by Shayna B
The teacher’s nostrils flared before he reached out and grabbed Blake’s sunglasses, ripping them off of him. “When I tell you to do something, I expect you to listen.”
Something inside of me snapped and I jumped to my feet. “You jerk! Give those back right now!”
Mr. Grant turned his glare back to me. “Both of you go to the office now!”
Blake snorted and stood up readily. “Gladly.”
I put my stuff into my bag and then Blake took it from me and found my hand with his free one. As I passed Mr. Grant, I snatched the glasses out of his hand. “Jackass,” I growled and then Blake and I walked out of the room.
We went into the office and I took a couple of calming breaths before approaching the secretary. “Can I help you?” she asked.
“We need to see the principal,” I told her. “The substitute teacher from our Biology class sent us here.”
She nodded and knocked on the door to his office. She poked her head in and said something to him before stepping back and motioning for us to go in. “He can see you right away.”
I took Blake’s hand again and guided him into the office. Mr. Avery, the principal, looked up from the papers on his desk. He was a distinguished looking man with dark hair that was going gray at the temples. “Please, have a seat. What seems to be the problem?”
Blake and I settled into the chairs on the other side of the desk from him. “We just got sent here by the substitute teacher in our Biology class,” Blake told him.
Mr. Avery raised an eyebrow. “And what are your names?”
“I’m Hailey Baker, and this is Blake Adams,” I said.
Recognition flitted over his face. “And why did he send you here?”
“Well, Mr. White always lets us do our work together. Since Blake is blind, I read the questions to him and then we answer them together.”
Mr. Avery nodded. “I am aware of this already. Continue.”
“Well, that’s what we were doing today. Only Mr. Grant,” I said the name with more than a little venom, “didn’t like us talking. I tried to explain it to him, but he kept cutting me off.”
“And then implied that she was pretty much just trying to flirt with me,” Blake said.
Mr. Avery’s face hardened a little. “I see. Anything else?”
“He also grabbed Blake’s sunglasses off of him when Blake refused to take them off. I might have lost my temper a little bit after that. I kind of called him a few names,” I admitted a little sheepishly.
“I called him a dickhead, because he is one,” Blake said with no remorse.
Mr. Avery sighed and laced his fingers together on the desk in front of him. “I do not necessarily blame you for becoming angry but that’s no excuse for disrespecting a teacher. I’ll let it go this time because you appear to have been sorely provoked, but do not let it happen again in the future.” He paused and studied us for a moment. “I’m aware of your relationship and I also know that you always work together in Mr. White’s class.”
I looked at him in surprise. “How do you know about our relationship?”
He smiled a little at me. “Teachers gossip as well, Ms. Baker. Since you have joined our school, all of Mr. Adam’s teachers have noticed a difference, especially in the last couple of weeks. While he still doesn’t participate in any class except Biology, he no longer snaps at everyone who tries to speak to him.”
“I’m sitting right here, you know,” Blake said dryly.
Mr. Avery chuckled a little. “Forgive me. Now, as to the issue of Mr. Grant, I will be sure to talk to him about his behaviour.”
“With all due respect, Mr. Avery, I think you need to do more than just talk to him. I understand that he didn’t want us talking during class, but he should have given us the chance to explain ourselves. We may only be teenagers, but even we deserve to tell our side of the story. Everyone does, no matter what the circumstances might be.”
The principal inclined his head. “I happen to agree, Ms. Baker. I will speak to the other students in your class as well, and I promise that should their stories match up to yours, I will take action to have Mr. Grant properly disciplined. I have no tolerance for teachers that abuse my students. Is that satisfactory to you?”
I nodded. “Thank you for listening to our side of the story.”
“You are quite welcome. Now, I’ll write a pass for you so that you can go to the library for the rest of the period. I do request that you refrain from talking about this to your peers when you see them later.”
We both agreed and I took the pass he held out to us before leaving the office. We went to the library and once we were sitting in the corner of the library, Blake shook his head in amazement. “I can’t believe he actually listened to us,” he murmured.
“I know. I think my opinion of authority figures might have just gone up a little.” Ever since Marcus had gotten off so lightly after the accident, I’d had little respect for the people who were supposed to be in charge in most aspects of life.
“Mine too,” Blake agreed. “I haven’t dealt with Mr. Avery much in the past, but he seems like an alright guy.” We spent the rest of the period alone in the library listening to music on my Ipod.
At lunch that day, the rumors were already going around about what happened with Mr. Grant. Apparently after Blake and I went to the library, Mr. Avery went to the classroom and asked a few students to come out and speak to him. After he had done that, he had Mr. Grant come out so he could talk to him as well.
What happened after that was unclear. One rumour said that Mr. Grant threw a fit and had a shouting match with the principal. Another rumour said that Mr. Grant got angry, but Mr. Avery just told him to leave. I tended to believe the second one, because I couldn’t see the principal actually shouting at him.
