Chapter 1

Back up straight and feet planted firmly on the ground, Henry furiously writes down every bit of information provided by his English teacher, Ms Mills.

Her elegance, her poise... That fire in her eyes and the way she demands your attention... How could a teenage boy NOT find her attractive? This is what has Henry acing this subject and this subject alone. It's the only one he can find any remote interest in.

He looks up as his teacher suddenly stops talking. Her arms are crossed over her chest and her eyebrow is raised at another boy in the class who's making it his mission to get a girl's attention. However, he only succeeds in getting Ms Mills' attention. And not for any good reason.

The class is eerily silent. The tension in the room increasing each second this distracted boy continues to tap on the girl's chair, snap his fingers, and whisper-yelling the occasional, "Psst! Oi!"

It wasn't until his friend leaned across his desk and whacked the boy across his head and engaged in a short argument before he looked up to see Ms Mills glaring daggers at the disruptive teen.

The room was so silent that the teacher and every student heard his gulp.

"Mr Piper, whilst I don't condone violence in my class, I will look past it this one time as your friend, Mr Buckwheat, thought it would be a wonderful idea to not only disrupt my class, but rather have me bear witness to his sad excuse of flirting."

Some students stayed silent whilst others were heard giggling in the back of the room.

Face beet red, the boy, known by Ms Mills as Mr Buckwheat, tried to glare back at her menacingly. It was a very poor attempt.

"You wouldn't know what flirting was if it hit you in the face!" he shouted. A mix between gasps and quick inhalations between the students were heard. Mr Buckwheat thought it was due to his bravery. He was wrong.

Henry was the only one in the room who was getting mad. At least, the only one who couldn't help but show it. Regina looked as put together as usual, not a single twitch to show whether or not she even heard what was said.

Before Ms Mills could respond, however, Mr Buckwheat shot up out of his chair, the screeching of the chair's legs echoing down the hall. "And you know what else, Ms Mills?" he called out. His energy boosting from what he thinks is his moment to become one of the popular kids. "No one would even want to flirt with you because you're just a stuck up bit-"

His last word was cut off as Henry tackled the boy to the ground, the air leaving the teen's lungs as he crashed onto the linoleum floor with Henry on top of him.

Students jumped out of their seats to watch what was happening. Ms Mills rushed over immediately to pull Henry off him, only to get stuck trying to push through the teenagers hovering around and encouraging them to fight.

A loud crack was heard through the yelling and cheering. Ms Mills managed to get to Henry and grabbed him by the shoulders right as he was about to throw another punch at the disruptive student.

"Henry!" Ms Mills shouts. Henry is distracted enough to walk with his teacher towards the front of the room. Not even registering the fact that his teacher called him by his first name. The other boy is being held back from his friend that smacked him earlier.

"What the fuck, dick!?" He screams out at Henry. "Did I get you all upset for calling your little girlfriend a bitch?"

Ms Mills holds onto Henry tighter as he was becoming difficult to hold back again, clearly upset with the other boy who's only angering Henry more by smirking at him.

"Listen to me, Henry," Ms Mills says. Her voice soothing to the boy's ears. The feel of her hands rubbing small, comforting circles on his shoulders making it difficult for him to focus on the other teen. "Focus on me. I'm okay. I just need you to take a moment to relax for me. Can you do that?"

With a deep breath, he nods his head. "Yeah, okay."

The classroom door gets thrown open as the principal, Mr Gold, storms in with his cane and two other male teachers by his side. After taking a quick look around, he orders Mr Buckwheat and Henry to his office immediately.

Sighing in relief and concern, Ms Mills lets go of Henry and sends him on his way. The two boys were being escorted by the two men, following behind the seething principal.

Ms Mills takes a deep breath of her own before addressing the class and getting back to the session.

It's quiet. Too quiet. An anxious kind of quiet where the only sounds are the ticking of the clock and the buttons on a keyboard being pushed rapidly by one of the administration staff.

Henry almost jumped out of his chair when he heard the phone ring.

Sighing, he tries to relax in the chair. The chat with the principal didn't go too well as he is now facing possible expulsion for punching another student.

Mr Buckwheat, or Chad, as the students and other teachers refer to him as, is sitting on the other side of the office waiting for his dad to pick him up. His knee was bouncing up and down and he sneered at Henry when they made eye contact. He was given a two-day suspension for his behaviour towards Ms Mills.

His dad walked in a moment later, signing Chad out of school and shoving him out the door roughly and yelling at him for making him leave work early and how bad it makes him look.

Chad just growls and shrugs his dad's hand off him when the man's hand was about to reach his shoulder again to push him towards the car.

Henry gets distracted as he hears his mum rushing in from the other entry door. He groans as he sees her give him the, "Oh you are SO in trouble, young man!" look.

As she's about to state her name and why she is there, Mr Gold's voice pipes up.

"Ah, Emma. Please, follow me," his eyes glance towards Henry before returning to the blonde.

Henry's mother, Emma, quickly turns around to see Mr Gold holding his office door open for her.

"You can stay there, Henry. We won't be long," he addresses Henry for the first time in forty-five minutes.

Henry leans his head back against the wall and closes his eyes, wishing the day was over already.

