Chapter 1

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Picture of Amelie on the side -------->

To say that I was feeling nervous was a massive understatement. I'd just moved to an entirely different continent, didn't know a soul in this State and I was starting a course several weeks after everyone else, due to Visa complications. I had no doubt in my mind that friendship groups would have already formed, which just makes it harder to establish friendships.

I guess I should explain myself. My name is Amelie Clarke, I am 20 years old and I was born in Manchester, England. As much as I love England, I was in dire need of drastic change so I decided to drop out of University over there and move to the States to study English Teaching. My family stayed at home for obvious reasons; work, friends, school. I was going solo on this. Not that it was a big deal; I was an adult after all. Which brings me back to the point I was making. I was the only one on this boat and it was nerve-wracking to say the least.

Luckily, through this generation's cultural phenomenon, the Internet; I managed to find flatmates via Facebook groups, who were in the same University as me. So at least that part was sorted. They were pretty cool too. Jamie was adorable. He had dark ginger hair that could almost be passed off as brown but not quite, pretty green eyes and freckles dotted all over his face. Don't be fooled by this description, he was very handsome and I strongly suspected him to be a big hit with the ladies.

Megan was the lively bubbly sort, beautiful too. She had blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes that seemed to always shine with happiness. From what I could tell she was a free spirit who liked to live life as fully as she could. I had yet to find out whether that meant she was a one night stand girl, but I guessed that she was.

I was currently searching for my English literature classroom, Jamie was also doing English teaching but he opted out of the English literature option so I wouldn't be seeing him until my afternoon classes of TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and History of the English language.

I was cursing him for getting to spend the morning in bed, when I finally came upon the room I was searching for.

With my hand on the door handle, I tried to get myself feeling motivated to work and put on my usual blank face, the one that gave nothing away, before I pushed the door open.

All eyes were on me as I walked in so I quickly diverted my eyes to the clock on the wall which read 10:15 and cringed, "Sorry for being late, I had a mare finding my way here" I admitted, shrugging and looking around at the eyes all looking at me with curiosity.

"A mare?" to the sound of his deep husky voice I turned my head in the direction of the teacher, who was looking at me with an eyebrow raised, and had to consciously keep my mouth from opening. Holy crap he's smokin'!

He had dark messy hair, a strong jawline and electric blue-grey eyes that drew me in. I wouldn't be surprised if I was drooling, given the smirk that graced his face. Arrogant turd!

"Eh... nightmare! I had a nightmare finding this place. Sorry!" I quickly recovered, forgetting that the majority of Americans didn't understand my northern English slang and mannerisms.

His smirk grew wider and with amusement clear in his eyes he directed me towards a spare seat, "No worries. Take a seat next to Rachel over there" I shuffled to the end of the front row and plopped myself into the seat next to the girl he'd pointed to. She had mid-length wavy hair and big brown eyes, her face made even cuter by the dimples that appeared as she smiled widely at me, "Hi! I'm Rachel, but I guess he just told you that!" she extended her hand out to me and I took it in mine and shook, "Amelie, but you can call me Millie. Most people do" I informed her to which she responded with a big grin, "Nice to meet you Millie, I can tell you will be very popular with that accent of yours!" My chuckle was interrupted by the professor's deep sexy voice. Well that was an inappropriate thought! I scolded myself. Yeesh!

"I assume you're Amelie Clarke, our new addition?" I nodded up at him, trying to hold my tongue in and keep myself from drooling. "Good, well I'm Professor Lucas Bailey in case you hadn't guessed. You're a little late to the course, but don't worry you haven't missed too much. The first week was basically an introduction to the syllabus where we talked about what we knew of each book that we are to study. Last week we started Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice," he turned to the rest of the class, "since we have a new student how about we do a recap, maybe a little Q and A to get everyone on the same page. Let's start at the back and work our way down."

There were a few murmurs of agreement before he nodded at a girl at the back, prompting her for her question. She was a little on the plastic side, with platinum blonde hair and too much makeup. She smiled up at him looking all seductive and it was then that I realised Professor Bailey's gorgeous looks weren't lost on these girls. They were all practically panting like dogs.

"I know this is irrelevant to the course but... I was wondering how old you were?" She asked sheepishly. I had to admit I was a little curious about that too. He looked young.

His eyebrows furrowed a fraction before he raised one in amusement "I hope you realise it's rude to ask adults their age, but just this once I'll let you off... I'm 26". This caused a collective gasp in the classroom followed by comments about how young a teacher he was.

The next was a blonde boy in glasses who wanted to know whether, when it came to the essays, he could compare a book from the syllabus with a book of his choice. The answer, I was happy to hear, was yes. Then another boy, who asked whether we would be reading American or British literature, also a question I wanted to ask. To this Professor Bailey informed us that we would be comparing both and reminded him he should have looked at the list on the syllabus. Good point. I was pleased, though, as both nations have produced great work. After him a jock type boy asked how long he had taught for, to which he responded proudly, "This year will be my second year".

Next was a mousey looking girl who looked so shy, I was genuinely surprised at her question and nearly choked on my saliva.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" she inquired.

Professor Bailey barked out surprised laughter before he recomposed himself and looked at her with wide eyes, "Was that a serious question?"

"Well, yeah" she went bright red, probably second guessing her choice of question. Professor Bailey's face slowly recovered and a smirk replaced his shock, "No I don't have a girlfriend. Not that it should concern any of you, I am your teacher" he said this but his face looked arrogant and amused. He obviously loves the attention.

As interesting as I'm sure he was, I wasn't entirely sure what these questions had to do with the course but obviously these people had been bottling a lot of curiosity towards him.

As a consequence all serious questions were abandoned and people started asking him all sorts of personal questions; favourite colour, where he was born, where he studied, where he currently lived, if he was straight etc. Boys and girls alike were prying into his personal life, with the exception of a couple of people who asked genuine questions about the course. To my relief Rachel was one of those few people.

When it came to me I had no idea what to say, "Umm..." I fumbled trying to think of one, "honestly I'm not here for your life story and everyone asked all the questions I wanted to ask about the course, sooo... I'm good." I looked at him sheepishly when I realised how blunt that had come out.

He looked astonished at first but then surprised me by giving me a smile I hadn't seen him do all lesson, amusement in his eyes, before he went on to give me the list of books I needed to buy for future lessons. Half of which I already had. Rachel shared her book with me for the rest of the lecture.

As I left the class at the end of the lesson I allowed myself a sneaky look at him only to find him already looking at me with a look I couldn't read, which he quickly rearranged into a cocky smirk that had me frowning at him. Just when I thought he was cool he had to get all arrogant. It's so unattractive.

I had to say that at the end of that class I was not at all caught up on what they had done. Luckily though I had read Pride and Prejudice tons of times.

Short but sweet. Bare with me, I'm new to this.

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