All of our friends asked us what had happened and we gave them the details of the classroom incident. We were getting a lot of looks from everyone else in the cafeteria, but no one approached us. Apparently their curiosity wasn’t strong enough to risk the surliness of my boyfriend.
At one point during lunch, I had to go to the bathroom so I excused myself from the table. I was still in the stall when I heard two other girls come in and start talking. I didn’t think anything of it until I heard one of the girl’s mention Blake’s name.
“Did you hear what happened with that Blake this morning?” the first girl asked.
“Yeah, he and his girlfriend got into some kind of an argument with one of the teachers, right?” the second girl replied.
“Something like that. They went to the principal’s office and then the principal kicked that teacher out of the school! Can you believe that?”
“Well, it sounded like the teacher was being really unfair to them,” the second girl said.
The first girl snorted. “Doubtful. Blake probably just didn’t understand a question or something and lost it. You know he has a reputation of losing his temper a lot.”
“I would as well if I was in that situation. It must be really hard for him having lost his sight like that. It’s nice that he has a girlfriend now.”
“Nice? I think it’s just weird. I mean, how can she want to date someone like that? She must be doing it out of pity or something.”
I was about to storm out of the stall and give that girl a piece of my mind, but the other girl spoke again. “I don’t think she feels any pity for him. I’ve seen the two of them together and I think they really care about each other.”
The first girl muttered something that I didn’t quite catch and then the two of them left the bathroom, obviously finished with fixing their makeup or whatever it was that they were doing. I slowly emerged from the bathroom stall and went to the sink to wash my hands.
I thought over what I had just heard. The first girl was one of those people that deserved a good smack upside the head. But the second girl had actually shown some compassion, which had been unexpected. I got the impression that she might still see Blake as differ
ent, but not necessarily in a bad way.
After I finished drying my hands, I walked towards the door and that’s when I spotted the flyer. A smile played on my lips as an idea formed in my head.
Chapter twenty
The next morning I went over to Blake’s house bright and early. I knocked on the door and a moment later Sophie opened it. “Hey, Blake is being lazy so he’s still in bed.”
I laughed. “That’s okay; I’ll go wake him up then.”
Sophie grinned. “Don’t do anything naughty.”
I winked as I walked past her and headed to Blake’s room. “No promises,” I called back over my shoulder. Her laughter followed me down the hallway.
I opened the door to Blake’s room and saw him lying over the covers in a pair of pajama pants. His head turned in my direction. “This better be important,” he grumbled.
I walked over to the side of the bed. “I’m always important.”
His lips turned up into a smile. “What are you doing here this early?”
I climbed onto the bed. “Well, I had this idea,” I began as I jumped on top of him.
He grunted when I landed on him, his arms winding around my waist. “If your idea doesn’t involve you losing some clothes, then I don’t want to hear it.”
I smacked his shoulder. “Pervert,” I muttered.
He slid one hand up my back until he reached my head. He pulled me down so that he could kiss me softly. “You like it when I’m a pervert,” he murmured against my lips.
I shivered a little and pressed myself closer to him. “Maybe sometimes,” I agreed.
He shifted and flipped us over so that he was now hovering over me. He braced himself on one arm and let his free hand trace the contours of my face. “You’re so beautiful,” he said quietly.
My heart fluttered and I responded by capturing his lips with mine. I wrapped my arms around his bare torso, running one hand up and down his back. He let out a little sound of pleasure and nibbled at my bottom lip so that he could deepen the kiss. A moment later he tugged on the bottom of my shirt and pulled it off over my head.
I went to roll us over again, but apparently I misjudged how close to the edge of the bed we were because we both suddenly went tumbling through the air. I let out a small shriek before I landed on top of him with a thud.
I pushed myself up a little and looked down at him. He was flat on his back with a stunned look on his face. I could feel the laughter bubbling up and a moment later I started giggling hysterically. “Oh my god, I can’t believe that just happened,” I gasped.
Blake let out a small groan. “I don’t even know what did happen,” he stated.
“Well, I was trying to roll us over but obviously misjudged where the edge of the bed was.” I patted his cheek, trying to stifle my laughter. “Thanks for breaking my fall.”
His lips twitched up into a smile. “No problem.” Then he grew serious. “That didn’t hurt your back, did it?”
“No, I’m okay. But your face was priceless!” I broke out into laughter again and this time he joined me. I collapsed on top of him, no longer able to hold myself up. He put his arms around me and held me to him as we both struggled to calm down.
When we finally managed to breathe again, I climbed off of him. He got to his feet with a groan, one hand going back to rub the small of his back. “I know they say that love hurts, but this is ridiculous,” he complained.
I started to chuckle, but then stopped abruptly. “What did you say?”
He frowned a little. “I said…” he trailed off when he realized what he had implied and his cheeks went a little red.
I put one hand on his face. “I’ve never seen you blush before,” I murmured.
