"Mornin'" Korsak said with a smile.

"Hey Vince, how are you?" Jane asked, quite contently.

"I'm good, you?"

"Yeah, I'm alright, thanks. Excited for another day of school?" Her words oozed sarcasm.

"Oh boy, am I?" He joined in mocking. They both laughed.
Once the laughing had subsided, he asked, "So what'd you end up doing last night?"

"Oh, not much. Went home after a while." She shrugged unimportantly.

"Where were you?" Not realising she was out.

It clicked that she hadn't gone into details before. "Just went for a walk." She paused, considering how much to say. "Had a fight with dad, and couldn't be bothered…"

"What? What happened?" He asked, concerned.

"It was nothing, really." She forced a smile. "Thanks though. Hey, what've you got first up?"

"Ah… History?" He said, now unsure.

"Really?" She puzzled. "Oh right, yeah. It's the first Tuesday. Isn't it?" Jane had completely forgotten what day of the cycle it was. She was a little ambivalent about the realisation though. She wanted to be happy or excited, after all she liked the teacher, liked the subject and was relatively good at it. On the other hand though, the teacher made her feel a little vulnerable and after last night she didn't really want to let anything slip. She took comfort in the fact that she probably wouldn't have to talk about it since class was a public place and they wouldn't really have the opportunity to speak privately.
"Hey, where's Frost?" She asked, noticing the time.

"You know, I don't know. Usually he's here by now…" Vince too was now a little worried. "He hasn't texted or anything." He raised his shoulders.

"Huh… Strange." She said, with nothing else to really contribute.
"Well, I'm going to go to the ladies'" she said poshly. "I'll see you in class," she smiled.

Korsak let out a small laugh before simply saying, "Alright."

With that, Jane had disappeared one way and Korsak slowly made his way to the classroom for 1st period.

As Jane made her way back from the bathroom, she ran into Frost. "Hey! Where've you been?" She asked, inspecting the stupid smile that was plastered on his face.

He was practically gushing. "I was just spending some 'quality' time with Christine," he tried to say in his usual smooth way.

Jane just looked at him quite blankly. "Gross," she winced.

"You're just jealous," he laughed.

"Yeah, yeah… 'Cause it's always been my dream to get to second with Christine," she mocked sarcastically.

Frost nudged her to the side of the hallway, before walking into the classroom.

It was only moments later that Miss Isles arrived, before the bell (as per usual).

As soon as she arrived, the talking quieted and students began to get their books and pens out. Although it wasn't until the bell rang that any of them intended to actually do work, it was an unspoken protocol when teachers arrived. It was also a good way to make sure they didn't hear what you were talking about. No-one wanted any teacher to hear about what they'd done with boyfriend/girlfriend, how the weekend's party was or that they hadn't done their homework.

The lesson itself ran relatively normally. Idle chatter as the teacher taught, occasional questions (relevant and irrelevant), a couple of stupid jokes, a few moments of silence as people did work and then the bell.

"Miss Rizzoli, would you mind staying behind a moment?" She asked professionally from the front of the room as people began to gather their things.

"Ooh," Frost mocked.
In sync, both Frost and Korsak said, "Miss Rizzoli," they joked.

"Oh shut up," she warned jokingly.

Acting as if he wasn't threatened by it, Frost said, "Yeah, yeah… Whatever," he scoffed.

Jane just nodded coolly, "I'll see you two dweebs at recess."

Korsak nodded in acknowledge, as did Frost. With that, they were gone and the room was deserted except for herself and Miss Isles.

She wasn't sure why she was asked stay back, but it wasn't something that made her as nervous anymore. This was particularly so because she was sure that Miss Isles had nothing bad against her at this point, so that was relieving.
"What's up, Miss?" she said casually.

Without as much as a change in facial expression, she asked, "Would you mind popping by my, Mrs Villa's, office at recess?" Her tone was polite and professional and, unfortunately, gave Jane no hints as to what this was pertaining.

"Ah, sure," she said, obviously a little oblivious.

"Thank you. The student's for second period will be arriving shortly and I thought it rude to impede their learning for a matter that could be discussed later," she smiled. Her words were not malicious, simply realistic.

This still perplexed Jane. She did understand words, just not so much the person speaking them. "Yeah, all good," she smiled. "See you then." She headed towards the door before turning and asking hesitantly, "Am I in trouble?" Were the boys finally right, she thought to herself?

Immediately, Miss Isles was shocked out of her professional demeanour into a far more openly caring one. "Oh no, Jane," she assured. "I would simply like to discuss your studying…" she paused. "Please, go to your next class. I promise it is nothing bad." She smiled so very honestly as she stopped speaking.

