Gabriella walked into the teacher's lounge and smiled politely at everyone there. She was young and obviously the favored teacher by every boy who walked through the hallways. Some of the single men on faculty at East High had even taken to calling her Helena, because they thought she could easily cause a war to break out at any time over her beauty and every male's desire to have her attention.
She was beautiful, but she was also sweet and shy. She was strong enough of character to be able to command a classroom (a feat not easily done in this day and age) including all those younger males who tried acting out to get some personal one-on-one time with the "hot teacher."
After school she coached tennis in the spring and girls' cross country in the fall. During the summer she ran the Shakespeare workshop, and worked at her local coffee shop. During the winter, she usually attempted to avoid sponsoring the winter play, but Ms. Darbus often claimed that whatever show she'd chosen simply couldn't be done without a youthful perspective. Gabriella secretly thought she was just trying to get some of the sports boys to do theater because of her reputation as the "Hot English Teacher."
No, Gabriella would have preferred to be spending her winter after school hours sitting in front of her fireplace with an old worn-out copy of her favorite Shakespearian plays, but alas, she was due in the theater this afternoon as usual. She sighed as she looked down at her less than appetizing grilled chicken salad. She chuckled as Mrs. Danforth rushed into the lounge as well. She looked up at Taylor, "Why couldn't I have made a nice juicy, well seasoned cheeseburger for my lunch last night?"
Taylor rolled her eyes, "Because you want to find a man who makes more than a construction worker does and to do that one must be either lucky as hell, or strikingly beautiful. And since you've got exotic beauty but no luck with men whatsoever, you're holding on to the ace in your pocket. You know, instead of ending up like your mother." Taylor laughed lightly at the end of the comment. She pulled a bottle of water from the refrigerator and plopped down in the chair next to Gabriella obviously emotionally and probably physically drained from another long day with teenagers. "Why did we choose this career again?"
Gabriella chuckled half-heartedly, "Because we wanted to make a difference and show the next generation how cool learning can be, right? Right. No, I remember we wrote it down somewhere, " she laughed as she began sifting through a notebook, "I'm sure I took notes. I just don't know where they are!"
Taylor chuckled. "Oh God, what was I thinking?"
An incredibly handsome young, white, well muscled, attractively dressed, blue-eyed god stated with dripping charm, "That you had every single solitary summer day off."
Both women stopped, stared, and wondered what someone would have to do to be with a man like that. Then, of course, they wondered, however briefly, what it would be like to be with a man like that. Taylor regained her composure first and elbowed Gabriella who was sitting with her mouth slightly parted as she stared in obvious need of a very good night with a man, much less the things she'd be willing to do with a man like him. Then Gabriella's image of the man was shot to hell as Taylor said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I hadn't had a chance to tell Gabriella here about Mrs. Darbus's unfortunate accident this morning on the freeway and our luck at finding you so willing to step into the theater for the interim, Mr. Bolton."
Gabriella gaped. She'd truly just assumed that Darbus had been late this morning or even just "forgotten to call in" so that she'd have to do theater try outs tonight. "Wait." Her mind finally unrattled Taylor's statement. "Is she going to be alright? What happened?"
Taylor smiled. That was the compassionate woman Taylor had wanted to introduce to the man in front of them. "It was a terrible car on semi accident this morning on I-25. The State Police called to inform us that she had requested that someone let the school know about the situation. They said she was really out of it when she was sent to the hospital." Taylor tried desparately not to laugh as she said, "They said she was rattling on about something having to do with the chapel of the arts. They thought she was delirious."
Gabriella only looked sad, "OHhh…that's just terrible."
Taylor nodded, but a slightly laugh escaped her mouth and then all three teachers in the room were laughing as each recalled their own days of hearing Mrs. Darbus prattle on about her sacred 'chapel of the arts' theater.
Troy came back to the table with his lunch and a smile on his face. He reached his hand across the table to Gabriella, "So, you're the 'hot English teacher.' Nice to meet you."
Gabriella blushed fiercely. "Uh, nice to meet you too."
Troy smiled, "Some of the seniors were discussing their favorite class and I just had to know who was getting through to them. When I heard them describe you as 'the hot English teacher' I figured I understood why it was their favorite class." He chuckled, then looked down to arrange his lunch. He'd heated up a homemade cheeseburger patty and was currently arranging lettuce and tomatoes to add to his sandwich.
Gabriella just stared with a watering mouth. She just couldn't decide what was causing her drool, the man or the sandwich. "Uh, Taylor, I need to get some grading done. I'll catch up with you later." She hurriedly gathered her things and left the teacher's refuge.
Troy looked at Taylor and said, "I hope it wasn't anything I said?"
Taylor just smiled, "No, I'm sure it wasn't."
Troy, much like her husband Chad would do, went right back to enjoying his delicious cheeseburger.
