Chapter Forty-Eight…
“You don’t think Jord will really lose his job, do you?” I asked Matt, who was sat in the chair accompanying the desk my backside was occupying.
As much as I had been encouraging Jord not to even consider the possibility he might lose his job, that didn’t mean I was one hundred percent. I still held as much doubt as he did, but I didn’t want to put him off by vocalising that.
Matt sighed. “I honestly don’t know.” He replied, face grim with the possible outcome. “I don’t want Jordan to lose his job either, but I don’t know what Mrs. Danks is like, like you.”
I thought back to my many meetings with her and tried to pick out the ones she’d been genuine in.
There weren’t a lot to go at.
She’d gone as far as to exclude me, but I knew she’d been close a couple of times. She’d always listened to my side of the story, but hadn’t generally put much trust in it. The only time she’d ever picked my argument over someone else’s, was when I claimed Zack tried to rape me.
The one time I’d been lying to her.
She’d defended Jord that time though, so maybe she’d favour him again.
“Plus, like she said, not many people applied for the position last time, what makes her think she’ll land someone better at the job if it becomes available again.” Matt pointed out logically. “Like you made a point of saying, Jordan’s a good teacher and everyone respects him, albeit aside from the rumours, she’d be stupid not to recognise that.”
I smiled. Without being incredibly biased, Jord was a phenomenal teacher.
The classroom door opened then and I held my breath, for some reason expecting the worst. It was only the supply teacher, who had been covering the class whilst Jord was with Mrs. Hippo, exiting.
When she turned around, I noticed it was Mrs. Vaughn, the teacher Leonie had made a point of informing about mine and Jord’s relationship earlier. What an unhappy coincidence.
“Jessica.” She commented, sounding surprised. “Shouldn’t you be in class?”
I glanced at Matt, willing him to come up with an excuse that wouldn’t be incriminating in the slightest. It wasn’t looking likely, though.
“We were at Mrs. Hi-Danks office and when we came out there didn’t seem much point in going back to lessons.” He explained, quickly stopping the insulting nickname slipping out and getting himself in even more trouble.
Mrs. Vaughn nodded, before her eyes suddenly snapped back to Matt. “Who are you?” She inquired, having realised she was unaware of his identity.
“I’m Jordan’s brother.”
“Oh yes, you must be who Leonie was talking about earlier.” She agreed, causing me to instantly grimace. She could still remember the little details, which was obviously fantastic. Mrs. Vaughn grasped what she’d just said then as well and glanced at me awkwardly. “About what Leonie said earlier…” She trailed off, unsure of how to broach the subject, obviously uncomfortable about bringing it up.
“It’s a load of bullsh-rubbish.” I rapidly corrected myself, not wanting to get into her bad books when she had the power to take the rumours straight to the top of the chain. “Leonie’s just trying to spite me because I’ve done some things to humiliate her recently.”
Matt grinned. “Such as breaking her nose.” He reminded me, smirking as he pictured Leonie’s still slightly disfigured nose.
I shook my head, glaring at him. “Not helping Matt.” I scolded, before hurriedly turning back to Mrs. Vaughn and smiling sweetly at her.
“Either way, that’s quite a whacky rumour to have invented without some kind of proof.” She pointed out knowledgably.
I tried not to scowl as she pushed for more persuasion. “The other week I was kidnapped by my father.” There was no sign of shock present on her face, so I assumed the staff had all been briefed with that information. “Jor-Mr. Armstrong got really mad, because he could see him taking me through his window. That got spread around and then Leonie grasped at straws to come up with this mindless gossip.” I explained, trying not to flinch when I remembered what Grace had told me about the extent of Jord’s anger.
“I suppose that makes sense.” She agreed, resulting in me holding in a sigh of relief. Any sort of positive statement from her was a good sign. “What were you with Mrs. Danks for? I presume, if it had something to do with Mr. Armstrong’s brother then it was something to do with him as well?” She guessed knowingly.
“Yeah, it was something to do with both of them.” I concurred, not wanting to give too much away and having the fact Jord was being threatened with the sack circulating around the school. There wasn’t too much more he could take.
She gave me a pointed look and I instantly knew which conclusion she’d reached.
“For God’s sake, it’s nothing about the ridiculous rumours that whore Leonie has been spreading!” I exclaimed, releasing only a fraction of my anger at the situation for a moment, before reining it back in again.