Inside Mr Gold's office, he gestures to a seat for the blonde to sit down in.

Quickly plopping down ungracefully, she takes a deep breath, "Look, I understand he's been in a fight but I really think expulsion is a bit unnecessary."

"Emma-"

"I mean teenage boys get into fights all the time! I really don't see what the big deal is here."

"Em-"

"So I think because this is also his first fight, we can put it past us and he can come back tomorrow," she finishes with a weak yet hopeful smile.

"No."

Her smile falters, "No?"

Sighing, he explains, "Emma, he broke another boy's nose. That can't go unpunished."

"But-"

"I know that Henry is a good kid, but he still started a fight and injured another student." Emma sighs and slumps back in her chair at his words. "I know times are difficult for the both of you right now financially-"

"Stop." Emma cuts him off. She hates when people bring up where she's failing in life and especially that look of pity she so often gets. "Whilst I really appreciate you putting in a good word for Henry to get him a partial scholarship for this year, I really would prefer to not discuss anything financial unnecessarily."

There was a moment of silence as Mr Gold studied her. "My apologies. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

Emma simply nods her head awkwardly in response. Before Mr Gold can bring up Henry's expulsion again, there's a knock on his door.

"Come in," he calls out.

Emma turns around to the door opening, expecting to see her son there to ask if they can leave when her eyes meet a beautiful deep brown. All the air from her lungs left her as she sat staring dumbly at this gorgeous woman.

The brunette's eyebrow rose slightly as she took in the blonde before addressing the principal.

"I apologise for interrupting your discussion with Miss Swan. However, I am hoping I could persuade you into allowing Henry to stay at this school."

Mr Gold sighs and drops his pen on the desk in exasperation. He gestures to her to allow herself in.

Once the door clicked shut, Mr Gold explains again why Henry must be expelled.

The brunette sat in the chair next to the blonde who has yet to pick her jaw up from the ground. She can't help but feel a little uncomfortable yet highly elated at the attention.

"Whilst I would agree with the disciplinary action in other circumstances, I know Henry and I saw what happened. He's a very sweet kid. A marvellous student. He was merely trying to look out for me. I understand that there were better ways he could have gone about it, but I believe it's important to remember that teenage boys require a bit of help to manage their impulses due to their rampant hormones. It's not Henry's fault he's a hormonal young boy, nor is it his fault that he doesn't have male role models he can look up to, to help guide him during these years. Is it, Mr Gold?"

"Not at all, Ms Mills. However, the same could be said for-"

"This actually reminds me of something I happened to stumble across just last week..." Ms Mills purposefully trails off. Emma looks between the brunette and the principal, witnessing the daggers their eyes are throwing at each other.

Emma doesn't know why exactly, but she thinks this drop dead gorgeous woman might be the answer to all her prayers. She silently thanks whoever might be listening for Henry losing his cool in front of this teacher. One more look at the principal and Emma is beginning to feel confident that Henry won't be expelled after all.

"Henry gets a one week suspension."

Ms Mills smirks in victory and is relieved at this outcome. She really didn't want to resort to using her blackmail material for this kind of reason, as she knows how shady Mr Gold can be, but Henry is worth it.

Emma suddenly jumps up off her chair. "Thank you!" Neither of the other two know who she is referring to but it didn't matter. Henry wasn't expelled, Emma could continue working the next few days, and the air slowly started making its way back into the blonde's lungs.

She quickly rushed out the door after making split-second eye contact with the brunette and tells Henry the good news.

He beamed at her. He would get to stay at this school where he got to see Ms Mills a few days a week.

"How did you do that? I thought I was getting expelled!" he exclaimed.

Before his mother could respond, the click-clacking of heels resounded off the floor as his teacher made her way out Mr Gold's office behind Emma.

"I expect perfect behaviour from now on, Mr Swan." The brunette smirks at him.

He blushes in response before mumbling, "You got it, Ms Mills."

Despite Henry no longer facing expulsion, he was still grounded at home. Chores, chores, and more chores. Housework he didn't even know existed became a new daily task.

If he wasn't working on cleaning the house from floor to ceiling, he was completing all his homework and finishing essays and assessments that weren't even due for another few weeks.

Emma was able to work these days he was suspended for. Knowing that Henry can look after himself. Otherwise, she would've had to go a week or more without pay whilst she sorted out his next enrolment into another school that would be at least thirty minutes away.

Whilst most teenagers may enjoy a week off school, Henry couldn't be more opposite. He enjoyed going to school simply in the hopes of spending time with his English teacher.

He was very fortunate to have her. She was always very friendly towards him as opposed to the other students. As though she had a soft spot for him. It made his crush on her deepen. It felt good to feel cared for by someone other than his mother. Ms Mills made him feel special.

Sometimes she even allowed him to eat lunch with her in her classroom when he didn't feel up to spending time with his friends. His teacher never knew the reason for it, never pushed him to talk about anything, but the few times they've had lunch together, she managed to learn a lot about him.

By the time his suspension was finally over, he was able to return to school. Emma had never seen him look so excited to go anywhere before. She eyed him curiously but didn't ask any questions. Henry couldn't keep still. English was the first class of the day.