She shook her head, laughing at how absurd she was, and crumpled the page up into a ball. Instead, she decided to pencil a love letter that she'd paste in her journal instead and never dare to send.

Now, I know we have not gotten to really know each other all that long and there is a little bit of an age difference between us, but I do really like you. You are a very special guy.

There is so much about you I see that I know most girls don't see. They are all looking at you for your body. But Honey, I am telling you, that is not what I am doing. There is so much more to you than that.

I have liked you for a very long time now but just never had the guts to say it to you. Well, that has all changed now. I am going all out and I am going to say it all. I really care a lot about you, and I would like to be a lot more then just friends. You mean so much to me.

I mean, just seeing your cute little smile when I am having a bad day just makes the day seem not too dim. Or just to have you give me a hug makes me all warm and tingly inside.

Just to see your smiling face brightens my darkest day. So, Hon, what do you say, would you like to give it a go?

Love Always,
Me.

It sounded so corny, but she decorated it all the same and made little hearts and stars around the edges. At the bottom were two stick figures leaning forward towards each other and kissing. All of a sudden, her friends started tapping her on the shoulder, informing her that they were to go to class. Eclair glanced at the clock. 'Shoot. Had time really gotten this late so fast?' She stuffed her binder and pencil into her backpack, and followed the rest of the group to English. It wasn't until she got to class that she realized that she forgot to do last night's reading.

Rick clapped his hands together loud enough to make the ones who were already falling asleep, jump awake. "So...who did last nights reading?" he slowly asked as he eyed each and everyone. "Show a raise of hands," he said.

When only a little less than half of the class raised his hands he sighed and shook his hand. "Everyone...I gave you chances. I gave you second chances. And now here we are again, in need of yet another chance. Guys, I warned you," he said. "Congradulations to those of you who didn't do your reading last night. You either fail your test that I was going to surprise you with today or you take up a detention," he said. "Those of you see me after class with your answer. Okay, raise your hand if you did do the reading last night," he said as he got up with a pile of papers in his hands, ready to pass out the tests to those of the students that prepared.

Eclair looked away, not proud of herself for missing one measly reading. It wouldn't lower her grade too much, considering she already had high marks in the class. Regardless, she didn't raise her hand, although she would have opted to do the test anyway. Really, though, she should have shown at least some interest in the novel if she wanted to know about Mr. Hart's likes and dislikes. And now it felt like he was going to hate her. She crossed her legs, and leaned onto her desk, tapping the eraser of her pencil against the wood of the desk. She was so distracted the night before - or was it because of another dream? No, that didn't happen. Her parents weren't too happy with her report card the day before, either.

After all the kids moved away and out of the class, Eclair was the last one to talk to Rick about her missing assignment. He sighed and got up from his chair as he walked around to the front of the desk so that he was beside her as he leaned against the desk, facing her.

"Eclair...," he moaned as he cringed and shook his head. "I thought you were my best student," he said. He then read a sadness hidden in her eyes to most. "Is something wrong? Because you know you can tell me anything," he assured her as he kind of moved closer to her.

Under the cover of her skirt, her knees were shaking as Mr. Hart approached her. "Sorry. I wasn't feeling well last night," she lied. Somewhat. She shook her head as he asked her that question. "Nothing's wrong...well, actually my parents aren't too happy with my report card, so I was relegated to doing practice problems all night." Partly true. "I'll take a detention this week. D-Hall's scheduled for tomorrow afternoon in the library, right?" she asked to clarify. "Oh, since I couldn't sleep last night either, I finished yesterday's worksheet by myself," she added, patting her backpack and laughing weakly. Her eye contact was darting all over the place, as she couldn't look him in the eye. 'Oh lordy, he's so tall. And so handsome!' her inner mind shouted. Her body felt magnetized to the spot that she was standing on, but her insides were fluttering with Mr. Hart standing in such close proximity.

Rick noticed she was shaking and her face was red. "There's something you're not telling me," he said as he squinted his eyes. "Nonetheless, I am personally giving you a second chance. No detention and no marked F's. I understand when you're not feeling well and you're under a lot of stress to the point things turn up undone," he said in an earnest voice.

And then Rick smiled.

She started speaking up quickly as he offered her another chance. "What do you mean I'm not telling you anything? I mean, I don't have anything to hide, ha, ha. But I promise I'll work hard tonight, sir! You won't regret this!" Eclair reached into her backpack. "Oh and here," she said, digging into her backpack and her binder. "Just need to get this out of my stuff so I don't lose it." She pulled out the worksheet that was worked on and completed the day before. "Thank you, Mr. Hart, I'll be going now!" Eclair rushed out the door of the classroom to catch herself before she did something embarrassing in front of him. Grateful that she was going to read, she didn't want to take any chances tonight and miss it again. Unfortunately for her, she didn't notice that the love letter she had written was stuck between the pages of yesterday's worksheet pile.

