Hello again! Sorry the update came so late, but my computer was all messed up last weekend and school just started so I couldn't update it until today. This chapter, unfortunately, doesn't have a song that goes along with it. Hope you like it.

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Daine walked up to her next class's room. It was Mammalian Anatomy taught by the famed Professor Salmalin. Students either loved him, or hated him, though one thing was for certain; half of the class almost always drops out from the excessive homework. Thankfully, Daine wasn't taking many classes besides this one, hoping to focus more on work so she could actually pay for college and her apartment.

" Miss Sarrasri, what a pleasure seeing you here." Daine immediately recognized the voice. (A/N: Now who could this be…?)

"My, my, what a small world it is Mister Larse," she said in a teasing voice, turning around to hug her sandy blond haired, blue eyed friend, Evin Larse. He was one of the "Riders", a group of high school and college aged kids who learned to ride under the strict eye of Onua and Sarge, the main "backbreakers" as the Riders affectionately called them. A large group came in this year, so Daine helped out. Evin was one of her first friends there. Actually, one of her first friends in Anchorage. And one of the biggest troublemakers she knew. He loved to get on the bad side of people, though only by being honest, even if it was in a very blunt way.

"Yes, what a small world indeed." Smiling, Evin said, "the backbreakers brought over Professor Salmalin to teach us about the anatomy of a horse. This class is going to be hard, but," with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "I got plenty of blackmail information from Onua." They walked into class, then split up, Daine going into the second row and Evin taking the next available seat two rows behind her. The professor wasn't in the room yet, but that didn't surprising her after hearing about one year where he got so caught up in one of his experiments that he completely forgot he was supposed to be teaching.

He came into the classroom a few minutes later with a steaming hot cup of coffee. Setting it down on his cluttered desk, he looked up at the class and, to Daine's embarrassment, happened to be tall and handsome. Like Numair. Exactly like Numair. Daine ducked her head, her face slowly turning red. I talked to my teacher without knowing it. I flirted with my teacher without knowing it. Gods, why me? Professor Numair Salmalin started his beginning of the school year speech, obviously not realizing that the girl he was thinking about was sitting in his classroom of all places.

"Good Afternoon class. I'm Professor Numair Salmalin, your teacher for Mammalian Anatomy. I am sure you have heard…rumors about me, and I am please to announce that every single one of them are," Daine knew that this was the part where the teacher tells them that all the horror stories they had heard about them where completely and utterly untrue, "completely right, for the most part. Most of them have been exaggerated, though," but Professor Numair could not continue, because Daine's mischievous friend just couldn't keep quite any longer.

"Yah right, Professor, everyone knows you forgot about the class entirely a few years back. And you do tend to give insane amounts of work. You break almost half of your class every year."

"Ah, Evin Larse. Still getting in trouble I see," which made some of the class chuckle. "It is true that I 'break' half of my class every year, but that is mearly because I esxpect your best, and if you don't want to give it to me, then you had might as well leave this class now." A few people got up, out of their seats and left the room. "As I was saying before Larse here had to enlighten us with that thought of his, I don't care what you call me. Professor Numair, Professor Salmalin, just plain Professor, or even Numair are fine with me," but he was once again cut off by Evin, who just couldn't help it.

"Okay, Storkman." The Riders called Numair this when he came for lectured. Onua started calling him it when one of her students accidentally let his pet name slip.

"Anything BUT Storkman is fine by me. And thanks to your fellow classmate, we will be starting our first assignment today. You will be stuck writing a 20 page essay," insert groans here, "one the animal of your choice, covering their eating habits, breeding habits, family structure, anatomy," the whole class groaned again as the professor went on a list tangent (A/N: Numair sure does love lists…) "but I will be nice. You may work with another person, though I expect two reports from each of you. And, against my better judgment, I will let you pick your partners. You have 10 seconds." Numair stepped back, so he wouldn't get trampled in the extreme chaos that lie in front of him.

Evin quickly jumped out of his seat and hurried down to Daine. She was glad that she didn't need to find Evin in this frenzy that surrounded them. Evin walked over to her and threw an arm around her shoulders and said, above all the noise, "I got my partner right here, Storkman." Daine blushed, hoping that Numair wouldn't be able to hear him, not wanting to attract his attention. Unfortunately, Numair had been watching Evin, curious as to who he would pick as a partner. And that is when he saw her. The gorgeous lady he flirted with on the bus. The girl he had been thinking about all day. Daine. His student. Which means off limits. Well, she did have a boyfriend, but that could have been taken care of if not for this small obstacle. More like an extremely large obstacle. Great, just great. He briefly explained what each group would be in charge of doing, thankful that he had had this same assignment for so many years so he could just ramble it off while his thoughts drifted to a certain young lady sitting in this very room.

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I don't really like this chapter. I know what is going to happen at the end, but I am just not sure how to get there. Ideas are more than welcome. Just send me a review or an email. Actually, any review would be appreciated greatly. If my characters are starting to get OOC, please tell me. Thanks. Hope to have another chapter up soon.