Chapter 2: Uncertainty

“Ok class” Amanda said as she passed by the front row of desks handing stacks of papers to the seated students, “What I am passing back to everyone is the revised syllabus for this class. Please note the changes from the packet you should have received at registration, notably the Personal Progress Checks will be done online this year rather than on paper. Also, I know that you were told that you would be required to have the ‘Sullivan/Miranda. Calc. 2nd edition’, but I checked with the library this morning and there are quite a few extra 1st edition books still available. If you have one of the 1st editions, I will point out the differences when it is necessary and pertinent”

As everyone shuffled through their papers, some took notes and others just sat there with their pencils in hand - Remmy was lost in the realization that this woman is the same one that he was playing ‘tongue-twister’ with not even a week before while he was with his group of friends at the local water park. He heard her voice now, but he wasn’t paying attention as he critically looked his new teacher up and down.

Wearing a loose, dark blue dress that came down to just above her knees, her hair not up in a ponytail poking through a hat, but rather down past her shoulders with a slight curl to it, she had a completely different air about her. At the park she seemed to get along and fit in with his group rather quickly, seeming to be perhaps a young college student or someone maybe in her senior year of High School. Now though, he had no trouble imagining that she was in her mid 20’s simply from her demeanor and “no nonsense” personality.

“Mmm, if I didn’t want to fuck her before, I damn sure do now“ Remmy thought to himself

“Mr. Jackson, is it?” Amanda said

Having heard his name, Remmy came back from his thoughts and snapped back to the present.

“Uh, yeah?” Remmy said, “sorry, um, what did you say? Miss...”

“Just ‘Amanda’ will be fine.” she said, answering Remmy’s question but adressing the class at large. “The district insists that we introduce ourselves formally, but I like to be a bit more casual with my AP students. You are doing college level work after all, it seems only right that you be treated like an adult”. As a murmur of approval went throughout the students, she began to walk back to the front of the class

“Now, as I was saying Mr. Jackson, there are people behind you waiting to get the papers sitting on your desk”

With that, Remmy realized he hadn’t passed back the papers that had been passed back to him, he quickly took a set and then handed the rest over his shoulder.

A quick motion at the corner of his eye caught Remmy’s attention, he looked over and saw Jennifer making hand motions and mouthing something at him, it appeared that Jen had noticed the connection to last week as well. Not entirely surprising, given the fact that the girls of the group had taken up most of Amanda’s conversation once she joined the group in line for the water slides. Remmy replied back with a quick nod in the affirmative. He wasn’t sure what question he had just agreed with, but the way Jen sat back and smiled told him she was just looking for confirmation that it was indeed the same “Amanda”. It didn’t appear from her look that she suspected anything further - “But then ... i’ve never been good at reading womens faces“ Remmy thought to himself. He would have to get the gossip from Jason at last bell. Locker room talk in a high school boy’s gym was just as you would expect - all about girls and who did what with who, and only about 90% of it was lies in Remmy’s experience.

The class continued as any normal first day of school might, and though Remmy never stopped paying attention for any subtle ques that Amanda might make, nothing she did even hinted at knowing Remmy outside of the classroom.

As with any attractive teacher, the boys of the class couldn’t stop trying to get her in a conversation, and to Remmy’s dismay, she seemed to be more than willing to be the center of attention for her male students. As the bell rang signaling the end of the period, a few of them went to the front to talk to Amanda with the pretext of needing clarification on one thing or another that had been discussed in class. With a final glance at Amanda and having not seen any sign of recognition or acknowledgement from her during the last hour, Remmy picked up his bag and walked sullenly out into the hallway.

deep breath “Right” He said to himself, “I need to get the fuck out of here, this is some bullshit”.

He was hurt, before when they had talked, it seemed that even though she were a few years older than he, she might be wanting to have some kind of ... relationship with him. Now as he considered, he thought maybe he was just a convenient distraction for her at the water park, and now that she knew he was one of her students she was going to give him the cold shoulder and pretend nothing untoward happened between them.

“Well that’s just fine with me“ Remmy mumbled to himself as he walked towards the gym for the final period “She can fuck every one of those losers for all I care, damn“

Though Remmy had enough credits already as a Junior that he was allowed to skip the final period, he still had to show up for practice after school once the team started up again next week, so he had determined that he would use the final period by splitting his time every other day between working out in the gym, and getting some extra work in the computer lab. He had his sights set on a scholarship to MIT and was currently working on a project thesis to submit with his application this year.

The gym was a 3 minute walk from the Mathematics building, but he had to backtrack to get to his locker by the cafeteria to drop off his books and grab his gym bag.

“PUSH YOU LITTLE PUSSY, C’MON!” Jason yelled as he spotted for Remmy under the bench press.

grunt “ ... fuck ... yOU” Remmy gasped as he pushed the bar back above the pegs and Jason helped to slide it onto them, releasing the pressure from Remmy and allowing him to relax.

“Great!” Jason said in a mocking tone, “now double it and you might be able to keep up with my grandma”. Remmy knew that tone and could tell that Jason was just giving him shit. A set of reps at 150 lbs was a good day for anyone on the team, and Remmy had just done 3 full sets.

As he was wiping the sweat off his face, the coach spoke up from just behind him “Nicely done Rem, but don’t push too hard too fast, the last thing we need is for any of you to be pulling muscles or otherwise hurting yourselves. What have you been maxing during the summer?”

“225” Remmy replied, “but it was right at the beginning of summer”

The coach nodded understanding. He had a habit of quickly building the team up from the beginning of the school year so that by the end of the year, they were able to safely do any of the workouts in the gym, and were proficient at it. This required time and dedication, and most of the slackers tended to stop playing on the school team by the Junior year because of how difficult the training was.

