Chapter 1: A bad day

It was Friday midday, 4 p.m. Alice let out a deep sigh, she had a tough week and she was glad that she was finally off work. As a math teacher she was responsible for teaching the fourteen to sixteen year olds the basics about mathematics at a high school, in a suburb in the United States.

Unfortunately most of her students seemed more interested in having fun and trashing the classroom than actually learning something. There were a couple of exceptions and usually the boys were worse then the girls, however, teaching classes was slowly but surely turning into a living hell for her.

Alice was twenty-six years old and having finished college at the age of twenty-two she only had four years of experience with standing in front of a class. She was great at explaining new subjects and getting the points across, however, maintaining order wasn't one of her strongest points.

She loved teaching to the eager young minds that were willing to learn, but she hated those that kept disrupting her classes time and time again. She actually had to call in the help of the principal several times already. The authoritative middle-aged man had taken pity on the young teacher, but he couldn't come to her rescue every time.

Alice just finished cleaning up the classroom and was looking forward to a long relaxing evening in front of the television. She had bought the last season of Lost on DVD and really wanted to see those. She had already dealt with marking her student's tests earlier that day, so she wouldn't even have to worry about those.

Oh crap ... I still have to drive to the supermarket, I forgot that I'm low on groceries.

Oh shit ... It's raining outside too, Alice thought, not looking too pleased.

Since it was summer she hadn't brought an umbrella with her. Not to mention, the weather report on the radio that morning had only given it a thirty percent chance for rain in the afternoon.

Actually, rain was a severe understatement, it was literally pouring outside and all she had with her was a thin summer jacket. Other than that she wore a white blouse, a bra with matching panties, her business skirt, a pantyhose and two inch high heels. She also had a touch of makeup on her face and carried her long blonde hair in a bun.

It would be impossible to make it to her car without getting soaked. Though her high heels accentuated her sexy calves, running on them was out of the question. She'd likely slip and fall in that case, which would only make her situation even worse.

After letting out a deep sigh of frustration, she buttoned up her summer jacket as well as she could. Holding her brief case above her head and her handbag around her shoulder, she walked as fast as her legs allowed, to her car. Unfortunately her car was parked well over a hundred yards away, giving the wind and rain more than enough time to completely soak her, just as she had predicted.

"Damn it!" Alice cursed loudly, when she finally sat in her car.

She turned the heater up to it's highest setting, in a pitiful attempt to dry herself, but she knew it was probably a futile effort.

Letting out another frustrated sigh she started her car and drove away. At least the route to the supermarket took her about ten minutes, which allowed her clothes to dry a little bit.

When she finally arrived at the supermarket, Alice quickly got out of her car and gathered the essentials that she needed. Outside it was still pouring and poor Alice was starting to shiver slightly, the temperature had dropped significantly compared to the morning and her wet clothes didn't help either.

After paying her bill and putting all her groceries in a cardboard box she walked through the rain, back to her car again. The water was so abundant that the parking lot looked more like a sort of swimming pool than an actual parking lot. With all the water on the ground it was easy to miss the potholes, which were also filled with water.

Alice knew she had avoided several of them already, however, while carrying a big cardboard box in front of her, and limited vision on the ground, it shouldn't come as a surprise when she stepped in the wrong place, with one of her heels. Her right foot got stuck and she immediately lost her balance, toppled over and landing unceremoniously on her ass. While she was at it she also ripped her skirt and spilled her groceries all over the parking lot when the box dropped out of her hands...

Being already fed up with her terrible day at work Alice, broke down in tears. She had fallen in a very painfully way and it felt like she had sprained her right ankle. Additionally, the heel of her shoe had also broken off. She was completely soaked, shivering from the cold and still had to pick up all the groceries that she had spilled. It really felt as if the whole world had come crashing down on her.

"Miss Evans... ? Are you okay?"

Alice looked up in surprise. She had figured nobody would care about her misery and that she just had to pick up the pieces by herself. Her crystal blue eyes looked directly in the emerald green ones of John.

