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.

Ileana had no idea where Jace went. After vainly looking for him for a good ten minutes, she spotted Sam sharing a casual conversation with two girls and she tapped his shoulder, "Hey Sam, sorry. Have you seen Jace?"

"Um, no. But wait, lemme call him." He dialed the number, waited but it didn't connect. The girls scowled at him, "Sam, who's that girl?" He merely said, "Gimme a sec with you, babes." They gawked at him as he just excused himself and walked off with Ileana. She could feel the daggers they were sending her behind her back.

Sam said, "Don't worry about it. Jace never liked Mr Stone. Maybe that's why he snapped. And Stone, you know...he likes to show up anywhere and would just...do his little dramas. Once he barged in the library, brandishing a carton sword and yelling that the silence must be broken or there'll be war."

Ileana chuckled, "That must have been quite a scene!"

Sam continued, "...haha, the library staffs joined hands to throw him out of the library. He is in fact, the teacher in charge of the drama club. Pfff, he likes to role play. Personally, I think he's funny...and he's a great teacher. Class is never boring with him."

"I see..."

He stopped for a moment, wondering why he was even escorting her, "So er, he likes to take out his anger at the gym. Maybe you'll find him there."

"Oh. Okay. Thanks Sam." "No problem."

She proceeded to go when he hesitated, "Hey, it might be best not to bother him when he's like that." "Haha...alright."

Despite the advice, she made her way to the gym, feeling lost as if it was her first day. She saw Nelly and Charlotte sitting in the tier of seats, watching the boys and girls of the school practice their favorite sports as they ate their lunch. She hassled to them and asked, "Hey guys, seen Jace anywhere?"

Charlotte bit in her apple and said, "Jace? Oh, Queen B was just flirting with him just there." "Queen B?"

Nelly leaned towards Ileana and whispered, "Short name for Queen b***h! That's Quincy, that pretentious brat of cheerleader who thinks she owns everything." "Oh...er...good code name."

Charlotte pouted as she pointed towards a gang of cheerleaders, "She got almost all the boys up her sleeves... She really is a bi—" Nelly coughed, "Relax, Char!"

"Thanks. See you guys later. I'm going to talk to her." "Don't do that! You're signing your death wish!"

Ignoring them with a grimace, Ileana walked down the stairs into the hall where the cheerleaders were practicing their moves, all wearing miniskirts and assorted blouses and shaking their bright red pompoms. "Hey, Quee— Quincy."

Quincy looked at her for a second and disregarded her the next. Trying not to feel frustrated, Ileana walked up to her, "Do you know where Jace went?"

She gracefully spun on herself, lifting the pompoms in the air and down, facing her, giving her, her complete attention as she c****d an eyebrow, "What do you want from him? Don't you get it, newbie? He's mine." Quincy eyed her from head to toe and added with a smirk, "And anyway, by the looks of it, you don't even have a chance competing for him."

Ileana mocked, stepping closer to Quincy, looking her straight in the eyes, "Are you even dating him?" There was a scowl on her face, "Oh it's just a matter of time, you brat. I'll fix that sooner than you think. He's basically all mine. I know where he is and I wouldn't bother telling someone as pathetic as you."

Ileana laughed, playing her cards well, "Fancy pretending his whereabouts. I better go and ask someone who actually knows something."

Quincy angrily spat, "Oh rubbish! He's practicing with Maxim right there!"

Ileana grinned at the victory as she waved dismissively, "Thanks for the Intel!" Quincy stared after her, taking a few seconds to process what just happened. She couldn't believe she just got played. Ugh, she would pay for that.

She hurried off towards the room Quincy had accidentally pointed to. She knocked once and opened the door and saw Jace blocking swift attacks from the PE teacher, Maxim who was giving him instructions. His eyes briefly met hers and the teacher scolded, "I know the girl's pretty, Torres but focus on me."

Jace quickly dodged an attack, landing a blow in the teacher's stomach who coughed a little, resisting the pain, "Alright. Enough for today. Well played, lad."

"Thanks, Max." The teacher leaned against the wall, pressing his hand on his hip and said in a suffocated voice, "No problem. See you next week." Jace wiped his forehead with a white towel and grabbed his leather jacket, walking out of the training room, "What do you want?"

"I was looking for you. Why are you here?"

He paused momentarily, not liking that she intruded his privacy, "Hmpf, I was practicing my effing damn hooks and here you are, barging into my damn space. Just stay out of my way."

He was walking quite fast and she almost jogged to catch up with him. He went to his locker, entered his combination and tossed in the boxing gloves, closing it with a slam, making her jerk at his impulsiveness. "I wanted to know why you're angry at Mr Stone."

"You got a problem with that?" "No but—" He waved dismissively, went outside, got onto his motorbike. She watched him silently. He searched in his back pocket for his packet of cigarettes.

He took one, placed it between his lips and flipped his black lighter on. "You—you're smoking?!"

"Glad you have eyes, genius. You want one?"

"No!"

"You want to go on a ride?"

"No."

"Then go annoy someone else. Get out of my effing way." He wore his black sunglasses, twisted his key, accelerated rapidly only to slow down before a group of girls who waved to him. She watched in awe as one of the girls, wearing a tank top and a short skirt, approached him, kissed him longingly on his jaw and sat behind him on his bike.

He sped off and she wondered what she saw right then. It was as if she got a slap in her face, telling her to wake up. Wake up from the assumptions she made on him. She tried to face the reality she just saw and slowly made her way back inside.

Was that really the guy who took her out yesterday? She doubted it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

That girl sitting behind him slowly slid her hands around him as he sped up, crossing the speed limits. She said in a sultry voice, her mouth closed to his ear, "I've always wanted this, Jace...but you never looked at me before." She was holding him so tight and the funny thing was that he didn't know what her name was.

He asked, his cigarette still between his lips, "What do I call you?"

"My name's Elena. You know me! I'm in the cheerleading team along with Quincy. Class right next to yours. I took a selfie with you the other day...and also the previous week. Oh, basically whenever I get the chance to! You are so hot."

She tightened her grip. He knew the girl was probably red with embarrassment right now. Well, he didn't really care. He just wanted to have some fun and probably Elena did want that too. "How does clubbing sound?"

"Ooh, really good if you dance with me."

"Good." He exhaled the smoke, tossed away his cigarette and his eyes suddenly caught sight of two familiar figure sitting outside at a cafeteria table, having a cozy conversation as if the rest of the world didn't exist. He groaned, "Check out these two."

"Hey! That's Mr Stone with that new teacher!"

He wore his helmet in a swift movement and he sped up towards them. The girl exclaimed in panic, hugging him tightly, "What are you doing?!"

"Having some fun, baby." He gave a tug, raising the motorbike up to get better control and riding on a single wheel, he directed himself towards their table. He leaned, grabbing the milkshake of a nearby lady and pulled on the throttle.

As soon as he came close enough to Stone, he poured it on his head, tossed the cup at him, made two screeching rounds around the table and accelerated away. The girl was excited from the thrill, "Oh my God! You should have seen their faces. Haha, you're so bad. I love it."

He could feel Sierra's gaze on his back as she watched him, giving him chills. Damn. She probably knew. Henry Stone might not know it was him but Sierra on the other hand, she knew the model of his bike, she knew it was him even though he wore that stupid helmet. And he knew she would scold him this time.

Maybe he crossed his limits, maybe he'd land in real trouble but he'd do it a thousand times if needed because that was the right thing to do.