year, and even placed second in the annual science fair. But he had officially made my shit list.
“We have assigned seats this year,” I announced lamely as students filtered in. Blakely looked anxious as hell, refusing to meet my eyes as she shuffled into the classroom. I didn’t like that I made her uncomfortable.
I knew that I shouldn’t have stopped her in the hall. Lance and I were supposed to have an understanding. Blakely and I had agreed it would be better. I could have easily dropped off her pencil case with Mr. Torres and been done with it, but I wanted to stop her in the hall. I wanted fucking Maximillian Fucking Hemsworth to know that…
What did I want him to know? Fuck. Get your shit together, Decker.
“Assigned seats?” Taylor, a particularly meddlesome student, asked. “We didn’t have them last year.”
“It’s a new year, Taylor. Adapt. Overcome.” The assigned seat decision was last-minute. I decided the exact moment I realized Max and Blakely were in the same class. I’d be damned if I had to teach while watching them sit and stare lovingly into each other’s eyes. I might not have a claim on her, but he sure as hell wouldn’t either. Not if I had any say.
My new seating plan also forced Blakely to sit front and center, something I wasn’t sure my dick liked or not, considering how she filled out her school uniform. It took everyone a minute to find their seats, and I leaned against the wall, arms crossed over my chest as I greeted some of the annoyingly flirtatious girls in my class and nodded at the guys.
Since it was a small school, I taught juniors and seniors, which meant I got to be their teacher both years of their enrollment. Against my better judgment, my eyes went back to Blakely. Something was seriously wrong with her. Her eyes were downcast, her face was pale. Did someone mess with her? If they did, they’d have to answer to me.
The surprising surge of protectiveness that filled my chest made me uneasy. Blakely was right, this had to become nothing, or it would become something I couldn’t control. I didn’t do chaos.
I’d fought too hard to control my existence to let anyone or anything fuck it up.
So instead of pulling her into the hallway and asking what put the storm in her beautiful green eyes, I conducted class, as usual, making sure not to drag my eyes over the way her long legs crossed beneath her desk. I told myself that I only half-heartedly noticed how she kept running her nimble fingers through her long blonde hair.
I briefly went over the syllabus. One of the perks of working at a school for geniuses was that they were more than capable of reading and taking charge of their education. The first day of school was all about going over the curriculum. Most of the kids in my class probably already studied the syllabus and had read the first five chapters of the textbook.
“Tomorrow starts our first lecture. You need to have chapters one through seven read beforehand.” Blakely grimaced. Even though I was trying not to stare at her, the flinch caught my eye. Maybe she was just anxious about school? I was positive that the course load here was much more than she was used to but also understood that she was more than capable of rising to the challenge. Maybe I needed to have a conversation with Rose about her hours. She couldn’t be working all night if she had the rigorous schedule we signed her up for.
“Will there be a quiz over the reading?” Taylor asked. She was one of those students that shot her hand up while already asking her question, too impatient and eager to wait for me to call on her. It really pissed me off. Blakely turned to look at Taylor, the wide-eyed stare telling me everything I needed to know. She found the girl just as his annoying as I did.
“As you remember from last year, Taylor, I don’t particularly like to give a warning on whether or not I have a quiz. You’ll just have to come prepared.” I didn’t like giving my students a heads up, not that they actually needed the incentive to do the work—they were generally good students. Either way, I enjoyed keeping them on their toes.
“It says here that we’re going to have a lab? Will we be assigned partners, or will we