44

"I'm Mr Nicholls and I'll be Mrs Sulivan's substitute until the rest of the year, I hope we get all along, I hate sending people out but I'm not afraid to, remember that," he says writing his name on the blackboard.

Andersson Nicholls, that's a stupid-looking name.

"He's not as hot looking closely but I guess it's fine, the face is not the most important," Soph whispers to me as he starts calling out names.

"He looks 40, disgusting," I say rolling my eyes.

"Anna Krauss."

"Krause," I correct him.

"Krause," he repeats and goes on with the list.

"He looks dumb too."

"You just hate him because he was flirting with your platonic crush," Soph says amusedly. "And isn't miss Evans on her thirties too?"

"She's 27 and even if she was on her thirties at least she looks young, this guy is ageing as he talks."

"How do you know her age?"

"I'm good at snooping around."

"You're good at being a creep," she says amusedly.

"Girls," he says trying to sound stern but his voice was too stupid for that.

I swear the bell took ages to ring and the moment it did I practically dragged Soph out as fast as possible, I was never so excited to have P.E in my life, shit I would even choose to have two P.E periods than having to listen to this guy.

He was a try too hard, he tried way too hard to be cool but stern but really he's the type of teacher that students would talk over.

"He's not that bad but definitely not someone I would go after," Soph says as we lazily pass the ball to one another at P.E. "He lacks confidence."

"Why are we still talking about him?"

"Because you have that annoyed face going on ever since you laid eyes on him," she says kicking the ball too hard making it go to the other side of the field.

"Go get it," I say pointing to it.

"You go get it, you're closer."

"You kicked it."

"And you didn't catch it," she says amusedly.

I just groaned and went for it, it's useless to argue with Soph, it would take all day and I'd rather not have Mr Olson on my ass for slacking off.

"Hurry that snail ass!" I hear Soph screaming from the other side of the field but my attention was elsewhere.

I could see through the fence Jenny talking to Mr Nicholls at one of the school back entrances, at first glance I thought the obvious, she was telling him but the more I looked the more I realised she looked uncomfortable while he seemed to be acting flirtatiously.

This calls for some detective work.

"Oy! Anna get back here you slacker!" I hear once again Soph scream from the other side of the field making Mr Nicholls turn around but I was quick to do the same, making it seem like I wasn't watching.

"Idiot, you almost blew my cover!" I whisper harshly as I come closer to her.

"The fuck?"

"I saw Mr Nicholls, he was talking to Jenny."

"So?" She asks with a raised eyebrow.

"He was flirting with her, she seemed very uncomfortable."

"Oh, should we talk to her?"

"Uh duh," I say as we hear Mr Olson blowing on his whistle signalling the end of the period.

"What a douche, he was flirting with Miss Evans just this morning," Soph says as we walk to the changing rooms. "He flirted with both your crushes."

"I don't have a crush on Jenny," I say rolling my eyes.

"Wow, so you're finally admitting you have a crush on miss Bootylicious, but I guess that's not very surprising," she wiggles her eyebrows.

"Well, I never denied it, did I?"

"I'll give you that," she says patting my back. "So, what's the plan?"

...

Soph knocked lazily on the student council room, normally Jenny would be alone at this time of the day, she's hardworking and the others were lazy idiots that just liked the title, I know I'm lazy but I at least don't take important spots just to be popular and not do what I'm supposed to do.

"Come in."

"Sup Jenjen," Soph says as she opens the door, already making herself comfortable in one of the sofas, yes they're fancy, they have sofas.

"Hey," I say awkwardly, yeah I'm not very good at hiding things.

"Hey, what brings you by?" She asks with a kind smile.

"So, have you talked with our new teacher?" I say trying to make her tell us what's up by herself rather than asking it right away.

"He..." Jenny starts but is cut off by Soph.

"Let's be more direct, Anna here saw Mr Asshole talking to you in a rather flirtatious way, we want to know what's up and if we need to get a knife or not." Yup thanks, Soph.

"Oh, I mean he came to me a while ago, he wanted to know if we were preparing anything for the upcoming months and said that he was willing to help," she says sounding honest.

"You seemed uncomfortable," I butted in.

"He's really touchy for a teacher, I don't like that," she sighed.

"So the knife it is," Soph says seeming a little angry.

"Can't you report it to the principal?" I ask although agreeing with Soph, a knife would do wonders. "You have an eye witness," I complete with a smirk.

"Yes but he didn't do anything wrong, I mean maybe that's just the way he always acts and I doubt the principal would do anything about it, it took months to get a new teacher, he wouldn't just fire him for making a student uncomfortable."