Mrs. Vaughn looked taken aback, but composed her face quickly. “Okay.” She said quietly, obviously not wanting to provoke me anymore. “What was it about then?”
“Mrs. Danks said it was confidential.” Matt informed her, before I even had time to think of a response.
I caught the disgruntled look on Mrs. Vaughn’s face, but she knew that if Mrs. Danks had said it was confidential that it wouldn’t be being repeated any time soon. “Right, well then, nice speaking to you both.”
With that, she walked off, probably back to her own classroom.
Our luck being how it was, Mrs. Vaughn wasn’t the only person that happened to walk past Jord’s classroom whilst Matt and I were still waiting outside it.
When driving to school, I had noticed the rain, of course, as I complained about how it was making my hair all frizzy. I hadn’t even considered how it would affect PE classes, however.
It only occurred to me now, as the whole of the class I was supposed to be in walked past Jord’s classroom, drenched and understandably moody. Leonie’s mood seemed to brighten considerably when she noticed Matt and I, though.
“Well, would you look who it is!” She announced loudly to the rest of the class as they seemed to come to a standstill around us, all waiting for the inevitable drama to unfold. “It’s the whore and her secret boyfriend’s brother.”
She was speaking overly loudly and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was doing that for Jord’s benefit, who would more than likely be able to hear from inside his classroom, since she had chosen to stand next to the door.
I sent daggers at her, making my hatred well known to all parties, not that they were oblivious in the first place. “Fuck off Leonie.” Was my well thought out comeback. I wasn’t going to rise to her bait though, so that was the best reaction she was getting out of me.
Where their teacher was at this point, I have no idea.
“Aren’t you even going to deny it?” She goaded, sneering unattractively at me. “Or is that because it’s true? Don’t you want to deny you and Mr. Armstrong’s undying love for each other.”
I held back a retort that might have led to some bad consequences and stuck to my menacing grimace. “You know it’s not true Leonie, so why don’t you stop your bullshit and move on with your pathetic little life?” I stuck to something safe and typical. If I made this made more personal than it already was, then I might slip up and give something away which she could use against me.
“My life is not pathetic.” She replied, only highlighting her stupidity by using my insult with the word ‘not’ in it. “And I do believe the rumour is true. Why else would you be sat outside his classroom?”
I suppose she’d got me there. Without revealing the whole fight scenario and making everyone more suspicious my saying we’d been to Mrs. Danks’ office, I didn’t really have any valid reason. “Am I not allowed to sit outside a classroom, with my ex-boyfriend,” I thought I might as well reiterate that point whilst I was speaking. “And talk? I was with the police and I didn’t see the point in going back to lessons, so when I saw Matt, I sat and talked to him.”
Shrugging nonchalantly, I thought I’d made a pretty reasonable excuse up.
“Police, eh?” A voice I recognised as Chloe’s butted in. “I wonder if that had anything to do with you and Mr. Armstrong?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, or it could have to do with the fact I was kidnapped. That would generally be a reason for the police to see me.” I remarked sarcastically, making her glare at me.
The teacher, who must have been gathering equipment, going by the fifteen tennis rackets she was skilfully balancing on her arms, appeared then. “Why have we all stopped? Oh, hello Jessica, why weren’t you in my class?” She inquired when she noticed I was indeed the reason everyone had reached a halt.
“I had to see the police.” I outlined briefly, not needing the same detail I went into when convincing the rest of the class I was not waiting to have sex with Jord in his classroom, or whatever whacky idea he’d come up with.
“Oh, of course.” She obviously had the logic to work out why, without jumping to ridiculous conclusions. “And who’s this?” She gestured at Matt, who was still occupying the chair which accompanied my desk.
“Matt.” I answered vaguely.
Leonie felt the need to clarify it further, however, by adding: “He’s Mr. Armstrong’s brother.”
“Oh right, what a coincidence.” She acknowledged, her face showing no hint of suspicion, much to Leonie’s disdain. “Well I would have said you needed to come to class, but it’s nearly time for the end of school bell to go anyway.”
I nodded. “Thanks.” I smiled genuinely at her. She was one of very few who had actually seemed genuine in my police visits and hadn’t given me some kind of accusing look and assumed the worst.
“Right then class, time to get back to the changing rooms, I’m guessing you want to get out of these sodden clothes!”
