Jack was sitting alone in the teachers' lounge trying to finish the last sip of coffee before going to his final class for the day. He stood up and was almost out the door when he was accosted by Ted, his colleague and friend.
"Hey Jack, welcome back to another year of hell! How was your summer, man? Mine was cool, I took it easy, surfed and hung out at the beach E-V-E-R-Y-D-A-Y."
Ted then looked around and lowered his voice, "By the way, have you seen the girls this year? It's like they grew up over the summer. Also, I thought the school implemented a dress code. I swear, man I could get whiplash from all the double takes. If the girls from my days in high school wore short shorts like that, I'd never have graduated."
Jack gave a mirthless laugh at his unrelenting colleague, "Summer was good, I taught a few summer classes and…"
"Don't tell me you worked all summer. Dude, do you ever relax? But seriously, have you checked out the girls this year?."
Jack shook is head and gave a warning look, "As your friend, I know you're kidding around, sort of. But you seriously need to watch what you say, if it were overheard it can be misunderstood."
Ted rolled his eyes and gave a smirk.
"Stop, I'm serious, man. I don't want to see you get in trouble. And by the way Ted, my little sister Claire is one of those "girls". And when I walk these halls, all I see are annoying little Claires running around. So, to answer your question. No, I 'm not checking out the students." Ted couldn't help himself as he snorted and burst out into laughter.
Jack glanced at the clock, "Listen, I gotta run. Talk to you later."
Jack stepped through the doorway and noticed a small hunched form sitting front and center in an otherwise empty classroom. He couldn't make out much except for the long brown cascading thick curls that covered her left shoulder and obscured her face. He approached his desk and rested a couple of files and books on it before looking at her. As he did this, her head perked up and he was greeted with an image he was completely unprepared for.
He couldn't help but draw a slow wide smile when he found himself staring into the sparkling green eyes of the student seated before him. It was no question in his mind that she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Suddenly he felt that his smile, this slight gesture may have betrayed too much of his enthusiasm and awe. So he quickly wiped it off to look more sober and serious.
"Good afternoon, Miss …?"
She opened her mouth and began to speak, but instead a froggy, dry sound croaked from her mouth, "Kate, ahem…" She cleared her throat, "Kate, it's Kate Austen."
Again, he was unable to prevent the small smile that crept up his face, "Good afternoon Miss Austen, welcome to AP Physics."
"My name is Mr. Shephard, but I'm guessing that you already knew that." The end of his sentence was punctuated with a slight crinkle of his eyes - and Kate wondered why she even noticed that.
Meanwhile, he noticed the sweet redness of her freckled cheeks and the toothy smile exposing an adorable pair of almost "bunny-like" teeth that were so prominent. A slightly imperfect feature that would probably be shunned in the overly image-conscious city of LA, but to him there was nothing short of perfection in the vision that sat before him.
He raised his chin and gestured in her direction, "So, it looks like you selected your seat. I'll mark it down in my seating chart, unless you have a last minute change of …"
Kate interjected, "No, this is fine. This is exactly the place I want to be - I mean, the place where I want to be seated." Kate felt herself slouch as if she wanted to disappear under her desk and she had an incredible urge to kick herself for sounding like such an idiot.
Jack nodded, "Good, the seat's yours. As they say, the early bird gets the worm." Kate stared at his boyish grin until some students noisily flooded into the classroom breaking whatever spell that was cast in the room moments before.
Class was nearly two-thirds over and Kate's heart was still hammering along with the whirring sound in her head as she desperately attempted to process the uncontrollable thoughts that were spinning all over the place. She couldn't believe it, even the teachers look like movie stars in California. She couldn't recall ever being as captivated by the opposite sex as she was this very moment. She studied him intently, he wore dark colored trousers, a tailored light blue shirt and coordinating tie and Kate could not help but hone in on how those trousers fit his hips and backside so perfectly and that…. With a slight sense of panic Kate realized she better look at the whiteboard, her textbook, ANYTHING but that adorable behind. She would DIE if he noticed what her gaze was focused on.
"Ms. Austen, what's your theory on this?"
Kate straightened up and was hit with a rush of embarrassment when she was forced to ask, "I'm sorry, can you please repeat the question?"
