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35:
The next few school days flew by. I texted Annie on Wednesday night as soon as I got in from walking Monty to tell her what Mrs Lee had said about there being a staff meeting the following morning, as I wasn't sure if she knew. I wouldn't put it past Mrs Lee to deliberately make sure Annie didn't know, just so she could have more ammunition to unfairly use against her. Luckily, however, this plan was foiled, as we both made it to the meeting on time.
At lunch time on Thursday, Mum called to let me know that the pharmacy next to her surgery was out of birth control pills, but that they were having a delivery tomorrow, so she'd stop by on Friday night to give me them. Thanking her for her perseverance, I spent the rest of my lunch break gossiping with Annie about her date that evening.
Although Annie was a good ten years older than myself, we still got on like a house on fire. It was a blind date, so she didn't have a photograph of him, but she did know that he was in his early thirties, and liked photography. From the information I got out of her, he seemed like a fairly decent guy. Annie was a real sweetie, so he'd be really lucky if she liked him back.
On Friday, I was eager to hear about her date, but it was really strange: she couldn't recall anything about the guy she met, or even that she'd been on one. Something was definitely up- something out of the ordinary, but I wasn't quite sure what. I did ring Mum to ask about it during break time, whilst Annie was break duty, but Mum didn't seem to think it was anything really abnormal, instead putting it down to Annie experiencing some mild amnesia, perhaps caused by consuming one too many cocktails on her date. Although Annie was a sweetie, she often got nervous when it came to men, and resorted to getting tipsy before she went on a date. Mum's explanation did sound plausible, but I still wasn't fully convinced. Annie never got plastered enough to not remember that she even went on a date in the first place.
Friday was also an incredibly bad day at school. The kids were unable to sit still, and Luke Hall was acting up more than he usually did (quite something by Luke Hall's standards). I ended up having to send him to Mrs Lee's office because his disruptiveness got beyond my control, but then I got an earful about why I'd done so from Mrs Lee at lunch. It didn't seem to matter that I was following the school's behavioural policy, set up by Mrs Lee herself. In fact, apparently, when Mrs Lee had a scheduled meeting with the school governor that she told no one about, we were unable to send her unruly pupils. Secretly, I thought it wasn't about that at all. Instead, Mrs Lee liked to take the opportunity to yell at me, probably because she was still in a mood over me taking a day off for the convention, and a day off to recover from a serious car accident, and this was just a way of venting her frustrations. I was near to tears by the end of her hour long rant- it had been a stressful day, and all I wanted to do by this point was put my feet up and down a bottle of wine, whilst feeling sorry for myself.
As it was Friday, we always had craft afternoon, and so the rest of the school day was spent making paper mâché masks like seen in Mexico for the 'day of the dead'. I was trying to use the excuse of incorporating our R.E syllabus into the craft afternoon, so it had an educational purpose, but I wasn't sure it quite worked. By the time the kids left, there was newspaper and glue all over the tables, the floor, and most of the kids' uniforms, so me and Annie were left to clean up most of the mess before the cleaners arrived.
"This is the first and last time we decide to do paper mâché." I muttered to Annie, desperately trying to remove the piece of dried glue that was now stuck to my trouser leg.
"Agreed." She confirmed from where she was crouched under the table, picking up newspaper.
"Honestly, Annie, why did I ever think this was a good idea? I should have known it would end badly from the start!"
"I take it that's a rhetorical question?"
"You know it! " I agreed, looking up from picking off the newspaper when I heard my classroom door swing open. Mrs Lee was exactly who I didn't want to see right now. But it wasn't Mrs Lee.
"Will?" I asked in disbelief. He'd said on the phone that he was bogged down with work, yet here he was in a suit, with a massive bouquet of flowers. I straightened myself, dropping the wad of mushy paper on the table next to me, and staring at him.
"Surprise!" He greeted with a smile. I ran over and hugged him tightly. Screw wine; a hug from Will was just what I needed after dealing with Mrs Lee. He wrapped his arms around me, and I pressed my nose into his chest, inhaling his scent. Already, I felt much better.