John was one of her better students, never really causing her any trouble, usually paying attention to the lesson and mostly having all his homework done. On top of that he scored good grades too and was always friendly and well behaved to her. For a fifteen year old teenager he was a lot more mature than most of his classmates.

"I saw you fall and I figured I'd check up on you, to see you were okay," John tried to explain himself.

She knew that her makeup was smudged and overall she must have looked like a sorry excuse for a woman, very much unlike the cheerful teacher she had been yesterday, when she last saw him.

Sniffing slightly Alice remarked, "No John ... I'm far from okay..."

He offered her a hand and helped her stand up straight. Alice almost fell over again when she put her weight on her right leg, the one that got stuck in the pothole.

She let out a loud, "Ouch!" and was thankful for John catching her before she fell over again.

"I think you may have sprained your ankle, Miss Evans."

Trying to look brave Alice put on a fake smile and remarked, "I think so too, John..."

Looking around Alice saw that her situation was pretty hopeless. Several of the jars that she had bought a couple of minutes ago, were broken as a result of her fall, and many of the other groceries were strewn around the parking lot. Some, like the toilet paper, were already useless since they had absorbed a lot of water.

"Eh ... John, I really hate to ask this of you, but could you maybe help me out to gather my groceries?"

"Sure Miss Evans, no problem at all. Let me help you to your car first though," John offered.

"Thank you, John," Alice replied grateful.

John quickly gathered the remains of her groceries in the sodden cardboard box and put them in the trunk of her car.

"Will you be fine, Miss Evans?" John asked concerned.

Alice looked uncomfortable, she wasn't actually sure of that herself.

Noticing the look on her face, John said, "It's no problem if you'd rather have that I drive with you to your home and help you out for a bit. That was a nasty fall just there and you might want to visit a doctor. Would you like me to help?"

"Well..." Alice started unsure, "if it's not too much trouble, then yes, I'd love to. I'm just not sure if I'll be able to carry all the groceries by myself, with my ankle hurting this much..."

"Sure, it's no problem. I'll just call my parents and explain the situation to them. My dad can come and pick me up afterward."

"Thanks, I'd really appreciate that."

John got in on the other side of the car and Alice drove away, thankful that she drove in an automatic and not a manual. With the current condition of her foot she doubted that she'd have been able to drive her car else.

John sat next to her, while he speed dialed his mother's cell phone and explained the whole situation to her.

After he hung up his phone he smiled friendly to Alice and said, "My mom says it's okay if I stay at your place for a few hours and help you out. My dad will pick me up by car later tonight."

"Thank you John, that would really help me."

"Sure, no problem Miss Evans."

"Please, call me Alice. When we're not in class I prefer to be on a first name basis with you," Alice said, smiling back to him.

It was the first time he must have seen her smile today and Alice saw how John grinned back at her, it made her own smile turn into a grin.

"So ... Several hours huh? You want to stay over for dinner too then?" Alice asked, more cheerful already.

"Sure Miss Ev ... eh ... Alice," John said, correcting himself, after which he continued, "Sorry Alice, I'm still getting used to it."

"Hehe, that's okay. I usually don't have any contact with my students either, outside our school."

The rest of the trip continued in silence and John raised an eyebrow when they entered his neighborhood. A few minutes later Alice drove up the driveway of her house and parked her car.

"Cool, you live a little more than three miles away from my house, it shouldn't be more than ten to fifteen minutes with my bike."

"Oh? That's funny. Well, I guess it's only natural. Probably a lot of students and teachers live in this neighborhood since it's pretty close to school."

"Hmm ... I guess so yeah. So, how would you like to handle this? I can support you while you walk to your door and if you give me your car keys I can get the groceries out of the trunk after that," John suggested.

"That sounds like a good plan yes, I'm afraid I'll have to limp around for a few days with this ankle. Thank God it's the weekend!" Alice exclaimed, being glad that she didn't have to go to school tomorrow with her leg in this condition.

"Aye, that would have been problematic..." John agreed sympathetically.

He helped his teacher carefully to the door and after she opened it she handed her keys over to John, who got the groceries out of her trunk. Meanwhile Alice limped to the nearest chair in her living room, glad that she could finally relax her legs.

