A/N.*cowers* Don't shoot me!
Anyways, I'm sorry this was a slower update. I've already explained the reasons why that is. :3 Am very busy with Science fair, school, sea camp…
Speaking of Science Fair…
Thank you to everyone who gave me Project Title Suggestions! They really made me happy to know that you guys helped! ^^ I finally thought up one, though. You guys ready?
*dun dun dun dun* INSIDE YOUR MIND: THE MOZART EFFECT!
...Cool right? :3 Also, those who sent me ideas, what one shots would you like me to write? Yes, I did say the winner would get a one shot, but was there really a winner? No. SO! PM me with your specific requests!
Oh, and how does everyone like the new summary? Better explaining? But at the same time mysterious?
ALSO: Majorly important:
I will not update this weekend due to the fact that I will be in the Florida Keys for Sea Camp. Sorry! But guys-I'm super excited! Three days with no siblings to nag me, and I won't have to do laundry or anything! ^^ Heehee!
(After you have read the chapter, read the A/N after that too. I just noticed something and the important-ness of it is in that other A/N)
Read your long chapter-I owe you guys that much. ^^ (It was like, 13 pages long on Word) Anyways, enjoy your chapter!
Chapter 3: A…Romantic Encounter?
Daphne took the only available seat in the class-right in front. She stumbled to the seat, earning a few snickers from her classmates in the process.
Mr. Firay cleared his throat. "Okay. As I was saying, I'm Mr. Firay-no not fairy, that's just girly, and this is my first teaching job." The student chuckled. He's a pretty funny guy, Daphne noted as she looked at him. "Any questions?"
Some girl raised her hand. "What's your first name?"
"Matt, Mattheis. But none of you can call me that."
A boy asked, "What's your favorite animal?"
"Dogs. Cats are pests to me." Daphne frowned. Cats were equally as awesome! But no one seemed to mind that their teacher detested cats.
Another boy put his hand up. "Are you single?" Everyone went into a fit of laughs.
Mr. Firay cracked a grin. "Yes, but I'm not into men." The students started laughing again.
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-two." Daphne looked surprised. He was only four years older! How was that possible?
"What's your favorite food-since , you know, you're our Home Economics teacher?" said one of the it girls, twirling her hair around her finger.
"Hmm...I really don't have one. I like most foods. Probably Thai food. I love culturistic foods." Daphne narrowed her eyes at him. Did he just make up a word? 'Culturistic'? That was her job! So olive of him.
"Favorite sport?"
"Basketball."
"Any siblings?"
Mr. Firay casted a small, quick glance at Daphne -who was staring at him with narrowed eyes- then looked back up. "Well, I have a brother who's married. So that's really it."
"What's his name?"
"My brother? Peter." Daphne looked suspiciously at the teacher when the corners of his lips turned into a dazzling smile. "And if you're about to ask, his wife's name is Bria." Daphne mentally 'awwed'. Bria was such a pretty name. It almost sounded like 'Brina...
Daphne shook her head. Naw. It wasn't Sabrina and Puck.
"Did you live here as a young boy?" someone asked. Daphne noticed it was a boy named Daniel.
He shook his head. "No, I moved from Europe. My parent's actually performed in the Global Theater where Shakespeare had his plays." Everyone 'oohed'.
"That's so cool! When I grow up, I plan to become an actor," Daniel said excitedly.
Mr. Firay smiled. "That would be a good career."
"Where do you live?" the same boy who asked the single question said. Everyone laughed.
Mr. Firay rose an eyebrow at him. "You trying to stalk me, bro? Haha, just kidding. I live...how do I describe it? You all know where the Hans Christian Anderson statue is? Well I live like right across from it." Daphne 'pffft'ed. Right across from that statue was an abandoned warehouse. She could tell he was lying.
"A problem, Ms. Grimm?" the handsome teacher asked. All attention was on her now.
Daphne turned red. "No, Mr. Firay."
He nodded. "Good. Any other questions?"
"Favorite color?" someone offered.
"Black and blue."
"Like a bruise," Daphne mumbled. Everyone erupted into laughter. Mr. Firay blinked at her. She looked at him. "What?"
