A/N: I would like to credit to NicoleMuenchSeidel for designing my cover for this piece just as she did the cover for The Dark One's Apprentice. I would also like to thank Nicole and her husband for helping me come up with the plot for this as it could have easily become a generic, student having an affair with her older professor and the couple has a lot of inappropriate sex, plot. This story is rated M for some foul language and drawing the issues of rape and stalking.
Chapter One: A Fresh Start
Belle eased her dark blue mini cooper into the spot in front of her new dorm building. She was looking forward to a new semester, and had hopes that this year she could redefine herself, start over. After what happened over the summer she couldn't wait to start her senior year, the only problem was she hated leaving her dad. Martha Potts, their neighbor, promised to take care of him, and she had a son, Chip, who loved helping Belle's dad around the house. Chip adored her dad and was probably one of the few people who appreciated some of the inventions he tried to build.
As soon as she arrived in her dorm, the sound of waves rushing towards shore and pelicans screeching reached Belle's ears. Ariel, her roommate, was putting clothes in her drawers, and had already claimed her bed. The sounds were coming from her IPod, which was attached to a small set of speakers.
"Hey, how was your summer?" Ariel asked as she turned to greet her friend.
Belle shrugged. "It was okay."
Ariel arched her brow and frowned. "Why just okay?"
"Nothing much happened. I helped my dad at the flower shop, also helped with inventory at the bookstore, broke up with Gaston, and helped dad in his workshop as well," she replied.
"What? Wait, wait? You and Gaston broke up?" Ariel asked.
"It's not a big deal. We didn't want the same things anymore," Belle said, trying to avoid eye contact with her friend without being too obvious. There was no way in hell she was going to tell Ariel the actual reason she finally broke it off.
"But I thought you loved him," Ariel said.
I thought I did too, until I realized his true nature. "People change and grow apart. I'm fine, Ariel, really," Belle assured her friend, smiling to prove it.
Ariel narrowed her eyes trying to see if Belle would give away anything with her expression, but she still held that same confident smile. Ariel returned to decorating her side of the room deciding not to press Belle on the issue, at least for now, until she was ready to talk about it.
Once both had their sides of the room decorated how they wanted them to be, Ariel and Belle went to meet Ruby, Victor, David, Ariel's boyfriend Eric, and Mary Margaret to sign up for classes. Belle was eager to sign up for her European Literature class—it was the last class she would need to complete her major. She was hoping to get Professor Gold as she had heard from many of his previous students he was brilliant, but he was also a bit of a hard ass. His book on Interpretation and Analyzes of 20th Century Literature Verses Literature in the 19th Century was brilliant and she had spent most of her summer reading it and making notations on it. She hoped that he wouldn't prove the theory that meeting your idols was something you should never do.
Belle's eyes searched the crowd for their other friends as she and Ariel stood in line waiting to sign up for classes.
"What are you taking this semester?" Ariel asked Belle.
"Philosophy, European Literature, Abnormal Psychology, and Political Science," Belle listed off what she was going to sign up for.
"Wow, can you handle all that? I don't want you to over exert yourself," Ariel said, frowning when Belle listed off her four classes.
Belle shrugged. "You know me I'm ambitious," she said with a wink, "Oh, there they are."
Ariel followed where Belle was pointing and then waved at the foursome across the way.
"Where is Eric?" She asked, looking around to see if he was nearby.
"He's probably getting some coffee," Belle answered. Ariel and Eric had just started dating, but she was a bit clingy with him at times probably Eric was her first boyfriend. Ariel's dad, Trent Seabrook, had made a rule that Ariel and her sisters were to not date until college.
Huddled in a group were Mary Margaret with a new hair-cut pixie style, David, who had his arm around Mary Margaret, and beside them were Ruby and her boyfriend, Victor, who were making out as they waited in line to get to the registration booth. Their public displays of affection made Belle roll her eyes, and Ariel giggled smiling at the sight of her friends being 'super cute'.
