Standing at the front of the room was what I presumed was Ms Sawyer. Black pumps stood as the base to long milky legs. A tight grey pencil skirt stopped just below her knees and tucked tightly in was a white button down shirt. She turned around and her dark curly hair swayed to one side as I was greeted with an impeccably white smile behind beautiful pink lips. Almond shaped eyes peered at me through perfectly curled lashes. She was beautiful.
"Hello, I'm Ms Sawyer." Her voice was like silk and it seeped right into my chest and got stuck there, trapping my own voice.
There I stood mouth agape, pleading with myself to just say something, anything.
"Uhhey.." I shook my head as if to wake myself up from a dream. "I'm Shelby." Why did I have to be the first in the room? She smiled at me and looked me up and down, was she checking me out? No way. I knew I was good looking. I had a certain look about me that people were drawn to I guess. Average height, long dark hair and tanned skin from spending too many days at the beach. But what really got everyone was my eyes. Piercing blue, I often got accused of wearing colored contacts. I had a good body due to my addiction to running. But there was no way this beautiful woman was looking at me the way I had just looked at her. Or the way every boy in the school and some girls looked at me.
"You can take a seat anywhere you'd like Shelby." She smiled again, my name rolled off her tongue and it made my knees go weak. I took a seat towards the back of the classroom and waited anxiously to see who would be joining me in the goddesses company. And Chelsea was right, my luck was horrible today. Tony Adams walked in with Jimmy and Talon. They were wrestlers and Tony was my ever annoying ex-boyfriend. Before i announced my interest in girls we were one of the most infamous couples in the school. Picture perfect. At least on the outside. Now things were awkward, he did not know how to let the past go.
"Oh hey Shel, how's the carpet tasting these days?" He announced, causing a roar of laughter from the other two boys. I rolled my eyes. His ego was clearly bruised. "Oh I'm just kidding babe. Relax. I know you're just enjoying the best of both worlds,
sampling every specimen in the pond before returning to me." He put his arm around me and kissed my cheek. I pulled away and scrunched my face as if he smelled.
"You wish, still upset that I grew bored with you Tony?" I shook my head. "You poor thing."
By now more students had filled the room and Ms Sawyer was passing out some papers.
"Okay everyone, settle down now. I'm Ms Sawyer, I'll be your British literature teacher this year." Whistling ensued and every guy nudged his neighbor and raised his eyebrows at the brunette. She rolled her eyes and continued. "I know this is an extremely difficult course and this class period is exceptionally more challenging because it is an Advanced Placement class. If it proves to be too difficult for you, you have three weeks to request a college prep or fundamental course instead. But I do urge you to cease the opportunity you've been granted and tough it out with me, I'll help you beyond measure. My door is always open" I swear she looked right at me when she said the last part. I must have been going crazy.
I looked down at the papers she had placed on my desk, contact info. Her basic information was on the first. Molly Sawyer. Followed by her email and the best times to contact her.
The second sheet was questions about us; name, address, phone number, email, etc. I hate the beginning of the school, these things are so tiresome. The rest of the class Ms Sawyer just told us about herself and the way she ran her classroom. She told us that she was an English major with a minor in theatre arts, she had three sisters and two brothers, big family like mine.
I could listen to her talk for hours and never get bored. The words rolled off her tongue like silk and she was very well spoken. But still she seemed a little shy and nervous. It was adorable.
I was brought from my thoughts by the shrill sound of the bell dismissing us to our next class.
"What's your next class?" Tony asked me wrapping his arms around my waste. I sighed, and gently pushed him off. "I've got a free period, how about we go and uh, talk in my car" he continues with a wink. We had such a strange relationship. One minute we were at each other's throats and the next we were perfectly fine and probably kissing each other's throats.
"I can't, I have..." I looked at my schedule. "Theatre arts?" I didn't remember signing up for theatre.
"Oh come on, blow it off. That's a bullshit class" before I could reply a shadow appeared over us.
"You have theatre now Shelby!? Well you might as well stay here, I teach theatre as well." Ms Sawyer smiled at me, raising her eyebrows. Was she listening to our entire conversation? How embarrassing. "Mr Adams I don't think you're in my theatre class so you can leave now if you don't have any questions about the previous lesson." Tony looked shocked but nodded his head. He kissed me on the cheek and told me he'd call me tonight. With one last look at Ms Sawyer he was out the door.
"He's your boyfriend?" She asked me as she leaned against the desk next to mine.