He shook his head. "Someone just said that same thing to me a long time ago." Mr. Firay closed his eyes, then opened them smiling.
And that was how the rest of the period went. People asked Mr. Firay for the whole 45 minute class. When the bell rang, almost the whole class ran out of the classroom while a few students- emphasizedly, girls- crowded their teacher. Daphne had dropped a few of her things as students pushed past her, and was the last one to get out of the classroom. At least nothing really embarrassing happened, thought Daphne. I'd turn so red-
She spoke to late.
Daphne Grimm stumbled over a chair, and fell onto the floor with a 'smack'. She shook her head and red dusted her cheeks. She looked up to see Mr. Firay looking at her with an amused grin.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "What? No help?"
He rolled his eyes, and helped her up. "You're welcome. I suggest you head to your next class, Ms. Grimm."
"Bye, Mr. Firay."
He nodded as she disappeared from view, still red from her falling.
*•*•*
"Have a nice night," the store clerk said. Daphne grumbled a thank you.
Again, she had forgotten to get her groceries. Her father was working late again, and Sabrina and Puck were working far away because of their jobs so none of them were able to get the necessities.
The winter air was still as cold as ever, even with December gone. She frowned, stopping in her tracks. She was staring at the figure with coldness seeping into her veins.
He looked tall and muscular. Not buff, but very lean. The man was against his car with his mouth moving, possibly cussing. Daphne swallowed. Was it one of the men from the alley?
He shifted, and the moon reflected slightly off his blonde hair.
Daphne almost sighed in relief. "Mr. Firay!"
Her teacher froze, but then turned to her with wide eyes. "Ms. Grimm? What are you doing out here at this hour, again?" His scolding tone was a bit hard, but then it softened slightly.
Daphne held up her groceries. "I forgot to get these earlier. What are you doing here?"
"I was driving home when my car broke down," he said, not looking at her.
"Oh," she said with the gears in her mind turning, "Well, I have some gas in my garage. Do you want me to go get it?"
He nodded. "I'll come with you. It's not safe for a girl to walk around at night." At the end of his sentence, you could decipher a small tint of amusement. Daphne turned red, remembering the other night.
"Oh, umm, yeah," she said dumbly.
Mr. Firay pointed down her street. "It's this way, right?"
Daphne blinked. "Uh-huh." They began walking close. Her eyes darted around, looking for any suspicious looking men. The event that had happened before was now making her paranoid. "So," she said, trying to make a conversation. "What was that all about?"
"Hm?"
"The other night. Those thugs. Why were they after you?"
"Oh, them? Those guys are just stupid. Want to be caught up with the police, again."
Daphne's eyes widened. "Again? You've been hurt by them before?" Her teacher was involved with...gangsters?
He let out a bark of laughter. "Hurt? By them? I'll have you know I can beat the-" Mr. Firay suddenly stopped.
Daphne looked at him curiously. "What?" She was sure he was about to say 'beat the living daylights' or something like that. But she glanced around the street worriedly. "Are they back?"
His hair covered his eyes from revealing any emotion. "No. I just...remembered something." After that, all conversation was ceased.
Mr. Firay waited patiently while Daphne unlocked the door. He took a few bags for her and headed into the kitchen. She looked at him and said, "How did you know this was where my kitchen was?"
"I noticed it the other night, Ms. Grimm," he said smiling politely at her, as Mr. Firay put the groceries on the counter. The tension that was in the air disappeared. And was replaced with a not-so much awkward air.
"Oh." Daphne noticed she was being sort of rude and asked, "Do you...do you want anything to drink?"
He said, "Coffee, Ms. Grimm." Mr. Firay went into the living room to wait while Daphne mixed up the beverage.
When she came back out, Daphne saw her teacher pawing his way through the candy in the bowl. She placed the hot mug in front of him. Mr. Firay frowned. "Could I have some sugar?"
Daphne blinked. She already put some in there..."Okay." Once again in the kitchen, she located the small porcelain china and gave it to him, as well as a spoon. He grabbed it without hesitation, and was about to get a scoop when Daphne cleared her throat.
