After Class (Janet and Aaliyah)

Chapter 1

Aaliyah

The bell for first period rang 6 minutes ago, and I'm still sitting in my car contemplating whether or not I even want to go inside. Halfway through first semester, and I'm already fed up with this shit. Everything they said about senioritis was real. One more year and I was done with high school. I'd been ready to dip since the end of sophomore year.

  If only I didn't have to deal with that poor excuse for a man, Mr. Lukas, with his crooked ass mustache and damn chalk sticks he liked to wave in people's faces when he was trying to make a point. But ain't nothing about math that serious to me, which is why I'm in this car, bumping my nigga Pac's new shit instead.

All of a sudden, my two-way buzzed in my pocket, pulling me out of the story he was spitting on the track. It was my best friend, Jazmine, asking me where the hell I was. We had first period with that sleeze ball math teacher together, and I felt a little guilty about leaving her there alone. But her message told me something actually interesting went down, and that I should come in. So I did, halfway eager to see some fists being thrown once I got there.

  "Who getting they ass beat-oh, shit," I stopped in my tracks as I saw everyone sitting calmly in their seats, now, every eye on me. I was just about to bounce again, when someone's gentle voice called my name from the teacher's desk in the back of the room.

  "You must be Ms. Haughton?" A woman asked me, looking up over the top of her glasses at me. She was a short little thing, I would say still in her 20's, with a slim yet curvy figure, and bright red curls spiraled loosely onto her shoulders. She had on a snug-fitting suit jacket that revealed her cleavage slightly as she leaned over her desk to look at the attendance roster, and a pencil skirt that matched. Though her face was a little distorted with slight annoyance of me showing up late and obnoxiously, she was absolutely stunning. I glanced over at Jazmine, who caught me staring, and she smirked. She knew I had a thing for certain girls, and instinct must have told her that I'd take an interest to this one. She was right.

  "I'm sorry, yeah," I muttered, taking my seat in the corner of the room. There were some quiet murmurs and laughs at the scene I'd caused. My face got hot as I slumped down in the desk. This is exactly why I hated coming here.

  "You made quite the entrance there," the woman replied rather curtly. More giggles. "Please, if you're going to be late, come in respectfully. And watch your language." Her ass was about to get on my nerves, fine or not. I didn't take nobody mocking me or making me look like I'm stupid. She would learn that real quick if she kept on, raising her perfect little eyebrows at me and writing shit down on her little clip board, like that was supposed to scare me. Shit, me and the principal were like first cousins by now. I was down there every week. 

  "Yeah, uh, my bad." I stopped making eye contact with her and doodled on the random notebook I pulled out of my bag. I only had 3 in there for all my classes.

  "Okay, so now that I see everyone is here. For those of you who do not know, your old math teacher, Mr. Lukas, was in a terrible car accident this weekend, and will not be in school for the rest of the year due to some damage in his brain. I am your new algebra teacher, and my name is Acacia King, but you guys can call me Ms King."

She walked up to the front of the classroom and wrote her name on the board in big, neat, cursive. Turned around, I could see she had an ass on her, perfectly round and out there. I would have to start coming into class more often. Around me, I could see all the dumb ass niggas scouting her out too, whispering shit to each other and looking at her like she was a piece of meat. For some reason, it pissed me off. They had no respect for women.

  Still, I leaned over and did the same thing with Jazmine. "She's gon be here all year?" I asked her, never taking my eyes off of Miss King, now saying some shit about where she's from or something.