Assisting Victoria

There was something about her light brown eyes that had me lost in seconds every time they looked my way. I felt myself fighting to hold back a smile as she stood explaining exactly what it was that I was going to be helping her with.

“Sound good?” she asked.

All I could do was nod. I felt stupid, but I just couldn’t form actual words. I was afraid if I lost any concentration I’d break down and start smiling like an idiot. After all, Tori didn’t know I liked her, and I was kind of hoping it would stay that way. She was my teacher, I was a girl, and I was pretty sure she was straight.

Her real name was Victoria, but she didn’t seem to like it when people call her that. I believe it was one of those cases where her mother used to call her that only when she was really mad. Now technically, students weren’t supposed to call her either of those names. To us, she was supposed to be Ms. Williams. However, that just wasn’t something I was quite comfortable with, so even though I never said it to her face, to me and my friends she was always just Tori.

Anyway, I had known her for about seven years. I first had her back when I was in 6th grade and ever since then, I’ve had the biggest crush on her. Now I was senior in high school and I could not wait until I graduated. Not that I really thought it would make much of a difference, but I was vary… hopeful at the time.

I followed her out into the hallway and then out the double doors at that end that led out into the parking lot. Her black Ford Escape was parked in her usual spot in the grass, closer to the building. She never actually parked in the parking lot, most likely because she was only really at the high school for one hour a day. They planned on moving her over permanently one day after they shifted all the schools grades around, but for now she just came to help out our third hour band class.

She unlocked the doors and opened one up, pulling boxes out and setting them on the ground. There were quite a few of them and I began to wonder where all of this was going to go. I believe she said in her office, but the office they gave her temporarily was not that big. Actually, it used to be a sort of storage closet.

They were building onto the school though. Eventually, she’d have her own room and her own office. They were adding a lot of other things too. Our high school was turning into a two school building and after I graduated the middle school would be moved over. They were almost done with the construction, but it took them all throughout my junior and senior year. That meant a lot of moving around and switching rooms for the rest of us until they got done what needed to be done.

When she was done, she picked up a box and handed it to me, and then picked up one herself.

“Okay, follow me.”

I did as I was told. To my surprise though, we were not heading in the direction I thought we’d be going.

“Isn’t your office in the band room?” I asked.

“All of this is going into my new one,” she told me. “They finally got it all done.”

“Oh. Okay.”

She led me into the new part of the building, which I had not yet been in. It smelled strongly of new paint and was very empty at the time. There were still things that needed to be done, but they must have already been taking a lunch break. I smiled to myself as I realized that this meant we were the only two people in that section of the building.

Her room was at the very end of the hall and already opened up. Inside it was larger than I had thought it was going to be and all I could do was stand there looking around in awe. She looked over at me as she unlocked her office.

“Pretty cool isn’t it?”

She smiled and this time I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Yeah, a lot better than the room we’re in.” I answered.

“I’d tell you not to worry, because they’ll be redoing that one soon anyway, but unfortunately you won’t be here for that.”

Very unfortunate indeed, not just because I wanted a nice new room like the one I was in now, but because that also mean I wouldn’t be here with Tori. I sighed as I walked into her office, which I noticed was in fact bigger than the one she was in now, but not by much.

We spent the rest of the hour, although there wasn’t much left, going back and forth between her car and her new office. I wondered for a moment why she didn’t just ask more people to help instead of having the two of us make ten trips back and forth, but then, I liked it that way. It only meant that I got to spend more time alone with her. Why should I complain about that?

When we brought the last of the two boxes in there was hardly any room left to walk in. I set mine down only to turn around and almost run right into Tori. She had just set her box down and we were facing each other only inches apart.

“Sorry… there’s not a whole lot of space in here,” she said a little quieter than she normally would have.

She half smiled and turned around to walk out the door. For a short moment I just stood there, but then, I didn’t want her to come back looking for me only to find me still standing there in a dazed and awkward state, so I followed behind her. We had been so close that I could have leaned forward and kissed her if I wanted to, and a small part of me really wished I had.