It was hard to discern whether it was an expression of irritation or disappointment that briefly showed on his face when he repeated the question for her. However, she couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh of relief because she knew the answer. At that moment she silently thanked the heavens above for making her so anal and OCD - her unrelenting habit to keep ahead of the curriculum and to ALWAYS make sure she was at least one chapter ahead of the syllabus had finally paid off - even on the first day of school.
Jack nodded in approval when she delivered her correct and succinct answer and did his best to suppress any indication that he was somewhat impressed. He returned his attention to the rest of the students and proceeded to deliver the remainder of the lesson plan. Kate made sure to pay attention for the duration of the class and made another pleasant discovery - Mr. Shephard was articulate and seemed rather smart.
The bell rang and Kate slowly stood up and began gathering her belongings as did the others in the class. She joined the rest of the students in the disorganized exit procession out the door. But before she managed to leave the room, he had made a conscious decision to try to get a better look at the rest of her.
For the first time in his short tenure as a high school teacher, Jack Shephard was actually checking out a student.
Kate found herself in a hurry to get home. She was practically sprinting across the school lawn when she heard her name called. She turned her head in the direction of the voice and scanned all the unfamiliar faces until one was recognizable.
"Claire?"
"Hey, you remembered my name. That's pretty impressive, you must have met tons of people today."
For whatever reason, Kate instantly took a liking to Claire and if truth be told she was grateful to have someone to talk to, "Actually, I really didn't meet too many people. There is just so much to take in and, you know, it's just … A LOT."
Claire gave her a sympathetic look before she impatiently extended her open palm at Kate, "Kate, show me your schedule. I want to see what classes you are in and the teachers you have." Kate unzipped the outside pocket of her backpack, located the piece of paper and handed it over.
"Oi Kate, what the bloody hell? It's senior year, why are you torturing yourself with AP Physics, History and Calculus? Are you out of your bloody mind? Oh, look! We're in the same English class, second period. I didn't see you in English this morning though. Ay, and we have PE together on Tuesday and Thursday!"
Kate gave a sheepish look to Claire, "Well, I guess you can say school is sort of my thing. I like taking hard classes. I hope to get into medical school one day."
"So you're a brain, are you? That's cool. My family is pretty smart. My dad's a famous surgeon, I'll introduce you to him and you can discuss all those sort of, ummmm… things smart people talk about."
Kate's interest piqued upon hearing this disclosure, she would love to ask her father about his career. "I see you're taking AP Physics, that's supposed to be a really hard class." Claire hesitated before she asked, "How do you like the teacher?"
Kate shrugged her shoulders, "He seems okay, sort of young for a science teacher. But he seems smart enough."
Claire studied Kate's face before she shrugged her shoulders, "I never had him, I did hear that he was pretty intense and gives loads of homework."
Kate nodded, "Thanks for the head's up, I'll make sure to be on top of him, I mean on top of it - on top the course load."
Kate looked at Claire for her reaction and was relieved that she seemed distracted and didn't catch her slip. She felt like kicking herself AGAIN. This was getting absurd, if she doesn't pull it together soon she was sure to make a public ass out of herself.
"So Kate, where are you parked?"
"I'm not. I don't have a car. I was just going to walk home."
Claire gave Kate an adamant shake of her head and declared that she was driving her home.
"Claire, it's ok. It's only a 15 minute walk."
"Kate, I insist. I know what it's like to be the new girl at this school and it's bloody hard. Trust me."
Kate shrugged with a smile, "Only because you INSIST and I'm not sure how sensitive Aussies are and I don't want to offend you or anything."
Claire feigned a look of outrage and smiled back, "Kate, I think I'm gonna like you."
They pulled up to 42 Panorama Crest and Kate opened the passenger door and began to step out of the black SUV.
Claire lowered her sunglasses and leaned towards Kate, "So I'll pick you up at 7:10?"
"That's fine, but you don't have to-"
Claire interrupted, "I know. See you tomorrow and you can call me later if you want. You know, if you just feel like talking."
Kate watched her pull off as she walked up the driveway and onto the porch. She frantically hunted around in her backpack in search of the keys when the door swung open.
Sam stood in front of her and anxiously began talking to her, "Katie! How was the first day at the new school? I see you made a friend-"
Kate squinted her eyes, "Dad, were you spying on me? My first day was fine, just like ALL the rest of them."
