It was 4.45pm once I finally finished, I’d wasted a good 20 minutes sulking before I’d continued, however I gave in when I realised my stubbornness was only keeping me stuck in the company of this jerk longer. We left the class room and I followed him grudgingly to the staff car park. The sun wasn’t setting yet, but the sky was dulling for the day and I told myself to be thankful that at least I didn’t have to walk. Both my parents would be at work until the early hours of the morning and I wouldn’t have been able to call them at all.

“For what it is worth Miss Andrews, I didn’t like giving you a tardiness detention, if it hadn’t been that I had just talked about it, you’d have been fine” He offered in a soft voice, as we reached his Nissan pulsar. He unlocked the doors and then looked over at me before he got in to the car “But calling me an idiot was pretty childish, you must admit”

I got in the car and clipped in my belt

“I call things how I see them” I replied, it was mostly true, not usually with teachers or others in a superior position to me. Mr Cartwright didn’t say anything else after that, except to find out my address. Surprisingly he didn’t need directions, and it wasn’t until he pulled into a driveway across the road from my own that I realised why.

“You have to be kidding me” I groaned “My neighbour? Really”

He smirked and got out of the car. I got out and looked over at my house and found myself frowning. There were no lights on, no cars in the driveway, no nothing. At least during summer I’d seen my parents because I was working for them, but now it was back to business as usual, me looking after me.

“Thanks for the ride” I replied honestly, I was thankful for the ride, even if the reason I needed one was pretty much his fault anyway.

“Elliot…” he called out as I began to walk down the driveway, his voice said the L’ss again slowly, and they rolled off his tongue like silk. I shook my head, this man was a frustration, an annoyance, why was I so caught up on the way it sounded when he said my name!

I stopped and turned around

“Are you home alone?” he asked softly

“No need to alert the authority’s Mr Cartwright, I’m 17 and more than use to it” I said, the last half of my sentence coming out a little bit sadder than I had intended it too. I turned back around and walked across the road and across the lawn of my ‘family’ home, where our family never seemed to be all at once during daylight hours. I unlocked the front door and flicked the dining and hall light on. I walked through the dining room in to the kitchen and saw a note on top of a pot of spaghetti and meatballs

Hello Elliot,

Dinner in the pot, bed early please

Love mom and dad

I placed the noted back on the pot and walked up to my bedroom. I opened my laptop to see an IM group chat with Ryan, Louise and I, although I hadn’t responded yet.

Ryryguy – You see how angry she was though, phroar

Louuuuie – Well he did kind of make an example of her

Elliebellie – Hey guys, home from my correctional rehabilitation, general consensus, our new teacher is a moron

Louuuuie – A hot moron

Ryryguy – really? Do we have to discuss how hot he is… I am a GUY, a straight one, can we not talk about Cindy’s boobs or something

Elliebellie – Ryan, that’s perverted she’s a sophmore, besides, they aren’t real, even I, a tomboy can tell those mammories are made mostly of toilet tissues.

Louuuuie – Back to the topic of hot moron! Gees, digression much. What did he make you do?

I looked out my window and over at Mr Cartwrights house and I gasped to realise he was walking across the road, heading in this direction

Elliebellie – I have to go, someone is here, I’ll fill you guys in tomorrow.

I logged out of IM and headed downstairs, Why the hell was he coming over here? I opened my door before he had a chance to knock and he looked taken aback, his shock so disappeared and a cheeky smile drew across his face

“Watching me were you, poor you, living across the road from a stunner like me” he teased

I rolled my eyes and scoffed

“As if, I was just telling my friends about how moronic you are actually, and idlly looked over your way to see you bulldozing over here like a moth to a flame, so I don’t know, maybe the reality is the other way around” I smiled back as sweetly as I possibly could.

“A moron, an idiot and a pompous jerk… I really haven’t made a good impression on you” he said, sounding genuinely sorry

“You think?” I snapped back, still wondering why he was even here.

“Look, I’ll let you off detention for the rest of the week, I know today was a mistake, it’s just this is my first teaching job, and I really want to make the right impression on the bulk of the students” he offered

I smiled and shrugged, Okay so he wasn’t a robot, just a little clueless.