"What are you doing here?" I asked. " I thought you were busy with work all week."
"I thought I was. Well, I should have been. I pulled some long hours this week, which meant I could take this afternoon off and come up for the weekend."
"Really? The whole weekend?"
"All weekend." He confirmed.
"I am so glad you're here." I mumbled, fiddling with his tie.
"Hey, what's wrong?" He lifted my chin gently so that I was looking him in the eye.
"It's just been a rough day."
"Why?"
"Just Mrs Lee. She's the head." I explained, realising he didn't know who she was. "She was just… being herself. I'm fine."
"You don't sound fine." He replied, unconvinced.
"I am."
"Okay, if you say so. Oh, and these are for you." He held out the bouquet, and I took it from him.
"Thank you. They're beautiful." I was just leaning up to kiss him, when I heard something fall onto the floor. I turned to look, seeing Annie looking at us sheepishly; I'd completely forgotten she was even in the room
"Oh Annie, I'm so sorry! This is my boyfriend, Will. Will, this is my teaching assistant, Annie." I led us over towards them, and watched as Will kissed her on the cheek in greeting.
"Nice to meet you."
"Likewise." She smiled back at him. "Now you better get going, Alexis- I'm sure Will's got plans for the pair of you." I looked up and Will for confirmation of her assumption, and he inclined his head slightly.
"No, Annie, don't be silly. I'll stay until we've cleaned up- I left early last week too." She shrugged in response.
"You get in earlier than me everyday anyway. Now go; it won't take me very long to finish here anyway." Her tone left no room for argument, so I didn't push it.
"You're the best, Annie." I hugged her. "I'll bring you chocolates."
"See that you do." She winked. "You can tell me all about it on Monday."
Smiling, I gathered my things, and waved good bye to Annie, leading Will to the car park. Will carried my class's books and my laptop, leaving me with nothing more than the bouquet of flowers, and my cardigan wrapped around my arm.
"So, what do you fancy doing tonight?" I asked, as we wound our way through the playground, and past remaining children that were yet to be picked up by their parents.
"It's not up to you this time, Lex. I've already made plans."
"Do I get to know about these plans?"
"Nope." He grinned, relishing being back in control. "I'm in charge this time."
"Fair enough." I agreed, reaching my car, and putting my stuff in the back seat. "But I can't leave Monty for that long, unless I drop him at Jack and 'Van's."
"Well, I'm thinking we'll need to leave here at 5 as we've got to drive somewhere, but we should be back by half nine." He leant against the metal framework, totally dwarfing it.
"Sounds good. I'll be able to walk him before we go in that case, and change." Monty was left on his own for most of the day while I was at school, but a dog walking service did come and walk him for a couple of hours every day in the woods. I didn't like him to feel alone while I was out, but it did mean he wouldn't be scared at the prospect of spending a few hours on his own.
"And I'll go and check in."
"You're in a hotel?"
"Yeah."
"Oh." I murmured, looking down at the floor. "I thought…"
"What did you think, Lex?"
"I thought you might have wanted to stay at mine." I admitted. I didn't want my boyfriend to have to stay in a hotel when he came to visit.
"I'd like nothing more. I was trying to be a gentlemen- I didn't want to invite myself round." I looked up and grinned at him for that- he was such a sweetheart.
"What, like I did?" I asked, remembering my lodging arrangements in London.
"That's different." He countered. I raised my eyebrow, but he didn't change his answer.
"So can you cancel?" I hedged, edging closer to him.
"I'll get right on it, sweetheart."
I was so glad Rach had bought me condoms.
As Will had driven up from London, we drove in separate cars back to my flat, both changing into casual clothes, and taking Monty for a walk before we set off. He'd refused to give me any clues about where we were going, so I had to wait patiently as we drove to our destination. We left Derbyshire on the M1, and headed into Leicestershire, entering Loughborough, and parking outside their university sport's centre.
