"So you're finally free?"

            Looking up, my gaze landed on a mop of messy, dirty blonde hair. My best and British friend, Lance, took a seat at the table across from me setting down his lunch tray. He cocked his head to the side, waiting for my response.

"Guess so," I finally responded, giving him a quick smile before returning my attention to my lunch. Bagel.

            "About time," he responded with a relieved look. "I thought you were going to be grounded forever."

            I grimaced at him. "I did too. It was pretty unfair of my mom to ground me after the wedding."

            "Well, can you blame her?" my other best friend, Casey, pitched in, frowning. "She found out that you were involved with a gang by you being stabbed and ending up in the hospital. If I was your mom, you'd be grounded for way longer."

            I scratched the back of my head, grinning sheepishly at my friends. "She was pretty upset about that... Still is."

            Lance leaned across the lunch table towards me, lowering his voice. "And yet she wasn't upset when she found out you were dating a teacher."

            I sent him a warning look. "Shh! And no, she doesn't care. Apparently my dad was also a teacher. Didn't I tell you that?"

            "No," Lance and Casey responded simultaneously.

            "Well now you know."

            Casey grinned. "So it runs in the family, huh?"

            Before I could answer, there was a tap on my shoulder. Casey's eyes snapped behind me as I turned, frowning slightly. A younger, female student I didn't recognize was standing behind me, holding out a small piece of paper. Wordlessly, I took it from her, recognizing the well-formed penmanship immediately.

            "Another lunch meeting?" Casey inquired, leaning to the left so she could see it. "This is like, the tenth time this month."

            Flushing, I quickly crumpled up Chris's note, crushing it into a little ball. Casey smirked as I stuffed it into my pocket, pushing myself up from the table. "Lance, will you bring up my trash?"

            He gave me a wry smile. "Of course, Holly."

            "Have fun," Casey chirped, winking at me.

            After shooting Casey an exasperated look, I headed out of the cafeteria. The halls were completely empty and I hastened through them, eager to get to Chris's room. He was smart to send a different student to get me every time he wanted to talk to me so no one would get suspicious. I entered the science wing, looking around for any rogue students before slipping into the biology classroom.

            "Mr. Heywood?"

            "Do we have to go through the rubber band process again?" a voice demanded from behind me, making my heart leap into my throat.

            I twirled around, coming face-to-face with my biology teacher. He raised an eyebrow, his beautiful grey eyes piercing into mine. The rubber band process... I winced, remembering the painful time. Well, it wasn't painful for me, but I figured it was for him. Every time I called him "Mr. Heywood" instead of "Chris" outside of school, he'd snapped a rubber band on his wrist. At first I was amused by it, and called him Mr. Heywood on purpose, but then I started to feel guilty, and I finally gave up. Somehow I had gotten out of my habit of calling him Mr. Heywood.

            "Well?"

"N-no, we don't."

            "Good."

            "But we're in school," I pointed out. "And I didn't know if anyone was in here. We have to be careful, Chris."

            A grin spread across his lips and he took a step towards me, bringing up his arms. Before he could touch me I ducked out from under him and took a few wary step backwards. He gave me a pouting look. "What now?"

            "No PDA," I scolded him, although I was doing my best to resist the urge to touch him too.

            He narrowed his eyes. "I don't like these new rules, Holly."

            "I don't either," I admitted with a small sigh. "But I don't want to take a chance of ruining anything. Everything has been so perfect lately..."

            "Speaking of perfect, a few more members of the gang were caught and brought to jail," Chris told me, grinning again. "Word is that gang disbanded."

            My eyes widened. "Really?"

            "Really."

            "So when Shawn went to jail it really was the end..."

            "Guess so."

            Silence filled the room now. Chris and I just stared at each other, not needing to say anything. He smirked when I finally felt my cheeks heat up. If there was one thing I wasn't good at, it was eye contact. I couldn't hold it for the life of me.

            "So, um, what did you need me for?"

            An expression of surprise quickly passed over Chris's face. "Oh, I almost forgot! Two new transfer students are arriving today," he informed me, gesturing with his hand for me to follow him. "I need you to do me a favor and meet them in the front office and bring them here."

            "Why me?"

            "The principal asked me to ask someone in my fourth period biology because the two new students have biology this period," Chris told me. "Not that we actually need more students in this class..."

            "Both of them?"

            He nodded. "Yeah. I heard they're twins."