“Alright well, keep up the solid work” The Coach replied, “I expect you to put Jason through his paces next” he continued, eyeing the dirty-blonde boy standing beside the bench press. “And wipe that stupid grin off your face Mac” he said, directing this latest comment to Jason (Mac) McCullum, “if I have to tell you to keep a civil tongue in your head one more time, I’m going to loan you to the marching band so you can polish their horns for a few weeks, clear?”

Jason had forgotten, but quickly realized what he had been yelling at Remmy just a moment before. Nodding in the affirmative, he tried, and was ... mostly successful at keeping the grin off his face from the wording choice that the coach had just used.

As the coach walked away to help one of the freshmen, Jason mumbled to Remmy, “boy I tell you what, there’s a couple freshmen on the marching band this year that I’d let polish my horn, ya know?” he finished with a nudge to Remmy.

“Yeah, yeah, you smooth talker, you.” Remmy replied, “let’s go, your turn now” he stood up and gestured to the bench as he wiped the bar off and began adjusting the weights for Jason. “You talk to Clarissa yet today?”

With a gleam in his eye, Jason positioned himself under the bar and took hold, getting ready for the first set “Yeah I saw her at first bell, we’re both in Mr. Brennan’s Comp-Sci class, why?” Jason pushed the bar up and positioned it above his chest and began the steady rhythm of breathing that was necessary. Clarissa Galliger was Jason’s girlfriend of 6 months, and barely a day went by that he didn’t see or talk to her.

“well,” Remmy said “you remember Amanda from the water park last week?”

“Sure”, Jason puffed out as he pushed the bar up

“Turns out, she’s my AP Calc teacher” Remmy said, and had to clutch the bar from his standing position at the head of the bench to prevent it from dropping onto Jason’s chest as Jason completely lost focus and balance.

“WHAT NOW?!” Jason yelled, as other boys nearby slowed what they were doing and took notice of his outburst

Before the words were even out of Jason’s mouth, Remmy was trying to quiet him. “SHHHH you fucktard, Jesus!“

As the bar slammed home on the studs above the bench, Jason sat up and spun around to look at Remmy. In a quieter, but no less insistent tone, Jason said “You mean the hottie in the ball cap ‘Amanda’? The fun-sized sex kitten ‘Amanda’? The one with the fuckin’ body that was just... ‘Amanda’?!” As he said all of this, he motioned as if he were putting on a baseball cap, then waved his hands in an hourglass shape as if to emphasize his words.

“YES, Jesus, yes, would you calm your tits for fuck sake?” Remmy said in an almost exasperated tone as he glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention from the outburst.

Jason stretched his legs out and leaned back with a low whistle, “Wooaaaahh” he said as he wrapped his mind around the fact

“You know” Remmy said as he rolled his eyes, “Shakespeare could learn a thing or two from you. Such eloquence. Such...”

“Fuckoff” Jason interrupted him with a half grin, “Seriously though, what was that like? Having your ‘girlfriend’ as your teacher haha” referencing the way that Remmy had saved Amanda and gotten her in line for the water slide

Jason was only poking fun, but the words hit Remmy surprisingly hard. Amanda and he had kissed, she had even put her hand down the front of his shorts and gave his ‘nightstick’ a few tugs when they were alone, then later she had sent him a very sexy picture and asked for one from him in return. He had felt a connection deeper than just the immediate physical attraction though, when they were just standing in line for the slides and talking, she fit in with the group as if she had known them all for years! The way she was able to talk to him face to face without a hint of a blush or the coy standoffishness that a new “couple” normally has, Remmy had never experienced that before and he thought ... hoped really ... that it could mean something more. Today’s experience in class with the (apparent) cold-shoulder from her left him feeling sick though.

“It was weird...” Remmy replied truthfully after a moment “Jen is in the same class and she recognized her too, but neither of us said anything” he continued, “and neither did She“ making it clear he was talking about Amanda. “I mean, COOL, for sure! She was pretty chill at the park and fun to hang out with, but I was kinda hoping that if she came around again, we would be able to hang out, ya know? But she’s a teacher and that’s like ... I don’t know, she just seemed to ‘click’ with the group...” as that last thought trailed off, Jason noticed that Remmy had a look like he was staring past everything and off into the distance

“Ha!” Jason let out with a grin as he lay back down on the bench to get ready to finish that first set, “yeah I bet you want to ‘click’ with her alright”

Remmy grinned down at Jason but did not deny the statement. As he continued to spot for Jason, he let his mind wander to the enigma that was Amanda, trying to figure out what - if anything - he would do next. One thing was certain though, first thing when he got home, he was going to rub one out with that picture she had sent him.

As he pulled the condom off and concealed it in a Cheeto bag in his bedrooms trash can, Remmy grumbled to himself. A half hour of fucking the Pringles can that he had transformed into a masturbation toy and he hadn’t been able to cum. He had Amanda’s mostly-naked picture up on his computer monitor, he had even gotten out the bikini bottoms she had put in his bag and put the center piece of fabric (that had covered her vagina) in his mouth so he could imagine what she tasted like and to smell the soft scent of her on them, but to no avail. Every time he was about to climax, he was reminded of how she had basically ignored him during class that day, and hardly responded to any of his texts in the days prior. Then his emotions took over, making his penis go flaccid again.

He pushed himself out of bed and, with a practiced hand, pulled the foam from the inside of the Pringles can, throwing it away and replacing it with new material so that it would be ready for next time. He then put it back on the shelf behind his collectors edition Master Chief helmet he had gotten as a Christmas gift from his parents a few years back. Wearing only his boxers, he sat down in front of his computer and closed Amanda’s picture.