John walked in with the sodden box, while asking, "Where would you like me to put it?"

"Huh? Oh, the kitchen will do," Alice replied, while pointing in the direction of the kitchen.

For a second she had misunderstood the meaning of his words. She was so used to the rude suggestions of some of her male students, that her first thought had been about something very indecent. When she saw the box and the look on his face, however, she realized that he hadn't meant it in a bad way and merely meant the groceries.

I'd be very surprised if John was really one of those boys, several of his classmates wouldn't shy away from rude suggestions, but John is different, Alice thought in consideration.

Alice had an open kitchen, which was directly connected to the living room and the only thing partially separating the two spaces, was a bar in between. She also had a dinner table in her living room, for when she had guests over. When she was alone, however, she preferred to eat her food at the bar or on the couch, which was pretty much most of the time.

"Any cabinets I can put this stuff in?" John asked.

"Oh, you can just leave it there and I'll put them away later. I don't want to cause you any extra trouble."

"Nonsense. I'm here anyway now, I might as well make myself useful. In fact, I insist on you letting me put away these groceries!"

A man that takes charge ... I've been missing that for a while in my life now... Alice thought, as she let out a soft sigh.

"Ah, eh, well, you can put the items that need to be cooled in the fridge on the left and everything else can go in the cabinets on top."

A few minutes later John had all the items put away and gave her the keys back, "I took care of it all. So ... You want me to support you while you walk up the stairs, or should I just carry you altogether?"

"Huh?" Alice replied with a confused tone.

"Well you can't sit in these wet clothes! You'll catch a cold and then I won't have anybody teaching me math next week!" John exclaimed with a patronizing tone.

"I suppose you're right..." Alice remarked, looking John over carefully for the first time.

For a fifteen year old teenager he is pretty mature. Physically he isn't bad looking either, but teachers aren't supposed to think about their students like that, are they? Alice quickly pushed those thoughts out of her mind.

She was, however, right about John's physical developments. He had a handsome face, with beautiful emerald green eyes, that always seemed to twinkle mischievously, and short brown hair. For a fifteen year old teenager he was slightly taller compared to his classmates and though no jock he definitely didn't look like a typical nerd either. In those regards, though he was doing better than average, he definitely wasn't her brightest student either. He was one of the most well behaved and kindest students though.

Alice herself was five feet and seven inches tall. She had that typical girl next door look. She had a sweet, lovely face to look at and a slim body to carry it. Alice didn't have any fat on her body and it was easy to see that she regularly worked out in the gym to stay in shape. Men especially loved to look at her C cup breasts and sexy legs. She didn't really know which one they preferred to look at, since both seemed to get a lot of attention when she walked in the city, especially when she was wearing a light dress, that showed off her legs.

To break the silence that had fallen between them, John asked, "Well, which one would you prefer, me carrying you or do you think you'll make it, with me just supporting you?"

"I think I'll be fine. I should be able to make it up the stairs by myself."

"And then risk having you trip and fall? I don't think so."

Alice let out a deep sigh, "Fine, if you must insist, then you can support me while I walk up the stairs. There is no way I'm gonna let you carry me though, if you slip then we'd both fall and likely break something."

Alice kicked her high heel shoes off, so that at least they wouldn't get in the way, when she would try to climb the stairs. Next John carefully pulled her up and put one of her arms around his shoulders. Despite his age he was already an inch taller than her and he'd likely end up over six feet tall once he stopped growing. Slowly he walked with her to the stairs. Alice found herself leaning heavier on him than she had anticipated that she'd have to.

Progress was slow and Alice found out that her leg hurt more than she had thought it would. Step by step they climbed up the stairs, she winced in pain every time she had to put her weight down on her right leg. She was thankful that he had insisted to help her and didn't go along with her stubbornness, she wasn't sure if she could have made it to the top of the stairs on her own strength, in her current condition.

"My bedroom is the second door on the left," Alice commented, slightly panting.

She found the exercise pretty tiring and she was glad when she could sit down on her bed.

"Could I get a little privacy for a while? You can watch some TV downstairs if you want, I'll go take a shower and get decent again," Alice said.