A Proscriptive Relationship (14 page)

He shook his head and took the key out of his pocket, handing it to me. I opened the door and sauntered in, relieved to be able to actually get inside now. Lance took the key back out of my hand and put it in his pocket.

“
You’re lucky you thought of giving me an extra key,” he told me, smirking. “Otherwise you’d be locked out.”

I laughed. “I’m glad too. I always seem to lose my keys.”

“
Yeah. Why don’t you—hey!”

“
Hey?”

“
You’re trying to change the subject again!”

I sighed in defeat. “Okay. I stayed at Mr. Heywood’s place last night because I was locked out of my house and he didn’t want me to have to sleep outside by myself. Nothing else.” I narrowed my eyes at him slightly. “We don’t have some secret affair going on, and if you think that, Casey’s been getting into your head too often.”

Lance blushed. “I didn’t think that . . .”

I chuckled and nudged Lance in the side with my elbow. “Come on, Lance! Me dating a teacher? That’s gross!”

“
Yeah,” Lance responded slowly, looking more and more relieved. “You’re right. I couldn’t ever see you breaking the law by dating a teacher. And it’d just be wrong.”

I frowned slightly. It was okay when I said it, but I didn’t like when he said that it was wrong. It wasn’t like Mr. Heywood was that much older than me. It’d be perfectly fine once I was eighteen—I abruptly shook my head. I could not be having those thoughts.

“
Did you eat already?” Lance asked, leading me to the kitchen. “I can make you something if you want.”

“
Nah, Mr. Heywood already made me breakfast.”
A huge, delicious, seemingly professional breakfast.
 

Lance pursed his lips at me, frowning. I mimicked his expression. Why did he always frown whenever I mentioned Mr. Heywood? He didn’t have any reaction when Casey or Danielle mentioned him, so why me? Was it because I was his best friend? Or was it because he thought I had fallen in love with Mr. Heywood at first sight? But even so, why would he be worried about that? I ran a hand through my hair. Why were men so difficult to understand?

“
Do you like anyone?” Lance asked suddenly.

I stared at him curiously. “We’ve been over this already, Lance. I don’t like anyone.”

“
Not even the slightest bit?”

I opened my mouth to say no, but closed it after thinking a moment. I couldn’t deny that I had a little crush on Mr. Heywood. A little, tiny, itty-bitty crush that any girl would have if they saw him. But I couldn’t tell Lance that. However, I didn’t want to lie to him either. Chewing on my bottom lip, I set my eyes downcast.

“
Holly?”

“
Who do
you
like?” I questioned, trying to avoid answering him.

Lance rolled his eyes. “I’m not telling you.”

“
Then I won’t tell you who I like,” I responded.

Lance narrowed his eyes. “That’s not fair.”

“
Yeah, it is,” I responded. “You don’t tell me, I don’t tell you. That’s fair.”

“
But you just said you didn’t like anyone!”

“
Maybe I lied.”

“
Never mind, let’s just drop it,” he responded with a sigh.

I stared at him, extremely confused. Why did he even bring it up in the first place? Lance was so bewildering sometimes!

“
Do you want to go to dinner tomorrow night?”

“Huh?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “You know, dinner. What you usually eat at night,” he explained sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes at him. “I’ll go. Have you asked Casey yet?”

“Just you and me,” he pressed. “I want to talk to you about something.”

I shrugged. “Okay.”

Lance’s face lit up. “Really?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

He stared at me for a split second with a weird expression before shrugging. “I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to.”

“Well maybe I’m sick of you,” I joked.

He looked at me with a fake horrified expression. “No!”

I laughed and nudged him in the shoulder. “You know I can’t get sick of you, Lance. You’re one my best friends and will always be one of my best friends.”

“
What if I . . .” Lance cut himself off and cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable.

“
What if you what?”

“
Never mind,” Lance said quickly, forcing out a quick laugh. “I’m going to go home, so see you later, Holly.”

“
You’re leaving already?” I asked in surprise. Usually he stayed for hours on end.

He nodded. “I only came over to make sure you got home. No other reason. So I’ll talk to you later.”

