Chapter 3: Enchanted

Enchanted:
This is me praying that
This was the very first page
Not where the story line ends
My thoughts will echo your name
Until I see you again
These are the words I held back
As I was leaving too soon
I was enchanted to meet you

Amanda POV:

"I heard you got Benson, how was she?"

"What?"

"Benson," Kim repeated from where she was sitting on the floor, painting her nails. "How was she?"

"Oh," Amanda shrugged, and turned her attention back to her notebook. "She was fine, she seemed nice."

Kim just made an incredulous face, and stared at Amanda. "I'm sure you're the first to talk about Benson like that, you're her only fan."

"Yeah." Amanda bit her lip, turning back to her notebook, she'd been trying to complete her calculus homework before Kim had interrupted her.

"Why'd you wanna know about Benson?" Amanda asked curiously, not looking up from her calculus.

She heard Kim snort. "Just wandering what you thought of the old bitch. Nobody likes her, the other teachers barely stand her," Kim scooted forward, closer to her, and leaned in. "You know, the only reason a woman's that bitter, she's not getting any."

"Kim!" Amanda gasped, looking up from her work. "I don't think she's old, she was the first decent person I've met since I walked out of that airport," Amanda shook her head and continued, "I have homework, if you wouldn't mind."

"Manda," Kim sighed, scooting back to her original place. "You don't have to get all defensive, just talkin to you."

Amanda just sighed and closed her notebook. "I'm sorry, Kim. Didn't mean to snap at you. Just stressed."

"It's okay." Kim nodded, uncapping her nail polish and picking up where she left off. "I forgive you, we're sisters, Manda."

It wasn't that Amanda was mad at Kim, but she wasn't exactly pleased with the way Kim had joked about her with her friends. Ms. Benson was the first person to offer her a smile, and the first to make her smile, since she'd arrived in New York. Amanda had always been fiercely loyal, so it pissed her off a bit to hear her hypocritical sister, talking about the one person, who'd made her feel like a respected person. Besides that guy she'd met in class, Fin. He was alright too.

"Oh hey," Kim chirped up after a few minutes. "Mama's going out tonight, and I've got a date, so you'll be going solo."

Amanda frowned in confusion. She hadn't even been here a full day, and her family was already splitting up.

"Hey, Manda," Kim looked up, and smiled. "You should be happy, it's a big city, you don't have dad lookin over your shoulder anymore, you have cash, have fun."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Amanda replied.

Kim just rolled her eyes. Her sister was so oblivious.

"I have to spell it out don't I?" Kim set down her nail polish, and looked Amanda in the eye. "Get a life, Manda."

Amanda nodded her head, "I think I might go out tonight, mom wouldn't care either way."

Kim only nodded, "Glad you finally loosened up, you gotta stop being so uptight."

"Yeah." Amanda laughed, standing from the floor, "I'm gonna take a shower."

Kim winked at her, before going back to her nails.

~x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x~

Amanda scowled, as she sat on the park bench. She'd taken her sisters advice, and went out. That's how she found herself sitting on a bench, in the middle of Central Park, holding a bottle of vodka wrapped in a brown bag. Before she left, her sister had given her directions to a little liquor shop, that didn't I.D. Amanda had lost track of how long she'd been sitting on this bench, she'd drunk until her body was numb to the cold. She'd been staring at the street lamp across from her, for the longest time. Her thoughts were slow, and she was so tired.

Amanda drunk to forget, she drunk to numb the pain, she drunk because her father had shipped her off, she drunk because her mother was a drunk, and she drunk because her sister wanted nothing to do with her. Amanda had never been one to voice her pain to others, preferring to find the closest alcoholic beverage. Back home- she used to take beer from her dads stash in the fridge, and then he'd beat her later that night, once he'd drunken from that same stash. Amanda hated her father, both for taking her away from her home, and also for drinking himself to a stupor every night. But, who was she to judge? Wasn't she doing the same thing right now?

