Title: A Chance at happiness 22/?

Author: Christen (purplehaysc@netscape.net)

Disclaimer: these characters belong to once and again except any characters you don't recognize

Distribution: Take it, but let me know. If you have any of my other fics, go ahead.

Comments: email me all you comments and suggestions. This is my first once and again fan fic so any ideas or comments you have would be great. So please email me with them. J oh people I have been reading the reviews and the very least I can see if first OMG! I am so shocked I have gotten so many reviews and for those of you who were wondering since Jessie I now gay then I might try to play that in but I'm not sure. Oh and I'm sorry I didn't update on Monday, I was in a car accident over the weekend, so I didn't have time nor did I have the energy to write. So I'm putting this is up as my 22 chapter until I do write it. I'm so sorry guys.

(Ok here it is I finally wrote it. I hope yall think it is worth the wait and thanks for all the wonderful comments yall sent me. J )

Grace walked into Mr. Dimitri's class and sat down. Mr. Dimitri was not there yet, so she took out a book and started reading.

When Mr. Dimitri did walk in, she could feel his eyes on her. She put the book down and looked up. He was staring at her. She tried to smile but she could not get her face to smile. He eventually turned around and wrote something on the board.  She read the words and almost smiled. "Free Period." She took out her book again and started to read. She did not even realize, he had come over to her desk. When she looked up from her book, she was shocked to see him standing there. "Mr. Dimitri?" She asked scared about what he could want.

"Ms. Manning, I need to talk to you outside." He said barely smiling.

She put her book up and followed him outside, but she grabbed Eli's jacket before leaving. She did this because for some reason she needed to hang on to something.

When they got outside, he closed the door and turned to her smiling. "You never met me after class." He said a matter of fact.

"I was suppose to meet you after class?" She asked clueless.

"I wrote on your paper to see me after class." He said.

"Right, I'm sorry. I forgot."

"I can see that. Well after school today, I want you to come see me. We need to talk." He said and started to open the door.

She closed it. "What do we need to talk about?"

"If you haven't figured that out yet then you're not as smart as I thought you were." He said and opened the door and went in side.

She followed him and sat down.

Riley looked at her. "What's going on?" She mouthed.

"I don't know." She mouthed back.

Grace's day went by too fast. Before she knew it, school was over with and she knew what she had to do. She collected all of her books and headed to Mr. Dimitri's class. Every step seemed like it took forever. She knew why, she did not really want to go. She knocked on the door and cracked open the door.

He was sitting at his desk, writing something.

When she came in, he looked up with a smile. "I brought the paper. I hope to figure out why I got this grade." She said and sat down in the front desk.

He got up and took the paper from her. "You didn't come here to discuss the paper, did you?"

"Actually this is the reason I came. I don't think I deserve this grade and I want to know why I got this grade." She said seriously.

"Ok." He said he got out his pen and wrote an A over the D and handed it to her. "Now is this what you want?" He said.

She took the paper from him and smiled. "That's exactly want I want." She said getting up and starting to leave.

"Grace, you're not going to get that grade that easily." He said with a smile.

She turned around and faced him sadly. "Then I don't want it." She said and went to hand it back to him.

"Oh, you're going to get the grade." He said and grabbed her wrist. "Because I know you want it."

Eli was leaning up against his car, Grace still had not come out and he was worried.  He saw some people leaving and walked over to them. "Do any of you know where Grace Manning is?" He asked.

"You must be Eli, I'm Riley." She said smiling. "She's in a meeting with Mr. Dimitri."

"Hi Riley, when did this meeting start?" He asked.

"Um…" She looked at her watch. "Only about ten minutes ago. But Eli…" She pushed him away from everyone else. "I think something's up. You might want to go check on her." Riley said very serious.

 "What could be wrong?" He asked worried.

"I can't say too much but I just have this feeling. Can you please go and check on her?"  Riley asked worried.

"Sure. Just tell me where the room is." He said.

As she started to tell him where the classroom was, many thoughts started to run though Eli's mind. Was Grace all right? Would Mr. Dimitri hurt her? Would he get there in time? When Riley finally finished the directions, he ran to the classroom as fast as he could.

When he got to the door, he could hear Mr. Dimitri.

"Grace, you know I've never realized how beautiful you are." He said.

Eli opened the door and it slammed against the wall.

Mr. Dimitri looked up and so did Grace. He still had his hands around Grace's wrists.

Eli ran over to him. "Get your hand off of her!" He screamed and punched Mr. Dimitri in the eye.

"Eli…" Grace said with a smile.

"Are you ok?" He asked as he went over to her. He noticed she was shaking and saw his jacket on the floor. "Put this on." He said as he helped her put his jacket on.

"Eli, can we go? I just want to get out of here." She said pleading.

"Yeah, let's go." He said as he started to lead her out the classroom.

When they got to the hallway, he stopped. "I'll be right back." He said as he started to walk back to the classroom. When he entered, he saw Mr. Dimitri starting to get up. He went over to him.

Mr. Dimitri started to speak. "You do know you're not going to get away with this."

"You know what I think I am, and if you think I'm the last person who's going to come after you. You have another thing coming. She has a father, a mother and a stepfather who are not going to sit back and let you continue this. So don't you dare say that I am going to get in trouble! You took advantage of one of the most wonderful girls, I have ever met and that is unacceptable. You are a jerk, eventually you will get what is coming to you, and I will make sure of that. Now I do not know everything that happened here but if even touched a hair on her head I will come after you. Do you understand me?" Eli said furious.

Mr. Dimitri just smiled. "You are nothing but I a kid who's in love with a little girl so don't tell me what to do."

Eli got ready to punch him but then he stopped. "You're not worth it." He said and left the room.