"Just that...you're acting funny," he said. "Alright, make me as proud as I was before," he said with a smile as he grabbed the paper and felt a little disappointed when he watched her leave, wishing she would stay longer. Rick sighed and put her worksheet aside, needing to finish grading the tests.

After the last period before lunch, Rick took her paper and graded it. She wrote down everything correctly. "Well, that's an A plus," he murmured to himself. But then he realized there was a paper stuck behind the worksheet. He took it out and as soon as he began to read it, his heart began to beat so fast he could of have had a heart attack. He smiled nervously as he quickly folded up the paper and put it in his pant's pocket to reread later and keep close to him. He wouldn't loose it.

Once he exited his classroom to head to lunch, he decided to head without the others. He looked around the lunchroom and saw Eclair. His heart was screaming that he really needed to talk to it over with Eclair. Of course he would have some good news and some bad news.

"Eclair, may I speak with you or do you want to eat?" Rick said as soon as he walked over to their table.

During her next few classes, she frantically looked through her binder for the letter she had written earlier. "Shit, oh shit, oh shit!" she hissed to herself. "Where could I have left it?!" There were a few possibilities she could think of - the library, somewhere in the hall (had it fallen out?), or worst-case scenario, she dropped it in the class somewhere. That wasn't good.

No, she didn't put his name on it, thankfully, and she didn't formally sign it either, so it couldn't be traced to her, could it?

Still panicking, she yelped when Mr. Hart had confronted her at the table. "Sorry, I...I can't right now," she stuttered.

Rick knew very well the letter was about him from Eclair. Her hand writing and everything led up to himself. But he was sort of disappointed when she refused to talk to him. Rick sighed and took out a folded note from his pocket. He had written a response to her letter.

I understand completely. Though it would be hard to make this apparent in person, I must admit I exactly feel the same way. Though, we must think about the obvious. I'm too old for you, it's against the law, you're too nervous to confront me about anything (though I find that cute), and let's not forget that we have less than half of this school year left together.

With understanding,
your friend

He then handed it to her. "By the way, you left it in my class, don't loose it," he said, trying to secretly tell her that it's to be between him and her only.

Her eyes widened as her lips set into a frown. 'Shit! He knows!' "I have to go to the bathroom," she said, making up an excuse to leave the table. The other girls smiled but kept their heads down, knowing that if they looked at Mr. Hart any longer, they'd burst into laughter. Eclair did use that excuse one too many times, though, and eventually it became code for "follow me," which her friends usually did, though this time it was aimed at Mr. Hart. Thank God her brother wasn't around today. He was off playing football somewhere on the track field with his friends.

Trying so hard not to run, she weaved her way through different halls until she was in a small, secluded area where no-one could see her. The only things around were four large walls and a multitude of pipes. Nobody came here, if ever, but Eclair found her way to it. She took the time to open the note and read it. Her heart thumped in embarrassment. "Of course he'd tell me I was being too irrational," she sighed to herself, leaning against one of the walls. It was rather cramped in here, but it seemed all the better.

'Your friend,' the letter was signed. 'How mortifying.' She reread the letter, and realized what he wrote. He felt the same way about her that she did about him. Holy crap.

She looked to the small opening that she walked in from, hoping nobody would see her.

Rick was taken aback as he sighed. "If you excuse me, I'm not hungry. I have a lot of papers that need grading," Rick said as he left their lunch table and followed after Eclair, weirdly knowing exsactly where she was going being that he was thinking like here. Where would she go if she needed alone time? he asked himself. Then it dawned in on him that she'd be in one secluded room that wasn't exactly forbidden to anyone. So, he checked in there.

When he saw Eclair, his heart felt weirdly broken and yet so happy at once. He wasn't too sure if it was a bad or good sign.

Her green eyes lit up as she realized Mr. Hart had found her. Whether in surprise, shock, or delight, she couldn't tell. The expression on her face at that moment was something of a deer-in-the-headlights moment. 'He really did chase after me,' Eclair thought. She couldn't find the words to speak, as she wanted to so badly run up to him, but her other half wanted to just disappear in mortification. 'This isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening!' Staring at him, ultimately, Eclair waited for him to make the first move, or a sign for her to do so.

Rick knew that what he was about to do would be something he would really really regret, but he knew well to grab every chance in life. He quickly closed the door as he closed the distance between them as he passionately wrapped and arm around her waist and a hand on her cheek as he kissed her with lust and passion but with kindness.

She forgot to breathe. The sensation was totally unreal to her, and unbelievable. This was Eclair's first kiss, of all things! Out of their own accord, her arms snaked their way up to Rick's sides and up his back. Her petite frame required her to stand on her tiptoes to deepen the kiss, while her lower body felt different sensations in itself - things she'd never felt before.

