I don't own TiMER or anything in regards to that idea. The characters and story line are the only thing belonging to me. Enjoy!
Re-write of ch 7 done! 5/22/22
He went to move in closer, to kiss me, but I pushed away from him. My heart was beating really fast as I distanced myself from him. I pulled out of his arms and backed up. He looked hurt.
"What- are- are you okay?" he asked sounding really concerned.
"I'm sorry," I said in a small voice and crossed my arms across my chest. I took a deep breath in and looked at the ground.
"What happened?" he asked.
"I- we shouldn't do this," I admitted, still not looking at him.
"What do you mean we shouldn't do this?" he asked between his teeth.
"You're my teacher."
"You're my soul mate."
"I know."
He didn't say anything after that and let me have my distance. We hadn't talked to the school yet. I couldn't just go kissing my teacher, even if he was my soul mate. This was all way too confusing. Obviously, I wanted to kiss him, but I knew I shouldn't. I mean, I probably would one day but I didn't think now was good.
"What's wrong then?" he asked after a minute. Of course he didn't get it.
"You could be fired because of me," I stated.
"I'm not going to get fired," he assured me. "You're worried about what's going to happen to me?"
I nodded. "I just. I don't think we should do anything yet," I managed to say.
He remained quiet for a minute and then motioned me to him with his hand. I obliged and he put his arms around me.
"I don't want to do anything that you don't want to, so just tell me if I'm going too far," he finally said. I buried my head into his chest and nodded. This in itself was probably too far but it felt better to hug him. I didn't want that to have to end, even if it should.
After Andy dropped me off at my house I jumped onto my couch next to dad and elbowed him in the arm. He grinned and elbowed me back.
"How goes it kiddo?" he asked after I settled down next to him.
"Not bad," I responded and looked at what he was watching. It was something about these guys in a pawnshop, and by the look of it they were really ripping off people. Why my dad watched something like that is beyond me but he seemed pretty interested in it. If I asked why he watched it he probably would have said something about it being mindless and he uses his mind enough as it is. So I let it go.
"I like Andy," he said after a minute. That was obvious though. It probably would be hard for my dad not to like someone.
"Yeah," I replied, not sure what else to say to that.
"He's older, so he probably already knows about certain… things. But I know your mom and I haven't had the chance to talk with you about… that," my dad started saying, looking very uncomfortable. It took me a moment to realize what he was trying to say. When it hit me, my mouth dropped.
"Uh, dad. I, um- you don't need to- I-" I started to say, not sure how to tell him I didn't want to have that talk. Sure I didn't know everything, but I'd figured out some things on my own and I didn't exactly want my dad to fill me in on the rest.
"No," my dad interrupted. "You do need to know. I know this isn't um… a great topic but it's okay. He's your soul mate, so you are going to share everything with him. Don't feel pressured to rush into things but I know your hormones are probably raging right now. I know when I was your age-"
"DAD!" I yelled. "Please stop. I get it. I know Andy and I will probably have sex one day. I'm not ready right now and I don't know when I will be. It weirds me out right now, okay?"
My dad chuckled. "Why does it weird you out?"
"Because," I said and then paused. "He's so much older than me. And I don't want him to get fired."
"Is that really bothering you?" he questioned.
"Kind of. I mean, am I going to be able to go to school there still? What about soccer?"
"Hm. I don't know. I don't see why not. But we'll set up an appointment to talk about that."
I nodded and left the conversation at that. It was strange how it went from awkward to serious in three seconds but at the same time I was glad it did. It was nice getting that off my chest, and my dad was one of the better people to talk to about that.
Not long after our talk, we both turned our heads to the sound of the door opening. In stepped my mom, looking kind of cheerful, but not saying a word. My dad and I said "hey" simultaneously and turned back to the television. This didn't seem to be what she wanted, although I knew that and my dad probably did too, and before saying anything she stepped in front of the television and gave us a demanding look.
"Honey, I can't see the tv," my dad said in a sincere tone.
"I know," she replied and crossed her arms.
"He's my soul mate, there is no problem, and you're going to have to get used to it," I blurted out. It was better in my mind to get it all out like that instead of beating around the bush.
"Excuse me?" she spit out in a harsh tone. Although, everything about her recently seemed to be harsh so there was nothing new there.
But I knew she heard me well enough. I didn't stutter and while I was probably speaking fast, I knew it was audible and clear enough. Instead of repeating myself I simply stood and walked towards my room. I really didn't want to hear her to berate on me or scold me for something I had no control over. She acted like it was my fault Andy was who he was.
She kept calling for me to stop and come back. Something about grounding me if I didn't, but really that didn't matter. I didn't even turn around before entering my room and closing my door. There was no need in slamming it, as I was sure she was expecting. Slamming it would only tell her I was mad, and I wasn't mad… I was just tired of the way she was acting about all of this.