            "Really?"

            "Really, Holly," he responded, rolling his eyes. "Are you trying for that to be your catch phrase?"

            I scowled. "No."

            "So will you do it for me?"

            "Sure," I responded, nodding my head. "So I just bring them here?"

            "Yeah. We'll have someone else show them to their other classes."

            "Okay."

            Chris reached out and ruffled my hair. "Thank you, Holly."

            I pulled his hand off my head, but didn't let it go. "You don't have to thank me... Mr. Heywood." Before he could say anything back, I quickly let go of his hand, and nearly ran out of the classroom. He called after me, but I ignored it, chuckling quietly.

            The trip to the front office only took about a minute. Before entering I smoothed down my hair, checking myself in the reflection of the window on the door. When I looked presentable, I pushed open the door, heading inside.

            "Ow!" someone shouted as the door came to an abrupt stop.

            My eyes shot open in surprise and I immediately yanked the door back, hoping whoever I had just hit with it wasn't too hurt. "I'm sorry! Are you okay?"

            A young man with messy, pecan colored hair was rubbing his head, looking down at the floor. "Yeah, I'm fine. Would it kill you to not use all your force while opening a door?"

            "I'm sorry," I apologized again, feeling my face heat up. "I'll try not to next time..."

            The male before me finally looked up, and I found myself staring into a pair of multicolored eyes. They were either blue with green, or green with blue. Either way, they were an unusual color— just like Chris's. They widened for a split-second before narrowing at me. The owner of the eyes towered a good foot over me, crossing his arms. My eyes were attracted to his shirt— on it was the logo of a band I really liked.

            "Aaron!" a new voice, considerably more feminine, snapped. "You don't have to be so rude!"

            "She hit me with a door!" the blue-green eyed boy responded, just as snippy.

            "By accident!"

            Following Aaron's gaze, my eyes landed on a girl who bore a striking resemblance to Aaron. She had medium length pecan colored hair, cut into a really cute style, her bangs nearly covering her eyes— eyes that were the exact unusual color as Aaron's. The only difference was that she looked about my height. And she was wearing a skirt, even though it was in the middle of winter.

            She froze when she looked at me, but then a smile spread across her face. "I'm Alexis," she greeted, holding her hand out to me. "But I prefer to be called Lexi."

            Slowly I took her hand in mine, shaking it. "Um, nice to meet you, Lexi. I'm Holly. Are you two the new students?"

            "Unfortunately," Aaron muttered, shaking his hair out of his face. "Are you here to help us get to our next class?"

            "Uh-huh," I responded awkwardly. "Er... You ready to go?"

            "Yep!" Lexi chirped, slipping her arm under mine. "Lead the way, Haley."

            "It's Holly," I corrected her, feeling a pang of annoyance. Chris had called the other Holly Haley at one point. I didn't want anyone to mistake my name either.

            Lexi gave me a sheepish look. "Sorry, Holly."

            "It's fine," I responded, offering her a small smile. "Mr. Heywood is waiting, so let's go."

            "Mr. Heywood?" Aaron repeated.

            "He's the biology teacher," I responded, turning my head over my shoulder to look at him. "He's... nice."

            Lexi made a face. "I hate science teachers."

            I smiled slightly. That was what I had thought once upon a time. But now I knew better, and it was quite the opposite. I loved them... well, one of them. A certain, narcissistic, blackmailing one.

            When we entered the biology room, Chris was nowhere to be seen. A frown flitted on my face. "Mr. Heywood?"

            "Oh, what's this?" Lexi cried in an excited voice, picking up a beaker filled with blue liquid.

            "I don't think—"

            "Don't touch that!"

            My eyes snapped to Chris, who suddenly appeared at the threshold of the supply room. Our gazes met for a brief moment before I heard the sound of breaking glass, and felt something hot on my hand. I cried out in pain, automatically pulling it to my chest.

            "I'm sorry!" Lexi apologized, sounding panicked.

            Chris hurried towards me, quickly taking my hand in his. I tried to pull it back; whatever chemical had gotten onto my skin was making it burn painfully. Without saying anything, he quickly began to rub the liquid off with the back of his sleeve while pulling me over to the sink.

            "Keep your hand under the water," he ordered, thrusting my hand under the faucet and turning it on. "Then go to the nurse and get some bandages."

            "What is it?"

