Teach me - A teacherxstudent romance

one

"Get me off of this, I need confidence in myself."

-The Weeknd  'Wicked Games'

<> 7 months later <>

"Hurry your ass up, Kie!!" I hear my brother yell from downstairs. It's currently 5:27am, and my brother wants to put some shots up before school starts at 6:35.

I shove my belongings into my bag and scurry down the stairs, careful not to trip over anything in our dark house. "I'm coming, I'm coming."

Kyle opens the front door for me and I run out to his car. I think it's very useful that he has a car, even though its a beat up old Honda. I broke his middle console off once, but I just placed it back on like nothing happened so the next day he thought he broke it.

I watch as Kyle carefully closes the front door behind him, then starts bolting to the car. When he gets in, he puts the car in reverse and drives out fast.

We get to the school 2 minutes later. Our neighborhood doesn't get busses since we live so close, so Kyle will have to drive me every day that he can. We walk toward the front doors and once again, he lets me in first. I accept the kind gesture as I walk in and we head down the stairs and into the gym. He puts on his basketball shoes and ties them, getting up quickly and walking toward the doors.

"Where are you going?" I lift my hands up and they fall to my sides, slapping my thighs.

"I'm going to get Nolan from the locker room!" He screams across the gym. Nolan is an old friend of my brother's, he knows my parents and me. But my brother forgot to inform me that he would be joining him this morning. I check the time on my Apple Watch, 5:59.

I decide to head to class since my brother won't be paying any attention to me, and because I'm mad that he didn't tell me Nolan was going to be here.

I open the gym doors and take out my schedule. I follow the small map located on the back of the paper until I reach room 214, which is my biology class. I slowly peek my head in and see a tall man standing over his desk sorting papers. I quickly retract my head and take a big breath.

I peek into the room slower than I did before, only to see Coach Quinn looking straight at me.

My eyes widen in embarrassment, but he just smiles, so I have no choice but to walk in.

As I cautiously enter the classroom, Coach Quinn steps toward me, pointing both of his fingers at me. "Hey, you're..." He pauses and looks at my face closer, "you're Kie, right?" I swallow hard.

"Um, yes. You're James." I try to rest my eyes so they don't look so stupid.

"You got it. But, hey, it's Mr. Quinn in school." He laughs.

"Oh, yeah of course. How about Coach Quinn? I'm going to have trouble with the Mr." I laugh along with him. I've never seen him as a Mr. Only as a coach.

"Fair enough." His laughter dies down to a smile. He looks down at the papers in his hands, "Hey, can you help me put these on each desk?" He holds up the papers and slightly waves them.

"Oh, yeah for sure." I slip my bag off my shoulder and lean it against a chair leg. I take half of the stack from his hands and start making my way around desks, placing a piece of paper on each one. I notice how he moves swiftly around each desk, careful not to hit a corner.

"So, what are you doing here so early?" I look up from the desks and meet his eyes but I quickly look back down and focus on passing out the papers.

"Well, I usually come here some mornings with Kyle to rebound for him," I scoff, "but today it looks like he already has someone."

"Ahh, that sucks," he purses his lips, "I bet you're a great rebounder." My brows furrow. Like he read my mind, he says, "You're brother told me you play volleyball, you've got to be quick for that."

"Kyle told you that?" I wonder why Kyle would bring me up to Coach Quinn.

"Yeah, he talks a lot about you." We swivel around desks until he and I reached the last paper in the pile. We stand in front of each other, leaning against desks.

"What else does he say?" Because I'm genuinely curious. He sits his rear against one of the desks and rests his hands behind him as I sit up on a desk in front of him.

Coach Quinn frowns and shakes his head, looking at the floor, "He says you're good in school, which I'm expecting," he points at me and chuckles, "and..." he thinks, "you're good at art?" He says in a questioning tone. "And of course that you're his best friend." He smiles.

I feel a big smile tug at the corners of my mouth. "I've never heard him say something like that." I place my hand on the back of my neck. "Thanks for telling me."

"Anytime." He looks up and smiles at me. We stare into each other's eyes for a beat too long before one student enters the classroom. People begin to flood in as Coach Quinn and I jump off the desks. He returns to his desk and I just stand there, not knowing where to sit. I notice that some of the odd kids have migrated to one table, then the popular group to the other. I decide to be safe and choose the empty table.

I lift my bag up from the floor and bring it over to the front of the classroom where the empty table is. I take a seat and soon enough another girl comes and sits by me.

"Hi." I wave at her.

"Oh, hey!" She has a big smile.

"I'm Kiara." I return the smile.

"Kiara? That's such a pretty name! I'm Mariana, but you can call me Mar."

"Okay, and you can call me Kie!" Mariana smiles and nods. I hear the bell ring.