A Girl Worth Fighting For {A Student/Teacher Relationship}

Chapter o5

I blinked a few times, not believing what my eyes were seeing. He was still there. Standing in front of the class, staring at me. Those deep blue eyes were staring right at me.

"Uh," Derek began. He cleared his throat again. He blinked a couple times then looked away.

Everyone in class started looking at me. I snapped my head back down. Derek swallowed very loudly. He walked over to his desk and sat down to continue roll call.

"W-welcome back. I trust that you all had a nice summer vacation," he said after he finished calling everyone's name.

A girl in the front of the class yelled. "Welcome back? You don't even know us." The rest of the class laughed. His gaze came back to me and I snapped my head down and looked at my desk.

"Then that can be the first thing we do today," he replied. For some reason I was smiling.

"What do you mean?" The same girl asked.

"Yeah! Can we ask you questions?" another girl asked. I looked back up and his face was bright red.

"If you'd like," he replied shyly. We caught eyes for a few moments until he looked away.

Derek. Derek was here. In my History class. As my teacher. How is that possible?

"What did you do this summer, Mr. Landerson?" A girl asked as she giggled.

Please. God. No.

"I went up to Canada and saw some famous sights," he replied confidently.

I can't believe this. How was he here? Why was he here?

"Sounds boring," some guy yelled.

"To you maybe, but not to me," he replied almost immediately.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" another girl asked.

"I don't think that's a very appropriate question to ask," he responded sternly.

"Oh come on, we all want to know!" the same girl said. A few other classmates started shouting out in agreement.

He looked over at me and we caught eyes. I could feel the butterflies starting. "I have been talking to someone." He said with a smile. I smiled and looked away again. You could hear a bunch of girls groan in disappointment.

The shriek of teenage girl laughter filled the room. There was at least seven or eight girls up by Mr. Landerson's desk. Flirting. They were flirting with Derek. They were flirting with their teacher. Wow I sound jealous. Derek seemed uninterested in anything they had to say and kept trying to encourage them to go back to their seats.

The girls' laughter got louder and louder and my headache was getting worse and worse.

"Do they really think they have a chance with him? He's their teacher for crying out loud. That's jut gross," Toby said to Cara and I.

"Plus he said he's talking to someone," Cara added.

I silently smiled while looking at my desk. "Yeah I hope they work out," I said.

The bell eventually rang and all of the girls complained about having to go to their next class. What were they expecting? Were they expecting Mr. Landerson to say 'oh, you guys don't have to go, you can stay right here with me.'? Yeah right. I grabbed my stuff and stood up to leave. Toby walked out first and I followed him. On my way out I looked over at Derek. He was trying to come after me, but he was bombarded with girls trying to talk to him. I smiled and nodded at him and then headed out to my locker.

I felt like I was about to puke. I took a drink from the water fountain and tried to evaluate what just happened. How could this be happening? I knew he was older than me, but I thought only a year or two. I figured he was in college but definitely not my teacher! This was crazy! I kissed my teacher! I shook those thoughts out of my head and went back to my locker. I threw my History binder in my locker and pulled out another binder. I slammed my locker shut and pulled out my schedule. I was on my way to English. The class right across the hall from the History room.

It felt like I ran to English because when I got there, I was short of breath. I got the seat farthest away from the door, just in case Derek happened to walk by. I was still trying to process everything that was happening. What if the girl he was talking to wasn't me?

Class had started but I couldn't get Derek off of my mind. The whole time the English teacher, Mrs. Wall, was talking to the class, I wasn't listening. I know I should have been but I couldn't stop my mind from racing.

How was this even possible? I couldn't believe this. Everything that went rushing through my mind all at once. Nothing made sense in my mind. But all I knew was that what ever I thought I felt for Derek, er, Mr. Landerson, I couldn't act on it. I had to act like it never happened. I could do that, right? But what about the kiss? What about our date? I looked down at my hands and I saw that they were shaking out of control. This was so stupid! Why was I shaking?

I spent the whole class thinking about him. When the bell rang, I ran out the door. Only four more classes until I could leave this place.

The rest of my classes went the same way as English did. I didn't hear one word any of the teachers said. All I thought about was Mr. Landerson. At lunch Toby tried asking me if I was okay because I seemed 'a little off''. I assured him that nothing was wrong and he believed me. That was one of the things I really liked about Toby; he never pried.

School eventually ended and I found Cara. We went to our lockers and went out to the parking lot to Matt's car. The whole time I was searching for Mr. Landerson, but I never got to see him. We waited a few minutes until Matt pulled up.

"How was my favorite girl's first day of senior year?" Matt asked Cara. I decided to be annoying and answer instead.

"It was great, thanks for asking," I replied.

He glared at me through the rear-view mirror. Cara and I both laughed. "I wasn't talking to you," he said.

"She knows that," Cara said. I smiled, satisfied.

Cara and Matt kept talking about her day and all about our hot new history teacher. Matt seemed to be getting jealous. "He's so young and seems like he really has his life together. He told our class that he was seeing someone, that must be one lucky girl," Cara said.

"Looks like I'm gonna have a nice chat with this guy and make sure he leaves you alone," he said.

Cara laughed, but he was being serious. "There's nothing to worry about. I love you. Not him."

"I love you too." Matt said. I pulled my phone out of my bag to see if I had any messages, but the battery was dead. I must have forgotten to charge it last night.

A few minutes had passed and Matt pulled up in front of my house. "Get out blondie," he said.

"Hmm. Thanks for the ride," I murmured.

"You better call me tonight, Elle!" Cara yelled as I shut the door and headed for my house.

I walked up to my door and unlocked it. I shut the door behind me and headed to the kitchen. I grabbed a quick snack and then headed up to my room. I pulled my phone back out of my bag and put it on the charger. I went to the bathroom, brushed out my hair and put it in a pony tail. I went back to my room and grabbed my phone. I had two missed calls and one new text.

The missed calls were from Derek. And so was the text message.

We should talk

It read.