She ushered them along, but Leonie couldn’t leave without making one more comment. “See you later whore!” She called as the rest of the class started dispersing. “Have fun with your boyfriend when he’s finished teaching!”
I sent her a dangerous look, but she ignored it. She wasn’t frightened by me, because I had nothing to threaten her with. I was sure as hell going to try and find something though.
I only noticed then that my teacher had waited behind and was glancing at me sympathetically. “I’ve heard the rumours Jessica and of course I think they’re just Leonie being spiteful.” I smiled at her understanding, but couldn’t help the gnaw of guilt, knowing that actually Leonie was pretty spot on in a lot of the things she came out with. “It’s very selfish of her to gossip when you have other things going on in your life, but it’ll all be forgotten soon.”
I gave her a genuine smile and tried to convey with my eyes how much someone in a professional position believing me actually meant.
“I hope so.” I agreed, praying that she might be right, but knowing that, in reality, she wasn’t going to be.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matt, Jord and I all sat in Jord’s apartment, watching the news, but not paying any attention to it. With the amount of drama going on in my own life, I couldn’t really care less whether the News of the World was shutting down.
“I’m guessing you heard all that outside your classroom earlier.” I commented, knowing Jord would respond with an affirmative gesture.
“Yeah,” he agreed, grimacing. “Typical Leonie.”
“When do you think she’ll get bored of spreading rubbish about me?” I asked rhetorically, knowing the answer to that was probably never.
“She’s got to get fed up eventually, so long as you don’t react to it, if she doesn’t think it’s bothering you then she’ll get no enjoyment out of it.” Matt pointed out knowledgably.
I raised an eyebrow at him curiously.
He shrugged guiltily. “I might have liked tormenting people back in the day.” The way he said that made him sound about eighty. “Let’s just say it’s no fun when no one’s getting annoyed about it.”
I laughed. “You make a good point.”
“It’s like how you and Jordan don’t get annoyed when I make innuendos about you anymore.” He pouted. “That was so much fun.”
Jord and I grinned, looking at each other. “I really don’t miss those.” Jord commented.
“Hey, I’m going to make a drink, does anyone want one?” Matt suddenly offered.
Jord and I both nodded, knowing Matt would already know what we were wanting.
“About someone catching us earlier…” I trailed off, determined to broach the topic despite my reluctance. I needed to clarify some things and make sure we were still alright as a couple. My worries about our relationship were still there. “What do we do about that?”
A sigh emanated from his lips and he wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me into his chest. “What can we do Jess? We can’t exactly go around asking people if they walked in on us kissing earlier and hope the first person says yes. We just have to wait now, until they decide what to do about it.”
I grimaced. “I just hope they don’t decide Mrs. Danks needs to know before they tell us that they know.”
Jord nodded grimly. “Exactly.”
I hesitated before asking what I really wanted to know. “You don’t regret doing this do you?” I inquired, gesturing between the two of us.
“Of course not.” Jord responded immediately, glancing at me curiously. “Why, are you?”
I shook my head instantly. “No.” I assured him. “It’s just that being caught, makes it seem more real, the risks.” I explained my logic. “I thought you might be having doubts. I mean, if this person who caught us isn’t someone friendly, what happens then? It could be all over.”
“And that’s why I want to make the most of it now.” He agreed, his hand tracing a random pattern on my shoulder. “There’s no point in having regrets about this, because if I was going to do that, it would have to go as far as taking the job in the first place, since that was the thing that started all this off in the first place.”
I grinned, giving him a quick peck on the lips. “I don’t have any regrets either.” I managed to get out, before his lips were back on mine again, a bit harder this time.
“You know,” I started, in between one of our fast and fierce kisses. “If we were going to get caught, it could have at least been something a bit more impressive than the little peck.”
Jord chuckled against my mouth. “I know.” He agreed. “Imagine how shocked they would have been if you’d been bent over a desk or something.”
I laughed. “Leonie would have been having a field day, if she walked in on that.”
Matt re-entered then bringing drinks with him and pulling a disgusted face when he took in our increasingly close position and the realisation that we’d been sucking face that came with it. “I’m surprised you haven’t just asked me to leave already.” He remarked, smirking at us and waggling his eyebrows when he noticed my faint blush.
Jord just gave him a flat look, grabbing his mug of tea and bringing it to his lips, cursing under his breath when he burnt himself.
I rolled my eyes at his childishness. “You would’ve thought you’d have known by now not to drink boiling water.”
