Chapter Five

"Jo. Jo... Jo?" Doug tugged on the sleeve of her shirt to get her attention. Snapping out of her daze, Jo turned to look at him in aggravation.

"What?" she snapped and immediately regretted it. Doug gulped and quickly turned in his seat to point at the textbook in front of him, then to the projection board across the room.

"Right. Classwork," Jo sighed. "Sorry." And she meant it... somewhat. It was the second time that day Doug had caught her staring at Danny, and to say that she was embarrassed would be an understatement. Though, if Doug himself hadn't been gawking at her as she Danny, she wouldn't feel the need to be embarrassed.

Ever since the rumors about Danny and Regina started last week she'd been cautious as to whether they were true. She knew the students of Green Grove made up rumors all the time, especially about Regina Crane, but she also knew that behind every rumor was a little truth and she couldn't help but wonder how much of Danny and Regina's not-so-secret love affair was true. Of course, wondering was probably the closest she would get to the truth since she talked to neither Regina nor Danny, but she refused to let it go that easy. Danny was known the entire school as The Socio due to Lacey, and both she and Regina made sure to get a good use out the name; even when he was a no-show during the time he was supposed to return. So imagine Jo's surprise when the town freak is associated with one of the high school's Queen Bee's. Even more surprising, the fact that Jo cared enough to wasted her time wondering about it when she promised herself she wouldn't.

But that was last week's news; over and forgotten due to the fact something bigger and even more scandalous had come along. While this may come as a surprise to many, it was only a matter of time to Doug to claimed to have already seen it coming because apparently, 'The rumors were never true and Desai wanted to get laid to the first piece of vulnerable ass he could get his hands on.' Jo rolled her eyes at that one. As much she hated to admit it, even she could see that every girl in school jaws dropped when he walked past. Including yesterday's latest flavor of the hour, Ms. Cates.

Of course, the first thing Jo did was dismiss the rumors of the school's -and possibly the town's- hardest teacher getting caught by Principal Tang on her desk in plain day. Everything about it was too ridiculous to be true. Ms. Cates supposedly wasn't into the opposite sex, let alone Danny Desai.

Unconsciously, Jo's eyes drifted back to Danny. It was the first time she'd ever had this much trouble focusing in school. But it wasn't just at school she'd become distracted; it was at home also. Either she, her mom, or her dad would catch her when her mind was off elsewhere, and though they wouldn't dare bring it up, they knew the reason behind it... or who, rather. But as far as they knew, she daydreamed of ways to avoid Danny instead of the other way around.

"Holy..." Doug's voice crept into Jo's ear. She turned bright red at the thought of Doug catching her staring at Danny once again and looked everywhere but at him. Except when she finally turned to look at him, it wasn't her he was staring at.

Across the room, strutted -no sashayed- in Ms. Cates like no other. Her usually dull brown hair shone and moved with a bounce like those you see in the shampoo commercials. Her librarian glasses long gone along with her pants suit which was traded in for a long, form-fitting maxi dress. While this came as a shock to every girl in class, it was more of a pleasure to the boys to finally see the figure that was hidden beneath her ill-fitting clothes. Meanwhile, when everyone else wondered about either her impressive shape or sudden change in fashion sense, Jo gawked at the most notable change that everyone else seemed to have overlooked though it was hard to miss: the wide smile on her face and the gleam in her eyes.

Never had Jo seen that expression on Ms. Cates' face. It was like watching a dog do cartwheels. She stood shell-shocked at the sudden seductiveness in her tone. Her tongue smoothly rolled around her r's and her hidden Argentinian scent slithered through her teeth. And even though Jo was too busy obsessing over her transformation like everyone else, she didn't miss the fact that Ms. Cates' eyes never left Danny. With them being the only two in the entire class perfectly fluent in Spanish, it was hard to know what was being said, but the tone in her voice made it obvious it wasn't something a teacher would normally say to a student.

"Quiero darle las gracias por la increíble experiencia. Ni siquiera mi ex marido era capaz de hacer eso por mí. Usted es realmente talentoso y bendecido en más de un sentido." she directed at him before she glided across the room and over to the projection board. All the boys practically came in there pants, while Danny hadn't even batted an eye.

She went on to teach the class, but Jo was sure no one but Danny was paying much attention. Like her, they had all heard the rumors about the two and couldn't stop glancing between them. No one believed it to be true, but they couldn't chalk Ms. Cates' new image to anything else. And even though they didn't know what she said to him, they had no doubt it was something sexy. It was every boy's fantasy to bang their hot teacher on her desk, but never in a million years had they thought anyone in this school would actually do it, (mostly because there weren't any hot teachers in the school) let alone Danny Desai. Whether he knew it or not he was becoming the most popular student in school and he didn't even have any friends.

Regina Crane? Ms. Cates? Jo knew from that moment, she was definitely getting to bottom this entire situation... Soon as she figured out what in the hell she said to him.