Chapter 5- Mr James's POV

I was standing really close to Ella, knowing that I had no control over myself right now, and in spite of the promise I'd made that I would keep away from her, it really wasn't happening. I smiled down at her, but suddenly I saw a movement from behind her, and when I looked up I saw Beth standing in the doorway, to my horror. My eyes widened and I slowly moved back from Ella in a subtle way. I managed to smile at Bethany weakly, and said, "Hey Beth..." I didn't know what else to say, but she didn't let me say anything, anyway.

"What the hell is going on here?" she screeched. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ella flinch. I bit my lip and looked away from her, forcing myself to walk towards Beth. Beth, who was supposed to be my girlfriend. I shuddered. I dreaded almost every moment I spent with her. Well, except for last night. It was a comfort knowing that I'm loved. At least, it's a distraction from my attraction to Ella. Not that it worked today, in her presence. I still like Ella, and I acted like a bit of a flirt today. More like a student, less like a teacher. Nathan really is right sometimes.

"What do you mean?" I asked Beth casually, trying to make it look like it wasn't a big deal.

"Seriously?" she said in a loud voice. "I walk into the art room and you're standing just a few centimetres away from her!" I rolled my eyes. Centimetres. It sure was obvious that Beth taught Maths at this school. The subject was also part of her vocabulary, something which I disliked about her. Then again, I wondered what I actually liked about her. Okay, now I'm being really mean. She is nice. I'm the one who isn't.

I shrugged, and said, "I was just explaining something to her."

She gave me a look and said, "Really?"

"Yeah, really. You know me and my students. I suppose you're used to it now." I crossed my arms.

She shook her head. "It really didn't look like that."

I glared at her. "Well, that's your problem, not mine." I took a deep breath, leering at Ella, who was standing at the side, not knowing what to do. I looked away, keeping in mind that I was having an argument with my girlfriend, who was also a teacher at this school, in front of a student. In front of her.

"Can you go now, please? We'll talk about this later," I said.

Beth pouted. "I was hoping we would spend some time together," she replied. "I have a free lesson now."

Sheesh, I thought. At least she has one free lesson, not two, like I do. I shook my head. "I'm sorry Beth, I need to help Ella with her work, and I promised some of my students that they could come in here anytime," I lied.

She sighed. "Fine. But this isn't the end of this conversation. Man, you can only be nice for a couple of hours before you turn back into that horrible person that you are. See you later," she said, looking really annoyed. She left the room in a huff.

"Whatever," I muttered, looking at the door calmly. She didn't even manage to make me angry. See how relevant she is to me. I turned to Ella. "Sorry about that..." I said softly.

"Beth?" she asked with a laugh. I nodded and she continued, "Your girlfriend?"

I chuckled. "Yeah I really shouldn't be talking to you about this," I said. She laughed.

"Really? Because I feel that you owe that to me, since you used me as an excuse to get rid of your girlfriend," she said jokingly.

I grinned. "Oh, bugger off," I told her, but then straightened. What the hell was I thinking? "Sorry, that's no way a teacher should..." I trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

She shrugged. "It's okay, sir. Better you than Nate, aye?" She smiled at me.

I didn't return her smile, and I flinched at Nathan's name. He was so intimidating. And younger than I was, therefore, closer to her age than I was. Damn, I'm jealous, I thought. Crazy much? "I'm too old, though," I murmured, and I was sure that she heard what I said. She answered me a few seconds later, her voice full of concern.

"Aww, come on, you're not old."

I looked up at her and met her eyes. We weren't standing close to each other this time. I decided to make fun of what we were saying, and I grinned at her. "I'm not sure if you're just a nice girl, or if you're being nice so that I would give you good grades." She looked guilty and didn't say anything. I chuckled. "Thought so."

The thought of her being nice to me just so I would give her good marks saddened me, though. And it wasn't just about her. I had only known her since the day before, for crying out loud. But I was thinking about everyone here. If any one of my students was nice to me because they knew they would get good grades out of it, I'd feel really pathetic and useless. Not that I didn't consider myself to be sometimes.

I mean, a guy of my age, who only succeeded in one thing in life so far: becoming a teacher and being nice to all the kids. Well, trying to. Relationships have always been catastrophic in my life, as you might notice. Right now, I have an on and off relationship with my colleague, who is the same person my best friend has a crush on. Messed up much? Yep. And now, starting from yesterday, I like a student, who's a minor, and I'm flirting with her right at this moment. I mentally shook my head. Good going, Edward. This is why nobody likes me. Well, that, and the fact that I'm rude to pretty much everyone from work, but not to my students. I prefer talking to my students than to my colleagues. That's why Nathan sees me as a flirt.

