The Teacher's Pet

Chapter 4

Good Lord, how many times am I going to choke on my spit?

I scootched my chair backwards sending a couple cardboard boxes flying and began to cough wildly on a used napikin.

Shit, what if he recognizes me as the girl who ruined his 17k suit!? Oh God, he'll want me to pay for it!

I finally clear my throat after what seems like an eternity and look at Emily's brother aka the sexy jerk from Starbucks.

"Are you okay? I didn't mean to startle you," he says seemingly worried but he narrows his eyes suspiciously.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine. I--,"

"Do I know you from somewhere?"

"O-of course not. I think I'd remember meeting you," I say and an awkward silence follows. I can feel heat of my blood rushing to my face and ears. Did...did it just seem like I was flirting? Oh my God, just let me die right now.

"Right, nevermind. My name is Liam Walker, let's get started with the evaluation," he says ignoring me. He turns to look at the cute, polka-dotted clipboard in his hands, and looks back at me. His hair is combed backwards but he has a stubborn antenna peaking up from the back. His gray suit and black tie are nothing special but damn if he didn't look hot.

"Isn't that until Wednesday?" A few of the higher ups were going to evaluate the teachers and go over their lesson materials on Wednesday. Why are they suddenly doing this now?

"Miss Mercedes Reyes," he goes on. "I won't take too much of your time. I just want to see a rubric, the first weeks lesson plan and a list of novels that you will be using throughout the semester. Consequences for not having at least two of these things will result in immediate termination of your job."

"What?" I squeak. Termination? It's only the first day! I don't have anything prepared.

"If you had read the material we sent you, you'd have known to have these things prepared. Are you going to be the fifth person I fire today? We don't need incompetent people here."

Jesus, Mary, Buddah, Zeus or anyone!? Help!

"Of course, not," I say full of confidence but in reality I'm shitting bricks.

"I have my rubric in my flash drive with a list of six novels for the fall semester," I bullshit, pretending to look for a flash drive I don't have. Someone save me!

"Liam, I have to talk to you!" Emily, who's been quiet up until now, finally speaks up and hauls my ass back to safety.

"Emily, why are you even here? Don't you have student council?"

"This is urgent!"

"It'll have to wait until after I'm done here. I don't think I'll be much longer," he says, then turns to me. "The rubric?"

"Just let me find it I know it's here somewhere. Emily and I were just talking about it."

"Right." He says dryly.

"Liam, it's about the vice principal. Ms. Reyes beat the shit out of him!"

And here I thought choking on my spit twice was more than enough.

What the heck, Emily! Are you trying to get me fired?

"What!?" Her brother snaps and looks at me accusingly.

"It's because he...he tried....he wanted me...," Emily's voice was dying out. Her eyes flashed with unspoken emotion and I grabbed her hand trying to comfort her.

"Do you want me explain to him?"

"I don't care who. Someone tell me what is going on," he demands now furious.