"She's right," Soph says with a sigh as the first bell starts to ring. "Well, I have to pick up my siblings but we can discuss this tomorrow and maybe find a better way. Like we could hide pot on his bag and report him."

"It would be terrible if we got caught, Sophie but thanks," Jenny says with a genuine smile.

"No problem Jens, we got your back," Soph reassures checking the time her phone. "I'll be going, tell us if anything else happens, bye girls."

"Sure, bye," she says while I just wave my hand as she leaves the room. "I didn't take you as someone that would spy on people," Jen chuckled amusedly now addressing me.

Oh, only if you knew.

"I was having P.E and the ball just happened to land close by, it really wasn't intentional." I'm not lying but I did stay longer to see what they were talking about.

"I know, I was just joking," she says as some of the other members come in.

"Yeah, I'm aware," I chuckle awkwardly. "Then I'll see you tomorrow," I say already leaving, no way I'm staying longer in the presence of these brats.

"See you tomorrow."

The moment I closed the door the tardy bell rang and the halls were pretty much empty, I still had to talk to Daniella, I have to tell her to stay away from that creep.

Well, I really just want to see her.

I never really knock on her door but today I had a feeling that I should and I'm glad I did because once I opened the door there he was leaning on the board as Daniella was marking some papers.

"I'm sorry for the tardiness, miss," I say making her look up at me, her eyes were secretly thanking me.

"Miss Krause, take a seat," she says simply.

"So," he starts but Daniella is quick to cut him off.

"As you can see I'm busy now, we can resume tomorrow if the matter is job-related Mr Nicholls," Daniella says coldly as she walks to the door opening it, quite rudely suggesting him to leave.

"What about coffee this evening?" He insisted.

"I'll be busy and I'm not interested." Ouch.

He just walked out of the door seeming a little embarrassed, I would too after getting dumped like that in front of a student.

"Wow," I chuckled as Daniella closed the door rolling her eyes. "Poor guy, I know the feeling."

"I hate to say that I was wrong when I thought you were the most annoying person ever," she says amusedly as she walked to the desk I was in, pulling a chair to sit on.

"How dare him, taking my place like that," I joke making her laugh. "Well, I found out something."

"What?" She asks now getting a little more serious.

"I saw him flirting with you this morning, which is not very surprising. I mean look at you, you're a fucking goddess," I say making her squint her eyes at my language. "But later today I also saw him flirting with Jenny, she's underage, he's such a douche."

"That's not very surprising either," she says uninterestedly. "You'd be surprised by the number of married male teachers that flirt with students."

"Shouldn't we do something about that?" I ask receiving an are you stupid look from her. "What?"

"Anna, you're not a very good example," she says rolling her eyes. "You're the younger and female version of a perverted old man, same pickup lines same attitude."

"Younger, female and prettier version of a perverted old man," I correct her making her roll her eyes again. "And don't compare me, if I were their age I would never hit on an underage girl and I would never cheat on my wife, I'm a keeper," I complete with a smirk.

"Good for you," she says sarcastically.'

"Good for you."

"As I was saying," she starts, ignoring my attempt at flirting. "The only person that can actually do something is Jenny, so she should report him to the principal instead of asking for your help," she completes getting up and walking up to her desk.

"She didn't ask for my help, I offered it," I say crossing my arms defensively. "I don't like him and no I'm not jealous. If you were to replace me for that thing I would seriously think you might be having some mental issues."

"First I would not replace you because if I recall we are nothing," she says in a rather cold tone. "And good for her, she has such a helpful friend."

"What do you mean we are nothing? I know we're not dating but that's..." I say getting up and stopping in front of her desk unable to finish my sentence, my throat was clenching. "What are you insinuating?"

"I'm not insinuating anything, Anna."

"If we're nothing why are you jealous all of a sudden for no reason at all?" I spat.

"I'm not, although I would have reasons to," she says in the same cold tone.

"What reasons? I've proven to you a million times how much I want you, and you only, while all you've been giving me is crumbs." I mumbled. I could already feel my chin starting to tremble slightly but she doesn't say anything she just stares at me blankly. "If you don't feel anything for me why do you keep leading me on? Because it's fun? Because you enjoy the thrill? Because I'm stupid and I'll always come back to you no matter how many times you shoo me away, just like you want me to? Is that fun to you?"

"Anna..." she starts but doesn't continue.

"That's it? You don't know what to say because that's the truth?" My eyes were starting to get glossy but I refuse to cry in front of her, I'll not give her that satisfaction.

"No."

"Then what?" I ask but she remains silent. "You're a fucking idiot," I spat before leaving, my eyes no longer felt like they were about to cry a river, instead I felt a throat-clenching anger that made me want to scream.

Who am I fooling, I knew this all along, I just didn't want to acknowledge it.