"Uhm, sort of. It's a complicated thing I guess" I did not want to get into it with her. And it wasn't really any of her business. She frowned at me, then gave me a small smile. "You're too young to have complicated things. And too pretty to be treated the way that boy treats you. Know your worth Shelby." She rested her hand on mine and returned to her desk just as the tardy bell was ringing and six students walked into the classroom. That was it? Me and six other people were taking this class. I assumed they put me here to make the minimum per class. Oh well, at least it would be an easy grade and I could stare at Ms Sawyer for another hour.
"Well, I guess it's just the seven of you this period. For those of you who don't know who I am," she flashed me a smile. "I'm Miss Sawyer. I teach AP Brit Lit, and this theatre class. I'm also going to be directing this years school musical, any of you planning on participating in drama club this year?" Her green eyes scanned the room as every single hand went in the air, every one but my own. Drama club? Definitely not my thing. I had a life, friends, something drama geeks were lacking.
Miss Sawyer frowned at me, but she let it go. "Well. I cannot wait to see you all at our first meeting this Thursday after school. Tell your friends too of course. Let's get started shall we? I just want to get to know you all. See where your interest in theatre lies and were it came from." She had such an adorable smile. Miss Sawyer passed out some paper and asked us to write about our favorite musical, interests, if we've done any productions, anything we would like her to know. Well, this sucked. Of course I'd seen some musicals, but I'd never been in any plays nor did I have a huge interest in anything theatre related. I jotted down that my favorite musical was Wicked or Rent. And being completely honest, I wasn't really into theatre and I was placed in this class without knowledge or really wanting to be here.
Sure, it was probably stupid and I most likely came off as a bitchy girl with a bad attitude. But I was just being honest and I didn't want Ms Sawyer to expect a lot of knowledge or experience theatre wise from me. So I turned in my paper and sat back down.
What I wasn't expecting was for ms Sawyer to read the paper as soon as I turned it in. Ugh. I watched her brow furrow as she read the short paragraph I had carelessly jotted down. Clearly she was disappointed. The other students were diligently scratching down all their hopes and dreams of becoming big stars and describing their intense passion for the arts. So much so that it actually took them the entire lesson to write the paper that took me all of five minutes, daydreaming included. The bell rang and I couldn't wait to get out of this class and go to the office to hopefully drop the class. I grabbed my bag and started to head out as I was stopped by the sound of my name being called. "Can you stay back a minute? I just need to speak with you." Miss Sawyer smiled a lot, I didn't trust her, she seemed fake. But maybe she was just oblivious. "Uhh sure. But I have to go to Chemistry, I don't wanna get detention on the first day."
"I'll write you a pass." She waved me over and pulled a chair over to her desk. Regrettably I obliged and sat down. I knew this was about my paper and I wasn't in the mood to explain myself and probably offend her.
"So... Theatre isn't your thing I guess. Huh?" She laughed.
"Uhhhm, not really. I just didn't want you to get the wrong impression. This class just appeared on my schedule and I honestly plan on dropping it today. My study hall is fourth period so I'm going to the office then." I explained
She looked really upset. I knew I would offend her. I rubbed the back of my neck nervously and mentally cursed myself for being so blunt. She just tilted her head to the side and gave me a sad smile.
"I understand completely. I was very excited to teach this class, it's something that I'm quite passionate about. But I refuse to try and keep you here just so the other students and myself can have the pleasure of participating in a theatre course." What was she talking about? I just gave her a questioning look and luckily she understood that I wasn't really picking up what she was implying. "Well, you see Shelby... If you drop this class, we will be down to six students and standards for an acceptable class size is no less than seven. So, the class will be cancelled and the students will lose a credit and gain an extra study period."
I'm not sure why I did it. Maybe I just felt guilty for the students. Or maybe I could tell that ms Sawyer really was looking forward to teaching this class. But, I told her I would give the class a chance. I didn't want to be the reason my classmates were lacking a credit to graduate, even though I didn't know any of their names. She was so relieved and thanked me about thirty times before writing me a pass for chemistry and promising me that she would make it worth it for me. As I was about to step out she stopped me yet again.
"Uhm Shelby? One last thing..." I nodded for her to continue. "You said you have study hall fourth period of the day right?" What was she getting to, I just nodded. "Well, it's my free period as well. But I have a lot on my plate with theatre and drama club as well as Brit lit courses. I was wondering if you would like to be my teachers aid that period. Even though I won't have a class you could help me with grading papers and what not." She smiled at me, nervously. Being a teachers aid was awesome. You got to replace a boring study hall led by a tyrant with hanging out in a classroom with a teacher you usually got along with and doing whatever you wanted. Of course I would do it!
"Sure! Sounds great." I smiled at her, maybe she wasn't so bad. "I'll see you fourth period then. Have a good day miss Sawyer!" And I left. Headed to chemistry. I could not wait to see Chelsea and tell her about this already crazy day.