Bound to You

Chapter 11: Impulsive

While Henry was amused, she was annoyed. She noticed that they were feeling more entertained by this than by their work. She shouted firmly, "Enough!" She never knew high school students could be so...daring...let alone the teachers!

She sighed, "Go do your drama outside, Henry and leave us alone." 

"But I've not even started." 

"You're distracting my students." 

"And I'm distracted by you." He gave a side wink to the students and they laughed. 

Charlotte enthusiastically exclaimed, "No please ma'am, you have to hear him out. That was so romantic." Ileana cringed as she heard that. She was almost tempted to give Sierra a hand to just...kick her literature teacher out.

Jace suddenly stood, somewhat annoyed, "Romantically stupid, yes. Didn't you hear the lady, Stone? Leave us alone." He walked to them, leaned against her desk, lifted Henry's coffee to take a sip from it. 

Henry grumbled, "Jace, why do you always put your nose in my matters?" 

He sat on the desk, briefly touched Sierra's hair and said, "Because this woman, here, is my business. Not yours. And you stay away from her." There were more whistles in the class. 

Sierra reprimanded, gently pushing his hand away, "Jace, get down." She was feeling cornered and troubled. She understood Henry's joking behavior but this side of Jace...

And here she was, wanting to have a normal day and these two were seeing eye to eye. She raised her cup, stood and said, "Alright guys, class is dismissed. Go enjoy your break and have a nice weekend."

After they reluctantly moved out, all except Ileana, Sierra turned to these two and scolded, "Jace, it's not polite to interfere between two teachers. Apologize to Mr Stone right now." 

He pointed out, "He's clearly flirting with you and you're not liking it." S

he coughed, "I wouldn't call those...cheesy lines flirting and that doesn't concern you. Now please, that's not how a student should behave." 

"Then you tell me, damn it. What should I do? You're the only one who managed— You're... hell, I'm disappointed." He stormed out of the classroom and she was stunned at this. Henry was also surprised and said after a moment, "Never saw Jace get that frustrated before. Do you think he's in love with you?" 

Ileana coughed deliberately as she heard that, "Um, I'll go and check on him." She reassuringly held Sierra's hand for a brief moment, knowing she was worried and walked out.

Sierra was pensive. Something was troubling that boy. She tried to smile, "Let's go out, shall we? I need some fresh air." 

"Sure." He looked at his wasted coffee and sighed in regret. He said, "You know I was joking right? That was Shakespeare." 

"I know." 

"I mean not all the things I said were jokes but—" 

She laughed, "That's okay, Henry. I think I know you quite well to know when you're joking and when you're not." 

He was relieved, "I'm still shocked though. I thought the kids were acquainted with my dramatic acts by now. Usually, they love the free entertainment." 

She grimaced, "Do you always get in a character?" 

"Most of the times...it's fun! You should try that." 

"Hah! That's never gonna happen!" They walked out of the school, went to a nearby cafeteria where they bought pastries and talked over a real cup of coffee, trying to forget that incident after they spoke a bit about it.