            "Nothing too horrible," he assured me, furrowing his eyebrows. "As long as you don't have an allergic reaction."

            "I'm so sorry!"

            Both Chris and I turned to Lexi, who looked pale. When her gaze landed on Chris, her mouth dropped open. Not an unexpected reaction.

            "It's fine," Chris told her, frowning. "Just don't touch—"

            "You're hot," Lexi commented, cutting him off. "Like, really hot."

            I stared at her, taken aback by her comments. My gaze then went to Chris who was looking just as surprised as me. Aaron snorted from behind her, rolling his eyes.

            She smiled innocently. "How old are you? You're way too cute to be older than twenty-five."

            "Thank you, but please refrain from making comments like that," he responded, his grasp on my hand tightening.

            "Why? It's the truth."

            "I'm your teacher."

            "A cute teacher."

            It was hard not to gawk at the girl before me. Who knew someone could be so braze? Especially when talking to a teacher! Chris gave her an uncomfortable look. I figured it was just because I was here; otherwise I'm sure his ego would be the size of Mexico. Well it probably was, but he was hiding it.

            Chris finally let go of my hand, pulling his out of the running water. "You shouldn't say that."

            Lexi pouted. "It's just an opinion."

            "He'll get in trouble," I snapped.

            Both Chris and Lexi looked at me in surprise. I flushed, quickly adverting my gaze. Not good. I couldn't act jealous in front of anyone.

"Jealous," Aaron coughed, but I only seemed to hear it.

I sent him a warning look. "I-I'm going to go to the nurse now," I muttered, turning off the water.

"Wait, Ms. Evers—"

            "I'm sorry," Lexi apologized once more as I pulled open the door. "I hope your hand is okay."

            I paused to throw her a quick smile. "Thanks."

            Chris sent me once last meaningful look before I left the classroom. Annoyed with myself, I formed my hands into fists as I marched down the hallway towards the nurse's office. The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.

            How could I have snapped at the new girl? She was just stating the truth. It wasn't a new thing that girls found Chris cute. But it was surprising that she'd said it so casually. As if telling a teacher he was hot was a normal thing. I hated to admit it, but it was pretty impressive. I would never have the guts to do that— I barely even had the guts to kiss Chris, even though we were dating.

            Suddenly someone slammed into me, knocking me off my feet. I fell to the floor, landing painfully on my butt. Wincing, I slowly pushed myself into a kneeling position.

"Holly?"

            I froze, immediately recognizing that voice. Slowly, I turned my head up to see a familiar green-eyed, shaggy-haired, blonde. "Jeremy?"

            He offered his hand and I took it, letting him pull me to my feet in one swift motion. He grinned, taking me in. "Hey! It's been awhile!"

            "It's been like a week," I pointed out, contracting his smile. "What are you doing here? It's school hours."

            Jeremy shrugged. "Nothing much. Where's Chris?"

            "Teaching," I responded, narrowing my eyes suspiciously. "You've been here a lot lately."

            "No I haven't."

            "Yes you have."

            "Have I told you how pretty you are lately?"

            "Jeremy."

            "You have such pretty brown hair, it's so soft," he commented, picking up a strand with his pointer and thumb. "I'm jealous."

            "Jeremy."

            "Your eyes sparkle like the ocean—"

            I gave him a flat look, grabbing his hand, and pulling it away from me. "Stop avoiding the subject."

            "You're no fun."

            "I never see you with Chris here. Are you transferring here or something? Did you not graduate high school?" I joked.

            Jeremy smirked.

            I blanked at him. "You're kidding."

            He laughed at my expression. "I am. I'm not transferring here, Holly."

            A sigh of relief left my lips. "Thank god."

            "Staring tomorrow, I'm the new gym teacher."

            My jaw dropped and my eyes widened significantly. Surely I had heard Jeremy wrong... There was no way he could be the gym teacher. He had to be playing one of his jokes.

            "From now on, you should call me Mr. Ross," he continued with a wink. "Oh, I can't wait until I see Chris's face..."

_________________________________________________

Remember everyone. This story is a SEQUEL to A PROSCRIPTIVE RELATIONSHIP. It's in my library on my page. Go read it!

The sequel has a totally different plot. This is going to more cliche to APR. Don't compare the two, because this one will be much more boring. I'm telling you know it will seem draggy because it'll really just be normal life for Holly and Chris with a little side plot. I told you there'd be a lot more of Jeremy! :D

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