03

Sarah's eyes moved about the class, taking in the faces of her new students. Her eyes stopped on one particular boy and her eyes widened slightly as she recognized the him from the cemetery. Her mouth opened as she continued to stare at him for a few seconds and he stared back, equally surprised.

Then, she blinked and looked away. "Now, class," she said, plastering a smile on her face. True, she had not expected to see him here in her class of all places but she couldn't do anything about it now and there was no use fussing over it. She would simply act like she didn't know him and hoped that he would do the same. It would make things so much easier and less complicated for her. But she couldn't deny the fact that she really had been swayed for a short moment there.

"Let's start with the formal introductions," she said, rocking on her feet. "Though honestly, I probably wouldn't remember your names by the end of the day but it's Principal Hayley's school so whatever she says, goes."

This caused a few students to smile at the new teacher's easy manure. It was hard to have a young and bright teacher like her here and so far, she didn't look like she'd disappoint. However, Joey frowned at this. He didn't like how she had looked away from him and had so casually acted like everything was fine when it wasn't. Of course, he didn't expect her to wave and smile at him, that would be too weird, but the way she seemed so calm about seeing him here just...bothered him.

Ariana sat at the front so she started with her name first. Her boyfriend, Drew sitting beside her was next. Sarah nodded at each of them and soon, it was Collin's turn. He flashed her a smile at which Joey had to resist rolling his eyes. He could read his best friend's thoughts like an open book. His eager expression was so obvious that Joey wondered if Sarah could read his thoughts as well.

Then, it was Joey's turn.

He looked up at Sarah, as he continued to lean back in his chair, and saw that she was looking at him directly. She still had the calm expression on her face which caused Joey to remain silent and not introduce himself simply to see how she would react. He knew deep down that he was being rather childish about the whole thing but he couldn't help it. He didn't like the situation. Not at all.

As the seconds ticked by, Joey still remained silent and this caused a few heads to turn in his direction including Collin, who nudged him. But he didn't look at anyone else. He was only looking at the woman standing in front of the class, who thought it was okay to pretend that everything that had happened at the cemetery hadn't happened at all. She may think it wasn't such a big deal, but for Joey it was, because she had given him the little bit of strength that day that he had needed. All it had taken was a few words but they had managed to leave an impression on him nonetheless.

Didn't she see that?

As he continued to stare into her eyes, he saw her nervously gulp and fidget. Knowing that he was causing her uneasiness, he felt guilty all of a sudden. So he answered in a quiet voice, "It's Joey."

She nodded, as she looked down at her folder and opened it. "Alright, that's everyone. We'll start with grammar first."

A few students groaned loudly at this.

Sarah looked up, a small smile on her face. "Hey, hey. You guys aren't doing a good job at a first impression. We'll just do something easy," she promised, looking through the folder again. "How about noun clauses?"

Ariana raised a hand and she nodded at her, glad one of her students was interested in the lesson. But Ariana had other plans in mind.

"Can we ask you a few questions about yourself?"

Now, this girl's definitely a gossip queen, Sarah thought to herself as she weighed her options. Should she tell them a little bit about herself or not? Ariana's question wasn't that big a deal, though. Sarah's old students had asked her this before too but now, she was a little hesitant as she glanced at Joey at the back of the class, who still had his green eyes on her.

She shrugged. "If it's not about my bra size then shoot."

Laughter rang through the room and a few boys sat up straighter in their seats, finding the new teacher to their liking.

Surprisingly, it was Chloe who beat Ariana to the first question. Her face was dead serious as she asked, "How old are you?"

Sarah raised an eyebrow at the girl as the unpleasantness in Chloe's voice didn't go unnoticed by her. But she answered her anyway. "Twenty-four."

Joey found himself looking at Sarah more closely. She certainly looked younger than her age but her eyes didn't say the same thing. They held so much depth in them, so many things that she had probably seen and he was unaware of. But they were all sad things, he guessed, because her brown eyes look tired. He wondered again who it was that she had been grieving for back at the cemetery.

Ariana was next. "Is this your first time teaching?"

"No, I've taught classes before for more than a year."

"Are you single?" Collin piped up, beside Joey. At the question, Joey too sat up straighter in his chair, very much interested in her answer.

Sarah gave him a tight-lipped smile. "That's really personal so if I were you, I wouldn't go there again."

The sudden coldness in her tone made Collin shrink back in his seat and he pouted at not being able to get the answer that he wanted. Joey's shoulders slumped a little as well and when he caught Sarah's eye, she raised her eyebrows at him before looking away, as if to say: You too?

After Sarah managed to answer all their questions, discarding the too nosy ones quickly, she got back on track with their first lesson: Noun clauses.

During the period, Joey was fixedly staring down at his book but not seeing anything. Beside him, Collin gave another yawn. It wasn't that the teacher was boring them but rather the subject itself, didn't appeal to either of them. Then again, no subject did. However, almost everyone else seemed to be paying attention to Sarah. Even Ariana, who hadn't checked her phone in the last twenty minutes and that alone was proof that this teacher knew what she was doing.

Joey's eyelids were beginning to feel very heavy and he had trouble paying attention to the words on the page, when all of a sudden someone smacked the back of his head, hard. His head almost hit the desk and he turned around sharply.

Sarah was looking down at him with her arms folded across her chest. "Joey Harding, is my teaching really that bad to make you drool?" She raised a challenging eyebrow.

He was silent for a second before a mischievous smirk lit up his face. "How do you know my full name?"

This time, it was Sarah's turn to be confused. She realized that Joey had not told her his full name in class. Shit, she thought to herself as the class turned to look at them.

"R-Register," she created wildly. "I checked the class attendance register."

Joey's smirk widened. He was really enjoying this. "Really? But I thought you said you won't even remember our names by the end of the day."

Sarah reached out and pulled Joey's ear, like a mother does to her naughty child and glared at him. "Don't get smart with me, you cheeky little monkey."

The whole class burst out laughing and even Joey had to resist the urge to smile since it's not everyday your teacher decided to give you nicknames and especially like these. But Sarah wasn't amused as she tugged at his ear one last time before walking away. Joey couldn't stop smiling as he watched her teach for the next five minutes before the bell rang and the students rushed to their next classes.

On purpose, Joey told Collin to go on without him as he started to gather his things very slowly without making it too obvious. When Sarah and him were the last ones in the classroom, he walked up to her.

Sarah didn't notice him and accidentally dropped her pen. Both Joey and Sarah kneeled down and reached for it at the same time and their fingers touched slightly. Sarah looked up and after seeing Joey, grabbed her pen immediately and withdrew her hand. Stuffing the pen inside her pocket, she stood up and was halfway to the door when Joey called her from behind.

"Sarah, you left your folder."

She paused and then went back to retrieve it from his hands, feeling stupid and avoiding his gaze. He handed her the folder quietly and watched her leave the class. She stopped at the door and without looking back, she said in a clear voice.

"Actually, it's Ma'am now."

Then, she left.