"Yes?" he asked.
"Can I have a thank you?" Daphne was getting partially annoyed at his lack of manners.
"Oh, thank you." With that, Mr. Firay started to scoop spoonful after spoonful into his mug.
Daphne grabbed the sugar. "Mr. Firay! That's way too much!"
"So?"
"You can get diabetes from that," she protested.
"But I like it this way," Mr. Firay said, sipping his mug.
Daphne laughed quietly. "Like a kid."
He blanked, then smiled politely, "I believe so."
After he finished, he sighed. Daphne was relieved. It was kind of uncomfortable doing nothing while he was drinking coffee-
"Get me some more."
Daphne's eyes widened. "What?"
He put his mug out to her. "You heard me, Ms. Grimm. More coffee."
She blinked. "No!"
"Do we have to do this the hard way?" Mr. Firay cracked his knuckles. Daphne scampered off into the kitchen with the mug. Holy cow! The guy was some blackmailing demon, Daphne thought. She ran around the kitchen looking for the ingredients frantically, not wanting to make him impatient.
She gave the mug back to her teacher filled to the brim with coffee. He smirked at her scared expression. Her face stayed that way until Mr. Firay finished the cup. "Make me some-"
"-more? No! I only have one more bag of coffee, and my dad needs that in the morning!" Daphne said defiantly.
Mr. Firay smirked even wider. "I wasn't going to say 'more coffee'."
She faltered, and stuttered. "O-oh. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed-"
"-I was going to say make me some dinner." His smirk was now a full-fledged devilish grin.
Daphne stared at him with her mouth agape. "...Who are you?"
"I have a split-personality," he explained, then shooed her into the kitchen. "Now make me some dinner."
She blinked. "Really?"
"Yes, Ms. Grimm," he said in a 'duh' voice. "Now, dinner-"
"No! Why should I?"
He smirked. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. This isn't how a guest should be treated. You really need to learn your manners."
Daphne felt anger blaze inside her. "Manners? Says the handsome teacher who won't say 'thank you' or 'you're welcome' without someone telling them first!" Hot tears were threatening to come out of Daphne's eyes. Stupid tears ducts, Daphne thought. Doesn't matter if I'm sad or mad; I'll still cry.
Mr. Firay was silent. Then he said, "You think I'm handsome?"
Daphne groaned. "Is that all you caught from my rant?" She felt like crying tears of exasperation.
Before that could happen, Mr. Firay placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I was trying to lighten up the mood."
Daphne was probably the nicest of the Grimms. Whether it was Charming or someone else the Grimm clan despised, Daphne Grimm couldn't help but accept their apology. "You're forgiven," Daphne said with a sigh, turned away. "I guess I'm just not the best host."
He blinked at her. "Hey, it wasn't your fault." It sounded as if he didn't expect her to forgive him.
She shook her head, and smiled at him. "It's okay."
Mr. Firay smiled. "I'm glad...but I still want some dinner."
Daphne sighed. He wasn't going to give up, was he? "Fine. But you're going to have to help."
He groaned as he was led into the kitchen. Daphne sighed inwardly. It seemed as if she wasn't going to have that whole spaghetti to herself tonight She pointed to some weird looking pasta. "Unpack those and get the bright orange can-that has the tomatoes. I'll get the green meatballs."
Mr. Firay blinked. "...green meatballs?"
Daphne laughed, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Oh, my grandmother makes some interesting foods..." When Daphne had been old enough to use the stove, Grany Relda made it her job to show Daphne how to make the...'special' dishes she had made for their family.
"Um, okay," said Mr. Firay. "This is some weird food, so you'll have to help me."
"I thought you said you liked culturistic foods?"
He peered at her. "I do. Where did you hear that?"
"In class. The students asked you questions, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. I didn't think you were listening..."
"I was."
He blinked at her, then stared at her with his piercing grey eyes. "Really?" He was looking at her intently.
"Y-yeah," she stuttered, looking away. Daphne was never really good at eye contact. Only when she was really confident about something. "Well, anyways. Start by cutting up the orange tomatoes...wait, take the skin off first."
