Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A few days into this story and I was already getting crap from my students. I swear, the only one who was enthusiastic about it was Aurora. Not even Anna was too jazzed about it, so says most of the summaries I'd gotten so far. It's a story for the ages people! Though, I think if we read some other material- nope, not going there. Of course, I was loving it just as much as Aurora, but hey, it's school and supposed to feel like torture. Not really. There was a reason I was a teacher after all. Punks.
"Ms. P. I don't get this story at all!" Nala complained, making me stop reading to raise an eyebrow at her. Seriously? I know I'm not the only one reading this book. I had it on good authority that Grimsby's class was alongside my syllabus, though last year it was he that started on Romeo and Juliet. Nala started in my class, but she ended up transferring to his class because her former boyfriend had been in there and now she was complaining? Did they even finish it? That old man sorta was a pushover anyway.
"It's simple really. She's a Capulet, he's a Montague, the two families hate each other and will always hate each other. Therefore, 'tis forbidden love between the two lovebirds." I informed, leaning casually against my desk.
"Well, why didn't he just write it like that?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at me. "Like Twilight or something." She did not just ask that. Twilight? No damn way! The only thing tragic about loving a vampire was the thousand-year difference in ages.
"Otherwise, we wouldn't be talking about it, a few-hundred years later, would we?" I said and a few students agreed, even Anna, though she wasn't looking at me.
"Well, it's just so boring is all." She relented and slumped down in her chair. "I could do better."
"Yes, and if you manage to write a sonnet so freaking compelling, that it lasts as long as Shakespeare's, allow me to apologize in advance. For now, shall we continue?" By now I had settled on my desk, waiting for her to let it out. Drama queen.
"god Ms. P. Marry me already." Eric pleaded dreamily. "You're as awesome as you are Venus." He continued and I saw green eyes behind him, lift to find mine.
"That doesn't even make any sense." Sebastian rolled his eyes.
"Dude, it makes perfect sense, don't you know who Venus is?" Eric tried to defend himself, but I was too busy trying not to blush from the smirk Anna was currently giving me. What's with that look? She pushed her glasses back up and ducked back behind her book.
"The razor?" Sebastian's answer finally snapped me out of my trance and back to reality. Aurora scoffed, muttering that he was an idiot and he smirked at her.
"Thank you for the compliment and proposal, Eric." I hopped off my desk. "But you're just too young-"
"Hey, I'm turning eighteen next week!" He protested. Gee, it's like he means it.
"You think its that easy? Fine, I expect nothing but the best. The most expensive wedding ring, a trip to the Bahama's, a huge ceremony-" I began counting off my fingers and a collection of chuckles went up around the room at my ridiculous demands. Even Anna's eyebrow was raised in amusement.
"Whoa! Alright, let me get a job first." He relented. "But you better wait for me."
"No promises." I shrugged, reopening my book. "Best get in line. Now, let's get back to it before I have you all start reading it." Warning them with the death-rays known as my eyes, I continued reading.
Where to start. First, I definitely choose Batman over Superman because he's completely bad-ass! For one, the dude's a billionaire, he builds his own weapons, and he's just plain more realistic than Superman. Like he could be anyone among us. Not to mention, that he has a sweet ride to pick up chicks in.
Also, unlike Superman, who was 'given' super powers, Batman built himself up. He learned to do bad all by himself and made a statement out of one of his biggest fears. Not everybody hates bats, hell, he hates them, but by facing that fear, he was then able to instill fear into those bad guys with it. Also, his outfit is better and can shoot things from it.
A last thing: He actually has a mask. Doesn't hide behind glasses like someone I know. I mean really, why does Clark even wear those glasses when he can see through walls? Very poor disguise if you ask me.
Very valid points 'if you ask me.' Aw hell! I'm a Superman woman. Really, I'm wearing his symbol right now, though you couldn't tell unless you took my pants off. Anyway. After everybody shuffled out, I began to unpack my lunch, deciding to eat in my classroom instead of dealing with the possible sightings of that bleached Yeti. I didn't even finish my lunch the other day because of him. Well, not just him anyway, but that was besides the point.
And today, nothing, I repeat: nothing was going to get in the way of me and my extra gooey, extra delectable, Nutella sandwich that I almost gobbled up right after making it. Chocolate is my life, Nutella just makes everything better. So with my mouth already watering, I practically tore the lid off like it would be my last meal.
"Hungry much?" I'd just taken the biggest bite ever when I heard a voice that gave me chills. Turning my head and chewing like I had a purpose, I saw Anna leaning against the door with- oh my god, her guitar! She was wearing that little smirk that I had began to like, even with those glasses of hers, she looked like a sweet dork with a secret. Like she was actually a bad girl. A flirty girl? I didn't know, but it was adorable.
