Disclaimer: All recognizable people are not mine. And everything mentioned is not original, but this is a forced writing.

"OK kids, can anyone tell me what this bird is?" A woman asked holding up a small cage with a bright red bird in it, black around the eyes and a crest on its head.

The whole class of 23 raised their hands and the red-headed woman laughed and said, "Everyone," to which a chorus of "Cardinal!" replied.

"Very good kids, but to be accurate it is Northern Cardinal. One more, then you get a break." She reached behind a curtain and pulled out a cage, a bird inside about 4" tall. The body was shades of brown, and the belly white. The wings were brown with black primaries and secondaries, and the back of the head was gray, with the crown down to the throat, black. Over the eyes were white, and the beak orange. "I'll give you a hint with this one, it is a sparrow. You can use your books if you need too." And there was a shuffling of pages as 23 books were opened. While the woman was watching the kids, she didn't notice the tall man walk in behind her.

Tentatively, a young boy, 8 years old, raised his hand. "Yes, James?"

"Is it a Harris's Sparrow?"

The woman smiled, "Good job! Can anyone think of a way to remember that?" One of the older girls of the group at 11, raised her hand. "Lilia?"

The girl blushed brightly, "Well, I watch the show Deadliest Catch, and the dark crest and throat could be hair and a beard, which is what one of the people look like, Josh Harris." A couple of the people nodded.

"Actually, that is how I remember it too!" The woman up front said. "You have an hour for lunch and recess, and I'll see you after."

The books were left on the floor, and she smiled, before bending down and picking them up. "Need help?" A deep voice said from behind her. She didn't even look up before saying she had it by herself, but a hand reached for the one she was going for.

Raising her head, she started to say, "I said I got it," but it died half way through the sentence upon setting eyes on the person who was insisting on helping her.

"Josh Harris, but I think you already knew that," the man said, reaching out to shake her hand. His pierced ears, dark hair and handsome face were exact.

"Paige, Paige Lorac." She briefly shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you," and he handed her the book he was holding before helping her up. Then he went over to the little sparrow's cage and looked in. "And you too little guy," and he stuck in his finger to the cage. The woman smiled upon seeing the action, deciding not to warn him. A loud yelp was heard and she smirked.

"He bites." She said simply. He glared at her softly, which changed into a perverted look as she stood, revealing a rounded butt, below a narrow waist. She lifted all the books and put them gently in a box, before grabbing a cart and started putting cages on it. "Do you want a band aid for that?" She asked as he was holding his bleeding finger in his mouth.

"No, what are all these guys though?"

"You already met the Harris's Sparrow, this is a Cardinal, Towhee, Meadowlark, Red-winged blackbird, Blue jay, Robin, Black-capped Chickadee, red-tailed hawk, common grackle, and Red-headed woodpecker." As they were all loaded on the cart. "Now, if I may ask, why are you in the Midwest?"

"Flight got held over. Kinda happy it did now." Josh replied as he looked at the woman in front of him.

"Your point? The airport is about 20 minutes from here."

"I wanted to explore the outdoors."

"There were closer places to the airport."

"What do you have against me?" He asked defeated, following her out of the room and down the hall with the cart.

She walked into a room and came back out a few minutes later. "Against you, nothing. But celebrities like you are the problem."

His cocked head expressed his confusion. "Would you be within hundreds of miles of this place if your flight didn't pass through Des Moines?" he shook his head. "Exactly. All you celebrities care about is being in nice places with other people of note." She walked by his stunned form back to the classroom where she grabbed her water bottle and down the hall to a staff room. Before she entered, he grabbed her arm.

"Have lunch with me? Please?"

"Why?"

"Let me explain?" he asked shyly. She sighed deeply through her nose and held up a finger. Slipping inside the room, she came back out with a blue lunch bag and went down the hall out to a picnic area. She picked out a table and sat, pulling her sunglasses over her deep green eyes.

He watched meticulously as she unpacked her lunch. A sandwich, a bag of weird looking chips, a cookie and an apple. Before she started eating, she said one word. "Talk." And started tearing off pieces of her sandwich to eat.

