Ocean Breeze

3- Keegan

I stood outside against the frame of the door as students started trickling in for my last class of the day. My first two classes consisted of mostly freshman and sophomores. They were lower level classes for drawing and painting but my final class of the day was advanced art- mixed media. I was most excited about this class since everyone had to pass at least two lower level classes to sign up for it. At least I knew the students had a passion or were at least decent artist. That or the previous teacher was very likable and they were expecting another class with her. Most students were shocked the previous teacher had retired, without notice from what I gathered throughout the day. So far half of them had really loved her and the other half were glad the "evil bitch" was gone.

I slipped inside the room to gather the stack of syllabi to pass out as a the last few students entered. A very eager red headed girl was sitting close by and watching my every move. I turned to her and asked her to pass out the syllabus to everyone. She agreed without hesitation. Once everyone had their syllabus I introduced myself.

"Good afternoon everyone. My name is Keegan Austin. You can all call me Ms. Austin. If it wasn't obvious already, I am the new art teacher. It's my understanding your previous teacher Mrs.Calhoun retired over the holidays."

I heard a few shocked sighs and some mumbling between students but I continued.

"So without further ado, Welcome to advanced arts. To break down the semester we will have 3 major projects and various smaller projects throughout. I usually like to take a week to explore the media itself before moving on to the actual project. The 3 major projects will include ceramics, charcoal or drawing, and painting. We aren't going to start anything today but tomorrow we will get into ceramics. Today I just want to go around and hear from all of you. I'll give everyone a few minutes to speak. Tell me whatever you want about yourself or life but I want everyone to finish off by telling me what you want to do in the future."

I heard one or two grumbles from a group of guys sitting in the back but everyone else seemed to be listening and willing to participate, with the exception of one girl who was slumped over at a table in the far side of the room by the storage rooms I had discovered earlier. She had a look on her face I couldn't quite read. I hadn't noticed her before this moment but I was having a hard time pulling my eyes away now that they had locked with hers. There was something in her eyes...

"Ms. Austin, can I uh go first please?" asked the chipper red head up front.

I pulled myself out of my daze. I couldn't quite shake off the what?... that I was seeing in her eyes. I could feel her eyes still on me from across the room.

" Sure. I figured I will start off just to give you guys an idea of where I'm going with this and you can go from there. As I stated my name is Ms. Austin. I was born and raised in Colorado but moved to Texas for college which is where I met my husband."

I saw the girl shift in my peripherals and felt her eyes leave me. I continued "My husband and I moved to Georgia about a month ago after he got transferred and promoted to a CEO at a new branch of his architecture company here. I'm an art fanatic and love the ocean or any body of water really. In the future I want to own my own art gallery."

I could barely get the last word out of my mouth before the red head started blabbering about her career aspirations to become a doctor. Instead of calling people out I allowed everyone to raise their hands when they were ready to speak. As they stated their names and various future goals I marked their names off my roster, hoping it would help learn them all faster. This group seemed to have things figured out. Apparently there were future doctors, lawyers, nurses, tradesmen, and several teachers in the room. My eyes were traveling around the room but couldn't help but land on the girl in the corner over and over again. She hadn't made eye contact with me but smiled and made several comments to her table as we made our way around the room. She had yet to raise her hand. After the last guy, who had aspirations to become a pilot the room became quiet. I looked down the list seeing only one name left. I thought there had to be a mistake. The last name belonged to a male but I knew there was only a female left.

"Is there a Ryan Cooper in here?" The girls around the table all grinned and looked to the girl who had smiling and talking with them.

"Yeah, I'm Ryan." She said. Her voice was...attractive. I had no other way to describe it to myself, but so was she. Obviously alien shape. An athlete maybe. She put her hand down out of the air and I took in all of her features as I focused on her from afar. She was very attractive in tomboy way. I stopped my unwanted thoughts, "Alright Ms. Cooper. We will finish up with you before the bell."

She grinned and hesitated before opening her mouth again, "Well, I was born and raised here but I sure as hell won't die here. My future looks like me sitting on the beach with a drink in my hand living out my days in the sun."

I was shocked and wasn't sure how to take her response. Her classmates didn't erupt in laughter but were smiling. They looked at her almost in admiration rather than looking at a class clown. I didn't know how to respond but I knew I couldn't take this lightly or they would all think I was a pushover that allowed disrespect. Even though I wasn't sure it was disrespect.

Before I could speak she looked up again, "Oh and of course a smoking hot girl in a bikini by my side."

The last statement was my undoing. I felt my cheeks get hot but not out of anger. "I don't know what your previous teacher allowed but you won't use that language in my classroom and you won't disrespect me like that again."

"Don't get your panties in a twist. I just figured you wanted honesty." With that the bell rang dismissing everyone for the day. Ryan shuffled out with everyone else still leaving me stunned. I didn't know how to react. How could she think that was acceptable? I suddenly wanted to retract my own thoughts about her attractiveness. She was a student but more so her attitude caused a fowl taste in my mouth. I could still feel the warmth in my cheeks which was now mingled with anger.

I couldn't let this slide. School started on a Friday so next week would be the start of ceramics. I had all weekend to figure out how to punish Ryan Cooper for what she had done. I couldn't imagine Ms. Calhoun, a 70 year old woman, putting up with students talking to her that way.

I found myself more hung up on the look in her eyes. I couldn't put my finger on it but it intrigued me and it scared me. She was gorgeous but I couldn't shake the faint darkness that haunted her eyes.