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Chapter Four

On Monday morning, Isabella walked sluggishly around her apartment. She'd showered, and spent way too long under the hot water just thinking about things. She'd woken up abruptly again this morning, still unsure of what she had been dreaming of. She blow dried her long brown hair and slipped into a beige pencil skirt with a silky cream colored peplum shirt, and a pair of nude heels. For once, when she looked outside of her windows she saw that it wasn't raining. That didn't mean that it was sunny, but at least she wouldn't have to worry about getting wet while walking to the school from her car. She packed up everything into her tote bag and walked out the door with her chin held high.

The drive onto the reservation was peaceful, but Isabella was still extremely nervous of what the day would hold. As she pulled into the parking lot at seven o'clock she got out of the car with shaking hands and walked into the small school. Her heels clicked as she walked down the hall and she couldn't help but feel jumpy as she opened the door to her classroom. As the door opened she nearly let out a scream, but still jumped backwards and dropped her bag on the floor spilling its entire contents.

There, sitting inside of the classroom was none other than, Jacob Black.

Isabella's hand flew to her chest where she felt her heart pounding like a galloping horse as she stared at her student who'd been missing the entire week past. She watched his eyes grow wide as he swiftly moved out of his chair and moved towards her quickly. He did not look like a teenager in that moment; he looked like a man. A tall, muscular man, with deep russet colored skin, raven colored hair and eyes like an abyss.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," he said in a soft, regretful voice that made Isabella's speeding heart start to calm. His voice was deep and soothing over her nerves. She kept her eyes on him as he bent down from his enormous height and began to gather up the papers that had spilled out of her bag. She realized she had been standing there like an idiot and she immediately dropped down to her knees and helped to pick up the items on the ground.

"It's alright, I just wasn't expecting anyone in the classroom so early," Isabella replied, her voice slightly breathless from her scare. She saw him looking at her out of the corner of her eye and she quickly gathered all of the papers up. She stuffed them into her bag once again and stood up. Jacob stood as well, and she physically had to tip her head back to see his face. His eyes were trained on her face, and Isabella felt her skin heat up with a blush.

"Here you go," he said in the same soft voice again. She realized that he was holding out some papers for her to take.

"Thank you," she whispered, looking back at the papers in his hand and reaching to grab them. Without meaning to, the tips of her fingers brushed on his own hand and she felt as though an electric current had passed through her body, though without the pain. Her eyes widened, but she kept them down, not wanting to meet Jacob Black's penetrating gaze once again.

This was so unprofessional! Isabella thought to herself as she walked around Jacob Black and towards her desk at the front of the classroom.

"So, why did you come so early?" Isabella asked as she tried to reorganize all of the papers that had fallen, ignoring the way that her heart fluttered inside of her ribcage. She barely heard him walk up to her desk, but rather felt his body looming above her own. She had to control the odd shiver that went down her spine at the close proximity of her student. Her thoughts were clamped down on tightly before she could think anything else that was so incredibly inappropriate.

"I came to apologize for my actions last week. They were completely unacceptable, and I am sorry for what I said," Jacob said levelly in his soothing voice. Isabella looked up into the russet colored, handsomely featured face. There was no doubt that he was a handsome boy, with high cheekbones and a straight nose, and lips that looked... No! Isabella stopped herself. She would not start to think of her student as attractive. If she was that desperate for male company, then she would go on a dating website before she ever thought about a student that way.

"I accept your apology, Jacob, and I know that you are under a lot of stress already," she said to him sympathetically and watched as his eyes grew wide with confusion.

"You do?" his voice was in disbelief. The poor boy didn't know that Mr. Molina had told her.

"Yes, I understand how hard it is for you to have to take care of both your father and yourself," she said slowly, hoping not to make him angry again with her knowledge, but instead he looked slightly relieved.

"Right, yeah... It can be pretty stressful, I guess," he replied, nodding his head. Isabella looked him over and nodded herself.

"Just know, that if you need any help studying for tests, or if you have any questions you can always stay after school or come during study hall for help. And if you feel like you need an extension you just have to tell me why and I'll see what I can manage, alright?" she asked him with a smile. She could see his eyes trained on her mouth and she felt another involuntary shiver spiral down her spine. She watched his own mouth curve up into a brilliant smile as well.

"Sure, sure. That's really helpful, actually. Thank you, Isa- I mean... Ms. Swan," he caught himself before he used her given name. Isabella nodded and was happy he hadn't called her by her first name. She didn't want to awkwardly explain that it was inappropriate for him to call her that.

Jacob turned and walked back to his desk in the second row and sat down, getting out his textbook and a notebook. Isabella smiled to herself as she turned around to begin writing today's notes on the board. She was very pleased that he'd come back to class and that there was seemingly no ill feelings he held against her. She knew that would make things run much smoother throughout the year.

After all of the students had filed into the classroom and Isabella had taken attendance the lesson had started as usual. And as usual, the same two hands rose up for every question she asked.

"Okay, someone other than Kim and Amanda, please answer why they think that Hester's punishment is either fair or unfair," Isabella finally sighed. She held her book open in her hand as she tried to lead a discussion on Hester's new life with her child. She looked out across the classroom and saw that nobody had yet to raise their hands at all. For some reason her eyes sought out the eyes of Jacob Black. And while she should have felt frustrated at the kids, after she had seen his eyes looking straight back at her, a sense of calm had washed over her and she suddenly shut her book.