Rick gently pushed her up against one of the walls to make the kiss more lustful and passionate as his hands traveled down to her hips, waiting for her to push his hands away. He then opened her mouth to kiss her more with a little tongue. He let out a moan to assure her that he himself was enjoying this greatly, hoping she was okay with this...waiting for her to scream for him to get away from her.

Her response was something along the lines of a little whimper, rather than a moan, as her head hit the wall. She didn't mind. She finally got what she wanted - or so she thought. She never pictured this in her head, and instead of pushing him away, she wrapped one leg around his calf, afraid to move any further. Eclair was quite shorter than him, and she was trapped between a beautiful, virile man, and a hard place - the usual figure of speech, just modified in her head. Inexperienced, she wasn't sure what people usually did to show their affections to each other, other than what she got out of the movies, but at least they had happy endings. This, however, was dangerous territory.

Rick moved his head back so that they weren't kissing anymore. "What's wrong?" he asked, a response to her whimper.

He trailed his finger down her cheek and along her jawline. "I'm crazy about you, Eclair...," he murmured to her, looking into her eyes.

"This isn't right," she started. "What if someone finds us?" Relieved that he finally broke the kiss, she wanted to catch her breath. She was underage, and she wouldn't reach maturity until college. But it wouldn't change the fact that she was strangely attracted to Mr. Hart. Not only that, he REALLY liked her! She dared to look at him. "What do we do?"

"I know this isn't right...," he said as he unwrapped his arm away from her and took a step away. "No one will find us being that no one ever comes down here," he then added. But he sighed. "Lunch is almost over," he pointed out. "We'll talk about this some more sometime," he then said.

((love your new avitar btw))

She nodded, and took this as her chance to leave. So she ran off. Not even noticing that her hair was quite mussed, and so was her usually-pristine uniform, she made her way through the corridors and back to the cafeteria.

"You took a really long time in the bathroom, Eclair." Sabrina.

"Cramps," Eclair said. "And indigestion. I think there's something going on with the mystery meat."

"You can't fool us, Eclair," Sherri started. Lowering her voice to a hushed whisper, and with Sabrina leaning over, she continued. "Mr. Hart left straight after you did. You're red and flustered. Your hair's messed up--"

Sabrina reached into her purse and pulled out a hairbrush and a powder press. "Here," she said, handing the items to Eclair.

"Shit. I look like hell, don't I?" She laughed with her friends, until they asked her to spill.

"Not here," Eclair decided. "After school."

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Things felt weird but strangely peachy right after he had made out with Eclair. He sighed as soon as the last bell rang as he rested back in his chair and stared at his back wall. I'm a mess. What have I done? he asked himself. Looks like yet again, he made yet another mistake.

The three girls stayed to gossip under one of the trees on the school grounds. Sitting on the grass, picnic style, Sherri and Sabrina watched Eclair, amazed and horrified at the same time about what she had done.

"I didn't think it would work!" exclaimed Sherri.

"Me neither," added Sabrina, who was munching on a chocolate-covered piece of candy. "It's kinda perverted if you ask me." Eclair rolled her eyes.

"So...what?" Sherri asked, slowly moving her head and moving her hands in a forward motion. "What happens next? Are you together or what?"

Sabrina batted the other girl's arm. "Shh! This is a really important thing! Nobody can hear about this, otherwise it spells danger for the both of them. Oh, how romantic. It's like a murder mystery novel."

"Yeah, except for the fact that it's not," replied Eclair. All three of them laughed. "I have to talk to him about this. But I also have to do my homework tonight, so no phone calls okay?" she warned her friends. "Seriously though, nobody knows about this. Clear?" Her friends nodded. She picked up her stuff and headed back to the classroom, knocking before she entered.

Rick jumped at the noise as he sat up in his chair and looked over at the door to see Eclair. "Oh, Eclair, come in," he said in a happy manor as he then got up. "Shut the door, please," he then said.

"So...please...tell me what your thoughts, all of them, are on about this...?" he asked, hoping she'd open up to him.

Eclair cleared her throat, walking into the classroom and closing the door like Rick asked. That's right, after that little experience earlier, she could no longer think of him as Mr. Hart. But the words came difficult as she stood in front of his desk, on the other side, where she properly belonged. But she didn't know where to start.

"No one's supposed to know about this. Any of it," she said, fidgeting with her hands. This was definitely courting disaster. Her first kiss came from her teacher. Her teacher, of all people! She put her palm to her forehead, and pushed her hair backwards for lack of anything better to do. "I like you and, well, you like me. You're older. We shouldn't be dating, and this isn't gonna work out." They hadn't even gone on a date yet. "How long have you known?" she asked him, in regards to how long he actually had feelings for her. "I already know about your ex-wives. You've told this story to the guys before, Alec included." She turned away. "I'm sorry, this is really, really wrong," she laughed uneasily. "I shouldn't even be here."