Sam didn't detect Kate's sarcasm as he was more focused on the appearance of what seemed to be a new friend, "I wasn't spying, I just happened to be looking out the window for you. So, what's your friend's name?"
Kate rolled her eyes, she was anxious to run up to her room, but she figured it was best to just answer him, "Claire, Claire Littleton. She's from Sydney, Australia but is now living in LA with her dad. Ummmm, Dad, I just have to run upstairs for a second. Can we talk in a little bit?"
Sam couldn't hide his disappointment, "I made us some turkey sandwiches. I thought we could talk about your day..."
"Dad, I'll be back in 5 minutes!" Kate shouted as she raised the 5 fingers of her left hand for emphasis.
Kate bolted up the stairs and went straight to her room, she flipped open her laptop and typed in her school's name. She immediately went to the faculty page and started searching the list of alphabetized names until she found what she was looking for… 'Shephard, Jack'.
She eagerly clicked on the link and began to read what popped on the screen:
Jack Shephard, Physics and AP Physics teacher
Mr. Shephard earned his B.S. in Premedical Studies at Columbia College.
He graduated summa cum laude.
And to the right of the screen there was a headshot of him. Kate looked at the photograph. He was amazing. But more than anything, Kate was pleased that her instincts were right about him. He WAS smart, REALLY smart. Columbia University? Summa cum laude? How did he go from pre-med to teaching high school? It just didn't add up. She scrolled down the screen to see the year he graduated and quickly performed a mental calculation. If he went to straight to college, that meant he was about seven or eight years older than her. That wasn't too much older, right? The one thing she was certain of, is that she wanted to know more about him. LOTS more. She stared at the screen and absentmindedly tugged at her bottom lip while trying to absorb and process all the newfound information about this, this … god.
It was almost 5:00 pm as Jack headed out to the faculty parking lot, he had already removed his tie and was rolling up his sleeves as he approached his weathered and beaten up brown Ford Bronco. Everyone hated that car, but he didn't care. For whatever reason it appealed to his sensibilities and it just felt like home or at least what he thought home should feel like - old, dependable and sturdy. Despite his feelings about the truck, it didn't prevent his mother from buying him a sleek black BMW sedan for his college graduation - it still sat in the second garage space, seldom used. He opened the driver's side door, tossed his laptop case into the passenger seat and before he had a chance to turn on the ignition his thoughts turned to his new student, Kate. He laughed out loud and muttered, "That fucking Ted. He cursed me." Jack rubbed his hands along the back of his skull.
He aggressively rolled his shoulders, tilted his head from side to side and took in a deep breath as if he were trying to shake her out of his mind. She was beautiful, there was no getting around that. He quickly decided that the best approach to this sticky situation would be for him to avoid looking at her during class. And no sooner had he formed that resolution did his mind begin to wander and recall her amazing smile that was framed by those very full pink lips… and with that he found his thoughts venturing into dangerous territory again.
Jack absentmindedly bumped the heel of his hand against the steering wheel while trying to figure out what was happening to him. His mind was running overtime and he was struggling to rationalize what was going on here. He was never attracted to young girls, in college he wouldn't even date a freshman when he was a senior, thinking the four year age difference was too much. After a minute or so, he concluded that this had to do with the fact that his girlfriend has been in San Fran for the past two weeks on a business trip. So, wasn't it logical that he was simply displacing his sexual urges from his girlfriend onto this poor girl? It was a biological response, that's all. Amy would be back in LA today. Even though they had made plans to meet up tomorrow or Wednesday, he decided he would try to see her tonight. Yeah, having sex would definitely take care of the situation. He could feel himself begin to relax, so he started the engine.
It was after midnight and Kate was still tossing and turning in bed. She couldn't seem to find a comfortable position. She layed half under the covers with one restless pajama clad leg on top of her duvet. Her mind kept drifting to him and all sorts of thoughts were playing out - some of them making her feel hot and sweaty. She had never felt this way before, not even when she kissed Evan last year. She felt flushed and an aching for something she couldn't understand or fully recognize, but knew its source came from her - down there. With hesitant and shaky fingers, Kate found herself moving them downward to the drawstring of her pajamas. She was overcome with an urge and need to find some unexplainable fulfillment to these new sensations. So with some bravery and curiosity, Kate decided she would try something that she had never done before….