He scowled at me. “I didn’t know it was still boiling.” He explained defensively.
“Couldn’t you tell from how hot the cup was?”
“No, the mug didn’t even feel that hot.”
“What, do you have like, heat resistant hands now?”
A knock on the door interrupted our playful bickering and Matt got up to answer it. I was prepared to make a scamper for the bedroom, depending on who it was, but I was relatively safe when I heard Matt voice greet his mother. “Hi mum!”
The only precaution I took was to scoot away from Jord on the sofa and grab my own mug of hot tea to sip cautiously on and look occupied.
I settled to resting it on my knee, though, since the cup was too hot and was burning my hands. “The mugs definitely feel hot.” I informed Jord pointedly as Audrey entered, struggling to keep the cup falling over and spilling all over my legs and the furniture.
Jord just shook his head at me and smiled pleasantly at his mother. “Hi mum.” He repeated Matt’s sentiments.
“Hi Audrey.” I tried to sound as welcoming and hoped she wouldn’t shoot me down like I was expecting.
It was a slight improvement to normal when she didn’t just give me a stern glare and actually replied. “Hello Jessica, Jordan.” Her tone might have been displeased, but it was still a step-up.
“What are you doing here?” Matt inquired, coming to sit down beside her on the sofa opposite Jord and I.
“I just came to visit.” She said nonchalantly. “I haven’t seen Jordan since that day he rushed off to go to your,” she gestured to me, “trial for something or other.”
“It was to see if my dad would get custody of me.” I muttered, knowing that she didn’t really care, but needing to clarify anyway.
“And did he?”
“No.” I responded bitterly. “So he kidnapped me instead.”
For once, Audrey actually appeared shocked and genuinely concerned. “Really?” She queried. “He didn’t do anything too bad, did he?”
I tried to hide a smile at what looked to be honest interest and pulled up the sleeve of my jumper, revealing the long scar that had been my only injury from his kidnapping. “Only a cut from his knife.” I assured her. “Jord saved the day.”
I nudged him in the stomach cheekily, still remembering his indirect confession as he tried to stop Arthur taking me.
“Why aren’t I surprised by that?” Audrey commented.
“I didn’t really do anything.” Jord contradicted me, grimacing at the memories. “Even my inspirational speech did little to deter him. I might have jumped in and got you, but it still meant Mel got shot.”
“Your speech helped me.” I grinned knowingly at him.
“Someone got shot?” Audrey exclaimed, having only just picked up on that.
I sighed. “Yeah, my dad had a gun which he was holding against my head when trying to get me into a car. He couldn’t get the door open and that’s when Jord dived for him. He managed to pull the trigger though and Mel got hit in the shoulder.”
“When he shot it, I thought he’d shot you.” I told Jord, wincing as I remembered my panic.
“I thought it would be me he’d shoot as well.” He admitted, much like he had to Mel’s parents in the hospital.
“I still don’t think you should have gone on a suicide mission like that.” I scolded him, more than grateful he’d come out unscathed.
“And let you be god-knows-where right now? I’d rather be dead.”
I scowled at him. “Don’t say that so casually!” I chastised.
He chuckled. “Sorry.”
Audrey shook us away from our conversation then with her own comment. “Has your dad been arrested now then?” She checked.
I nodded. “Arthur’s locked away safe and sound for the moment.” I stated. “Even if he is managing to cause trouble from beyond the jail cell.”
I was regretting that comment already when Audrey gave me a curious look, opening her mouth and getting ready to request further explanation, but another knock on the door cut her off.
“Who the hell is that?” Jord inquired, bewildered. “All the people I’d be expecting to knock on my door are already here.”
Regardless of his confusion, he still got up to answer it.
When the door did open, however, and I heard what the person behind it blurted out, unaware of the consequences, I grimaced.
“I’m the one who caught you and Jessica kissing in your classroom.”
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Sorry for the late update, and I'm going to apologise in advance for the next late update as well. I'm going on holiday tomorrow and I won't have internet access, so that rules out updating altogether I'm afraid :( I won't even be able to write :(
But onto the positives and thanks for the votes and comments, I love them all and I got nearly 50 votes on the last chapter alone! I can still remember when I had that for the whole story :')
Sorry if I've left it on a cliffhanger for a long wait, but at least it's quite a long chapter!
Hope this was enjoyable and thanks for reading!