"It's Nutella." I raised my hands and stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And yes, I'm always hungry for this junk. It's freaking delicious!" I declared, motioning for her to come on in.
"I see that. It's all over your face like a child." She sat in one of the front desks, settling her guitar between her legs.
"Yeah, I normally don't wipe my face until I'm done devouring my sandwiches. Otherwise I'll keep messing up my pretty kisser." When I looked at her, I saw her biting on her lip. "You know you want some. Wanna be dirty like me?" Ooo, smooth one and she's blushing! My eyes beheld the glorious sight of her red T/white and red flannel shirt as she fiddled with the top strings of her guitar. Avoiding all possible eye-contact and it was endearing. Okay maybe that 'dirty' comment might have pushed it a little, but it was already out there.
"I'm not allowed to have chocolate." She nearly whispered. I froze, completely horrified. Who the hell is not allowed to have fucking chocolate?! Who is so cruel they would deny her a gift from God himself?
"Y-your kidding, right? Anna, please tell me you are joking." I stared incredulously at her, not caring if I was wearing Nutella lip stick. She gave a light, half-hearted chuckle, but didn't answer. She's serious.
"Is it, you know, 'cause Batman doesn't eat chocolate?" Instead of making her feel a little uncomfortable, I tried a different approach and it seemed to work as she gave me a questioning look.
"How do you know if he does or doesn't eat chocolate?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at me. Bingo. As much as I didn't want to, I put my sandwich down in order to pay attention to my words.
"Because, isn't he, like, built?" I shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.
"What if he eats nothing but chocolate?" She adjusted her glasses, taking on a defensive tactic. Very nice.
"Then he'd be Fat Man, wouldn't he?" I grinned at her and saw something flicker there in those green eyes. Ooo.
In an instant, she was in front of me and my grin grew into a full blown smile when she reached for my Nutella.
"H-hey, That's mine!" I tried to grab it and ended up only managing to tear a piece off as she shoved the rest into her mouth. Nooo!
"I think you've had enough." She stated, licking her fingers and glaring playfully at me.
"I won't ever have enough." I whispered as I, too, licked my fingers, watching her hesitate just for a second in order to watch me. But before she could think anything more, I reached for my container. "I always have a spare." Winking at her, I pulled out my second sandwich. "Now, if you play nice, I'll split it with you. Mainly because I see that now that you've tasted it, you want more."
"But I am being nice." She stated innocently, putting her hands behind her back and slightly rocking on the balls of her feet. She's good. What the hell am I doing?
"Then, so am I." Tearing it in half, I held it out to her. "Even though you took my first one, without permission." I grumbled haphazardly as she took it.
"Hey, you were making fun of Batman." She settled on my desk, though if I were smart, I would have went to sit next to her instead. This just felt a little odd, like our statuses were enforced. Oh well. Maybe they need to be.
"My bad. I like Superman after all." I shrugged and laughed when she immediately held out her half eaten, half sandwich back to me.
"I don't know about you then, Elsa." She said my name! I almost grabbed her hand instead of what was outstretched to me, but when I did, she made a move to change her mind, I quickly tore what I could off and stuffed it in my mouth. "Hey!" Her eyes widened in amusement.
"Hey yourself, Bruce." I smirked. "I told you to be nice."
"Watch yourself, Clark. This could turn nasty." Realizing the double meaning of that statement, we both blushed pretty hard. I-I hope so? god, she's- NO! Don't even finish that statement! "A-anyway." Pushing her hair behind her ear, she awkwardly made her way back to her guitar. "You kinda mentionted that you wanted to hear me play?"
Like a school girl again, I practically jumped over my desk and was at her side in no time at all. I must have scared her because she immediately stood back up, taking a step back. Not used to fangirls, eh? We'll need to fix that.
"What's the matter, Bruce? Can't stand to be near the greatest superhero of all time?" I asked, placing myself on the front desk, opposite of where she was sitting.
"Whatever." She snorted but made no move to go back to her seat.
"Come on. I don't bite that hard." I scoffed, scooting a little further back and grinning at the shy girl. She shuffled her feet and bit her lip before finally taking a step closer. I watched her with so much interest that you'd think I was trying to see through her with my x-ray vision and when her eyes met mine, she shot them back to the floor so fast, I wasn't even sure if I'd seen it.
"I-I don't know. I've n-never done this in front of anyone before." She hesitated and sank into the desk she was hovering over. A row and seat away from me. "What if I suck?" Whispering, she bit into her thumb. That's adorable. Like I'm someone that special. I thought it best to stay where I was though, not wanting to provoke her, and settled in the seat instead.