"Okay, you've got me, I have no clue what we're doing here." I admitted as he took my hand, and led me out of the car park. We joined the back of a queue leading into the sports centre, and I caught sight of the banner over the door.
"Are you kidding?" I squealed, bouncing on the balls of my feet.
He produced a pair of super league netballs tickets from his pocket. "Loughborough Lightning versus Northumbria." He confirmed, handing them to me.
"You are seriously the best boyfriend ever!" I said, glancing over them in awe. Netball super league tickets were incredibly hard to come by, and tickets to the semi final were like gold dust. "How the hell do you get these?" He shrugged.
"Let's say, I can be very persuasive." He winked.
"Best boyfriend ever." I repeated leaning up to kiss him. He was definitely getting a reward later.
The match was fantastic- it was definitely the best date I'd ever been on. Ever. Will had even looked up the rules, so he knew what was going on! The icing on the cake came when Loughborough narrowly beat Northumbria; we'd been rooting for the Leicestershire side from the start, even though everyone knew Derbyshire was the best county. But hey, us midlanders had to stick together!
We stopped by at McDonald's on our way home for some food, both still buzzing from the match as we sat down inside to eat.
"And that last goal!" I exclaimed, taking another bite out of my Big Mac.
"Insane." He agreed. "From so far out, too!" He screwed up his wrapper, and tossed it into the bin, standing up from the table.
"You want to finish that in the car?" He asked, pointing to the rest of my burger and my mcflurry.
"Sure." I agreed. It was half nine now, and I wanted to get back to Monty. Finishing up as he drove, I dropped my rubbish into the bag, and set my mind on my next task: seducing Will.
I started off slowly, trying to flick my hair sexily like they do in the movies, eating the last spoonful of my mcflurry suggestively, before leaning over the console towards him. I let my hand rest on his knee, moving it slowly up his thigh. He swallowed loudly, stilling my hand before it crept any further upward.
"Sweetheart, you need to stop; I don't have the self-control." He said, sounding strained.
"What if I don't want you to stop?" He gulped, keeping his eyes fixed on the road. "I bought condoms." Well, technically, Rach bought us condoms, but he didn't need to know about her really strange interest in our sex life.
"Oh." He managed to choke out.
"Mmm" I agreed, smiling as he put both of his hands back on the steering wheel. I leaned over, and whispered in his ear. "You better put your foot down."
I'd never gotten back to my flat so fast. We screeched into the car park; the car had barely stopping before Will was round to my side- his lips pressed hungrily against mine. We stumbled up the stairs, barely able to unlock the door we were so wrapped in each other, falling through the the doorframe and fumbling at each other's clothes before we even made it to the bedroom.
"Well, now I know why you wanted birth control." We both jumped away from each other at the voice.
"Mum!" I cried, startled, turning to see her sat on the sofa with Monty, grinning at us both. I hadn't even realised that someone was in the flat with us.
"What are you-" I didn't finish my question, instead trailing off when I saw the stack of birth control pills on the coffee table. I'd completely forgotten she was coming over tonight- I seemed to forget everything when Will was around.
"So do I get to meet your friend?" She asked, looking at Will, who was awkwardly ruffling his hair, his other hand still clasped in mine. I guess being caught practically molesting your girlfriend in front of her mother wasn't exactly the best first impression.
"This is Will, Mum. He's my…"
"Boyfriend." Will interjected, sensing my hesitance and jumping at the chance to explain himself.
"No." I interrupted, my heart cracking when I saw Will's face fall- his hand loosening in mine. I squeezed his hand tighter; I wasn't about to deny that we were together. "He's not just my boyfriend, Mum. He's my soulfinder."
So, Liz finally gets to meet Will- their relationship's truly progressing now! Wahoo! I know a couple of you were waiting for Will to finally meet Lex's family, so I hoped you liked it! Let me know what you thought in a review, and don't forget to follow and favourite! Thanks x