“
You’re too nice,” I laughed, giving him a bear hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow in school then.”

Lance pushed me away from him. I looked at him in surprise. His expression almost mimicked mine. “Um, sorry,” he apologized, his brow furrowing.

“
It’s alright . . .”

He grinned at me for a second before waving and heading out of the kitchen. I frowned after him, crossing my arms. Whatever Lance wanted to talk about, I had the feeling it wasn’t going to be good.

LESSON TEN

Loud, excited talking met my ears as soon as I opened the locker room door. I frowned, but walked to the changing area to see what all the commotion was about. A few girls near the locker room door giggled, looking eager. Casey was halfway through putting on her shirt when she noticed me.

 
“Holly!” she cried, yanking down her shirt quickly. “Guess who is subbing for Ms. Long in gym class?”

I knew right away by all the excited girls, but decided to play along. “Who?”

“
Mr. Heywood!”

“
Cool,” I responded, setting down my gym bag and starting to take off my shirt.

“
Why aren’t you more excited?” she asked, tossing her clothes in one of the lockers.

“
Why should I be excited?” I responded, fumbling with the button on my pants. “This just means all the girls will be trying to impress him.”

“
Well I think you should be happy.”

“
Why’s that?”

Casey winked. “He gets to see you in your cute little short-shorts.”

Blushing, I looked down at the shorts in my hand. “My shorts aren’t that short!”

“
Still, you never wear shorts except for in gym class.”

“
He’s a teacher, Case, I don’t think he cares what high school girls look like in short-shorts,” I told her, rolling my eyes. “When will you get it out of your head that Chris and I have a thing for each other?”

“
Chris?” she repeated, raising an eyebrow.

“
I meant Mr. Heywood,” I corrected myself quickly.

Casey smirked. “Sure you did. Lance told me about how you and Mr. Heywood were in the same car together yesterday morning.”

I scowled and silently cursed Lance. But I had never told him not to tell, so it wasn’t entirely his fault. “Whatever, let’s just go up. Everyone has already finished changing and I bet the bell—”

Before I could finish my sentence, the bell went off.  Casey made a face and together we ran for the stairs that led up to the gym. I pushed the door open and, sure enough, there was Mr. Heywood with a gaggle of girls surrounding him.

“
I want to go talk to him,” Casey complained as I dragged her to where Lance and Willis were.

“
Hey babe,” Willis greeted Casey, giving her a one-armed hug.

“
Hi,” she responded with a sigh.

Lance laughed, patting Willis on the back. “Looks like she was struck by the Heywood love bug too.”

Casey laughed while Willis shot Lance a dirty look. “I’m not in love with the man, Lance, that’d be creepy,” Casey told him, rolling her eyes. “He’s just attractive for a man of his age.”

“
Can we not talk about this?” Willis asked in an irritated tone.

“
You’re still my favorite, Willis,” Casey told him, enveloping her hand in his.

I frowned to myself and looked at the ground. Casey thought it was creepy to be in love with Mr. Heywood? Did that mean I was creepy? I quickly slapped myself, earning curious looks from the trio in front of me. I blushed and shrugged at them.

“
A mosquito,” I lied.

“
Oh, Mr. Heywood! Check out your muscles!”

My eyes shot over to where Mr. Heywood was. One girl was feeling the muscles on his arm as he flexed for her. I narrowed my eyes slightly, feeling irritated. I just wanted to take that girl’s arm and rip it off. I slapped myself again; however, this time mentally. Now what was I doing? Getting jealous? There wasn’t anything to be jealous of, and yet I was still getting jealous! I ran a hand over my face and through my hair, sighing.

I did
not
like these feelings.

“
Okay class, gather ’round!”

I looked back at Mr. Heywood, who was waving his arms to catch everyone’s attention. His eyes locked onto mine and I swear I saw him quickly check me out. Either that or I was just getting ahead of myself, which was probably more likely. Lance pushed me from behind and I stumbled towards our teacher. When everyone was gathered, he cleared his throat.

