Double Trouble novel Chapter 8

Eric walked passed us towards the supply closet at the back of the room. "He surpasses all definitions of the word cute." Nahla squealed, trying but failing miserably with keeping her voice low. I wasn't watching her, but I was watching him, near the back of the room now. His back went rigid but he kept moving. I didn't know if this was his first teaching job or not, but he was going to have to get used to comments like that from my classmates, pretty girls who he couldn't date because he was a teacher and dating a teacher was wrong and he was cute and oh, God, I wanted to bang my head against the table. I couldn't believe it!

"Tell me about it," Chloe Dangers replied. She sat opposite us alongside Troy Fellows, both of whom we knew vaguely but didn't really call friends. Because Blythe, Nina and Austin were only in a couple of our classes, I was lucky to have Nahla. But that also meant we had to make friends with other people - especially when doing projects. And as Brogan repeated countlessly, people were nosey. And people who worked with you in projects wanted to come to your house and work on projects. Declining everyone, not cooperating in group projects - although I worked as hard as I could - made it harder to make friends.

Her blonde curls bounced around her as she turned her head to follow Eric, but he was gone, hidden in the supply room if only for a moment.

Troy, like any boy, like Austin did earlier, rolled his eyes. "I don't see what all the fascination is about."

"Would you rather have stared at Mrs Winters for the rest of the year?" Nahla replied, raising an eyebrow. Mrs Winters had been in her late forties, with grey wisps of hair entwined in her black colouring; but she'd had a kind face, and warm eyes.

"Uh, yeah." Troy replied tartly.

Eric reappeared then and began handing out bound notebooks. I knew Mrs Winters had kept these in reservation, in case students wanted to buy them to present their work better. We only had the soft covered notebooks in class before. Whether Eric knew this or not -I didn't know. But then I guess it didn't matter anymore because they were not Mrs Winters' books. They were now Eric's, and he could do with them what he pleased. Even if the art department couldn't afford to give out the best books, Eric would surely reimburse them. He had enough money, after all, for he did own the art gallery in town.

After all the notebooks were handed out, Eric stood in front of us all and stuck his hands in his pockets. He looked confident, but awkward, at the same time. It made me think that this was actually his first teaching job. Plus, he didn't look old enough to actually have experience in a classroom. How fresh out of one was he himself? I didn't know, but I was betting that high school wasn't a distant memory for him.

"So, most of you are well underway with your projects that you started with Mrs Winters. I assume you won't want to change now?" Eric paused, to see if anyone would answer him. Someone did - Jessica Antonio - but it wasn't the response he was looking for.

"Did Mrs Winters tell you why she was fired?"

"I do believe that it isn't a concern of yours," Eric said. He was trying to be polite about it, but his mouth turned down and he did frown slightly.

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