~Page Break~
"Morning," Eric said smiling as he handed his girlfriend a cup of coffee.
"I thought you were going to meet us at the registration hall," Ariel said giving him a kiss on the lips.
"Sorry honey. I already registered. I knew you would need a cup of coffee so decided to get some. You're not mad?" he asked frowning.
"No, you're so sweet," Ariel said accepting the cup, "my own prince charming."
"You better be careful Eric," Victor warned, smirking, as their other friends finally caught up "she's holding you to quite a set of high standards."
"And what's wrong with that?" Ruby asked with her hands on her hips.
"Nothing, I was joking," Victor reassured Ruby.
"Are my standards too high?" She asked her boyfriend.
"No, but you can be a little bit too expectant of me," Victor replied.
"Excuse me?! Expectant, what does that even mean?" Ruby raised her brow, standing there waiting for an answer.
David and Eric avoided eye contact with Victor.
"Why don't we get some lunch," Mary Margaret suggested.
"Sounds good," David agreed.
"Yeah we'll come with you guys," Ariel said, "Belle, are you coming?"
"Actually, I gotta go buy my books," Belle replied and left her friends to pay a visit to the campus bookstore.
~Page Break~
Belle searched the shelves, looking back and forth between the lists she held that contained the titles of the books she needed for her classes. She had gotten lucky and was able to sign up for all the classes she wanted, but only a few of the professors she wanted, thankfully Gold was one of them. The books were organized by subject making it easy to find the section where they would be located, but once she found the section she would have to find the title and number.
Belle traced her finger along the spines of the books reading the titles to find her last book for European Literature.
"May I help you with something?" A blonde woman, with her hair tied up in messy bun, asked.
"Yes, actually I'm looking for The Study of European Literature in the 20th Century," Belle said reading title of the book.
"Ah, 3rd Edition, let's see if we can find that," the blonde woman said. She searched the shelves until she found it. "There you go." She handed her the heavy hard back book and Belle put it in her basket. As Belle dropped it in the basket pulled her arm down slightly.
"You probably should get another basket," the other girl suggested.
"My dorm isn't that far," Belle replied her voice slightly strained. "Thanks…."
"Tara, but my friends call me Tink," she said, "on account of I like to tinker with different things, especially musical instruments. I'm also a TA for Professor Fauna, one of the music teachers."
"Oh my friend Ariel is taking her class this semester. Maybe when you're not busy we could hang get a coffee or lunch," Belle suggested.
"Well I'm pretty busy with this job and working for the professor, but I'll see what I can do. So who are you taking European Lit with?" She asked.
"Professor Gold," Belle replied.
"Good luck. That dude is brilliant, but he's an arrogant ass and he makes it extremely hard to pass his class," Tink said.
"He can't be that bad," Belle insisted.
"Well if he's considers you 'worthy' he's not, but the man seriously needs to get the stick out of his ass," Tink said. She looked down at her watch with TinkerBell on it, "Hey, I better go. I'll see you around."
Belle nodded. "Yeah I gotta go pay for these. Thanks again."
The two went in separate directions, Tink going to help another costumer and Belle upstairs to pay for her books.
Chewing on her lip as she walked upstairs as a thought crossed Belle's mind, "I really hope they're wrong about Professor Gold and that I can handle his class. Then again, most of the genius' of the world are arrogant assholes; the key is to not take it personally, though I can't stand people who think they're superior."
For some reason this recalled her to Gaston's behavior last summer making her shiver violently. He always believed he was a superior on the field and deserved to be Quarterback, and had quite the outburst when he was benched during his last game. He also thought he was superior to her and for a while Belle had let him get away with it, but it had to stop after what happened last summer. He was pretty pissed about that, enough to terrify Belle, but at least now she was away at school free of the bastard, she hoped.
She squint her eyes as she stepped out into the garish light of the day and decided that arrogant professors she could handle. She just had to focus on her studies and right now it would be the perfect distraction to focus her mind on that over more personal matters. Starting Monday it would be a long week.