His Model Student: A Student-Teacher Romance

12. Trying to ignore

[RECAP: Sera ended up dancing with her art teacher Mr Marek in a bar. Now she has to face him in class...]

As anticipated, Mr Marek completely ignored Sera the next week in school. This was easy enough to do without people noticing as the class was large enough that he could simply concentrate on other students. He still gave brief critique and guidance for her work, but the absolute minimum.

Watching him spend much more time with others, and being more relaxed and friendly with them, was really hard. Mr Marek wasn't exactly the sort of lighthearted teacher who joked around, so on the rare occasions he smiled it was devastating. But he never smiled around her.

Sera was crushed even though she had expected this. She found it almost impossible to stop trying to sneak a glance at him in class and catch his eye, but she tried to discipline herself. She didn't want Mr Marek to realise she cared.

Lois and Joel saw how things were and tried to buoy her spirits. Lois had of course told Joel all about the nightclub.

"It's very pointed, his ignoring you," Joel said. "That means he's not actually indifferent, he's just trying to be."

They were currently supposed to be blending pastels to represent shadows in different coloured lights. Sera was finding it hard to concentrate on the fruit bowl in front of them. She found herself thinking about how the light hit his skin: the shadows under his cheekbones, the changing grey of his eyes.

"Or he's trying to send me a message that he truly doesn't want anything more to do to me," Sera said.

"I doubt it. He wouldn't have danced with you otherwise, he looked like he wanted to devour you. Like he was wrestling with himself. After all, if word got out that he was fraternising and dancing with students in a club, he'd be in serious trouble," Lois pointed out.

Somehow Sera wasn't sure that Mr Marek would really care about getting fired. Presumably he did need the teaching position or he wouldn't have taken it. But she suspected he was the kind of person to simply walk out rather than beg and plead to keep a job.

"God this is dull," Joel said. He loathed still life. "It was bad enough having fruit and flowers every week with old Billings."

Lois picked up a fuchsia coloured pastel and started colouring in an implausibly pink hue on the side of the banana she had drawn. Unlike the other two she had no ambitions in any thing art related as a career. She had only chosen art because the other two were doing it, and it seemed like less effort than Chemistry or History.

"Fruit and flowers is what they use in the record industry to mean hookers and cocaine," she said.

Joel was curious. "Which is which?"

"No idea. My sister mentioned it. Someone she trained with did the styling for a music video."

"Anyone famous?" Joel asked.

"Not that I'd heard of. I suppose they might be eventually," Lois said.

"You should get a signed photo then."

Joel fell silent as Mr Marek's gaze swept over them. "I trust you're managing to get some work done amid all the conversation?"

No one dared speak after this. Instead they concentrated furiously on the shading, Lois decided to turn half of the pineapple blue. When the art teacher's back was turned, she whispered to Sera: "I wonder if he commands his partners to be quiet in bed while he gets his work done?"

Sera felt her face flame at the thought of it and had to swallow a giggle. She briefly glanced at Mr Marek only to find him looking at her. She hadn't felt self-conscious in front of him in the bar, and previous lessons had been fine. But something in his expression reminded her what he had seen of her.

Was he remembering it too? For a second she felt completely exposed, as though he could see beneath her clothes. She bit her lip, trying to regain her composure.

Mr Marek held her gaze for a moment, then moved on. The spell was broken but Sera was sure she had felt a connection.