A/N: I don't know how many chapters I will post tonight, but there is a lot for me to catch up.

Thanks to my beta xrxdanixrx for her expertise...if it wasn't for her, I would be lost.

DISCLAIMER: SM owns all.

Chapter Two

EPOV

Roosevelt High School stood tall as I pulled my Volvo into the school parking lot. It was still fairly early, so I was able to weave my car through the empty lot effortlessly. My mood was pretty upbeat for being a Monday morning. It was most likely due to the fact that I was going to start my kids on a new book; I was excited for them to read it. It was a book by Charlotte Turner Smith called Emmeline. It was an old British classic and I knew my kids were going to love it. The hard part had been getting Principal Cope to approve of this piece of literature.

The school had a strict rule with their curriculum; they only allowed teachers to teach what the school board approved of. When I got the list of books I was permitted to teach at the beginning of the year, I was hugely disappointed. The books on the list weren't horrible, but they weren't something I thought would make my kids think. In fact, I had already taught them most of the books on the list. I refused to be redundant.

So, when I broached the subject of getting a book for my student's that wasn't on the list, Principal Cope almost said no, but I was a charmer. I pleaded and smiled for a good ten minutes, which in the end she finally agreed. It was a solid success; I spent the whole weekend making worksheets and quizzes for my students. While most twenty-nine year old males were out at bars chasing available women, I was at home on my laptop making a study plan for my class. If I didn't love my job so much, that knowledge might have depressed me.

Ever since I ended the relationship with my girlfriend of five years about a year ago, I just threw myself into my work. The break up with Tanya had been rough on me for a while, but my dedication to my work was what kept me sane. That and the knowledge that Tanya and I were too different to make things work.

Tanya was a professional dancer and her job required her to travel a lot. She begged me on more than one occasion to quit my job to travel with her, but I didn't see that working. Seattle was my home. My parents were there, my job, and my friends. My life was firmly rooted and I wasn't going to budge. The last time I had spoken to her was the night she flew to Paris. The blowout we had was fatal. The end of a relationship that I thought was for me. I was wrong, I hated being wrong.

When I pulled into my designated parking spot, I noticed Jasper leaning casually against the wall. He gave me a severe nod, as I cut the engine of my car. I was confused to see Jasper waiting for me. We usually met in the teachers lounge in the morning. It was obvious he wanted to talk with me in private. I gathered my satchel and approached him cautiously.

"Hey, man. What's up?" I eyed him suspiciously.

"Morning, Edward." Jasper chuckled. "Why are you looking at me that way?"

"Why are you waiting for me?" I countered.

Jasper's face immediately looked guilty. I let out a heavy sigh.

"Just listen before you say no."

"Jasper, if this is another blind date--"

"No, no blind date," he quickly interrupted.

Jasper had been a good friend to me for many years. We had initially met when he came to work at Roosevelt High after being transferred from a college in Texas. From the very first time we shook hands, we became fast friends. He was the one who helped me through the spilt with Tanya. He was also the one who set me up on thirty thousand dates in one year, of course, that was exaggeration, but it didn't change the fact that I was done being set up.

"Then, what is it?" I snapped, losing my patience.

"It's my sister."

"Your sister?" I asked as we started to walk towards the school.

"Yeah, she's in town for a few weeks and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind going out to dinner with us."

If that was all it was, then why was he all nervous to ask me? There had to be more to this than just accompanying Jasper and his sister to dinner.

"What is it that you're not telling me, Jazz?"

He turned to face me as stopped right outside the doors to the school. Being fairly early as it was, not too many students were hanging around. Jasper's face was filled with remorse; I knew that whatever he said next would not be good.

"Well, I also invited Maria," Jasper admitted.

"Damn it, Jazz! I knew it. A double date?! With your sister and some woman you just barely started seeing?" I was livid.

"Look, Edward," Jasper said putting, his hands up defensively. "I promised to take my sister out, and Maria just happened to call last minute. I didn't want it to be awkward for Rosalie, so I figured you could be, I don't know, a buffer."

I pinched the bridge of my nose in irritation. He was insane to think I would go along with this; I was fucking stupid for actually agreeing. Letting out a heavy sigh, I nodded my head.

"Really?" Jasper asked surprised.

"Last time, Jazz, I fucking mean it!"