He grunted in reply, their conversation temporarily disappearing from memory.
Daphne turned the stove temperature up and waited to for the water to boil. She glanced at her teacher, then her eyes widened in surprise. "Mr. Firay!"
"What?"
She grabbed the tomato and his hands. "Cut it away from you; not towards!"
"Well I thought the rule was different from normal food."
"Whatever. I'll help you; it'll be easy." It was -in fact- not easy. It seemed Mr. Firay was purposely messing up. Daphne hoped she would never have to cook dinner with him again.
Mr. Firay waited as she fixed the table with mats and utensils. Daphne placed their food in front of them and sat down. The blonde sniffed the food and blinked.
"What?" Daphne said, alarmed at his action.
"It actually smells good. Not what I was expecting -tomato sauce and whatnot- but it smells spicy and sweet-if that makes sense at all." He took a bite out of the meal and smiled.
Daphne grinned. "Well I'm glad." She reached for the salt, and saw that Mr. Firay was giving her a weird expression. "What's wrong now?"
"Salt and spaghetti?" he said in a dubious tone.
"Yeah. It goes surprisingly well with my grandmother's spaghetti." Daphne began to excesively shake salt onto her plate.
Mr. Firay's eyes widened and grabbed her wrist. "Whoa! Easy on the salt!"
"What? You use alot of sugar in your coffee," Daphne retorted. "And I like salt with this spaghetti!"
"Yes, I put alot of sugar into my coffee, but too much salt makes you die early."
"Oh and how would you know that?"
He rose an eyebrow at her. "I'm a Home Economics teacher? Duh?"
Suddenly, reality crashed down on Daphne. It felt like she had been punched in the stomach.
She was having dinner.
With her teacher.
Her very, very handsome teacher.
Mr. Firay saw her alarmed expression. "What?"
She stood up, shaking her head. "Mr. Firay, you're my teacher."
"That's obvious," he chuckled.
"We can't have dinner together. That's kind of weird."
"It's not like we're doing anything," he said, taking a bite of the meatball. "It's not a romantic meal…unless you want it to-"
"No!" she said, her cheeks turning red.
He faked hurt. "Am I ugly?"
She shook her head. "Not at all-" As soon as the words passed her lips, she pressed them together tightly.
Mr. Firay's eyes widened for a millisecond, then he grinned at her. "Haha. You're so cute. C'mon. Eat. You need to sleep on a full stomach." His persuasion and suave voice was getting to her.
Reluctantly, Daphne sat and started eating her food again. There were small conversations here and there, but that was all. Soon, Mr. Firay glanced at the clock and stood up. "I should go now."
Daphne slurped a noodle, and then looked at him. "What? Not bothering to help me clean up." Mr. Firay was really ungentlemanly.
He winked at her. "You're a big girl. You can do it."
"B-but..." she faltered. "What about the gas?"
"I can find it," he told her. "Just tell me where it is. I wouldn't want one of my students to get sick in the weather."
Daphne glared at him, then sighed. She ran a hand through her hair and said, "It's in the garage; top shelf to the right."
He ruffled her hair. "Thanks. Goodnight, Ms. Grimm."
"'Night, Mr. Firay. See you tomorrow." Daphne sighed, and started cleaning up the dishes. She was so torn right now. Her teacher had been involved with a gang and had a split personality! Talk about an interesting guy.
But even though he had given her a hard time, she still wanted to figure him out.
A/N.SO! That's the end of chapter 3. I hope you guys enjoyed. ^^ Again-if you had given me a suggestion for Science Fair Titles, give me your specific wants in your one-shot. ^^
Bye guys! See you...Oct. 8 or 9! ^^ Whoa, this is my last September update...
Oh, dudes! Today's my two year anniversary on FanFiction! Holy cow! :O Two years with amazing friends, writers, and stories. I can't believe it. Just whoa! ^^ *celebration* Dudes, I'm so happy to have been with FF for that long. ^^ Thanks for encouraging me to write for you all.
Bye again!
~Lara
Finished: 9/25/11
Posted: 9/28/11