Her peers seemed different when she arrived to school the next day. It was like she faded into the backgroud like a forgotten memory, which was just the way she liked it. Laura ran to Beth to share the good news.
"Heather Sinclair sent nude pictures to every contact in her cell phone. Pics ther were ment for Michael Miller. You're old news!" she squealed.
A sigh of relief spilled out from Beth's gut as she hugged Laura and hurried to class. Mr. Inman was right. Beth even stopped in the hall several times on her way to class to discuss the new gossip of Heather Sinclair.
The warning bell rang and students ran through the halls to avoid tardyness. She zigged and zagged to keep from spilling the coffee she just purchased, but when she looked away for just a moment, she felt herself brush against another body and trip. Her coffee went flying through the air. An arm wrapped around her mid-section, and she found herself sitting in the lap of a man, coffee all over the two of them.
She spun around to apologize to the personw ho saved her from falling on her face, and froze. She was only a few inches from the face of the new History student-teacher. Mr. Inman.
The tardy bell rang. From down the hall the two could see Mr. Conklin pointing at them. "Tardies!" he yelled, and slammed the door causing bursts of laughter to erupt from the class. She quickly remembered she was sitting on his lap and crawled off.
"My coffee's on your shirt... and pants... and shoes..." Beth pointed out.
"My yogurt's in your..." he laughed.
"Hair...bra, flip flops?" she finished his sentence.
"Let's go to the teacher's lounge and get cleaned up. he suggested.
She followed him down the hall and into a corner of the school no student was allowed to enter. They washed their clothes off and were given sweatpants and t-shirts by the office secretary.
"And my hair looked really good today," Beth broke the silence, drying her hair with a hand towel over the sink of the lounge.
"Your hair looked good yesterday, and the day before too, like it does now. So shut up," he scolded.
"Do you tell that to all of your studednts?" she couldn't beleive she had said that out loud.
He simply smiled to himself and put their wet clothes in a plastic bag.
When the two entered the room all wyes fixated upon their matching outfits.
"How cute, you guys match!" Mr. Conklin declared.
Beth playfully whipped her towel at Mr. Conklin's leg and took her seat, leaving Mr. Inman to explain their tardyness to Mr. Conklin, and to almost all of the students that were eavesdropping.
"What happened?" Dana whispered.
"He spilt his yougurt on me, I spilled my coffee on him. We had to change," she explained, not moving her eyes from the notes on the board. She had so much to catch up on.
"How romantic," teased Dana. Beth playfully punched her arm and prepared for taking notes.
During lunch Beth and Mr. Inman began to talk and socialize more on a friend to friend basis rather than just a teacher and a student.
They tuned the laptop to ABC to listen to the news and sports reports just as they began talking.
"So... how old are you?" Beth asked, just out of curiosity.
"I'm 21. How old are you?" he questioned.
"I'm 18." She lied.
"That's funny because your records say 16." he grinned.
"Do you stalk every students' record like that?" she sassed.
"Nope. Just yours," he said taking her banana. "Do you harrass all of your teachers like this?" he asked.
"Nope, just the ones who spill yogurt all over me in the hallway and don't apologize," she took her banana back, peeled it and took a bite.
She caught Mr. Inman staring at her like he did the very first day. She shot him a look of confusion and he quickly looked away.
"What?" she questioned. "Do I have something on my face? Yogurt? Did I not get it all?" she joked.
"I want you to remember something, I'm an old ass. Okay?" he said coldly.
"W-What? I don't understand..." Beth trailed off.
"You will when you're older, like me. Alright?" he said.
She had no idea what he was refering to. "You're not even that much older than me. Like five years?" she tried to change the subject some.
"Five years is a lot of years." was all he said. He stood up from his seat on the top of the desk in front of hers, and went to the back of the room.
The bell to signal the end of lunch was minutes from ringing when Beth began to gather her things to prepare to leave. "I better get going... I have to study for Pre Cal----" And as if destiny had other plans for Beth that day, the principal's husky voice quicly came over the intercom in a hushed, seriously frightened tone. "WE ARE NOW IN A STATE OF LOCKDOWN. I REPEAT, LOCKDOWN, LOCKDOWN, LOCKDOWN. THIS IS NOT A DRILL."
Mr. Inman's eyes widened as panick spread over his face. "What does that mean?" he questioned.
