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

The Sun

Alice almost skipped down the hall towards Malcolm's class room. She felt almost uncontrollably happy, pain of her injuries forgotten as she neared his classroom. She stopped herself and took a deep breath, reminding herself that in school he was Mr. Vega, not Malcolm, her boyfriend. Her lover. Red flared over her face as she thought that last part and she actually felt the stupid grin spread across her face this time.

She managed to calm herself down to at least not look like she was thrilled to stick her head into the classroom. Disappointment tumbled through her as she saw another student in class, obviously there for detention by the disgruntled look on his face. Malcolm looked up to see who entered and gave Alice a brilliant smile when he saw it was her. Then the smile dimmed to more appropriate levels as he remembered the witness in class.

"Excellent timing Ms. Spade. Mr. Joubarne, I will be right back, and I expect to see you working on that essay." he instructed casually and walked Alice back outside. There were a lot of students milling through the hallways, chatting with their friends and heading out to catch their rides home. There was less than no privacy out here and Alice silently swore as she spotted the students watching them carefully, obviously assuming she was getting in trouble. "I have a detention right now, so we're going to have to reschedule your tutoring session. Unless you were able to wait around until 4?" he asked, managing to ask her to stay without it seeming strange at all.

Alice swallowed her happy smile down and nodded. "I really need to the help so I'll stay." she agreed, more than willing to let the student populace think she was a blithering idiot if it meant she'd be able to spend hte evening with him again. It wouldn't be like last night, they were both expected to help in Salali's shop tonight, but the time between now and then could be theirs.

Having some time to kill, Alice headed back to the performance hall. It was huge and echoed in the emptiness. She'd pulled her uniform on over her dancing clothes, liking the extra layer for warmth, and now smiled ruefully having to pull it all back off. Stripped down to just her leotard and barefeet, Alice padded over to the radio and started to listen to the music. THe class had only come up with a few set music pieces, already mapping out the main events that had to happen in the play.

The introduction, before the play fully started, would introduce hte audience to the characters. Here is mighty Oberon, the King Fairy to Titania's Queen. They are estranged over who has right to the changeling child that was Titani's page. Here are the lovers, humans who are pulled into the power struggle through folly and error. Here are the mechanics, actors in a play for King Thesus. Here is Puck, called upon by Oberon to obey her King and help in his plot to win Titania's page for his court. Unlike Alice, most of the audience will never have actually read the full play so they needed to have parts explained in advance. Which is actually a lot more realistic to how Shakespeare had presented his works than most people realized.

The teachers were opening the play with Oberon and Titania fighting. Considering that Lexi was not hating on West, it would be rather easy for them to fight on stage. Alice still couldn't fathom how West was going to pretend to be interested in Lexi like that. Poor guy had the worse partner to work with. Though admittedly he was having to spend most of the play flirting with Alice's Puck, trying to get her to do what he wants. God that was gonig to be hilarious and awkward. Though as she was getting to know West, she was finding out that for a Cubano gangster, he was a nice guy. Ok, maybe not nice, but if you were on his good side, he was great. Being on his bad side was like pissing off Darth Vader. Ever since he'd told Lexi off, West seemed to have adopted Alice and her friends as people under his protection. Now Sammy, Kim and Justine were all included in his group when they gathered to talk. A fact that Butch was HATING as he lost his status as only male in the group. And had a serious thing for Sammy. Who was now crushing on West.

Alice shook herself, shedding concerns about her friends like droplets of water. As much as she wanted to shake Butch and tell him he needed to ask Sammy out, Alice was aware that these things had to be figured out for themselves. Either he would or he wouldn't, and the more Sammy sighed over West, the less likely it was Butch would take the risk.

Ace cranked up the music and threw herself into the air, trusting her muscles to remember what to do. She had the entire space to herself and planned to use it, not doing dancing so much as tumbling, shoulder rolls, aerials, cartwheels, whatever struck her fancy. It hurt, her face throbbed painfully and her ribcage protested but she pushed past the pain, embracing the moment when her body let it all go and just moved. Songs changed and she didn't slow down, her warm up over now and Alice wanted to go until she dropped. Even with her endurance and stubborn pride, Alice felt her muscles start to shake and she collapsed into a sweaty, panting pile just in front of the stage.

"Do you really think you should be doing that considering how injured you've been lately?" Malcolm asked from the doorway. Alice looked up, surprised to find that it was nearl 4:30. He'd been silently watching her dance for almost a half hour.

"Considering last night, you are not one to talk." Alice retorted, eyebrow raised. Mal laughed and walked over to her, giving her a hand up. As he pulled her to her feet, her wrapped his arms around her back and kissed her.

"What the hell?" they both heard and froze, staring at each other in shock.

"S***...." Alice breathed, knowing they'd been caught.

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MUAHAHAHAHA! I am putting it up short just to torment you my lovies!

I WILL add to this when I am back after Monday.

ENJOY!