Lessons in Love by Clarissa Carlyle Read Free Book Online Page A

she was saying that all the girls in their class totally have a crush on him too.”
     
    “We don’t have a crush on him,” Alex corrected her friend.
     
    “Speak for yourself!” Claire laughed. “I’m totally crushing on Mr. Simmons. He’s older, well dressed, handsome, more than likely has his own car.” She was ticking these qualities off on her fingers like a checklist.
     
    “Is our teacher.” Alex did a finger check of her own.
     
    “The teacher-student thing is hot,” Claire defended.
     
    “And illegal.”
     
    “No, not illegal. Frowned upon. We’re eighteen and therefore, in this state, officially women.”
     
    “He’s in a position of power; to embark on a relationship with a student would be seen as perverting that,” Alex explained.
     
    “So you think he’s a pervert?” Claire asked, confused.
     
    “Uh, never mind.” Alex waved her hand dismissively. “Let’s just get to class.”
     
    ****
     
    Alex sat down at the back of the classroom at a desk adjacent to Claire. Mr. Simmons had his back to her, busy with some papers on his desk, so she’d been unable to read him as she entered the room. She just prayed that he wouldn’t say anything to her about her outburst.
     
    “Right,” Mr. Simmons began when everyone had entered the room, beating the bell, which rang just as he commenced speaking.
     
    “Glad to see everyone in their seats on time.” He nodded to his students in approval. “I bet you’re all excited that it’s Friday and have big plans for the weekend.”
     
    A few students nodded and grumbled in agreement. Jeff turned briefly to catch Alex’s eye, which made her assume that whatever plans he had, he hoped they would somehow include her. She’d heard whispers of a victory party, not that she was in any mood to celebrate. All she wanted to do was find somewhere dark and quiet where she could listen to Radiohead and try to silence the panicked voice in her head; since she was fourteen a voice screamed in her head that her dad was dead, that the world was a vile place, and that nothing would ever, ever be the same for her.
     
    “Well, before you can commence your weekend, you’ve got an algebra test.” Mr. Simmons began to distribute test papers among the desks.
     
    Almost everyone groaned in protest.
     
    “Don’t worry. You’re not being graded on this test. It’s just to give me an idea of your abilities and where you’re at,” Mr. Simmons explained.
     
    As he dropped a paper on Alex’s desk, she noticed Claire give a not-so-subtle glance at his rear, which, in all fairness, was held most favorably by his jeans, but Alex still shot her a disapproving glance.
     
    Claire winked in response. As Mr. Simmons gave her a paper, she thanked him, her voice dripping with seductive overtones. Mr. Simmons continued passing around papers, oblivious to Claire’s flirtation.
     
    “You whore,” Alex whispered across to her friend.
     
    “You prude!” Claire retorted.
     
    “Everyone quiet for the test, please!” Mr. Simmons ordered his class. He made a note of the time and then asked them to begin.
     
    ****
     
    What Alex had always liked about mathematics was the order of it all. With math, there was a definitive right answer, so you could be either right or wrong. She found comfort in that. The ambiguity of English literature, where it was all about your interpretation of a text, made her nervous. She didn’t want to think, to delve into her own feelings. She wanted to find sanctuary in something methodical, something with rules and order. She’d always been like that, even before her father died. He used to call her his little number nut.
     
    “You take after your dad, the way you like numbers,” her mother would say as Alex eagerly pored over her math homework.
     
    Sadly, it turned out that her father’s enthusiasm for numbers didn’t match his skill with them, which was why the family was now in debt.
     
    At her private school, Alex had