Chapter Twenty-Five

Joey floated through the school day, eagerly anticipated her detention with Charlie. She'd nearly gone through her entire academic life without really getting into trouble and the one time she did, it turned out to be a good thing. Now, she was watching the clock and looking forward to a glorious hour with Charlie Buckton, the woman of her dreams. There had been a lot of hurt since thing had got so complicated between them but finally it seemed like they had worked something out. They'd tried a great many routes but they'd realised now that staying away from each other really wasn't an option. Staying separate was tearing them apart. They had to work through their feelings, get to the end of the year then she could honestly see them being happy together. It still hurt to know that Charlie went home to Hugo at the end of the day but she was satisfied to know that she wasn't happy with him and that she was biding her time in order to be with her.

***

Charlie was looking forward to the end of the day. She knew she shouldn't be so excited and she knew she was breaking every rule in the book. Not so long ago, she and Joey had decided to stay away from each other but it hadn't worked out. They were driving themselves crazy, torturing themselves. They needed to be near each other. All they had to do now was practice self-restraint. She just hoped she would manage.

***

Joey said goodbye to her friends and poked her tongue out at Aden as he winked at her. Checking she looked alright, Joey closed her locker and headed towards Charlie's classroom. She peered through the glass in the door and smiled to herself. Charlie was already getting started taking her current display down and was standing on a chair. As she stretched upwards, Joey admired her momentarily before she gathered her senses and entered the room. Charlie turned and smiled at her, stepping down onto the floor.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hi," Joey replied.

"Ready to get started?"

Joey nodded and slung her backpack on the floor, closing the door, enjoying their privacy.

"What do you need me to do?" Joey asked.

"Well, we're taking all this down," Charlie said, gesturing to the decoration around her whiteboard.

The board was surrounded by pictures and quotes and various pieces of student work relating to the course from last term.

"Sounds good to me," Joey said brightly. "And if you need any support while you're standing on the chair, I'm your girl."

Charlie grinned at Joey's smirk. It was likely to be a long hour. And they were both likely to enjoy themselves.

***

"How come Joey's staying late?" Angel asked as she walked home with her friends.

"She got detention for punching Bea in the face," Aden grinned.

Chris snorted with laughter.

"Oh, that's why Queen Bea was sporting those dodgy sunglasses!" Shane realised.

He slipped his arm around his girlfriend and kissed her cheek.

"We should take her out," Chris said. "Poor girl has to sit doing homework to with Miles when she was only doing what we all want to do every single day."

"Oh, she's not doing homework with Miles," Aden said, instantly regretting it.

He was met with three confused expressions.

"Charlie was the one who caught her and Joey convinced her to let her help out with taking down a display or something," Aden explained, worrying that he had said too much.

Joey had trusted him with her biggest secret. He didn't want to mess up by letting anyone thinking there was anything going on.

"We don't need to take Joey out," Shane said. "Lucky cow gets to punch Bea out and hang out with Miss Buckton. That's so not fair!"

***

"So, have you spent time to reflect and regret what you did?" Charlie asked with mock sternness.

Joey snapped out of her somewhat lusty gaze. Charlie was stood on a chair take the top of the display pictures down, revealing long, slender legs. She looked down at her student who blinked up at her guiltily.

"Sorry, what?"

"I was wondering if we could expect you to apologise for hitting Bea," Charlie said, pulling a drawing pin from the wall.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Joey said, reluctantly drawing her eyes away from Charlie's bare legs and focussing on taking apart her own section of the display.

They continued working in silence, both sneaking glances at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking.

"So, what's going up when we take this lot down?" Joey asked.

"We're going to build a display together over the term around 'Aspects of Literary History'," Charlie explained. "Similar to this. You know, if you stay in my class, seeing as I'm such a bad teacher and all."

"Hey!" Joey protested quickly. "I apologised."

She pouted and then grinned when she caught Charlie's smirk.

"You're teasing me aren't you?" she realised.

"Maybe a little."

Joey grumbled to herself as a continued working. Charlie continued to smile as she continued to take pictures off the wall.

***

Bea finished her flute lesson and headed towards her locker, glad that school was over for the day. School had been difficult with everyone wanting to know what she was concealing beneath her sunglasses but there was no way she was going to admit that she had let Joey Collins get close enough to punch her. Grabbing her bag, she headed towards the exit. She stopped when she walked past her English classroom and saw Miss Buckton and Joey together. She opened the door.

"What's she doing in here?" Bea demanded.

"Serving detention for hurting you," Miss Buckton replied.

Bea glared at Joey and stood up straighter.

"Well, good then," she said.

She turned and left, closing the door behind her. Charlie and Joey turned to face each other and chuckled.

"Does she really think she's being inconspicuous with those glasses?" Charlie wondered.

"I have no idea how she thinks," Joey said flatly.

Charlie smiled. She looked down at Joey, working diligently on her task. She felt her heart quicken. The dark haired girl truly was the most beautiful person Charlie had ever seen in her life. She studied Joey's look of concentration as she tucked her hair behind her ear and tried to prise a piece of paper off the wall without tearing it. Joey turned and caught her watching. Charlie blushed.

"What?" Joey asked softly.

"Nothing."

"Charlie?"

"Yes?"

"Were you checking me out, Charlie Buckton?" Joey teased.

"As if I would, Joey Collins," Charlie smirked.

"Shame. I've been checking you out since before I walked through the door."

Charlie giggled. She loved the way Joey was so blatant. She also loved the way she was so open with adoration and appreciation. It made her feel special.

"Maybe I was checking you out a little," Charlie admitted. "I'm only human after all."

Joey smiled, pleased with herself. She liked the idea of Charlie being attracted to her. Even though Charlie had openly admitted it weeks ago, even though they had kissed three times now and vowed to be together when school was done with, Joey could hardly believe it. Charlie was so beautiful and so special – how could someone as incredible as that want to be with her? She blushed when she realised she was still smiling at Charlie, lost in her own thoughts. Feeling a little goofy, she blushed further and focussed on her task. Charlie giggled. She stepped off the chair with her pile of papers and put them on the desk before climbing back up again. She sighed when she realised she was slightly too far out to reach the next bit above the board to take it down. Stubbornly, she stretched out to take it down anyway. She shrieked when she felt herself begin to fall. Joey left her post at the sound of Charlie's voice, more than ready to catch her in her arms. Charlie landed with a little less grace than she would have liked but at least she was on her feet. And most delightfully, Joey had her arms around her. With their faces inches apart, they smiled at each other.

"You really don't help yourself with this health and safety stuff, do you?" Joey remarked, thinking of Charlie's misguided attempts to save herself time by carrying far too many boxes to her car on Friday evenings.

"I've always been one for taking shortcuts," Charlie admitted.

"I wish that was true," Joey said softly.

Charlie sighed and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she was immediately mesmerised by the way Joey was gazing at her. Her brown eyes were so soulful and her lips were so soft. Their bodies were pressed together. She felt Joey's hands placed delicately on the small of her back. Heart racing, Charlie closed the gap between them. Barely able to catch their breath, they kissed tenderly, forgetting about the world.