“
Okay guys, we have two choices today. We can either play handball or badminton.”

Everyone started to shout what to play all at once. I heard about an even amount of handball and badminton. I personally didn’t want to play badminton, since I sucked. Usually I could play every sport fairly well. Badminton was the only exception; with a birdie, I had no hand-eye coordination whatsoever.

Mr. Heywood rolled his eyes. “You can’t all shout at once. Raise your hand for handball.”

Ten people raised their hands.

 
“Badminton?”

Ten people raised their hands.

A few of the girls twittered with laughter. I rolled my eyes. Because having an even amount of people who wanted to play each sport was
so
funny. I pinched myself on the arm. Great. Now I was thinking nasty thoughts about girls that didn’t even do anything to me. Jealousy really was an ugly emotion.

“
Well, Ms. Evers, what do you want to play?”

I stared at Mr. Heywood. He was going to make me choose? I flushed slightly as all the attention was drawn on me. “Uh, well . . . I don’t really care. But I’m kind of bad at badminton.”

“
Well, then, badminton it is!”

There was a cheering from the people who wanted badminton and a booing from the people who didn’t. I stared at Mr. Heywood with a dumbfounded look. He smirked. “I’ll go get the equipment. Come help me, Ms. Evers,” he ordered, gesturing with his finger.

Before I could respond someone pushed in front of me. “I’ll help you,” a girl named Lauren offered, looking eager.

“
I will too!” another girl chimed in.

I rolled my eyes, turning around. “Looks like you don’t need my help.”

“
Ms. Evers—”

“
I’ll help,” Lance cut in, an annoyed look on his face. “Girls shouldn’t be going down to the storage room anyways.”

“
Sure,” Mr. Heywood responded, looking relieved for some reason. “Everyone else, set up the nets.”

He and Lance exited the gym to go to the storage room while a bunch of guys took off towards the nets. A few minutes later Mr. Heywood and Lance returned and the nets were set up. Everyone grabbed a racket. I held mine glumly and joined Lance, Casey, and Willis at one net.

“
Casey and me against you and Lance,” Willis announced, looking at me. “So stay on that side.”

“
Sure,” I responded.

“
What? Why am I stuck with her?” Lance complained, a grin on his face.

I hit him lightly with my racket. “Shut up.”

He laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m good so I’ll make up for your lack of ability. You serve first.”

I rolled my eyes, but tossed the shuttlecock in the air and swung at it violently. To nobody’s surprise, I missed. The shuttle fell to the ground and I sighed, bending down to pick it up. Once more I tossed it up in the air, and once again it dropped to the ground.

“
You can do it, Holly!” Casey cheered from the other side.

I gave her a flat look and tried once more. Yet again, my racket didn’t make contact. I scowled, now frustrated. I threw it up and swung my racket as hard as I could, putting every ounce of effort I could into the swing. Not only did it miss the birdie, but my racket also went flying out of my hand. I gasped, twisting around to see it nearly hit my friend James at the next net over. He turned quickly, his face in shock. I grinned sheepishly. When he saw it was me, he shook his head, but smiled nonetheless.

“
Be right back,” I told Lance, and jogged over to pick up my racket.

“
You almost knocked me out!” James complained, handing the racket to me.

“
I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I don’t know how to hit the shuttle.”

“
I’ll show you.”

I jumped and turned around to see Mr. Heywood, a grin on his face. I guessed he had witnessed my attempt at James’s murder. He followed me back to the court. Casey’s face brightened immediately. I felt very self-conscious as Mr. Heywood took my hand and repositioned the racket.

“
Swing your arm like this,” he instructed, slowly bringing my arm up. “Don’t make quick short strikes, make long ones.”

“
That doesn’t exactly help me hit the shuttle,” I muttered, copying the movement of my arm again.

“
Just keep your eye on the shuttle and swing. Don’t worry about hitting or missing.”

I nodded and he stepped away. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lance glaring at him. I ignored it. Tossing the shuttle into the air, I did my best to copy the movement Mr. Heywood had just shown me, keeping my eye on the shuttle.