Classroom Affair - Chapter 11：A Snake in the Grass

Failing to get real sleep, Shannon went through her classes, trying her best to pay attention to the assignments which felt empty in her hands.

When the lunch bell rang, she wondered if she would be able to eat anything at all with the way her stomach argued with her.

As she maneuvered her way down the mint green hallways that made the building seem more like a mental ward than a high school, she was surprised when someone grabbed her from behind and squeezed her hard.

“Good afternoon, rock star!” The voice greeted her and Shannon twisted to squirm out of Brandon’s powerful grasp. “It would be if I had air!”

Realizing the extent of his strength and delighting in the fact that Shannon noticed as well, Brandon gently set her down on her ballet flats and patted her head. “Sorry about that, it’s hard to keep all this epic manliness in one body. Are you eating here today?”

Shannon brushed off her shirt and shrugged. “I don’t know if I’m really in the mood to eat anything solid at the moment.”

Brandon’s eyes softened. “Are you getting sick?”

Shannon shook her head and waved her hand dismissively. “Nothing to worry about, my stomach just doesn’t want to agree with me lately.”

With that, Brandon stepped closer and towered over her, placing a gentle hand on her stomach. “Poor chaotic tummy. I have an idea! Come with me!”

The hand grabbed her wrist and pulled, as they dove through the crowd of students waiting in line and piled into his impossibly muddy truck, decorated in drawn in smiley faces from passersby.

“Where are we going?” Shannon asked, buckling her seat belt.

Brandon smiled and winked at her. “I can’t have the coolest girl in our high school starving herself. I’m doing the world a favor and making you eat something. And since your stomach is being a jerk, I have something that no mere mortal could resist, no matter how disagreeable their organs may be.”

With that, they pulled into a 50s style cafe known as “Happy Days”.

All along the walls were pictures of Elvis and the Penguins, bands that were long before her time, but were favorites all the same. The old-fashioned juke box blasted out tunes of catching the perfect wave and the perfect girl and dancing until dawn.

Shannon gazed at the decorations they’d brought in from all over the state to create a real old-timey cafe. Brandon caught her attention by pulling her up to the counter where a waitress in roller skates took their order.

“I’ll have a basket of fries, hamburger and two chocolate malts. What do you feel like Shannon?”

She shrugged. He tilted his head and snapped his fingers. “And one strawberry malt for the lady, please.”

The waitress popped her gum and placed the order on the cooking rack. Shannon felt a flutter in her chest. “You remembered my favorite ice cream?”

He pulled out a chair for her and seated himself. “Sure do. I remember when we were ten and you got the chicken pox and would only eat strawberry shakes for a week.”

She found herself grinning at the memory. She was so sick with the chicken pox, she seriously considered those days to be her last. Of course, that meant that Brandon took it upon himself to convince her to stay in the world and not die of the “horrible disease” as they had named it.

He was always watching out for her, in everything she did.

Brandon glanced up from playing with the sugar packets. “What are you looking at? Something on my face?”

Shannon shook her head and smiled. “No, just feeling nostalgic.”

This seemed to be a perfectly acceptable explanation for Brandon, who shrugged and whooped when the food arrived. When he plowed into his burger and smiled with satisfaction, Shannon quietly slipped her shake, letting its pink goodness coat her disagreeable stomach.

She watched him and wondered at how easy it was to be with Brandon. How she never had to try to be anything, but herself.

“Thank you.”

Shannon’s eyes became soft as she smiled. “For letting me be me.”

Brandon titled his head and looked confused. “I never LET you be anything. You’re way too independent to listen to anything anyone else wants for you. You’re perfect just being you, being the girl I….”

Shannon watched him carefully, setting down her shake. “The girl you what?”

Brandon looked as if he was about to break out in a sweat. He swallowed and opened his mouth. “The girl I…”

At that moment the waitress returned to their table. “Anything else I can get you, sweetie?”

Shannon quickly reached for her shake, as Brandon sighed and pulled out his wallet. “No. We’re done.”

The ride back from lunch felt suffocated, the air thick and heavy with their silence. Shannon tried not to look at Brandon in fear that he wouldn’t finish what he began in the cafe.