Jasper patted me hard on the shoulder as he opened the door for us. Jasper would be the only person I would do this for. He was like my brother, and truth be told, I hated letting him down. It didn't matter if this Maria girl was actually important to him or not. Jasper was like me when it came to women, he rarely dated. He was always looking for that special girl. I had thought I found that in Tanya.

"You won't regret this, Eddie," Jasper told me.

Somehow, I knew I would regret it. I always did.

My first hour English class seemed to drag on relentlessly. I taught two forms of English at Roosevelt High, there was the grammar English, which I loathed, and then there was English Literature. Thankfully, my English grammar was only first and last class of the day. The rest of the periods, I taught my true love of English Literature. Those students were always a blast to teach. Every day they would come to my class with enthusiasm and were always ready to participate in class discussions.

Like I had predicted, my second hour students were excited about the book they were going to read. They fawned over the book for a good thirty minutes. I had a hard time getting them to focus on the task at hand. It was hard having just an hour class, and sometimes it took half the length of the class to get any sort of discussion started.

My class was often referred to as the romance studies. I was very fond of romantic stories of Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights, any sort of romance classics. The old love stories resonated deep inside me for some reason. My mother had told me once as a boy, that I was a romantic soul. As I grew up, I had found that sentiment to be true.

Also, what wasn't surprising was that the majority of my English Literature class was female. Most of the teenage boys in the school were still carrying around that mucho bravado. The males thought my class was strictly for females and vowed they wouldn't be caught dead in my class. Their logic was twisted, if they were smart, they would know that getting a girl was about being romantic and not about how much you could bench press. I guess in time they would learn, or one could only hope.

My third period class was piling in as I was cleaning the board. It wasn't long before I heard the soft giggles of Jessica Stanley and Lauren Mallory. They were my biggest fans, apparently. These two girls liked to flirt with me relentlessly, and at times it was borderline inappropriate. I kept the sigh that wanted to escape me locked up tight. As much as they annoyed me, I was still their teacher.

"Morning, ladies," I greeted as I slightly glanced in their direction.

"Good morning, Mr. Masen!" they said in sync.

"What can I do for you?" I asked.

More giggles and hushed whispers.

It was getting to the point where I was going to be short with them if they didn't get on with it. I wasn't stupid and I knew my students had a crush on me, but most of them still respected that I was their teacher. Jessica and Lauren made me feel uncomfortable.

"Mr. Masen, we were just wondering if you were going to have your after school English studies?" Jessica asked through her nervous laughter.

It really hadn't occurred to me until then. The last year, after school studies class was a great success and I had wanted to do it again. It had just slipped my mind, I was suddenly grateful for Jessica and Lauren.

I finally turned to the girls and smiled. "As a matter of fact, I was thinking about doing it again this year."

Both girls jumped up and down, their squeals were deafening. I chuckled at their excitement.

"Now, go sit down. Class is about to start," I instructed.

Jessica and Lauren both took their seats in the front of the class, their eyes never leaving me. I turned back to the board to write down today's lecture assignment, hoping to forget about the stares that were burning a hole in the back of my head.

The room quickly filled up as I heard the voices multiply and gradually get louder. Before I knew it, the bell rang and I turned to face my room full of students. Each one of their faces held a large smile and I felt myself smile in response. It was amazing how teaching was something that was so fulfilling to me. There was nothing that I wanted to do more. These young minds were like sponges, if given the proper technique, they would absorb every word. That was why I focused on literature more than anything. People liked being swept off into another world where anything could happen.

I looked down at my roster and saw there was a new addition to my class, a Miss Isabella Swan.

What a pretty name.

Glancing up at my class, I searched for the new face, but came up empty.

"Morning, class. I see that we have a new student. Miss Isabella Swan, would you like to come up and introduce yourself?" I asked.

There was no movement for some time, I wondered if the roster was wrong. The rest of the class was looking around, now searching for this new student of ours. Finally, there was a sigh from the back. A petite brunette finally stood up. Her head was down and her hair was cascading around her face. I instantly felt bad for putting this obviously shy girl on the spot. She took tentative steps towards the front of the room, never looking up. She tripped several times; slight laughter came from the class. What I noticed most about her in that moment, besides her apparent lack of grace while walking, was what made me feel like a damn pervert. This girl had to be at least seventeen years old and all I kept on doing was checking out her toned legs through her tight jeans.