"Why don't you let me be the judge of that." I said gently, all joking aside. Even though a million other comments flowed through my goofy mind, but I didn't want her to ever be afraid to speak her mind around me. Hell, nobody else did. But, at the moment, Anna was the important one. I didn't know why she was so shy- maybe it's- NO! not thinking about that just yet. My eyes were falling, but I caught them and brought them back up to her freckled face.
She sighed heavily before bringing her eyes to mine.
"Want me to belt one out first?" Deciding to joke after all, I held out my hand.
"You play?" She asked, amused.
"I mentioned I was a Nerd right? Hell, I was in Glee Club in high school. Also, I could tap dance if you wanted me to." As if I were really about to, I got to my feet and watched green eyes widen.
"W-wait, hold up. Why are you doing this?" She got up too, though bringing her eyes back to the floor. "Nobody really pays attention to me." It broke my heart to hear those words, to see the way it hurt her to admit that. Whether I was supposed to hear that or not was irrelevant as she took a shaky breath and I beheld her for who she really was.
The sunlight that filtered into the room, landed on her hair, setting it on fire. Her distant gaze was that of a longing painting, and her eyes, god her eyes. They gave so much away about what she was feeling in that moment that I wanted to weep and laugh at the same time. Anna was really beautiful girl who could be whoever she wanted but was caged in so tight that she was afraid to hope. To dream. But still the most breathtaking thing I'd ever seen.
"B-because you're gorgeous." I breathed in awe and we both froze.
"W-wait what?" Her face turned as red as her hair when she gaped at me, clearly in shock.
Oh shit. "Oh, t-that was said out loud wasn't it? Uh- um, no! I-I meant- you a-are gorgeous- but- I wasn't- I'm not-" I shut myself up in embarrassment. I swear I've never said, aw hell of course I have, but not to someone like this, someone who reacted in such a cute way that ultimately made me glad I'd said it, even if it was unconsciously. "Uh, h-hows about you put me out of my misery and play?" Seriously, I wanted to hide under my desk.
"You got it." Just as ready to run away as I was, she fumbled with the guitar and quickly brought it in front of her. "W-what do you want me to play?"
"Only You of course." No brain-er.
"I-its like a love song you know." Cautious as ever, her green eyes eyed me.
"I like love songs." I shrugged, letting her know I was just fine with it. On the contrary, I just really wanna hear you play your favorite song.
Anna took a deep breath as she put her fingers in position and I could tell she was just as nervous as she was shy. Even had the nerve to tell me not to laugh if she messed up. I rolled my eyes, but waited patiently for her to continue.
"Not- I-I'm not gonna sing it, though." She'd already began strumming and whatever I was going to say got caught in my throat when she licked her lips, face settling in focus as her fingers traveled all over the strings in what I could only describe as: magic.
She relaxed substantially and as I watched her, the world slowly began to fade away. A sense of calm overtook her features and I swear I'd never seen her in so much peace before, it astounded me. She looked happy and I melted all over again. Holy cow, she's even more- stop it! Beautiful- hey! Cut that out! I had to restrain myself from moving closer to her. She was enchanting and the words from the song were so close from falling out of my mouth that I was whispering them. Could I sing? It had been song long since I had, but damn it all, even Anna was humming along, ready as me to sing. She lied. In fact, she was really good with that guitar.
So good that I couldn't hold back from singing anymore.
"Only you can make this change in me" I started a bit shyly, but when a sudden glance and a smile greeted me from Anna, I grew in confidence.
"For it's true, you are my destiny" She sang the next line and I swooned at the sound of her magnificent voice.
"When you hold my hand" I almost stuttered at the next verse, but made up for it but holding out my hand to her, making her smile wider as she sang the next.
"I understand the magic that you do" After she finished that one, she looked at me and nodded.
"You're my dream come true. My one and only you" We finished together, harmonizing perfectly, like we'd been singing together our entire lives. Maybe we did. Wait, when did I start moving? As if I was hypnotized and being drawn toward her in the heat of the moment, I stood over her as her eyes glued to mine with no fear, no hesitation. Nothing.
(One and only you) We finished and without so much as a second thought, I cupped her face and leaned in.
Anna's breath hitched, the clock ticked, her fingers stopped moving, my heart exploded, and our lips had just touched as the alarming sound of the bell made the both of us jump in surprise. Reality rammed back into me and I gasped, jumping back. What did I just-
"I-I-I, A-Anna, u-uh- that- I wasn't-" My eyes widened when she suddenly sprang out of her seat and smashed her lips to mine for a short, meaningful second before she bolted out of the classroom and into the flow of students.
Frozen in place, I could only stare after her with a hand to my lips, my heart racing, mouth open, and numb legs.
T-that escalated quickly.