She thought she knew what he was going to say and there were several people who expected them to make a relationship years ago, but Shannon never thought of Brandon as anything, but a good friend.

The troubled boy tapped his knuckles on the car door, glancing over to her more than once.

When they pulled into the school parking lot, he turned off the roaring truck and waited.

“Thank you for lunch, Brandon. It was really nice.” Shannon tried to sound light and casual, but Brandon’s dejected eyes avoided her gaze.

“Yeah, it was. We should, I don’t know, do it again, but at night.”

Shannon looked to him confused. “Wouldn’t that be dinner, then?”

“Nothing gets past you does it?”

The familiar smile Shannon was so used to seeing on her friend melted on his face.

She smiled back. “Sure, I think dinner would be fun. But I think the bell already rang, so we’d better get going.”

He nodded and pulled out the keys before walking her to the stone stairs, leading to the choir room. Shannon reached up on her toes to hug him around his neck. “It really was fun. Thank you.”

“Nah, thank you.”

“For what?”

“For this.” Brandon snuck a quick peck on her cheek and rushed off into the main building. Shannon’s fingers went to her skin, feeling the warmth of his kiss still lingering there.

It made her think back to when they were thirteen and Brandon rushed up, grabbed her hand, quickly kissed her jaw in an attempt to reach her cheek and ran off to tell his friends.

Back then it was a dare to kiss a girl, and Shannon didn’t think anything of it. This felt like something entirely different.

“Are you going to join us sometime soon, Ms. O’Ryan?” That voice filled her senses, sending prickling skin up and down her neck. She turned and noticed Mr. Thompson’s tall form standing in the doorway, clipboard securely firmly in his arm.

Brushing her hair behind her ear, Shannon quickly rushed up the stairs and past the teacher without looking at him.

She let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding and placed herself beside Iris, who had decided that country was the look of the day. The small girl fiddled with her braids; red and white plaid shirt made her seem paler than usual.

She noticed the red in her friend’s face. “What has you in such a tiff?”

“I’ll tell you later.” Shannon said opening her choir folder to retrieve the piece they’d been working on for the past few weeks.

Iris smirked and tugged on the fabric of her jean shorts, before Mr. Thompson took his place at the podium. “Good afternoon ladies. I’m excited to report that auditions for All State have opened and an invitation has been rendered to our school. I’ll be more than happy to assist any of you who desire to participate, so please feel free to ask after class and take an application with you.”

There was an excited murmur, as the choir girls chattered amongst each other. All State was a very prestigious event and for their tiny school to even be thought of was exceptional in itself.

It would be held in Seattle, which was a whole eight hours away and at the same university Shannon desperately wanted to attend.

She glanced around the room, wondering if any of her choir girls would be accepted? She’d be very proud of them and wouldn’t deny that she herself wished for a spot in a choir of that ability. The big leagues were calling and she intended to answer.

“All right, settle down, we still have work to do. I want everyone to take “I Will Be There to See” home with them and memorize it by tomorrow. This is a difficult piece and requires a lot of dedication, but I have faith in every one of you to give it the time it deserves. Now, let’s begin on the first seven measures.”

Mr. Thompson raised his arms, holding a thin conductor’s staff in one hand and leading the group in an acapella chord. Shannon tried her best to focus on the piece, as it was fiercely difficult to remember her part.

She smiled when her voice matched perfectly with the alto section around her, but felt her eyes turning to the man before her. He hummed a bass note to steady the group and reminded Shannon of a captain driving his ship of voices.

He commanded such a presence about him.

The image of his face, his dark hair and piercing eyes reflected off of the ocean waters, that night, flashed into her mind, as she felt another embarrassing tremor in her lower stomach.

Mr. Thompson glanced in her direction and then instantly looked away, but not before she noticed the effort he put behind it to do so.

For some reason, she felt a sense of satisfaction that he lost their staring contest, that he was suffering just as much as she. But then the swirl of guilt came again and she realized that she shouldn’t want him to suffer. He was doing the right thing, trying to stay true to his wife, so what was wrong with her?

When the class ended, Shannon followed the line of girls, who were brave enough to pick up an application and she marveled at its weight. These people wanted to know everything you’d done musically in your life and Shannon wondered if she’d have what it took to be accepted for such an event?

