quiz! He had seen it. There was no way she could talk about this now, with John viewing their entire conversation with a smirk. “Fine, Monday. I get done at 2:30.”
Without waiting for an answer, she turned and made her way to the front door rather than going back through the backyard. Celeste had her own car and would be able to make her own way home. Rory dug her keys out of her pocket and forced herself to walk sedately to the door, ignoring Noah when he called her name. She also ignored John’s loud laughter.
Once she made it out of the house, she took off down the street to her car at as fast a clip as she could reasonably get away with. The kind of walk/run that old ladies had invented in the mall. The further she got away from the party—from Noah—the easier it was to breathe. If Noah being nice threw her for a loop, then his kiss had knocked her out of the stratosphere. And she couldn’t even begin to think about what that might mean.
Chapter Four
Rory tried breathing through her nose to control her temper, a trick that some magazine or another had taught her. In through the nose and out through the mouth, slowly and deliberately. She put a hand to the desk to catch her balance when all her deep breathing accomplished was dizziness. Certainly not a reduction in anger or an improvement in control. She should know better than trust magazines by now—they had caused her nothing but hardship over the past several days.
She blew a strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail out of her eyes. Classes had been finished for about a half an hour and most of the students were gone. They had either caught their bus or some other ride or were already deep into whatever after-school activities defined them this week. And thank goodness because they had been impossible to control. Every time she had turned her back to write something on the board she had heard them whispering behind her and the clicking sound of texting fingers. Just once she wanted to turn around and catch a note being passed—at least then she would have something interesting to read in return for breaking the focus of the entire room. It was definitely a bad day when she was longing for more nostalgic forms of classroom disruption.
Spring fever was setting in big time. And not just with them. Rory had been antsy herself and barely able to concentrate on the lecture notes in front of her. Noah had seen the quiz in her house and she was going to have to explain it to him somehow. Since his invitation/order at the party, she had created, considered, and discarded a few plausible explanations and several completely ridiculous ones.
That quiz is actually not mine.
It’s one I’m considering giving to my students.
I cheated off the wrong person.
It seemed like honesty was really the only policy in this scenario. After all, whatever she thought of Noah, he wasn’t stupid. And, to be completely truthful, she really had no idea what she thought of Noah, only that she couldn’t stop thinking of him. After the party, she had gone home and lain on the sofa in front of Law and Order for quite a while. Eventually, after a lot of concentration and a classic greasy fast-food hangover cure, she was able to piece together everything that had happened that night. From Noah’s rescuing her to her aborted seduction attempt. And the part in-between when he had confessed that the one other time they had gotten together, he had believed she was dating a good friend of his.
She hadn’t been. Wouldn’t throw water on Greg Francis from ten feet away if he were on fire. But she understood how Noah could have been confused with his friend deliberately lying to him. And her response hadn’t been much better. She clearly remembered bouncing up to him at the bar the next day, so sure that something great and new had been formed the night before. So sure that they were on the same page. How could they not be with chemistry so fantastic? But he’d turned away from
Without waiting for an answer, she turned and made her way to the front door rather than going back through the backyard. Celeste had her own car and would be able to make her own way home. Rory dug her keys out of her pocket and forced herself to walk sedately to the door, ignoring Noah when he called her name. She also ignored John’s loud laughter.
Once she made it out of the house, she took off down the street to her car at as fast a clip as she could reasonably get away with. The kind of walk/run that old ladies had invented in the mall. The further she got away from the party—from Noah—the easier it was to breathe. If Noah being nice threw her for a loop, then his kiss had knocked her out of the stratosphere. And she couldn’t even begin to think about what that might mean.
Chapter Four
Rory tried breathing through her nose to control her temper, a trick that some magazine or another had taught her. In through the nose and out through the mouth, slowly and deliberately. She put a hand to the desk to catch her balance when all her deep breathing accomplished was dizziness. Certainly not a reduction in anger or an improvement in control. She should know better than trust magazines by now—they had caused her nothing but hardship over the past several days.
She blew a strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail out of her eyes. Classes had been finished for about a half an hour and most of the students were gone. They had either caught their bus or some other ride or were already deep into whatever after-school activities defined them this week. And thank goodness because they had been impossible to control. Every time she had turned her back to write something on the board she had heard them whispering behind her and the clicking sound of texting fingers. Just once she wanted to turn around and catch a note being passed—at least then she would have something interesting to read in return for breaking the focus of the entire room. It was definitely a bad day when she was longing for more nostalgic forms of classroom disruption.
Spring fever was setting in big time. And not just with them. Rory had been antsy herself and barely able to concentrate on the lecture notes in front of her. Noah had seen the quiz in her house and she was going to have to explain it to him somehow. Since his invitation/order at the party, she had created, considered, and discarded a few plausible explanations and several completely ridiculous ones.
That quiz is actually not mine.
It’s one I’m considering giving to my students.
I cheated off the wrong person.
It seemed like honesty was really the only policy in this scenario. After all, whatever she thought of Noah, he wasn’t stupid. And, to be completely truthful, she really had no idea what she thought of Noah, only that she couldn’t stop thinking of him. After the party, she had gone home and lain on the sofa in front of Law and Order for quite a while. Eventually, after a lot of concentration and a classic greasy fast-food hangover cure, she was able to piece together everything that had happened that night. From Noah’s rescuing her to her aborted seduction attempt. And the part in-between when he had confessed that the one other time they had gotten together, he had believed she was dating a good friend of his.
She hadn’t been. Wouldn’t throw water on Greg Francis from ten feet away if he were on fire. But she understood how Noah could have been confused with his friend deliberately lying to him. And her response hadn’t been much better. She clearly remembered bouncing up to him at the bar the next day, so sure that something great and new had been formed the night before. So sure that they were on the same page. How could they not be with chemistry so fantastic? But he’d turned away from
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