School Will Never Be the Same

My parents were out. I was surrounded by all the clothes I own, standing in my dressing gown, hair wrapped in a towel. Friday night had arrived and I had no clue where to begin. How should I do my hair? What do I wear? Should I go more natural with make up? Or go over the top? I know he most likely wouldn’t care, but I cared. I wanted to be able to look back on this date and have memories of me looking stunning, not half decent. It seemed since I had begun to care about guys I had grown slightly shallow.

An hour later I had managed to pull myself together and get ready. I went minimalistic, he told me not too fancy. I had tried countless times this week to get him to cave and tell me where we going, but he was more stubborn than I, so it was typical that I failed miserably.

I settled on a nice black pleated skirt, a black tank top with a red plaid shirt over the top and converse. I hoped he would like it.

I was ready far too early though. I had started too early, and left myself with nothing to do while I waited for six to roll around. I was so desperate for something to occupy my time I started cleaning my room. I had put all my clothes away or in the wash and cleared the floor by the time he knocked. It didn’t stop me from looking at the clock every thirty seconds.

I walked down the stairs, although I wanted to run. That way I didn’t seem too desperate. I gave myself one quick check in the mirror before I opened the door. At that moment I realised he would never be just a teacher to me anymore. He wore skinny jeans, converse, a shirt and loose tie. I smiled and let him in while I got a jacket.

“Will you tell me what this first date is yet?” I asked. Again.

“Nope,” he smiled, he stood in the middle of my living room, hands in his pockets, at ease. He was more relaxed around me now, couldn’t say the same for myself but most of the awkwardness of seeing Gerard outside of school had gone. I can only imagine what it will be like when we got back after the Christmas break.

“Then when are you going to tell me,” I pressed walking back into the room with my jacket on.

“When we get there, now come on or we’re going to be late.” He held out his hand for me, I took his and he led me from my house to his car. I shook my head at his wanting to keep this all a secret. I get a bit anxious with surprises. I'm always worried if I upset someone if I don’t like it, I'm not a good actress. “You seem nervous, Nat, what’s wrong?” Gerard asked placing his hand on top of my knee. I smiled to myself, it was nice to have him touch me like that. With no hesitation, no second thought, acting as though this wasn’t against school rules.

“I'm not good with surprises, I get a bit anxious.”

“It’s nothing to worry about, I promise you’ll love it, I’ve done my homework.” He smiled at his little joke.

“So have I and I have to say I hate my art teacher for all the homework he set us. Doesn’t he realise it’s Christmas.” I said, I wanted to touch his hand which laid on my knee. I wanted to feel his hand over mine, soothing my nerves, I'm not the sort of girl to make the first move.

“Well maybe he wants his class to pass their A levels with the best grades possible,” he said with a smiled. His hand which was on my knee moved to take my hand and hold them in his lap. I shifted in my seat so I didn’t have to stretch too much. “Beside’s I am going to guess that teacher is going to be a bit nicer to you over the next few months.” He squeezed my hand a little.

“Well I am seeing that teacher now so I am guessing the A for my coursework is pretty much sorted,” I couldn’t help but giggle at his expression.

He pulled into his drive. I was confused, I thought we were going on a date. I guess this is where all the fun begins.

“I know you’re probably expecting a restaurant of movie, but since we do have to keep this secret I thought this would be the best place and we’re not going to have any interruptions.” He explained walking me to his door.

“That’s fine by me,” I smiled. He pulled me into his house. Not even stopping at his front room, instead he took me straight into his dinning room. It was dark in there, apart from the dim light of the lamps and candles scattered throughout the room. His table was laid as if he expected royalty tonight. He pulled out my chair for me and went straight into his kitchen, bringing out two plates.

By the end of the first course I had leant at least one new thing about Gerard. He’s a damned good chef.

“Why did you go into teaching if you can cook like this?” I asked as he bought out the main course. I have to say he has been paying attention, none of the foods I dislike have made an appearance.

“I don’t mind cooking and I never planned on going into teaching when I went to university it just so happens I thought a couple of years would look good on my CV. But I really enjoy it, I don’t cook for pleasure.” He explained as we ate. I nodded chewing on a mouth full of food.

Dinner was amazing, the food, the conversation, the company… But it didn’t end there. I was expecting this to be it, he would drive me home and I would have been happy with that, well I would’ve wanted to spend more time with him, but it had been great so far. He helped me from my seat and lead me to a door behind him.

“Like I said, I wanted to take you out to the cliché dinner movie date. So we’ve done the dinner part. Now the movie part. He switched on a light and a set of stairs appeared. We walked down and into his basement. I was shocked he had a basement, no many places around this part of the country do. I got over that and took in the projector which had been set up on a small cinema sized screen. Opposite that was hundreds of pillows, a bowl of popcorn and a blanket to sit on. “What would you like to watch?” He whispered into my ear, pulling me over to his DVD collection. He had a bit of everything. Horror, chick flick, thriller, cartoon, sci-fi… I looked for a movie I knew well. That way I wouldn’t have to pay too much attention.

“Saw,” I said pulling it from it’s spot on the shelf.

“Should’ve known,” he smiled. I sat on the blanket and made myself comfortable while he set up the movie.