King of Hearts (House of Cards Series 2) [Student/teacher]

Eight of Diamonds

For once West found himself greatful to need to go do the routine of school. New Year's had been a bust for him, emotionally and physically. After walking away from Joao, he should have known that the dog wouldn't leave well enough alone. The next morning West had woken up before his owl of a 'la and cleaned off the toilet paper, eggs and graffiti Joao had tagged their home with. He didn't say anything about it, especially not to his grandmother, but it just added to the foul mood he had brewing. Maddison had probably done exactly as he suggested and erased his number out of her cellphone, because West hadn't received a single message from the spirited red head. His thumb glided over the buttons of his own phone, trying to decide if he should erase her number too, just to eliminate the temptation to text her.

Of course, school presented it's own set of issues too. Romeo slammed West's locker door closed, narrowly missing West's fingers in the process. "Dude what the f***?" West hissed at his best friend.

The Trinidadian glowered at him. "I had a good thing going with ther younger Avery! But I can't very well hook up with little sister when you've just devastated bigger sister and they know we're best friends, now can I?"

West blinked for a moment, understanding making his eyebrow raise. "I didn't know you were still with Siobhan. Sorry man, you guys kept it pretty d*** low key."

Romeo glared death at the Cuban for another minute, then sighed and threw himself back, leaning on the lockers roughly. "Unlike the two of you. Jesus christ almighty you guys are athletic."

West felt a smirk stretch his lips. "Yeah... I'm not even going to lie and apologize for that one."

"I hate you." Romeo stated with a flat stare. "I wonder how Maddison's going to react when she realizes that Siobhan already knew about the age difference and hadn't said anything?"

"S***, I didn't mean to strike up family fighting." West cursed, running a hand through his hair. It was long and waved wildly, always looking styled but never needing effort. He knew girls thought it was so bada** and hot bad boy of him. He didn't care, he just knew Maddison loved how silky it was and liked to grip it when....

"Sick dude, I can tell by the gleam in your eyes that you're being perverted in your head right now. That's not right." Romeo b****ed.

West laughs, good humour temporarily restored by his best friend. "I need to give you the heads up man, sick dog from my past has made his way back into my life." West filled his good natured friend in on the details of the history behind Joao and his animosity while they wandered to class.

 When lunch came around and West learned with the rest of the senior students about the newest stipulation for the trip, the GPS locators they were all expected to wear, he cursed out loud for a while in his native tongue. He'd been hoping to use the trip away as a chance to sink into some distracting hedonism. In fact he was planning on dragging the ever tempermental Romeo out to get into a decent piece of trouble every night he could between now and then, just to help get Maddison out of his system.

So you can imagine West's overwhelming surprise when he walks into class after lunch and sees the dance teacher has been replaced with none other than Maddison. The moment his eyes landed on her, he froze on the spot, and she felt the weight of his stare.

Maddison hadn't know that THIS was the highschool West went to. After he had left her in the White Room, Maddison had thought that was the end of things. She'd stood there, in HIS house for almost ten minutes, so confused she couldn't even cry. Yes she was pissed off that he hadn't told her. Yes it weirded her out to think that he was three years younger than she was. Yes it made her feel like a pedo-bear whenever she thought about the fact that the man who made her scream and not because of fear or anger was a HIGHSCHOOLER. But had that meant she was finished with the sultry Cubano? No. But apparently he was more than finished with her. His sisters had found her still standing in the room. The eldest one had made some sort of disparaging remark about West's mental acquity and the youngest, Ophelia had taken Maddison's hand in a comforting grip. She may only be nine or ten years old, but that little girl had the soul of Mother Theresa and Jack the Ripper combined. Some of the less flattering things she said about her brother made even Maddison raise her eyebrows. And then little Ophelia had told Maddison that she was better off without West unless he could learn 'to be a real man and not a walking teenage-ego'.