He sighed and pulled away to sit on the edge of the bed. “I didn’t mean to say that,” he told me.
Disappointment rushed through me. “Oh,” I muttered.
He reached for my hand and pulled me to him until I was standing between his legs while he was sitting on the bed. “It’s not that I didn’t mean it,” he said. “I just wanted it to be special when I told you.”
My lips tugged into a smile. “Well, technically you still haven’t told me,” I reminded him. “And since when does anything in our relationship go as planned?”
He smiled and pulled me onto his lap. “I love you,” he murmured into my ear.
I sighed and rested my head on his shoulder. “I love you too,” I replied. “I know we haven’t been dating for long, but apparently love doesn’t care about time restraints.”
He smiled and ran his hand over my still bare back. “So what was your idea anyways?”
I was confused for a moment before I remembered the reason I came over in the first place. “I think we should enter the talent show for our school.”
He frowned. “Why would we do that?”
“To show everyone what we’re made of,” I replied. “We can get up in front of the school and let them see that even though you may be blind, you’re still awesome.”
He sighed. “This is important to you, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Then we’ll do it.”
I lifted my head off his shoulder. “Really? You’re not going to fight me on this or make me promise you something in return?”
He shook his head. “If it’s important to you, then we’ll do it. I just told you that I love you. Do you really think I’m going to deny you something that means a lot to you?”
I was speechless for a moment. Then I twisted around until I was straddling him and crashed my lips to his roughly. He let out a small grunt of surprise, but quickly responded. He let his body fall back onto the bed, pulling me with him.
Things were getting pretty heated when he suddenly pulled away. “We need to stop now, before I can’t,” he said hoarsely.
“What if I don’t want to stop?” I whispered.
He blew out a long breath. “We’re not going to do this for the first time when Sophie is in the house. I don’t want to have to worry about anyone coming in and interrupting us.”
I pushed myself up so that I could look down at his face. “Is that the only reason?” I asked quietly.
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
I shrugged and rolled off of him. “Nothing,” I muttered.
A moment later he was on top of me. “Don’t lie to me, Hales. What did you mean by that?”
I blew out a breath. “I can’t believe I’m actually going to ask you this, because I feel like a cliché insecure girl. But are you sure it’s not just because you don’t want me?”
Shock covered his features. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
He lowered his head and brushed his lips softly over mine. “Hailey, I want you more than anything. But I don’t want our first time to be somewhere that we have to worry about other people. I want to be able to take our time and not feel rushed.”
I lifted a hand and ran it through his hair. “That makes sense. Apparently I just have no patience for some reason.”
He gave me a devilish grin. “It’s because I’m so damn sexy,” he informed me.
I rolled my eyes. “I still haven’t decided if I like this conceited side of you or not.”
He shrugged. “You know you secretly love it.” He stroked my back gently. “Maybe we should plan to go to a hotel for a night or something. That way there will be no interruptions.”
“That might be a good idea. When?”
He pressed his lips to the spot beneath my ear. “How about next weekend? I’ll make all the arrangements.”
“Sounds good. For now, how about we go think about a song for the talent show?”
He groaned a little, but then nodded. “You’re lucky I love you.”
“You like saying that, don’t you?”
“What?”
“That you love me.”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Just admit it.”
“Never.”
“Stu
bborn ass.”
He grinned. “You wouldn’t have me any other way.”
I rolled my eyes. “I guess. That makes me weird, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, kinda.”
“And what does that make you for being in love with me?”
He thought about it for a moment. “Extra weird?” he offered.
I laughed. “Well, you’re definitely that. But I love you anyways.”
“Now who likes saying it?” he mocked.
I smacked his shoulder. “Don’t be such a jerk.”
He nuzzled at my neck. “I can’t change who I am.”
I shivered a little as his breath tickled me. “I’ll never ask you to change who you are. Although I might try to tweak you a little bit here and there.”
He reluctantly pulled away from me and got to his feet. “Well let’s go work on a song then. Do you have any idea about what you want us to do?”
I climbed off the bed and stood next to him. “Not really. I figured we could just play around until we found something we liked.”
“Works for me. Can I get something to eat first?”
I heaved a fake sigh. “Oh, I suppose so.”
He chuckled and took my hand, leading me out of the room.
An hour later, we were both sitting on the piano bench. I had brought my Ipod along, so I set it up on the table beside us and set it on shuffle. As we listened to some songs, I played around on piano a little. Blake was sitting quietly, one arm loosely wrapped around my waist.
We’d been listening to the music for about half an hour, when a Run to You by Lady Antebellum came on and had both of us perking up a little. “Can you play this on the guitar?” I asked him.
“Yeah. Can you do it on the piano?”
I furrowed my brow. “I think so, but I’ve never tried to go through it fully. I can learn it though; the talent show isn’t until right before Christmas break. This song is perfect for us.”
He grinned. “Yeah, it really is. So this is the one we’ll do then?”