"Shit. They didn't train you on this?" Beth whispered. Luckily, she knew just what to do from her Teacher Cadet class. She was left alone during one lockdown due to her advisor being out to check on other students, so she had plenty of experience. "Okay. A lockdown means no one enters the school, no one exits the school. They usually do this to practice incase of a shooter on campus. And since this obviously isn't a drill, there must be a shooter somewhere roaming the halls. Quick, close the blinds." she explained. She turned the lights off and locked the classroom door. School procedure was to slide a green card under the door if everything was okay, and a red if it wasn't. But that never really made ans sence to Beth considering the shooter would be able to tell if someone was actually in the room, so she didn't.
She motioned Mr. Inman to join her on the floor behind Mr. Conklin's desk, the farthest point from any doors or windows. "You have to stay really quiet." she whispered.
Suddenly, a news broadcast inturrupted the previously playing Soap Opras on the laptop screen. She quickly grabbed it from the top of the desk and sat it in her lap. Mr. Inman leaned in close.
"We're reporting live from North Shore High School where a gunman was spotted in a tree towering over the football field. He claims to be armed with a Pistol and a shotgun, and says he wants a child. A female. So he can leave, and no one would be hurt. The man, unidentified, is dressed in a clown's suit and says he doesn't want to hurt anyone. The school has been put on lockdown until the situation can be handled."
"Oh my God." Beth claimed. "I hate clowns."
"Lucky he's on the other side of campus. I feel like I can relax now." Mr. Inman laughed as he imagined the scene playing in his head. "What a lunitick."
The two sat side by side watching as the newscast went off the air, and a commercial showed for the Pretty Little Liars television show.
"How do you feel about Lunitics like that, chillin' in a tree requesting for a teenage girl to satisfy his perverted needs?" Mr. Inman asked.
"I feel like it'd only happen in this town. Only in Lakewood." the two of them laughed.
As they soon realized that the Lockdown wasn't going to end anytime soon, the two began discussing topics of debate in today's society. Abortion, Gay rights, and many others. Mr. Inman discussed his taste in music, and turned the laptop to a personal favorites playlist he created for himself.
"So what's your opinion on student-teacher relationships?" Beth asked comfortably, refering to another Pretty Little Liars ad playing on his Pandora site.
"I feel like If they love eachother, let them be together. And if the guy really wanted to keep his job, why not just until the girl graduates, or just be very secretive about it." he explained cooly.
Beth blushed. If it were her deepest darkest desires, he would be talking about her right now. The two of them. Maybe that was his way of giving her hope for after she graduated. Just then a text brought his cell phone to life.
He read it, and busted out laughing, uncontrollably. He leaned over onto Beth's shoulder and showed her the text. It was from Mr. Conklin.
Dude. I don't know if I can survive this. It's been three long hours, stuck in a bathroom with a bunch of teenage girls staring at me, asking me questions if i'm single and stuff, and michael miller trying to get their attention with REALLY bad jokes- HELP! how you holding up with beth? i'm so jelous of you right now bro
Beth laughed too. She took the phone and texted back.
sry, going through the contents of your desk and listening to music with beth. super busy. bye
They both laughed when he simply texted back:
asshole
Just as they finished looking through the section of his desk dedicated to storing things that he has taken away from students, a song, very familiar to Beth began to play on the laptop. It was called "Beth" by Kiss.
"Ugh! change this crap." Beth stuck her tounge out in discuss.
Mr. Inman looked at her in suprise. "What? This isn't crap. This is one of the classics. It's a good song. Why don't you like it?"
"Because my name is in it! Do you know what it feels like growing up, and meeting a teacher or an adult for the first time, and they break out into song randomly because your name is in it? And everybody laughs at you. Mr. Conklin has even sung it to me when I was a freshman. And besides, I think it sends out a bad message, I can live without a man, I'm not going to whine or complain if a guy isn't home on time, or call if I miss him you know?" Beth explained.
"Would you miss me?" he asked. She couldn't tell if he was serious.
"No." she lied.
He looked faux-offended. "Fine. If we survive this, and you don't get kidnapped by a crazy psycho clown, Imma play your song in class, so everyone can hear it and sing to you." he grinned.
"Noooooo!" she whined. "You suuuck!" she playfully slapped his knee.
She wasn't too worried becasue after this ordeal, she knew he would never remember to play it.