I wanted to talk to Spencer. He'd make me feel better. He'd say something witty about the whole situation and make me laugh. But his room was dark. The blinds were down. He simply wasn't there. That wasn't what I was hoping for, but nothing I could do about it.
A knock on my door jolted me awake. I hadn't realized I'd fallen asleep. But I knew I was dreaming of running through the woods as a fox. The trees had been a blur but I knew where I was going. I had no fear of running into the trees or anything else. There was a rhythmic motion to me and I was one with the forest. My red coat shimmered in the sunlight coming down through the trees. I was a beautiful fox. I sighed, knowing that it was only a dream, and opened my eyes to my mom standing in the doorway.
"I didn't realize I'd woken you," she said blankly.
"It's okay," I replied, rubbing my eyes. Clearly it wasn't, but she was going to say whatever she wanted to anyway. "What's up?"
"We need to talk."
"About?"
There was a pause. I couldn't read her face. Maybe she was trying to find the words. But I couldn't tell. I really didn't want to hear anything she had to say though. My face probably gave that away.
"You're angry at me," she started and then paused again.
"Yeah," I calmly stated, biting my tongue. I really wanted to say well duh but I knew that would get us nowhere. So instead, I just raised my eyebrows and waited for her to continue.
"You have to see it from my point of view. This man-"
"He has a name. It's Andy," I interjected.
"Yes, well, he is so much older than you. And he's your teacher. This makes me uncomfortable," she stated.
"You don't think I know this?" started. "You're not his soul mate. You don't know how this feels. You have your soul mate."
She took a deep breath and started again. "While this is true, I'm looking out for you. I don't want him to take advantage of you or use his power of authority against you and pressure you into things just because your TiMER matches his."
I had to use every force in me not to explode on her. She was worried about him taking advantage of me? Was she serious? I couldn't believe her. I wanted to scream. I wanted to do something. But I sat still. I took a breath. I had to keep calm. Getting mad would only make things worse and that wasn't needed right now.
I had no idea why I was so angry at everyone about this. Either people hated the idea that Andy was my soul mate, or they thought it was freaky and talked about it. It was frustrating and I wanted to scream at people. I couldn't scream at people, but I really wanted to.
"So I've had a long talk with your father," she said after a moment. I almost smiled there. My dad liked Andy, so this would end well on my half. "And we've decided we are going to meet with the administration as soon as possible to discuss options about keeping you two appropriate during school. Until we do that, I will be sending you to school with a letter that you will hand over immediately to the principal stating that I am not allowing you to be in his classroom."
My mouth dropped. My dad agreed with this? How could he agree to that? I understood him agreeing to have a meeting, I mean him and I talked about that, but to stay out of his classroom? I actually enjoyed gym class. I didn't want to have to stay away from it. That's what I was excited for high school for. There was no way that was being taken away from me.
"Dad agreed to this?" I asked skeptically, trying to hold back my temper.
My mom froze for a minute and then started talking, "He didn't exactly like the part about staying out of the classroom, but it was decided that it would help you get picked on less."
I didn't care about getting picked on. That was going to happen no matter where I was. People were going to find ways to mess with me about this. Didn't my mom understand that? I really didn't want to argue with her so I simply turned away.
"I am taking you to school in the morning and walking with you to hand the letter that I write in," she said and then closed my door. I sighed and rolled my eyes. I didn't have a solution to this and it bugged me. It was out of my hands. There wasn't anything I could do. I glanced over at Spencer's window. It was still dark. Where was he?
The next morning my mom did exactly what she said she was going to: we sat down with the principal. He quickly looked over the paper and said that with such an abrupt situation as this there was no way to put me in another class so I would be put in study hall for the time being, which was held in the library. He went on to say that usually only upperclassmen had study hall and to not make a big deal of it because he didn't want other freshmen complaining to him. I didn't really care too much about it and nodded. Above all, I didn't want to cause a scene here, so I kept my mouth shut and did what I was supposed to.
I spent most of the morning thinking about how Andy would react when he was given word that I wouldn't be in his class anymore. It would probably shock him. After all, it shocked me even if I should have seen it coming. I hoped he wouldn't think I did it after the incident with the almost kiss. I wasn't sure what he would be told, and that worried me. I had to come up with a plan somehow. I needed to be able to talk to him. Even if just long enough to tell that my mom had done all of this, and what she was planning on doing next. He had the right to hear it from me. My mom said she'd be waiting for me after school, so there really wasn't a chance to talk to him then. But I needed to talk with him. That kept repeating in my head, and I wasn't focusing on anything in class. There were bigger fish to fry.
At lunch I tried to avoid my friends, but Lexi corned me as I was walking the opposite direction.