Her father wasn't the only one to blame, her mother had played a huge role in Amanda's problems as well. When Amanda's mom had packed her bags, to leave her husband, Amanda had been five, Kim was a few years younger. Kim was also the one that her mother had taken. Amanda had been left, abandoned by her mother, with her drunken father- in a shitty little house in Georgia.

Amanda hadn't always been so bitter, so cynical, but 12 years in that house, with only her drunk father for company, had sucked Amanda's innocence from her. With every holiday her father spent passed out on the bathroom floor, with every time her father pounded his fist on Amanda's door, drunkenly shouting for Amanda to let him in, and every time she'd been forced to crawl out of her bedroom window to escape her drunk fathers wrath.

Amanda's mom had lost innocence as well, both with her divorce, and then with moving to Las Vegas first. Where she discovered the shiny world of gambling and drugs, and now here in New York, where she continued to party. She'd been interested in Amanda all of 2 seconds, before she'd turned back to the T.V.

Amanda sighed, and stood up. Her legs protested, and she swayed a bit. Her world was spinning, but she managed to make it to the closest park trashcan without tripping, and that was an accomplishment. Throwing her bottle away, Amanda leaned against the side of the trashcan, trying to catch her breath.

She just hoped she could make it to the Subway without getting lost.

~x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x~

Amanda rested her head on her arms, as she tried to block out the roar of chatter coming from the other kids in the cafeteria. Her head was pounding, and the flicker of the florescent lights overhead made Amanda's eyes hurt.

Amanda had managed to make it on the train last night, she'd almost passed out in her seat, but she managed to tumble out of the subway at her stop. She'd taken an insane amount of time to remember which floor the apartment was on, and she was pretty sure she'd disturbed almost every resident on the 3rd floor as she stumbled down the hall. When she'd gotten home both her mother and Kim were nowhere to be seen, so she'd taken Kim's bed for the night.

That morning, her mother had woken her up with the cool, refreshing, sensation of a cup of Vodka being poured onto her head. Amanda had rushed to the shower, and held her eyes open as she let the cold water rinse them.

Armed with the only pair of sunglasses she'd brought from Georgia, she'd stepped out into the too bright morning. She'd dragged her tired body to school, in a timely manner, so she thought she'd done pretty good.

That's how she'd wound up here, she'd made it through all of her classes, and she only had a few minutes left of lunch. Amanda was excited for her last class, she was excited to see Fin and if she was really honest with herself, she was jumping out of her seat to see Ms. Benson again. Despite of the fact she knew nothing about the woman, she felt drawn to her. Like a moth to a flame.

So when the bell rang, Amanda hastily pushed her way through the crowd, and fought to be one of the first students through the exit. Amanda clutched her notebook tighter, as she shimmied her way through the throng of students in the hall. She was nervously biting her lip by the time she made it to 308. Breathing deeply, she shook her head, and softly opened the door. She was really early, and she was the first one here today. Sighing she started to make her way to the back, when her voice made her freeze.

"Amanda."

Slowly turning, Amanda saw what she had missed before. Ms. Benson was leaning against her desk, her arms folded across her chest, and she wore a little smirk on her lips.

"Hey," Amanda blushed. "I- uh- I didn't see you."

A hot flash of arousal flashed through her as her teacher pushed off the desk and walked around her desk, Amanda's eyes immediately went to the older woman's backside.

"I graded your test last night," Ms. Benson removed a packet from the pile on top of her desk. "You did very very well, you're very smart Amanda."

Amanda could only nod, and stare at the lovely woman in front of her. Ms. Benson was dressed in a pair of tight black jeans that showed off her toned thighs and well rounded backside, a backside Amanda found herself entranced with. Paired with the jeans, was a tight, black, oxford style button up shirt. The top buttons were undone, Amanda felt like she couldn't breathe. The gap in the shirt only showed off a small amount of cleavage, but Amanda liked what she saw.

