| Next Day. . .
Riley's head shot up from her folded arms when the bell rang for class dismissal. Usually, she was alert in class but today she felt overwhelmingly tired. Trent always worked his guard hard, but he became more demanding than considered normal since the encounter with Mr. Jackson, though his harsh critiques were aimed directly right at Riley.
Her body ached in places she didn't think were possible and her hands were still tender from all the tosses she had to catch back-to-back. Right after practice that ended around eight, she had to work on her assignments from classes and finish Mr. Jackson's packet. She didn't know where she found half of the energy to roll out of bed this morning.
She sighed as she glanced down at her half-written notes from the lecture and gradually put away her things in her bag.
'Guess I'm going to have to ask Michelle for her notes later.' She thought as she got up from the desk and made her way out of the classroom. Michelle was a good friend that Riley made acquaintance with since they had at least one class together since Freshman year. She didn't see her much this semester for some reason except for class.
The vibrant atmosphere from the bustling students didn't match Riley's mood as she slowly maneuvered through the crowd. She hoped that practice would be canceled today just so she could go home and take a much-needed nap.
She nearly stumbled when Jay appeared out of nowhere and embraced her best friend in a bear hug, but suddenly frowned when she realized Riley wasn't in such a good mood.
"What's wrong with you?" She asked while stepping back, then walked alongside her.
"Tired, and my body hurts." Riley yawned before giving Jay an immediate side-eye. "Shut up."
"What? I didn't even say anything!" She protested with a crooked smile.
"You didn't have to. Nasty."
Jay giggled as they turned the corner to class. "You didn't even know what I was going to say!"
"I don't want to know either." Riley replied, watching the hallways thin out as the warning bell rang.
"All I was going to say was that Trent probably worked you too hard-" She stopped short when Riley continued to side-eye her. "What?"
"Nothing sexual from you today? Shocker."
A mischievous smile appeared. "And Mr. Jackson finished the job by having you bent over that desk and that's why you're walking like you've got something stuck up your ass."
Riley playfully shoved Jay away from her and she laughed in response. "I spoke way too soon."
"Too soon." She agreed, still laughing.
Both girls entered the near-empty classroom, and Riley placed her packet in the wired basket before taking her seat next to Jay. Riley buries her head in her arms as Jay watched as more students filed into the room and drop their packets off at the desk. By the time the bell rang , the classroom was filled and Mr. Jackson walked in.
"Good afternoon." He cheerily greeted, and the class responded the same except for Riley. He took notice but didn't say anything.
"So, I've decided to start where Ms. Babcock left off." He took the packets from the basket and placed them inside a folder he labeled 'to be graded'. He figured it would be an easy A since all they had to do was fill it out and it would count as 10% of their final grade. "Which is the chapter of the Human Reproduction System. I'm aware that she previously made you write tons of unnecessary notes."
The class shuddered at the memory of her boring lectures and how she screamed if anyone dared to ask if she could go back one slide because she was moving too fast.
"You can discard those notes because we're not using them. I will be testing you on this chapter, so all you need to know are the terms that you'll copy from your textbooks and notes from the videos. This will be the easiest test yet, but I can't promise that future tests will be the same."
The class groaned at the thought of challenging tests and taking more notes as Mr. Jackson opened another folder to take out a small stack of sheets. He already had the screen set up, and while he waited for the overhead to get situated, he walked around to pass out the papers.
The students were relieved to see that it was a fill-in-the-blank note-taking sheet, and not having to write down every single thing. When he approached Riley's desk, he gave two sheets instead of one. Jay noticed and nudged Riley as soon as he walked away.
"Why'd he give you two?" She whispered and Riley shrugged.
She pushed the note-taking sheet aside and glanced at the other paper. Her eyes widened when she realized it was a sketch of her with the original picture clipped at the top. At the bottom, he had written: Beautiful picture. - Mr. Jackson.
As Mr. Jackson pulled up the video, Riley passed the sketch over to Jay. She gasped as her eyes scanned over the sketch, then she smirked.
"Mmm, I bet he was thinking about you aaall night." Jay winked and Riley appeared skeptical. She took back the sketch and tucked it away safely in her bag.
The class started taking notes as the video began, and Mr. Jackson started on grading the packets. Halfway in, the lunch bell rang. The students dropped their pencils and immediately headed toward the cafeteria.
"See you after lunch." Mr. Jackson said as he paused the video. He looked up as Riley and Jay were about to leave the classroom. "Riley, could you stay back for a moment?"
"Ooo." Jay teased with a smirk. "You better tell me what's up afterwards."
"Bye, Jay." Riley shooed her away, then walked over toward his desk.
Mr. Jackson stood up and bypassed her to close the door before approaching her. Riley felt her heart thrum erratically in her chest while rubbing her arm nervously. She stared into his eyes, instantly becoming mesmerized before having to force herself to snap out of the trance. She averted her gaze to her feet.
"Are you okay?" He asked, leaning against the edge of his desk.
She slowly looked back at his handsome face and nodded, some confusion etched across her features. "Yeah, why?"
"You seem a bit off today."
"I'm fine," she assured, "just a little tired."
"A little?" Mr. Jackson shook his head. "Riley, you dozed off two minutes into the video."
As if to prove his point, he walked over to her desk and lifted her paper. He grabbed another student's paper to compare. She only answered one of the questions whereas they answered eleven. He raised his eyebrow.
"Okay, I'm really tired. I had a ton of homework on top of practice yesterday." Riley confessed. "By tomorrow, I should be back to my normal self."
Mr. Jackson hummed to himself, putting the papers back down. "I'm guessing Trent was all over your ass, huh?"
"Yeah." Riley was still trying to process the fact that Mr. Jackson actually cursed. He was the only person she knew that could say an obscenity and still sound innocent as ever.
"Well, I apologize for any torture I may have contributed. I'm pretty sure he's not fond of me since yesterday's incident."
Riley half-smiled and tittered. "He wouldn't mind you if you weren't so attractive." She immediately sucked her lips in at what she said aloud.
'Smooth, Ry. Real smoooth...' Her mind chastised her.
Mr. Jackson bit the corner of his lip to hide his smile. "I didn't think many people would find me very appealing, but guess I was wrong."
Riley could feel her cheeks growing hotter by the second and at this point, she wanted to hide under a desk. She wasn't afraid to flatter guys about their appearance but telling Mr. Jackson that she found him attractive, caused her to feel embarrassed. She didn't understand why, though.
Maybe because he was her teacher and not a regular guy on the street.
Maybe because being in his mere presence caused her to grow weak in the knees and her heart to beat unsteadily fast against her will.
Mr. Jackson took notice of her faint embarrassment and chuckled. "I don't want you to keep Jay waiting any longer, so you can go. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
"I'm fine." Riley nervously smiled and made her way to the door. Before walking out, Mr. Jackson called her name and she glanced over her shoulder.
"Thanks for the compliment, by the way." He smiled.
"You're welcome." Riley said quietly, quickly walking out the door.