This chapter is kind of short, but it's pretty important, and it kind of makes me nervous, so I'm not gonna say much about it.

I don't own Recess or East of Eden.

"Cheers! To the team that won the championship!"

My teammates and I clinked the sodas together. More than half of them were already smashed, somehow. Fitz smirks at me, holding up his cup for another toast.

"Cheers, to the star of our team, Spinelli!"

The cups chink together unpleasantly as most of my team hates me. We did well. Really good, actually. Suddenly, it's all too much, and I've got to get out of this place. I walk and walk until finally, I'm in some other room. By the look of all the books, I'm in a library of some sort. Hmm, wonder if they've got any of the books I was trying to read today? Aha! East of Eden!

I settle in an old armchair, reading. A few moments, or perhaps hours, later, someone else enters. I glance up, noting that it's Fitzy.

"Oh, hi, Fitzy," I mutter, returning to my reading.

He sits down in the chair next to me.

"Please, Miss Spinelli, I'm not your teacher anymore."

I roll my eyes.

"Well, if you're not my teacher, you'd drop the Miss," I retort.

He sticks out a hand.

"Call me Jack."

I shake it, feeling somewhat apprehensive.

"Okay."

I return to my reading.

"So, you like it?"

I nod, getting a little sick of this conversation.

"Thought you would."

This is so pointless. I'm never going to get anything read.

"Don't you have a girlfriend or something to go home to?" I snap, annoyed.

To my surprise, Fi-I mean, Jack, laughs.

"Nope," He says, a wide smile stretched across his face.

Why's he smiling?

"You're pathetic, you know that, right?" I say, not truly meaning it.

He nods, smiling dopily still.

"Are you high?" I interrogate bluntly.

He shakes his head no, smile dropping away. I finally roll my eyes, marking the page number in my head. Twenty-three. Okay. I set it down, turning to face him.

"So, why are you here?" I ask, still not understanding.

He shrugs, smiling sadly.

"I don't know. I guess… No papers to grade. No assignments to create. No lessons to plan. Just a sheer lack of anything to do," He replies, looking down.

He seems so lonely. This is so sad to watch. Poor guy. I put a hand on his shoulder and squeeze. He smiles, attempting to put up a brave front, an action I know all too well, and squeezes my hand.

"Thanks," He mutters gratefully.

I nod, smiling a little. I have to look away from him soon. This is just too weird.

"You're uh, welcome, I guess," I mumble back.

I bite my lip, wondering if I should ask him this question or not.

However, my big fat mouth opens, and the question pops out.

"Are you lonely?" I blurt.

He gives me a long, hard look, and I'm almost afraid of this. But then he lets out a low, self-deprecating laugh and smiles a wry smile at me.

"Terribly." He remarks.

I know the feeling.

What happens next happened so fast that I literally didn't know what hit me. He leaned over to glance at the book, and then, well, he kissed me.

Of course, it takes me a long time to realize that he just kissed me, and even longer to realize that I'm kissing him back. And suddenly, next thing I know, I'm on his lap, panting and staring at him wide-eyed, just like he's staring at me, with his hand on my knee and the other in my hair. And me, well, I'm framing his face.

And then it hits me.

I just kissed my English teacher.

And I think I might've liked it.

My first instinct is to scream, but I can't do that, I feel bad for the poor guy. So, trying to maintain the fragile state of calm I'm in, I slowly get up, walking out of the room. I glance back at him, turning away quickly, my hand on the door.

"I'm sorry," I whisper, leaving and slamming the door behind me.

I try and walk as calmly as possible out of the hallway and into the main room. My face is flushed, and my lips are red, my hair messy. They must all know. I have to get out of this house. I stop the first person I know, fortunately Helaine, and beg her to leave.

Luckily for me, she is still sober, as I am in no condition to drive, and I couldn't walk if I tried.

She nods, a smirk crossing her face.

"Okay, there's a party at T.J. Detweiler's house. We can go there," Helaine replies seriously, grinning.

I'm not paying attention. I'm merely focusing on keeping it all together.

"Sure, sure, yeah, whatever… Let's go!" I snap, impatient.

Helaine smirks, shrugging, and we hop in her car, driving to the next stop on my tour of misery.

- Loren ;

Poor Spinelli. Now she has even more problems.

Anyways, this is a little reminder of a lesson I learned by watching Dawson's Creek. That lesson is to not kiss your teacher(s).

Anyways, where was I? Sorry about not updating… My internet's all wonky and right now I've got a mound of homework, so bye!