“Mr Cartwright?” I asked, leaning in to the door “Why are you here”

His eyes caught mine and for a second I felt a rush in my stomach, like I’d gone over a bump to fast. I pushed it aside and looked away.

“I have no milk actually, and I need coffee… Hard first day of school A student called me an idiot”

I looked back at him and his lips curved in to a large smile, and I found myself smiling back.

“Come inside, I’ll check the fridge” I offered ushering him in.

I walked over to the fridge and opened it, I sighed, the lack of the basics depressed me, for restaurant owners, our fridge looked abysmal. I grabbed the milk carton and shook it, when I didn’t hear a sloshing sound I checked the used by date and walked to the bin and threw it in.

“Sorry, we are out of Milk….. and pretty much everything else you’d expect in a house. We have beer… I’m sure that could help soothe the burn from that insanely clever student today” I offered holding up one of my father Heinekens and shaking it from side to side

“Getting beer from a student… pretty sure this was covered in ‘what not to do as a teacher 101’” he laughed, I walked over with the beer anyway and set it in front of him, Unsure as to why I wasn’t eager to send him on his way, it was probably the fact I had company, something I wasn’t used to unless Ryan and Louise were here for a sleepover.

“I’m pretty sure that would have been giving beer to your students” I assured, opening my own can of beer. My parent’s being liberal restaurateurs frequently allow me to have an alcoholic beverage with my dinner. Sure I wasn’t eating right now, but I did enjoy the look of shock on Mr Cartwrights face as I took a long drink from the can.

“Should you be drinking that?” He questioned, a slightly concerned look came across his face and I shrugged in reply.

“So do moron’s like spaghetti and meatballs? My parents left me enough to feed an army, forgetting that its only ever me here”

Mr Cartwrights brow furrowed and he stared at me, his eyes were confused. He looked like he was about to say something, but instead he just nodded. I got up and walked into the kitchen. I heard Mr Cartwright open his can which was followed by a fizzing sound and then he swore under his breath, I lifted the lid off the pot and tried to snigger silently. He’d obviously gotten the shaken can. I filled two bowls with the spaghetti and grabbed a towel from the cupboard in the kitchen for Mr Cartwright to dry himself off with. I set a bowl down in front of him, and the other by my drink and threw the towel at a slightly wet Mr Cartwright. I laughed as his used the towel to dry his face

“Oh Mr Cartwright, are you always this smooth?” I teased sitting down, taking another long sip of my beer. I heard him scoff and then he took a drink himself.

I had to hand it to my parents, the food was amazing, as it always was.

“This is amazing!” Mr Cartwright exclaimed, stuffing his face with another meatball.

“My parent’s own a restaurant in town. They met at culinary school” I replied shrugging.

“Let me guess, they own ‘Elliots’” he smiled, it was clear he knew the place.

“Yep, they named it after me, I guess at least one of their Elliot’s get to see them on a regular basis” I muttered, not meaning for the little confession to slip out as easily as it did.

“Parents huh” he said knowingly.

“they’re more dense than they think their teenagers are, that’s for sure.” I added with a melancholic smile.

A little while later, after some more idle chat, Mr Cartwright looked at the time and said he had to go. I glanced at the clock myself and was surprised to see he’d been here for nearly two hours. It was strange that a person I despised only five hours ago had just shared a beer and dinner with me and whats more, I think I had re-evaluated his status from moron to a typical male.

I stood up to grab his plate, only for him to have the exact same idea at the same moment, In the moment it seemed like a slow motion collision, every split second past and I could tell we were going to collide. I tried to moved away too late, we both fell to the ground, the bowl went flying across the floor and before I knew it, he was on top of me. His eyes were in line with mine, not just looking at me, but looking in to me, furiously searching for something. Something weird was happening with my breath, it was laboured, like it was hard to get out, hard to remember to breath and I felt dizzy, my heart raced and I realised that I liked this. Mr Cartwright swiftly broke the eye contact and stood up.

“Um, Yeah I am sorry about today Miss Andrews, see you in class tomorrow” he said, returning to his robotic teaching voice. He turned and walked out of the house. Still a little flustered I told myself to stop being ridiculous audibly before I gathered the bowls and cans and took them in to the kitchen. The first day of senior year had been weird.