Degrees of Desire (gxg, txs)

chapter four

-Isabella

The days had been moving incredibly slow. It was this constant routine that happened every single day. The only difference in my days were based on if I worked or not.

Like usual, I went to all of my classes, and ended the day off helping Mrs. Williams. These past couple of days, she seemed a little off, upset even. I tried to make conversation but she kept it quite short. I decided to just let her be, she probably has a lot on her plate.

It was now Friday morning, I got home quite late last night from working. Mrs. Williams has been showing up to the coffee shop every night.

She ordered her usual black coffee and ever since the day I gave her a slice of banana bread, she orders it as well. She stays until closing time working on her computer.

Nate and I just walked out of our calculus class. We had spent the entire class doing a worksheet that Mr. Thompson decided to give us. I'm sure he had nothing else planned for us to do.

We quickly find Iris before heading to Mrs. Williams class, she was standing near her locker.

"Hey Bells, hey Nate." She says greeting us with a smile.

"Hey Iris." Nate and I say in unison.

"Ready for class?" She asked me.

"Let's go." I sighed.

We said bye to Nate and walked towards Mrs. Williams' class. As soon as we walked through the classroom door, I noticed Mrs. Williams was seated at her desk rubbing her temples.

She looked to be extremely stressed, but even then she managed to look beautiful. She wore black suit pants with a black long sleeved shirt. She had her usual pair of black heels and gold jewelry.

Her long dark hair was put up into a messy bun that still made her look elegant.

"Good morning everyone." She says flatly. Her British accent really got to me. I wonder where she was from or where she came from. What was her story?

"I'll admit I'm not feeling so good today. I have gotten you all assigned to a new book. I will be handing them out and I'd like for you all to read the first chapter. You will write a report about it and turn it in on Monday. You can use this period to get started." She says holding a stack of books in her hand, passing them out to each student. "You could read with the person next to you to give you a different perspective of the different interpretations of the book."

Once she finished passing them out, I watched as she walked back to her desk and sat down. She opened her laptop and began typing.

"Do you want to read it on our own first then talk about what we got from it?" Iris turned to me and asked.

"Yeah. That sounds like a good idea." I agreed and opened the book.

"Oh hey, I forgot to tell you but I'm leaving early today. I actually should be leaving in a couple of minutes." Iris whispered to me.

"Oh that's right. Your actual doctor's appointment was today." I whispered back and she giggled.

We continued reading the book. I actually managed to get to the second chapter, writing annotations along the way before I was interrupted.

"Iris Young, please report to the front office. Thank you." I could hear Mrs. Leyva say through the intercom.

"That's me. Gotta go Bells. Love ya." Iris says standing up and kissing the top of my head. She puts her book in her bag before practically running out of the door.

For the rest of class, I kept on reading and making small annotations so that it would be easier to try and explain to Iris later.

I've read this book before. It was Animal Farm by George Orwell. I thought it was an interesting choice of book.