Olivia seemed oblivious to Amanda's lustful gaze. "What school did you attend before this?" Olivia paused, and brushed Amanda's arm with her hand, in a soothing gesture that shot through Amanda like white hot fire, straight to her core. "Where did you leave off in your classes?"

Students began piling through the door, effectively cutting off Amanda's answer. She gave one last look and smiled. Amanda turned to take her seat at the back of the room.

It was an extremely short wait, and within minutes of the arrival of the last students, the bell rung. shut the door, and moved back to the center of the room. She sat slightly on her desk, and clasped her hands together. Amanda couldn't stop staring. Ms. Benson's clothes fit her perfectly, and they showed off her amazing figure but they also further reinforced the fact that was a successful, classy, independent woman, and there was no possible way she could ever see Amanda as more than a student.

"Today, we're going to be reviewing some of the more well known pieces of Victorian Literature. In this period novels were very important. Novels in the Victorian period were idealized portraits of difficult lives. These tales often featured hard work, perseverance, love, and luck winning out eventually," Ms. Benson paused, and Amanda felt like the woman was looking straight at her. "For the next few weeks we'll be reviewing parts of the more famous novels written in the Victorian Period. Novels such as Jayne Eyre, Vanity Fair, Wuthering Heights, and multiple novels by Charles Dickens.".

Ms. Benson's eyes locked with Amanda's. "Today, I want you to write down a few novels that you think shaped that period of time."

The eye contact was smoldering, with what, Amanda didn't know. She couldn't look away, even as her peers began getting out pens and notebooks, she couldn't look away from those warm brown orbs. The older woman broke the eye contact, turned and headed back to her desk, sitting in her chair and pulling some papers in front of her.

Amanda finally managed to look away, sighing, she ripped a piece of paper out.

~x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x~

Amanda was stopped by Olivia's arm as she made to exit the room, class had ended about 10 minutes ago, and like yesterday she was the last in line for the door.

"Amanda, can I have a minute?"

She only nodded, and allowed to close the door, and usher her back towards the center of the classroom.

"Amanda, I wanted to finish our earlier conversation."

Amanda looked at her watch, she couldn't handle being in a room- alone with the woman she'd spent the better part of the period undressing with her eyes.

"Uh- I'd like that, but my mom expects me home soon, so maybe tomorrow?"

Ms. Benson nodded, and grabbed a piece of paper from her desk, scrawling something on it and then handing it to Amanda.

"My number," Olivia tilted her head, and placed a soft hand on Amanda's arm. "If you need anything, call."

Amanda shoved the paper into her pocket, shot the older woman a quick "Thank you.", and exited the room.

That woman was intoxicating.

Amanda spent the rest of her walk home thinking about the way her teacher smelled.

When she'd gotten home, she'd done the dishes, and helped her mom move off the couch and into the bedroom. By the time she settled down to do her homework, she realized she'd forgotten to write down the assignment that assigned. Amanda pulled the piece of paper that had Benson's number on it, she pulled her phone out as well. Sending a quick text message.

'Could you maybe tell me what you assigned for homework?'

Not even a minute later, Amanda's phone beeped. She curled up in the armchair and clicked on her inbox.

'Just tell me which one you'd rather read. Jayne Eyre or Wuthering Heights.' read Benson's reply.

Smiling to herself, Amanda clicked on her phone's keyboard. 'Thanks, I think Jayne Eyre.'

Her reply came shortly, and Amanda was grinning when she opened it.

'Good choice. You didn't answer my question earlier, what school did you come from?'

'Just a small school in Georgia.'

'This small school have a name?'

'Classified information.'

'Oh, really?'

'I'm afraid so, Ma'am.'

'You know I'll just look in the database since you won't tell me.' Ms. Benson's reply came with a smiley face next to the woman's words.

'Have at it.'

'I will. I'll see you tomorrow, Rollins.'