Disclaimer: I do not own the Everwood characters, I just love them dearly.
A/N-No this does not have Lilly in it, sorry. I don't think I will do a sequal to The Other just for the fact that I tried to tie all of the loose ends at the end of it, so you would know how it ends. I hope you enjoy thins fic, Please R&R!!!!
Ephram stepped into the doors of Julliard, taking in its smells and life. It was hard to believe that it had been a year since he had been there. It had seemed like forever since that summer and now he was back. It felt good to be in the place that he feared he would never see again. Plus, Amy wasn't too far away, so things wouldn't get too lonely. The buzzing of other artists around him made him feel at home and not as much as a loner.
Ephram looked at his schedule and walked to his first class of the day, the History of Piano. Just with the name he knew the class would be boring. Or would it? Stepping into the class he noticed a very attractive girl walking around the class, as if observing everyone who passed her. She smiled and waved at all of the students she recognized and when the bell rang she went to the front of the classroom and sat behind the desk.
"Okay everybody sit." She said crossing her arms. "Thank you. Hello my name is Jessica Parker; you can call me Professor Parker or if you know me better than that you can call me Jessi. But none of you know me that well. Welcome to the most boring class you will take in Julliard. History of Piano was not my idea, what I wanted to teach was technique, but that's the way things went. Now, let me tell you some about myself. I'm twenty-six and a Julliard alumnae. As you can tell from my accent, I'm not from New York, or anywhere near New York. I'm from a small town in Georgia. Again, welcome to History of Piano. Now...excuse me, are you special or are you lost?"
Ephram hadn't realized this but he hadn't taken a seat, instead he had stayed standing in front of the door. "Oh, sorry. I was just so interested in your..."
"I don't care. Take a seat." She said cocking her head to the side. She then winced. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that, I'm just trying to get used to teaching. I had a professor that would say that to me and I hated him with every fiber of my being. I apologize."
"No problem." Ephram said taking a seat close to where he had been standing. He watched Professor Parker as she spoke confidently. She made jokes to lift the boredom from the room, helping Ephram feel more at home and less overwhelmed. When the class was over she assigned them a huge workload that made the overwhelming feeling come immediately back.
"Excuse me, Mr. Brown? Could you please come here?" Julie said from the front of the room as she prepared for the next class.
Ephram walked to the front of the room and stood in front of his professor. From up close she looked different. Somehow, if possible, she seemed more confident and casual. She knew who she was and wasn't afraid to be it. Another thing he noticed was her height, a measly 5 feet three inches, if even. So he towered over her. This helped him feel a little less intimidated. "Can I help you?"
"Listen Mr. Brown, I just wanted to tell you that I really am sorry. You probably hate me now, but that's okay. I felt like such a bitch. Could you forgive me?" She said holding her hands together in a desperate effort to keep them from flying everywhere. She had a terrible habit of using her hands to tell a story, and so she tried to keep this weakness from her student.
"I don't hate you. It's not a big deal. I was standing I should have been sitting. You're right you were a bitch." He said laughing. Then immediately he wanted to take it back. He had forgotten she was his teacher, he thought of her more as an equal.
"Oh my goodness! Shoot me now!" She said covering her face. "I'm sorry I'm just so nervous. I wasn't trying to be a bitch, I swear. What could I do to make it up for you?"
"I was just joking. You're not a bitch! Sorry, I completely forgot that you were in control of my future. You don have to make it up to me, just don't fail me!" Ephram said laughing nervously.
"Well, I guess it depends on how well you do. I don't give away freebees. I'll see you tomorrow Mr. Brown." She said smiling as her next class started to file into the room.
"Just call me Ephram." He said smiling back. Wait...what was he doing? This was his teacher! He had to stop thinking about her this way. Bad thoughts out!
"Bye Ephram!" She said smiling wider and then shyly tucking her hair behind her ears.
Damn! How was he going to get through this semester with her as a teacher? He just had to remember his girlfriend. Yes, Amy, she was perfectly normal...well sort of. She was his age and not his superior. There, good way to think about it! Ephram stepped into the bust hall as everyone scrambled to get to where they needed to be. Ephram went to his next class, and waited for it to start, but all that he could think about was Professor Parker. The way she laughed and held her hair up as she talked about Mozart. Snap out of it Brown! You have a girlfriend that adores you. Why do you have to start staring at another person? This is just lust, it's not real. What you feel for Amy is real remember that?
Jessi sat in her small room on campus and looked through the book. She tried to figure out the lesson plan for the next day, and was having severe trouble. Instead of staying in front of the book, she pushed it to the side and stepped outside on her balcony. She had luckily been given a great apartment on campus that overlooked the grounds. The last teacher that had lived there died and so she took the first opportunity at taking it. The she felt at home at the wonderful college that she had spent many years at. She soaked the moon in as she stood in her pajamas. She felt like a child again with her pigtails hanging loosely from her head. But she hadn't been a child since prom, something she had always regretted. She hung her head a little and watched the young couples holding hands walk underneath her. She thought of herself as their guardian angel and made sure that they weren't hurt on the way to the girl's dorm. This was why she was made to be a teacher. She cared about her students and made sure nothing harmed them. She yenned to be a mother, but she knew that would never happen. Not unless a scientist came up with a great cure for infertility. A tear fell from Julie's face as she remembered the day her doctor told her she would never bear a child of her own. But she had her students, so she was a mother of about five hundred children. Her phone in the next room rang and she reluctantly went to get it, sad that she could no longer be to herself.
"Hello?" Jessi said wiping the tear from her face.
"Jessi! Its Hinel, how was your first day?" Hinel was one of Jessi's oldest friends. Jessi had known her since her freshman year of high school and all through college. Hinel was Hindu, which had opened Jessi's eyes to a completely knew world. Since Jessi lived in a small town of Georgia, most people were Christians, but meeting Hinel helped her learn that there was more to the world than what she knew in Georgia.
"It was pretty great. I think I'm a hit." Jessi said plopping down on her sofa and wrapping herself in an old blanket.
"Of course you were. You're hot, all the guy students watched you to see if you would fall out of your shirt." Hinel said laughing to herself.
"I was wearing a sweater. How could I fall out of a sweater?"
"They're in college, anything is possible when you're in college. So, I have some news that you're not going to like." Hinel said getting suddenly quiet. "R.T. is getting engaged."
Jessi was quiet. The smile from her face had melted away and she was left with a look of confusion and hurt, as a four-year-old does when someone steals their favorite toy. "I'm happy for him." She lied. It was obvious, a stranger, unless they were completely oblivious to everything, would know that she was lying.
"He's a jack ass. I don't know what you saw in him in the first place. Not only is he a liar, but also from the picture in the paper it looks like he has an ugly taste in women now that he has left you. I mean, anyone from a mile away could tell that this girl is not a natural blonde. And those teeth, they're probably not even that white in person." Hinel said looking at the picture.
"It's okay Hinel. You don't have to lie to me. I really am happy that he found that walking piece of silicon." Jessi said bitterly. "I would really love to talk to you longer but I have a really early class tomorrow. So I got to finish this lesson plan so I got to go."
They said their good byes and Jessi sat back to her couch. Finally inspiration hit. She quickly scribbled until the wee hours of the morning.