She approached my desk and peeked up at me from under her hair. I had this impulse to shove the hair away from her face. Thankfully, she did it on her own. What I saw after that made me wished I didn't. Isabella looked at me with these big brown chocolate eyes of hers. Her skin was a creamy white and absolutely luminous. Her bottom lip was bigger than her upper lip, which made it look like she was in a constant state of pout. She was by far the most beautiful girl I had ever laid my eyes on and I was struck with this unbelievable need to kiss her. This scared the shit out of me. What scared me more was that my penis was now alert; it was straining against my slacks.

Heel, Boy!

How long has he been dormant? Well, he was no more. My thoughts were becoming hazy; I was getting lost in her big doe eyes. We continued to stare at one another without saying a word and I was vaguely aware of the audience that we had. I tried to get composure of myself, but then she did something that was bound to push me over the edge, she bit down on her bottom lip nervously, causing my penis twitched.

What the fuck?!?

This madness had to stop and I had to be the one to do it. Clearing my throat roughly, I looked back down at my roster. It was the only thing I could think of to break the eye contact. She shifted nervously and I was very aware of every movement she made.

"Isabella Swan?" I croaked.

"Um, just Bella," her voice was soft.

I looked up at her and smiled. "Bella."

She blushed in response, which was the most delicious thing I had ever witnessed. The need to kiss her was there again. It was getting unrelenting, this instant attraction I felt for this new student.

She's a student! My student! I chanted.

The fact of the matter was that she was a student. However, bizarre or inconvenient that fact was, it was highly inappropriate for me to be acting this way. I was a grown man, she was a young girl. That was something that I knew I never wanted to be a part of. It was time to push my cock into submission. The guilt in itself was enough of a trigger.

"Welcome to English Literature," I told her.

"Thanks," she said as she smiled at me.

Normally I would have had her tell the class about herself, but I needed a distraction. The sound of her voice did things to me that I couldn't explain and I didn't want to explode in my slacks in front of the whole class. Giving her nod, I gestured for her to take her seat. When she turned to walk away, I may or may not have stared at her tight ass.

God, someone really needs to call Chris Hansen on me!

Now that I was aware of Bella Swan, it didn't take much for my eyes to lead me back to where she was seated. To know that only ten minutes prior I couldn't pick her out of the room and now it seems she was all I saw. I was a man who was obsessed and didn't know how to turn it off. She was invading my thoughts every second. Her name echoed in my head.

Bella.

Her brown eyes were staring at me from the back, I knew this, and I felt it. The rest of the hour flew by and I couldn't even remember what I had talked about.

Did I even tell them about the book?

My thoughts were preoccupied, and when the bell rang, I sighed in relief. My class filed out one by one. To say I wasn't disappointed when I saw Bella didn't stay behind would have been a lie. Once my class was empty, I collapsed into my chair.

This was hell. The only girl I had been attracted to since Tanya, was a student. She was seventeen and a student. My student. What was worse than any of that was that I never felt that sort of attraction with Tanya. The need to have Bella was strong.

Fuck my life!

My head found my desk and I started to pound it hard on the wood. If I couldn't stop thinking of Bella, then perhaps I could beat it out. The upside was eventually I might just go brain dead. That was something to hope for.

"Uh, Edward, are you okay?"

I looked up to see Jasper standing awkwardly in the middle of my classroom. He looked embarrassed and I briefly wonder if he felt my sexual frustration. I straighten up quickly and leaned back into my chair.

"Oh, sure," I said sarcastically.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Is this a bad time?"

"No," I lied. "What's up?"

He took a small step towards me and then stopped. He looked nervous, which struck me as odd. Jasper was a straight shooter. He said what was on his mind. He didn't get nervous. It wasn't in his DNA make-up. He must have seen the concern written on my face because he eased the tension with a soft chuckle.

"Okay, here is the thing…" Jasper said as he paced the room. "So, um…shit…Okay…"

"Spit it out, Jasper," I barked.

He stopped his pacing abruptly; he stared at my ceiling for the longest time. When he looked back at me, his face was plastered with a cheesy ass grin.

"Dude, do you believe in love at first sight?"

The shock I felt to Jaspers simple words, lodged a large ass lump in the back of my throat. The air was knocked out of me and I suddenly felt like I couldn't breathe.

I sure fucking do!

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