"Your right, I wouldn't be here if the flight didn't get delayed. In all honesty I was pissed when I heard it did. We are on our way to Florida for a promotion. But when we found out how long the delay was, we all tried to find something to do. Most of them went to explore bars, but I asked for a park. They gave me a few names, and I picked here. Quiet places like this are where I used to go with my dad when he was home."

"Why did you come into the classroom?"

"I saw the sign, thought it might be fun."

"Very few of these birds live up where you're from. The sparrow doesn't." she smiled lightly to herself while he looked at the cut on his finger.

"Do you teach privately?" He asked with his eyes slightly narrowed.

"You wish." The disdain was evident in my voice.

"Ya I do, what about cost?" He asked looking around the area.

"Why should I except money from a complete stranger?"

"Dinner?"

"Why do you want to get me? I will tell you right now, I don't do one night stands. So if that's what you're looking for, I can direct you to a place more suited for those interactions down the street." His eyes were dark with lust while hers were with anger.

"I'm trying to be nice. I have never hit a woman, but you are making the idea very tempting. I want to show you not all celebrities are bad."

She took off her sunglasses at that point to show him her narrowed eyes, showing that what little was left was darkened from a deep green to nearly black. Then before he could blink, his arm was pinned to the table by his jacket. Or more precisely a knife through the jacket. She stood up and went around the table to him and whispered in his ear, though nothing was pleasing about the movement like he normally liked. "Show me why I should before I leave." And she pulled the knife out of the jacket and took majority of her lunch back inside with her.

While he was outside, dazed, she stormed into the staff room and closed the door before going over and soundly punching the giant fish pillow on the couch. "Wow girl! Don't hurt Amos for whatever has ya worked up!" A young man said from behind her.

She fondly petted the five-foot long stuffed animal and apologized. "So that guy that I mentioned is tryin' to take me out tonight. I may have accepted if he didn't ogle me and then think that money could get me with him. I might have considered it if he wasn't a celebrity."

They all nodded, and the man led her away from Amos, and to the table where he pretty much force-fed her the cookie she had. Once she calmed, he issued the same command to her she did earlier. Once the story was told, the room of 6 was quiet. Then another girl, a brunette, said proudly, "Way to go."

Paige smiled affectionately while leaning on the man's shoulder. He pushed her up and matched her green eyes with his blue. "You should let us take care of him." He said referring to himself and the other 3 guys in the room.

"Thank you Hal, but I got it. Could always let Amber lose…" the thought played in all our minds. We found a Copperhead that had somehow managed to survive without venom sacs. She still had fangs, but constricted her prey instead. Still beautiful and deadly, but everyone at the center knew completely harmless.

"I need to go get the animals for this afternoon. See you all at 4:30 in daycare." And she took her apple with her while going to the same room as earlier. Though once inside it was mazes and walls of animals. Various birds were on one wall, mammals on another. In the back were reptiles and amphibians. She went to a door and opened it, the cart with her and started piling on boxes between the size of a ring box to that of a laundry hamper on it before leaving the room, a cloth covering the whole cart.

Going in her classroom, she set out a different set of books for her students, and started writing on the board, feeling eyes on her after a few minutes, wishing with all her might that at that moment, Amber was with her, or one of her pets.

She calmly finished the notes she was writing and turned to face him, taking a tempting bite out of the apple as she did so. Chewing and swallowing the bite was followed by licking her lips. "Can I help you sir?" she saw him stiffen at the name.

"I would be delighted if you would let me sit in on your class."

"You will be behind." She cautioned.

"I don't mind." And he walked up to her. She knew what he wanted and pointed to a seat in the back. "That is your spot. You are expected to pay attention, and pass the quiz." As soon as she finished, the kids started coming in. they wanted to crowd around the man they discussed earlier, but a shake of the head from the teacher was enough to send them to their seats.

"We are doing invertebrates this afternoon. And as you noticed, we have a guest. He will follow the same routine as you are all expected. Lecture for a hour and a half, quiz, and then live specimens."