smile that spreads across my face, despite how disgusted I am with it.