Falling From Grace: Student-Teacher Forbidden Romance

Chapter 7

[RECAP: Father Gabriel has just taken his first English class, and gave Leonie more than a few glances...]

There was a whirl of chatter and analysis following the English class when Gabriel finally dismissed them.

"Isn't he amazing?"

"He's the best teacher we've ever had!"

"And completely gorgeous. I don't know how I'll stop getting distracted just looking at him!"

"He's a priest, remember? Totally off limits."

Leonie listened to the rush of voices going past and couldn't help but agree with them. Father Gabriel was amazing: both to look at and to listen to. She had seen him looking at her a couple of times and it made her feel tingly.

She knew it was only because he looked at whoever was reading the lines, he had doubtless spent has much time looking at Suki and Figgy and the other girls, but she still couldn't get his deep blue eyes out of her mind.

And those lips...

Why oh why was he a priest? And why was she stuck here as a student?

Life could be a pretty cruel joke sometimes. It was like waking up to a Christmas stocking full of amazing gifts that someone had stitched and superglued shut.

"You're quiet," Mai said to her. Mai was never quiet.

"Just thinking about the class," Leonie told her.

"Thinking about Father Hot, more like. I know I am. And I bet Figgy is too. Not Harry though, she wouldn't notice him if he stripped naked and danced the fandango. Unless he was carrying a lacrosse stick." Harry had already rushed off to something lacrosse related and wasn't walking back with them.

Father Gabriel naked... Leonie really had to stop herself from imagining such a thing. She could tell from the strength of his jaw and neck how well muscled he would be underneath...

"I was not thinking of our priest like that!" Figgy protested. "Do have some decorum, Mai."

Mai grinned. "It's all decorum here, that's the problem. We have no chance to have anything else."

At that moment Suki passed them, her two friends on either side of her: the ginger and the blonde. Suki shot them a horrible look and whispered something to her friends.

"I'm afraid because of us you're going to be on her hit list," Mai said. "And she can't stand the fact that Father Hot gave you the part she wanted."

"And you did read it amazingly well," Figgy added.

Leonie really had hoped not to make enemies, let alone in her first week. Still, was the worst the girl could do?

The problem was that they had no other distractions here, other than bitching and plotting against one another. It was kind of like a crucible, Leonie thought.

Did absolutely nothing fun ever happen around the place? "Do you ever get outside of school? Excursions or whatever?" Leonie asked.

"Yes, but they manage to make it even more boring outside of school than in. Museums, churches, ruins..."

Figgy interrupted her. "Some of the sites around here are very interesting. And there are some very beautiful old churches. Sister Rosalind tries to arrange visits to art galleries when she can."

Thinking back to her hometown, and the way she usually spent weekends, Leonie wondered whether she'd not so much ended up in a different country as a different era. Maybe her plane had flown through a time warp over the Atlantic.

No boys, no parties, and the best chance of fun was a trip to a museum.

So Leonie was stuck here. With no boys except one who was a priest, which she told herself was the reason she kept thinking about him. She needed something to distract herself, but what?

"Some of the sixth formers in a previous year managed to steal some communion wine and get drunk," Figgy said. She had dropped her voice to a hushed tone. "Mother Benedict discovered them and they all got suspended."

Figgy clearly found it a really shocking tale. Leonie dreaded to think how Figgy would react if she knew of the kinds of things that Leonie had got up to.

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