Queen of Spades (House of Cards Series 1) [Student/Teacher Relationship]

Temperance

Whatever else Alice thought might change between her and Malcolm now that they admitted they were interested in each other, what hadn't changed was the fact that he was her teacher. So when she had to admit that she hadn't done the homework in class, it had resulted in her first detention of the week. But now the concept of spending an hour alone after class with Malcolm was a stomach flip inducing concept and not a worry inducing one. Not that it really mattered, Alice already knew how Hamlet ended, she didn't need to do the chapter questions to prove it.

Alice spent the rest of English class staring intently at the scribbles on her page, unable to think about anything with Malcolm in the room. Only he was Mr. Vega right now, she had to remember that. The man lecturing the class on Hamelt's impending deul with Ophelia's brother was the same man as had kissed her senseless the night before, but he also wasn't. When the bell for class change rang, Alice nearly jerked out of her seat, making a few students laugh.

The science class was quiet, everyone weighed down by the realization that winter exams were coming up. Alice was a little perplexed by their fearful panic over having to write exams. She was anxious about it, but not about to faint from fear. Then again, maybe these students weren't as quick with recall as she was. Pulling her attention to the class around her, Alice noticed a few guys smirking at her, then looking at her neck. With a flush, she popped the collar of her shirt up a little, hiding the hickey again. Just great, everyone knew she was a stripper, they knew she'd been beaten and now they knew she liked it rough. Ok, maybe not that far, but they knew she had someone sucking on her neck over the weekend. She spent the rest of class wondering what nasty things Lexi was going to spread about the hickies if she spotted them.

To make matters worse, the student body had apparently discovered Alice's new locker location. Like the first week here, the front of her locker was once again decorated. This time it wasn't nasty words or juvenile penises scrawled across the front. Instead it was the phrase: For a good time, drop me a note. Alice stared at her locker, worried about what she would find inside. She opened the locker door and a handful of notes fell out. She frowned down at the pile but as mad as she was, she started to laugh at it. The person standing next to her looked over, shooting her a worried glance. She probably looked bat-s*** crazy right now, but didn't care. "I honestly thought the pile would be bigger than that." Alice remarked then gathered the notes up and tossed them in the bin on her way to the cafeteria.

Lunch was a blur, Ace couldn't even recall the food she'd eaten, consumed entirely with the knowledge that today Mrs. Moodie was releasing the Gala display choice and assigning dancers their roles. It was supposed to happen Friday, but after the final displays went too long, it'd been bumped to today. Since most of the group of friends was involved in the Gala, it was all any of htem could talk about either. Though Justine and Kim were heaping praise on Alcie for her improvised dancing Friday. Ace had honestly forgotten that drama and dance were in the same performance hall. Alice walked into the Performance Hall and heard a cacaphony of noise, drama and dance students chatting amiably, mixed together for the first time all year. Quickly Kim and Justine joined her and for the first time in weeks, she wasn't alone in dance class. Five minutes ticked agonizingly slow, each student starting to hold thier breath as they heard Mrs. Moodie's high heels march down the corridor towards them. The teacher walked in with the drama teacher a step behind, brandishing a script for the actors, and a list of character names for the dancers.

"This year our Gala is based around A Mid Summer Night's Dream." Mrs. Moodie announced and the chattering burst out. Alice waited patiently with her friends, a strange calm hovering over her as the teachers fought to be heard. Finally excitement fell away enough for everyone to settle, and the assignments began.

The male characters such as Oberon were all from drama class, but surprisingly enough Mrs. Moodie already had choreography for them. Eventually Justine told Alice that they were the b-boys and hip hop or lock dancers of the school, but since dance class was for female students only.... There was a flurry of excitement as Lexi was announced to be portraying the lead female, Titania. The looks of victory Lexi shot at Alice were as full of venom as they were of haughtier, but Alice just smiled softly."I guess this Gala really is about spotlighting our talent. Show off the class, hide away the crass." Lexi taunted.