It's My Life • Shawn Hunter

120| Everybody Loves Stuart

Angela stood and leaned against her pole. "You're a good teacher, but a bad pool player. You owe me a coffee."

"Alright. Anybody else? It's on me." Stuart insisted, receiving several requests. He let out a chuckle. "Hey, guys, I only have two hands here. Zoey, do you want to help me out?"

Zoey nodded. "Sure."

Zoey got off her seat and began walking beside Stuart as they strolled towards to the small coffee shop.

"You know, actually, I want to thank you." Stuart said.

"What did I do?" Zoey asked.

"You took my class. You challenged things. A teacher likes a student who participates and shakes things up. Makes class more exciting." Stuart explained with a smile.

Zoey smiled. "Thanks. Thanks a lot."

"Keep it up." He insisted before turning to the waiter. "Six coffees." He then glanced back at Zoey. "'If we don't challenge our leaders, we have no right to complain over how they lead'."

Zoey looked at him, surprised. "That's a quote from my paper."

"It was a good paper, Zoey. You got a little lazy on the summary, but we'll go over it." He reassured her. "How's campus life?"

"Well, Topanga and I are in McKay so small rooms, lousy food." She replied.

When their coffee ordered arrived, Zoey picked up the extra coffees while Stuart took the caddy. "Welcome to college."

••••

Later that day, Zoey and Topanga were in their dorm room. Topanga was getting ready to go to the Student Union while Zoey laid on her bed doing her homework.

Then a knock was heard from the door.

"Hey!" Stuart greeted, poking his head into the room with a genuine smile.

"Hi!" Topanga greeted.

Zoey looked up from her notebook to see Stuart. "Oh, hey, Stuart."

"Hey, I was in the neighborhood, and we talked about going over the paper, so... okay?" He asked.

"Great. Sure. Thanks." Zoey said with a smile.

"All right. Topanga, I don't have your paper, but we can discuss what I remember." Stuart insisted.

Topanga shook her head. "Oh, no, that's cool. I'm actually on my way to the Student Union."

With that Topanga walked out of the dorm room, leaving Zoey and Stuart alone.

Stuart sat down at the desk and faced her. "Zoey, this paper was too good to fizzle out on the conclusion. You're too smart for that. Here look." He took out a pencil and traced underneath her titles. "'It is possible to cross the line morally and yet not cross the line actually'. Now, that's vague. I don't know what you're talking about."

"Why?" Zoey asked, sitting up on her bed. "The paper was on morality and ethics, and I was just saying there are definite grey areas."

"Yeah, I know what the paper's about, because, you see, I assigned it." Stuart said. He then got up and sat beside Zoey on the bed. "I just... I want you to be more specific. The devil's in the details. I'm sitting here with you, for example, right?"

Zoey nodded. "Yeah."

"I'm your teacher, and I find you attractive. But we're talking about the assignment. Now have we crossed the line?" Stuart wondered.

"Um..." Zoey began. "I don't think so, no."

"I'm your teacher and I think you're attractive. And now we're not talking about the paper. Have we crossed the line?" Stuart asked.