A/N: Another AU! This one will be, technically, a three parter. This is the prologue (it's a short little thing. I plan on having the next part up soon), and there will be two more full length chapters to come. Reviews make me happy and make me write faster. So please leave them and tell me what you think.
xx.
NB.

September (Prologue)

He was over 15 minutes late; dragging his tired body inside his muddy work boots down a hallway of blue patterned carpet from a time perhaps before he was even born. And that was a long time, he thought bitterly. He was too old for this shit; no matter what Rick said about this being a "good opportunity". He was too old and too tired to drag his ass across town for four hours a day after a full day at the shop. He knew his aching back and protesting joints were a damn good reason to continue on towards the door at the end of the hallway that he just knew was classroom 1105. Taking over Dale's shop would maybe have him spending less time on his back under cars or crouched down over them. He was pushing forty; he could welcome that kind of relief.

It still didn't leave less of a bitter taste in his mouth that he'd been forced into this. It wasn't as if he were an idiot. He knew numbers; hell, he helped Dale out with them more often than not. And Dale knew him; he knew he would do alright by his shop; knew he wouldn't run it into the ground while Dale took his stupid hat and retired on to Florida. But the old man had shaken his head and muttered something about "union criteria" and with a grimace and several loud hoots from Merle, he'd reluctantly dragged his sorry ass to King County Community College.

Now he had a 70 page notebook in one hand, already rolled up by the way he'd been clutching to it as he walked from his truck into the building, and a pen somewhere in one of his pockets. He hoped he wouldn't need anything else because he'd already paid out the ass for the damn class in the first place.

He grumbled to himself as he reached out for the handle and gave the door a push; unsure if he was in trouble with whatever old bat would be standing in the front of the room. He hadn't been to school in twenty years and last he remembered, he was always being given a dressing down for showing up late or sometimes not even showing up at all.

He threw the door open with a little more force than necessary, making it slam into the opposite wall and receiving a dead silence from the handful of people sitting at desks in front of him. He coughed awkwardly, shuffled a bit before mumbling out an "'m sorry" he was sure only he heard.

Until a quiet voice to his left told him otherwise.

"It's...ok," he turned towards the front of the room, next to the door and frowned. The girl standing there was...a girl. A slip of a girl in cowboy boots with eyes that rivaled Bambi and who looked more like she belonged in high school and not standing between a white board and a big desk.

What was more, he suddenly realized they'd been staring at each other for a few seconds too long and she seemed to snap out of it just before he did; clearing her throat and fumbling with some bright yellow pieces of paper on her desk.

"Syllabus," she said as she handed him the pages but not meeting his eye. He shook his head at her even knowing she wouldn't see. He'd been busting his ass in Dale's shop since he was 18 and now Dale offered to leave him the old thing on the condition he get his damn GED and it was all depending on this girl?

"Yeah, whatever," he grunted as he ripped the stupid yellow paper from the girl's hand and threw himself into the first empty seat he laid eyes on; front and center of the room.