"Alright. We're going to do something different. Everyone stand up and line up against the wall over there," Isabella said as she ripped out a clean sheet of paper from her notebook on her teaching desk. She began to scrawl across the page, as she heard all of the students shuffle towards the back of the room. They were wondering if they were going to be punished or something of the like. But instead of yelling at them for their lack of participation, Isabella ripped out the piece of paper and turned around to face her students. She could feel her body turning towards a specific male that stood against the wall, but she managed to keep her eyes off of him... At least for the time being.

"Amanda can you step forward?" Isabella said as she walked towards them. They did as she asked and she handed her piece of the paper she had written on. The students saw now that there was a bold "F" written on the paper. "Joseph can you step forward as well? And... Embry, you too."

With her three chosen students standing in front of her she began explaining herself, "Since you are all having a hard time grasping what a big deal the letter "A" means in this book, I'm going to make it a bit more modern. Amanda, has been caught cheating on her test. Joseph was the teacher, and Embry was the one that gave her the answer key. However, Amanda had thought that Joseph wouldn't be coming back into the room at all, so when he appeared and asked what she was doing she had no choice but to show him the answer key. Although, she said that she had stole it herself because we all know that Embry has a big football scholarship that he can't afford to lose," she explained to them and the class let out a few laughs. "The rest of you, all believed that Amanda was truly the person that stole the answer key, and so you all stay away from her because, who want's to be associated with someone who cheats?" Isabella asked. "What can Amanda do to fix this?"

"She can tell the rest of us that it was actually Embry," said another boy in the class named Henry. Isabella shook her head.

"Nope. Embry is the golden boy. He can do absolutely no wrong in your eyes. No one would believe Amanda that it was Embry. Also, he's so important to the football team that everyone would hate her if she made him get into trouble... Not to mention Joseph is keeping a very sharp eye on her because he has a suspicion that she is lying about where she got the answer key. So how can Amanda fix this?" Isabella asked again and watched for a few minutes as her students argued back and forth over what could be done about this situations. Finally Jacob Black spoke up.

"Nothing can be done. Unless Embry steps forward himself everyone will just blame Amanda... There's nothing that she can do to help herself, no matter how unfair it is," he said, maintaining intense eye contact with Isabella for the duration of his speech. Isabella stood still for a moment and then nodded, a small smile on her lips. She felt irrationally proud of him for grasping the concept of what she was trying to teach them.

"That's right, Jacob. Good job," she smiled at him and he beamed back at her with a sunny smile that made her heart skip a beat in her chest.

Suddenly the shrill bell that signaled the end of first period rang, causing Isabella to jump in surprise.

"Okay everyone! I want you all to read the rest of chapter four and all of chapter five for thursday and tomorrow we'll go over some of the vocab words I assigned on friday for you to study. Have a good day!" she said as the students rushed to their desks to collect their things.

Isabella returned to her desk at the front and sat down behind it, putting away her senior English lesson plan and pulling out her second period Sophomore lesson plan. She'd thought that everyone had gone when she looked up from her papers and jumped at the sight of Jacob Black looming over her desk directly in front of her.

He seemed to smile a bit at her reaction to him, but she ignored it and shoved down the tingling heat that enveloped her body suddenly.

"Is there something I can help you with, Jacob?" Isabella asked him with a smile. She felt as though she couldn't do anything other than smile at his face.

"Well I have to get to second period right now, but is it alright if I come after school for some extra help? I'm still a little lost since I missed some days last week," he said, almost sounding embarrassed at how he hadn't appeared in class last week. Isabella looked over his handsome face again and found her eyes somehow wandering down the expanse of his neck and into his broad shoulders that were covered in a tan long sleeve. He looked like he had some serious muscle definition underneath that shirt... No! No! No! Isabella felt her face flush as she realized she had once again been ogling her student.

Her eyes slid back up to Jacob's face and she was positive that he had noticed her blatant staring.

"Actually, I have a meeting tonight after school, but I'd be happy to help you tomorrow or during study hall," she said steadily watching as he eyes roamed her own face. However instead of feeling as though it was inappropriate for him to look at her in such a curious way, she felt a certain satisfaction at his attention. If she were a cat she'd be purring at the attention he was paying her, and that was wrong on so many levels.

"I think I can come in tomorrow, hopefully," he said with a heavy voice as his eyes continued to blaze into her own.

"Alright, I look forward to it," she said with a nod, then realized what she said, "I mean... Uh, it'll be good to see you then, I mean... That's not what I meant."

"It's okay, Isabella, I look forward to it too," Jacob said with his beaming smile, and before she could chastise him for using her first name, he strode out of the classroom.

Isabella slumped back in her chair and blew out a deep breath. There was no use in denying the fact that she was attracted to Jacob Black. Now she just had to learn how to contain it so that it didn't make things awkward.

Into the empty space of the classroom she only whispered one word.

"Dammit."

Jacob has finally reappeared! I'm sure you're all relieved! ;) Leave me your thoughts if you care to! Thanks for reading!