"Where are you going?" she asked in a blunt tone. I just looked at her. "Our table is this way." She then decided to loop arms with me and force me to sit down with her. Everyone greeted me and went back to their conversations. I added a few things here and there and even tried eating some. I couldn't make myself eat.
My eyes scanned the cafeteria for Andy. He was nowhere to be found. Where could he be? Why wasn't he in here eating with the other teachers? My fingers drummed on the table lightly as I continued searching. He wasn't in the line anywhere and he wasn't walking around. I was really starting to worry now.
An elbow to my side brought me back to the table. "Kaylee, are you even paying attention?" Lexi asked, giving me a concerned look. I raised my eyebrows at her. "I asked how things were going with Mr. Cutie teacher. Soooooo?"
"I've got to go," I announced and grabbed my things. I had to find him. I wasn't sure where he was, but him not being in the lunch room was actually kind of perfect. I didn't know how I didn't think about that before. Lunchtime was the perfect time to talk to him. Unfortunately, now I had to hunt him down.
I walked the halls and avoided looking at most people. The lunchroom and the theatre athletic part of the school were on opposite sides of the school, so that meant I had to walk through a lot of people to get there.
The doors to the section of the school where the classroom I wanted to go to was in my view when someone put an arm around me and brought me to a halt. My confusion turned to annoyance when I found out who it was.
"Not now Collin," I growled and pried his arm off me.
"Woah, woah, woah, Kaylee. You are going somewhere in a hurry and speeding through the halls. Don't you know there's no running in the hall?" he sneered and put his arm back around me.
"Seriously, now is not the time. I need to be somewhere before lunch ends," I pleaded.
"Lunch just started, you have plenty of time to get where you need to be," he insisted and grinned at me. He had that evil look going on again and this time it was doing nothing but annoying me.
"Well, where I'm going will take up my whole lunch time, so if you will kindly allow me to get along now, I will talk to you later," I said to him and glared, which only seemed to make him laugh more.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"None of your business."
"Sure it is. I'm your friend, and as your friend I have a right to know these things."
"None of my other friends know where I'm going so why should you?"
He paused for a minute. I honestly thought he was going to let me go. Almost. Then he started walking the opposite way that I wanted to go and dragged me along with him.
"I'll take you this way until you feel the need to let me know what you're up to, because I sense that it's up to no good," he laughed and pulled me along. He was bigger than me and made barely any efforts to hold me tightly. I struggled but couldn't get free. It looked like the only way I was ever going to get out of this was to tell him where I was going. If he reacted the way he had when he was around Andy yesterday, he probably wouldn't want to follow me.
Before I could say anything, he stopped dead in his tracks, almost making me fall over. "Wait," he started slowly. "You were going to see Mr. Jackson weren't you?"
"I-well- you see-" I tried saying but he put up a hand.
"Now we're definitely not turning around and letting you go see him. Come on, let's go get me lunch," he chided and picked his step back up.
"What do you have against him?" I asked, hitting Collin in the side. "Did he fail you or something?"
Collin made a noise that sounded halfway between a laugh and a bark and stopped walking again. "Sure, let's go with that," he said and stared at me with his cold eyes. Now he was making me uncomfortable. He had a certain gift when it came to that.
"That didn't answer my question," I growled and glared at him.
"That's cute," he said in a sarcastic manner.
"What is?"
"You trying to be mad. You should practice that more. It is better for you if you don't go see him, you know this."
I groaned. "You don't get it. He is my soul mate. It doesn't matter what you think is better for me. You don't understand."
Collin looked down at his arm where the scarring was. Could it have been a TiMER in that place?
"You're right, I don't understand," he proclaimed. "But I really don't want to. I think soul mates are bull shit. But ya know what! I'll let you go. Go tell Mr. Jackson whatever it is you need to tell him. And while you're at it, tell him Collin says he can go fuck himself. I'll talk to you later," he announced and let go of me. Before I could say anything else he took off towards the cafeteria and didn't look back. He disappeared around a corner and left me standing in the middle of the hallway.
I was zero steps closer to finding out what was going on between those two. Why the sudden change in letting me go? That made no sense at all. Even less then him wanting me to tell Andy to go fuck himself. That wasn't something just thrown out to a teacher that was disliked, there was a serious grudge there. And it seemed to be reciprocated, which normally wouldn't make any sense. Plenty of students hated teachers, but since when did teachers hate students?
But I didn't have a lot of time to decipher what just happened. Maybe a better friend would have stopped Collin and demand he tell me what is going on with him. I wasn't exactly sure if Collin and I were even friends though. Nor did I know if I wanted to be friends with him. I had bigger things going on that I needed to figure out.
a/n: re-write of ch 7 is complete! I'm really trying to work on Collin's character the most.
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