Michelle Ryker

Chapter Five: The New Teacher

The rest of the morning passed by uneventfully. Tatiana explained to me that Ms. Dabney had tried to issue late marks to those who hadn't given her their assignments yesterday, claiming it was due by today in order to punish me for not being in school again, since the school ran on a two day rotational schedule she couldn't actually take marks off for late assignments. Which I needed to keep in mind in case she threatened to do so when I got to class.

As soon as I reached the back room at lunch Celeste smiled and waved me over. "Michelle! The office Okayed our practice during fourth so head straight to the gym after third, okay?"

"I don't even have to go to fourth to talk to the teacher?"

She shook her head. "Nope. All of the teachers are used to this. They'll get an email explaining what's going on and we'll all be marked as present. You have nothing to worry about."

"Even though Tatiana and I have a substitute today?"

Celeste tilted her head to the side slightly. "That's a good point. Meet me at the gym and we'll talk about it then. For now we have more important things to discuss."

Celeste started heading for the table right as my phone started to ring. I looked at the caller ID and sighed. "Sorry, I should probably take this."

Celeste waved towards the door and I knew she was giving me permission to take a short phone call. It was weird needing to get someone's permission.

I answer the phone right before I left the room which also happened to be the exact same time that Aaron walked into the room. "Max, what do you want?"

Aaron shot me a look and then followed me out of the room.

"Well hello to you too, Ivy."

I rolled my eyes even though he couldn't see me. "I said, what do you want? You don't call me unless you want something."

"Where are you, I can hardly make out a word you're saying."

"One second," I said as I walked out of the caff. I covered the phone with my hand and turned around to face Aaron. "You can go away now."

"Hey, I think I have a right to know what you're doing taking a phone call from a guy in the middle of school for."

"I don't know but it's probably something Clarabelle related. It's not like I'll be able to tell you about it anyways."

He sighed. "Fine but if it isn't then I expect you to tell me about it, alright? Uncle Leo did make me swear to watch over you while you're here and keep you away from guys."

Rolling my eyes I pushed his towards the caff doors. The men in my life were so overprotective. "Just go eat already."

I waited until he was half way across the caff, shooting looks my way, before walking down the hall and putting the phone up to my ear again. "Sorry about that."

Max chuckled. "I couldn't make out a lot of what happened but I do have one question."

"What?" I asked wearily.

"Boy problems at your new school?"

"Get real, Max. Just tell me what you called me about."

"You make it sound like I wouldn't call you if I just wanted to hear your lovely voice."

"Max, I know you. If you really wanted to hear my voice that badly you would have found some excuse to come here yourself instead of just calling. I'm sure you'd have no problems finding out where I am at a moments notice. How many times have you showed up out of nowhere since I left Clarabelle?"