Unexpected | ✔️

9- All In A Day's Work

My palms clammed as I made my way to Mr. Cullen's classroom. Dean's reasoning echoed through my head. 

What if this was all a ploy for Mr. Cullen to sleep with me? 

I pushed the thought away quickly. There was no way he'd do that. Besides snarky comments, he didn't really prove that he was unprofessional in any way. 

You know, except for blackmailing me. 

Holding my breath, I opened the door. 

"Hey Bella!" Mr. Cullen called from the storage room. I followed his voice and found him surrounded by boxes and empty shelves. "Good, we can get started now. I'll only keep you an hour."

"What do I need to do?" I asked, even though the answer was obvious.

"Basically what you see. We're going to organize these books on these shelves."

"You couldn't do this yourself?" I asked with heavy judgment. He pursed his lips and didn't answer. I sighed and opened one of the boxes. I expected each box to have the same set of books, but I saw a variety of books sprawled across from me. "Really Mr. C? You couldn't have kept the same books in the same box?"

"Yeah, that would have been smart," he replied sheepishly. 

I shook my head and began pulling books out and stacking them in neat piles. "So, why me?"

"I already told you," he said distractedly, separating his own box of books. 

"Yeah, but why not any one of the male species?" I looked up at him, pausing my work.

A small smile played at his lips, but he never looked up at his box. "Honestly? Your journal. I thought it was funny how you went from a nice piece about your family to your utter hatred for one of my students. You seem fun."

"Yeah, that's a little embarrassing," I awkwardly chuckled, refocusing on the task ahead of me. "So, what made you want to be a teacher?"

And the rest of the time was spent of him explaining his decision and how he ended up here. He also told me it was his first year of teaching. I listened intently, enjoying hearing about his personal life. I added little comments throughout his spiel. 

"Oh wow, our hour's up! Thanks, Bella."

I tried not to act disappointed, but I was. I actually enjoyed spending time with him, and I was excited to see him again. 

I was also relieved he didn't try anything inappropriate.

"Oh, and Bella?" I hummed in response, gathering my stuff. "Can you not tell anyone else about this? I'd rather not have teenage girls swarming at my door."

I bit my tongue as I nodded. I had basically told all my friends about it. I just hope they could keep a secret.

"See you tomorrow," I called out as I left the room. To my surprise, Dylan was waiting in the hall. "Hey?"

"Oh thank God. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay," he rushed out, grabbing me by the shoulders and inspecting me. 

"Okay? What do you mean?" Then realization dawned on me. "Oh! Don't worry. I'm pretty sure he chose because of my lack of attraction toward him." I laughed, shaking my head. It sounded so silly. "He's a good guy though, you don't have to worry. Also, please don't mention to anyone else I'm doing this."

We started walking toward the exit. "You realize how suspicious that sounds, right?"

"Yeah, but he claims he doesn't want all these girls swarming and asking for help." He grunted and opened the door, letting me slide past him. "Wait, don't you have practice?"