It would be fine. As long as she worked hard, stayed away from trying to fantasize about her teacher and not let it show to anyone around her how wicked she felt, she would make it through the year. Nothing could go wrong if she stayed positive.

She slipped the papers into her binder, but nearly dropped them when a voice slid around her like a twisting serpent. “Mr. Thompson? My name is Alexia Jackson and I’m transferring into your class. Could I have you sign this please?”

Shit.

Shannon whipped around to see the voluptuous girl bat her impossibly long eyelashes at Mr. Thompson, who adjusted his glasses. “Ah, yes, I remember hearing about you. Welcome to choir, I’ll take that paper.”

Alexia placed her hands behind her back, pushing her perfectly formed breasts against her already tight red shirt. “So, you heard about me already? Hopefully it was all good. I’d hate for you to start off seeing me as a naughty girl.”

Shannon glared, as Mr. Thompson smiled and gave back the slip that would allow that viper to entire her beloved sanctuary of music.

Could Alexia sing? Of course, she could. Shannon had known the cobra all her life and there wasn’t a single skill she didn’t excel at, except the ability to dress modestly.

Feeling her face burn, Shannon attempted to duck out of the room, until she heard Mr. Thompson call. “Ms. O’Ryan, could you come here a moment?”

A scream threatened to explode out of her soul. Shannon turned slowly. “Yes, Mr. Thompson?”

He smiled that breathtaking smile at her and motioned to Alexia. “Would you be so kind to stay after school today to catch our newest member up on the music she’s missed? It would really be a great help to me.”

Shannon bit the inside of her cheek.

Alexia pouted her lower lip out. “I don’t want to trouble Shannon. She has to go read her bible ten more times before dinner. Couldn’t you stay after and help me, Mr. Thompson? I’d love to learn any tricks you have. I’m sure you’re amazing.”

Imagining Alexia’s crimson fingernails touching any part of the man she’d been so infatuated with, made the choir president’s blood boil. She stalked up to the rattler and smiled sweetly. “I don’t mind helping you. Mr. Thompson has a wife that will be very cross if he’s late and we wouldn’t want to start a fight now would we, Alexia?”

To Shannon’s satisfaction, Alexia’s golden eyes took in the man who was staring at the sickly-sweet confrontation, oblivious to the true meaning behind their words. Her expression seemed confused, as if she hadn’t considered him to have a marriage so young.

“Great, well I’ll make sure to leave the class open for you then. Thank you Ms. O’Ryan, and welcome again Ms. Jackson. Hopefully this will be a great partnership between you two.”

Mr. Thompson smiled, as both girls blinked angelically. When they left the class and walked down the stairs Alexia sneered. “Way to be a twat block.”

Shannon glared at the comment and whispered. “Why did you transfer into this class? What’s in it for you?”

“Um, that amazing specimen of man, in there. Are you blind or just stupid?”

Alexia brought her nails to her face and inspected them, as Shannon scowled at her tormenter. “Neither, but as you’ve just been told, he has a wife. He’s off limits. So, there is no conquest for you. Therefore, no reason for you to join this class.”

Alexia’s eyes flickered to Shannon’s steady gaze, as she smirked. “Big words for a church mouse. What has you all in a twist if I’m there or not? What, you have a crush on him or something?”

Shannon felt a red flush come to her cheeks, as Alexia’s painted lips curved to a malicious grin. “You do, don’t you? You have a crush on Mr. Thompson! Well, well, looks like the Jesus freak has a bad side after all. Didn’t know you had a thing for married men, and teachers at that!”

Quick to silence the accusations she herself didn’t want to hear, Shannon snapped. “I do not! I don’t want you in this class because I hate you! I’ve always hated you and this was the one period of freedom I had away from you! Nothing more.”

Alexia watched her carefully. “Are you sure that’s it? Just your everyday hatred for me?”

Shannon nodded once. “Yes, my normal vile for anything dealing with you.”

There was a moment of electric silence, as both girls stared each other down. Alexia smiled softly and flipped her dark hair. “Well if that’s all that’s keeping you from wanting me in the choir, then we will just have to avoid one another.”

Shannon stayed frozen, as Alexia walked closer until she was standing beside the trembling girl. “But if there is more to it, then this year is going to get very, very interesting.”