I told her we should bring cash for the bus. But oh no. Jubilee always gets the last word. Don't want to take too much money, she says, might get mugged. Don't need an umbrella either - who wants to keep up with those things anyway?

So I blame her. I blame her for my soaking wet clothes. I blame her for my ruined shoes. I blame her for my sleepless night.

Because of her, he has to come pick us up. Rescue me. Again. And I have to be reminded of just how much there is to him.

He arrives like an autumn campfire; all warm, dry, and welcoming - smelling like wood smoke and the outdoors. We look like two drowned sewer rats and I don't even want to imagine how we smell.

"Ya couldn't have picked a worse part of town to get stranded in?" he asks.

I roll my eyes in typical teenage fashion and crawl into the truck. Of course Jubes makes me get in first so I'm in the middle. I try my best not to touch him because a) it's dangerous and b) it's just ... I know I shouldn't. But I do. I can't help it. It's like some force field that pulls me in every time I'm around him and, admittedly, it ain't like I put up much of a fight.



After going around a turn, our bodies shift and I'm wedged up against him. My leg presses up against his, from hip to knee. Do I move it? No. I know, guilty as charged.




How much heat can one man radiate? Seriously. Or maybe it's just me, but before long all the shivers from the cold air have disappeared and I'm trembling for a completely different reason.

It's odd though, he doesn't complain about me getting his pants wet from where we are touching.

He asks me "You still cold, kid?"

What do I do? I giggle snort!

Really sexy.

Cold? Uh, not exactly. Finally I manage to be verbal and say that I'm okay, but then Jubes pipes in that she's freezing. He obliges her and reaches over to bump up the heat ... and his arm brushes against my breasts. Now, I know it's something that accidentally happens when in confined quarters, but still! Is it wrong that it sends fireworks through my limbs? Because it does.

I'm hopeless. Completely hopeless.

The weird thing is, before we get to the mansion he reaches over to unnecessarily turn off the heat ... and he does it again.

********

I shouldn't be here. I should not be here.

First off, I got no business substituting for any of these classes. You can't call what I do teaching. I just watch them do some busy work. Watch 'em and make sure none of them accidentally kills the other or sets the room on fire or freezes it or disappears or evaporates or whatever the hell else these kids can do - until their real teachers get back.

But second, and mainly, I shouldn't be here because of her.

She's in this class and somehow she's got it in her head that I know something about physics.

I know fuck all about physics.

But she comes up here, leans over the desk and asks for my help. I am trying my damnedest to make heads or tails of it when all of a sudden, brunette and platinum hair brushes against my cheek and falls into my face so that I can't even see the paper she's asking about any more.

"Oh sorry," she says.

All I can think is how I'd like the hair back in my face because it's a hell of a lot more fun than the physics problems.

Is it wrong that I want to bury my face in that hair and take a nice long whiff of it? Wait - make that, pull her onto my lap and then bury my face in her hair? Because I do.

The funny thing is, I never really answer her question but she seems happy with the results anyway.

When she's back at her desk and I see her brow wrinkle in confusion over another problem - what do I do? I walk over there to see if she needs help. Like what the hell am I going to do to help? Volume, mass, density. Equal and opposite reaction. Bodies in motion. Hell yeah. I'll give you bodies in motion.

So finally, when class is over, she leaves with a simple smile and a wave of her hand. I'm ready to congratulate myself on another self control mission accomplished when I realize I forgot to take attendance. Some teacher I'd be. I grab the paper, looking down the roster.

The weird thing is, she ain't even in this class.