The Teacher's Mate

part 27

"Thank you for dropping me off, Jaden," Missy said before exiting her friend's car. Jaden had graduated high school several years past and as soon as she had gotten a place of her own with her high school sweetheart she had let Missy stay with them a couple times when she got kicked out of the house in the middle of the night and Audrey didn't answer her phone. She didn't like staying there though, Jeffrey was a deadbeat.

"No problem, do you need me to come get you tomorrow?"

Missy looked at the truck parked in its spot in the driveway, "No, it looks like they are home. I really appreciate it though."

"Anytime." Jaden carefully backed out of the driveway.

All the lights were off so Missy tiptoed to her room, set her alarm, and went to sleep.

The smell of fresh baked cinnamon rolls is what woke Audrey up. She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling for a few minutes trying to get the motivation to get out of bed. The heavenly aroma of coffee joining the baked goods was to much for her to resist though and so she crawled out of bed and trudged downstairs. She saw her father rubbing his eyes and yawning as the got to the landing and both sleep-zombies slowly crept into the kitchen before slumping into chairs at the dining room table.

"Good morning!" Missy's cheerful words greeted them.

"Morning," James replied and Audrey let out a sound that could have been the word 'morning' but no one could tell.

Audrey took a deep breath of the lovely smell of fresh brewed caffeine, and let it all out in a sigh before getting up and pouring coffee for herself and James. She tilted the pot towards Missy, silently asking if she wanted any. Missy shook her head and placed the oven-warm cinnamon rolls on a hot pad in the center of the table and a small stack of plates. After setting the coffee down Audrey plunked herself back in her chair as James slid a plated cinnamon roll in front of her.

"So how was the party?" Missy asked excitedly. Audrey looked at her and then pointed at her coffee mug, the message was clear. Audrey would talk after she had caffeine in her system.

"It was well organized," James said, "but Luna Evelyn's got nothing on these," he put another bite of roll in his mouth. Missy laughed and they bantered for a bit which was just fine with Audrey, there was still coffee in her mug. After James had finished his breakfast, he exited to the living room to read his book.

"Ok, spill the tea" Missy demanded.

Audrey cocked an eyebrow at her and with a straight face replied, "its coffee, not tea, and I don't recall spilling it."

"Oh come on! Something had to have happened!"

Audrey chewed her lip, "ikindahaveadate." She mumbled.

Missy did a little happy dance before grilling her with more questions. Did she dance? What was the pack house like? "What do you mean 'kinda' have a date?!"

"Well.... Drake asked me if I wanted to help them out in the greenhouse and then gave me his number so I could pick the day to do it."

"Wait," Missy said, taken aback, "he asked you to work in a garden? As your first date?! What is wrong with this guy?"

Audrey felt a shot of anger course through her, yes it wasn't what other people might want, but that didn't mean she didn't. "We wanted something low stress and casual, where we could talk and get to know each other without a ton of pressure. Plus we don't want the whole town knowing, the humans on the school board wouldn't understand our relationship and that might jeopardize his job. So yes, gardening sounds like a wonderful idea to me."

Missy's expression softened, "I didn't think of it like that. I just know you care so deeply about people even when you try not to and you deserve everything good in the world. If it works for you and you're happy, that's all that matters."

"Thank you, Missy. I really appreciate you." Audrey took a deep breath, Missy's scent had changed ever so slightly, and there was a draw, faint and barely there, but a draw. Not like the mate bond, but like the draw from the pack. She couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was, but it was there.

"Missy, did you meet anyone while we were gone?"

A look of shock passed briefly over Missy's face before she blushed and in a small voice answered, "yes."

Audrey lifted an eyebrow at her.

"A guy came into the diner. He was really hot and Stephanie got his number for me and I just don't know what to do."

"Want to text them together?" Audrey asked. Missy nodded.