Jane found herself almost forced at ease, but it was not something she minded with Miss Isles. She was still curious, of course, but the anxiety that was previously associated had faded, and that was definitely something she was okay with.

•••

*knock knock knock*
It was about five minutes into recess by the time she arrived at Miss Isles' door.

"Come in," a polite and chirpy voice said from inside the office.

Jane opened the door cautiously and took a few steps in. "Hey Miss, what's up?" She smiled.

"Not very much," She smiled. "Now, the reason I asked you hear was to discuss our schedule. Unfortunately, over the next two weeks I will be out of office on a number of days and will be unable to allow you to use the classroom without a supervisor."

"Oh," she said a little shocked. For some reason, despite the explanation having nothing to do with her specifically, it felt like her fault. It always did. "Sure, okay," she said, forcing the words through a gritted smile.

Miss Isles noticed her uneasiness, and tried her best to reassure the young girl before her. "It will only be for two weeks and, upon my return, I will happily discuss starting up our sessions again." She smiled, and she meant every word.

Jane forced a small smile and said, "yeah. That's cool. Um, so, when do you start?"

"I will be out of office for the first time Next Monday afternoon for a staff development meeting."

She tried not to act like this was upsetting to her. "Okay, cool. So, I'll see you after that." Jane smiled a fake grin and hoped it was believable.

"Indeed you will," Miss Isles said pleasantly.

At no point were her words rude or inconsiderate. Nor were they ever motivated by a distaste for the young student that then stood in her office. To Jane though, there was still this lingering feeling that perhaps she had done something wrong.
Analysing the conversation, whilst she noted that Miss Isles' voice always seemed kind and genuine, usually the words she spoke were due to a negative incident or a mistake. At least, that was Jane's experience of it. Why else would someone wish to see less of another person?

About five minutes later, an e-mail arrived and her phone buzzed in her pocket.

To: Jane Rizzoli

Subject: Tutoring

Hello Jane,

My apologies. I realise that we did not actually discuss the status of today's and Thursday's sessions. These are still entirely fine with me if you are up for it.

Please let me know either way, but for now I will see you after school.

Have a lovely day,

Miss Isles

After reading this, Jane sent back a short and concise e-mail that simply stated she was still interested in attending this week's times.

•••

Jane sat quietly at one of the desks in the front row of the classroom doing some of her homework. Each of her classes today seemed to give quite a large amount of homework, and she was hoping to get through as much of it as she could.

Occasionally glancing up, Miss Isles sat at her desk also working. In all honesty, she didn't mind working like this. Of course, she adored her students and loved their inquisitive and energetic nature… most of the time. But it was almost a remarkable experience to simply be in the same room as one and not really needing to answer questions that would often interrupt the copious amounts of work she was trying to do. Jane would occasionally ask questions when she did her History tasks, but for the most part the room was calm. In fact, she found the workspace quite ideal. Jane's presence forced her to work also, even when she would get a little bored with it. Regardless of all this though, there was a niggling feeling that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She couldn't be sure, but something seemed a little different with Jane today. She had noticed it this morning too, but it had blended in with the usual chaos of the classroom and so she didn't have a chance to address it. At this point, she wasn't entirely confident on broaching the topic, because she couldn't be sure that whatever it may have been was actually a negative thing.

"Damn," Jane mumbled as she stared at the tip of her now broken pencil. She looked up as she stood and smiled politely.

As she walked toward the bin to sharpen her pencil, Miss Isles keenly watched her looking for any clues that may help her to decipher what was different about Jane.

After realising that she had sharpened her pencil to the point of it breaking in the sharpening, she removed the lid and gave it a couple of small whacks on her palm only to see the small piece of lead fall to the ground. With minimal effort, she bent from her waste and dangled her long arms to the floor in order to pick it up. As she did, the bottom of her t-shirt rose a little exposing the side of her hip.

Immediately, Miss Isles tried to look away, as any self-respecting teacher would. Whether it had happened to you, or happened to someone you know, even decent behaviour whether it was intended or not could always be misconstrued. She found herself though having to glance back as she took notice of a long piece of flesh coloured fabric, like a bandage, stuck around one side of her hip. The bandage itself seemed to go below the waist of her jeans, but there was no indication of how far.
Miss Isles had no idea what it was but was extremely curious though. She decided not to comment though. She didn't have all the facts, and she was certainly not a fan of guessing. So she left the topic alone and tried once again to focus on her work.

Thank you so very much for reading! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter and would love to hear any thoughts you might have. C:

You guys are honestly the best readers, so thank you!

Hope you're happy and well!