I look at Ella once again, trying to get a grip. "I won't give you extra marks, just so you know." I still smiled at her though. No hard feelings, eh?

She smiled back. "Of course, I wouldn't expect you to." She paused, seeming to think, and then looked at me. "Can you give me something to do now, please? I could increase my grades by working harder."

I laughed. "Of course. What medium do you like drawing with?"

"Charcoal."

I locked as with her once again. "Me too. Funnily enough." We had a lot in common, it was weird. I turned away from her and opened the cupboard, where I searched for the charcoal pencils in silence. A-ha. There, on the top shelf. I reached for them, but as I did, I remembered that I was on my own with Ella once again. That thought distracted me, and instead of picking up a pencil gently like I was supposed to do, I hit all the tubes of paint and stuff that were next to it. And they all fell off the shelf. A whole box of them, on top of me. And guess what happened then? It KNOCKED me down. The frickin' box of acrylics was so heavy that it knocked a six footer down on the floor. I gave out a shout, feeling so embarrassed, since I was in front of her. I tried standing up, but was distracted once again because as I looked up, I saw her standing next to me, looking down at me, mortified.

"Are you okay?" she asked in concern. She shook her head. "Of course you're not okay, what am I thinking? Let me help." She leant down, while I looked up at her, confused. She started picking up the acrylic tubes and cans and putting them back into the box. I stared at her in bewilderment.

Oh, it dawned to me suddenly. OH. Okay. Leaning down to help me meant putting the acrylic back in their place. Not kiss me like I was thinking.

Man, I think I hit my head on the floor or something.

I realised now that I was kneeling on the floor, staring at Ella. And I've been staring at her for a long time. I jerked my head away and started to stand up quickly, but immediately got dizzy, and I had to close my eyes. "Damn," I muttered. I instantly felt a hand on my wrist, and I opened my eyes to see Ella looking at me with wide eyes.

"Sir?" she asked.

Great, calling me "sir" to remind me that I'm her teacher. I glanced at her hand on my wrist. "Yeah?" I asked, noticing that I was midway between standing up and kneeling on the floor. This must look so bad to all the passers-by, I thought. I bit my lip, a new habit of mine ever since I started school yesterday, and tried standing up slowly, pulling up Ella with me gently. I smiled at her. She let go of my wrist and looked away from me.

"Thanks," I said to her. "I can't believe I did that." My face reddened at the thought of having tumbled down on the ground because of a box of acrylics. I was so stupid.

Ella smiled back at me, handing me the box of acrylics. "Don't worry about it. It wasn't your fault." She paused, then smirked and continued, "What were you trying to do exactly, though?"

I shook my head. "I was going to get you some charcoal pencils so you could work," I said.

Ella's face softened. "Aww that's really cute!" I felt my face getting red once again, and she, upon noticing, grinned up at me. She turned to the cupboard and spotted the pencils immediately, and grabbed one of them. "See? It's not that difficult," she added with a snigger.

I narrowed my eyes at her, but then grinned. "I am getting old, then, like I told you earlier."

"Not too old, I hope," I heard her say in a low voice. What?

"Not too old for what?" I asked, eyeing her.

She shrugged. "I'll tell you sometime else," she said with a laugh. What? Why?

"Why?" I found myself asking. "Why not now?"

She grinned and shook her head. "You'd better give me some paper, Mr James, unless you want me to draw on walls or on tables."

I chuckled. "Interesting idea. Though not with charcoal in that case." I put the acrylic box back on its shelf, after realising that I had been holding it pathetically for minutes now, and reached to give her some A3 paper. I handed it to her. "Here you go," I said. "Since I told Beth I'll be helping you, you can stay for as long as you like. I know you want to, really." I raised my eyebrow. Damn, I really am a flirt, I thought.

"Seeing that you want me to be here so much, I'll stay for the third lesson as well." Ella gave me a long look, and then turned and went to sit at a desk. I cleared my throat and closed the cupboard, walking over to my desk. I didn't know what to think really. Was she flirting, or just being nice? I didn't know, but I knew that I had already broken the promise I had made to myself and to John, of merely acting as a teacher to her, and avoiding her as much as possible.

Deep down though, I knew that this was what I wanted.

Hi guys, I hope you enjoyed this part. I'm noticing that people are reading what I'm writing, but there are no comments yet. I would really appreciate if you guys were to comment, it would let me know whether I'm on the right track! And I would also appreciate votes please :)

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