"You've ever been tackled by a sixty-two year old woman?" As Dustin finished his story I couldn't help the laughter that bubbled out of my chest.

"Quit it, she did not!" I insisted once I had finally calmed my outburst.

"She did! She said, 'Dustin! You get on the next flight to that girl or so help me!" His imitation of Aunt Sue was far from spot on, his voice reaching peaks I hadn't imagined possible for him, but warmed my insides at the thought of her actually saying those words.

"What a lady." I shook my head, the visualization of Aunt Sue throwing Dustin to the ground played in my mind, causing laughter to flow from me without end.

"After the words she said to me, I don;t think lady would be the word to describe her with." I slapped his chest and then proceed to roll to the other side of the bed where my alarm clock flashed in bright red digital numbers, 6:00. A groan was released from deep within me as my mind registered this.

"Suppose I should be getting ready for work." I threw my arms to the sides of my head and smiled as Dustin wrapped his strong, muscular arms around my waist.

"Or," he began peppering kisses on my neck, "take a personal day, no one needs to know." His words were tempting but I pushed him away.

"You have work too, mister." I propped myself onto my forearms and grabbed a pillow that I slapped onto his face so I was able to make a quick escape out of his arms and dash off into the bathroom.

"At least let me hop in the shower with you!" He hollered from his place on the bed, I shook my head at the thought before willing every nerve in me to lock the door and prepare for school.

The day seemed to go in slow motion; my most recent class had been more than awkward as Opal and Max couldn't keep their hands off of each other, though my heart soared at the young love they were experiencing. My last class had rolled around and as they settled I announced the plans for the day.

"Today, we'll be switching seats!" No one groaned, in fact, many were happy while I was going to redeem myself. The desk were set up in sets of tow and I went and I walked over to a pair placing my index finger down on one of them, the two students their looking worriedly at me.

My glasses sat perched on the bridge of my nose as I lowered my gaze to have a better view through them, "Carson and Abbie," Abbie shot her head up to look at me, a smirk planted on her lipstick covered lips, Carson elicited a groan though a pink color tinged his cheeks. Carson had proven to not be the jealous type at all, leaving the Jaycob plan a dud. "Jeanne and Genevieve." Genevieve had been rumored to be with another boy and Jeanne wasn't one for socializing after the incident on social media. "Colton and," My voice fell for a moment as I looked over the sea of expecting faces, girls pushed their chest forward as their gazes fell to him, his head hung low. "Colton and Toby." I started over, pairing him with a tall, red-headed boy who was the school's all-star basketball player. Colton raised his eyes to look at me and offered a small smile, I replied with one of my own. Many girls shoulders began to sag after the words left my mouth, though, I knew Colton had not been prepared for a new life partner.

After assigning the rest of the class, I watched as they mingled with their partners, not many were flirting, though this class was dominated by males so many were paired as friends.

"We're going to be studying MacBeth in depth, we'll start with the relationship between MacBeth and the three witches." I began, smiling as the moans were released, this is what I missed over the winter break.

Harper, Dustin and I sat around the table, Mabel had politely declined the invite seeing as she had most likely assumed my apartment had been cursed to bring misfortune to her.

"I hope you don't mind," Harper began to say only to be interrupted by a loud knock at the door, "I invited a guest." She stood from her seat and whisked the door open, throwing her arms around the guest. Specks started barking to draw more attention.

"Hey, stop that!" I commanded him, he sat on his bottom, readying himself in case it were an intruder.

"I hope I'm not too late." The female voice said, though it was a bit muffled.

"Don't worry Mom, you look great, so at least your fashionably late." Hearing the word 'Mom' caused Dustin to stand from his seat and wipe his hands onto his jeans. My eyes went wider than a deer who had been caught in the middle of a road.

"Dustin," I whispered as my Mother's petite figure came into view, she looked over at us and her eyes went about as wide as I imagined mine to be at the sight of Dustin before a smile fell onto her face, crinkling around her eyes.

"And you must be the boyfriend." She began making her way towards us, I raised to my feet and my hand immediately went to grab Dustin's bicep.

"Dustin this is my Mom, Mom this is my Dustin." I added a 'my' before Dustin's name and facepalmed at how childish it had sounded.

"Oh, nice to meet you, you can call me Margaret." She offered her hand to him and he bent to that his lips had grazed it, I could tell he was fearful of shaking her frail hand.

"Nice to meet you, ma'am." He smiled, his pearly whites on display as we all sat down.

"Well this is a surprise." I said, my words more so directed towards Harper. We had begun eating before her unexpected arrival and Harper had excused herself to fetch Mom a dish and began to fill it with the beef stew and mashed potatoes I had prepared.

"Well, Harper rang me and asked if I'd be interested in dinner and I just couldn't say no." My Mom replied with, I wasn't upset with her presence, however, a heads-up would have been nice. I smiled at her, softly and then turned my gaze back to Harper, shooting her a death glare and my foot kicked her shin, not with as much force as was necessary. "I'm glad too, it's about time I got to meet your boyfriend here." She nodded towards Dustin who was chewing on a piece of beef and had a bit of the gravy running down the front of his face.

"Oh, babe." I picked up a napkin and pushed it to his face to which he grabbed it from me and began dabbing it away. "He's a real treat." I joked as he crumbled the napkin into his palm and looked over to me with a smirk stretching his lips.

"It's very nice to meet you too, ma'am."

"Oh, such a gentleman! I did tell you to call me Margaret, didn't I?" She gushed with an under lacing tone of teasing before forking a couple piece of carrots and celery. "This isn't my recipe, is it?" She used her fork to point at the stew on her plate.

"No, I saw it on Food Network." I answered and watched as her face contorted into an unusual expression.

'Well, my recipe has worked well for close to twenty years, I'll have to get it to you." She casually mentioned, causing a bit of rage to flow through my veins.

"Right, thanks Mom." I bit out, the words not coming out menacing in any shape or form.

"Say, when are you going to start bringing a man around?" She began interrogating Harper, as her mouth gaped open to reply, Mom continued, "and I mean a man, not one of those helpless," she stopped, looking for the correct phrase, "'bad boys' you seem to attract." Harper bit her lip at this and a snort almost fell from my nose.

If it were possible, Harper's face would have filled with a deep red color and smoke would have flooded from her ears and nostrils. "I'll let you know." She shoved a forkful of mashed potatoes into her mouth, as did my mom.

Mom let out a strangled noise as she tasted them, "suppose you got the mashed potato recipe from Food Network too?"