Chapter Two

Temptation

Jackson ran his hand through his dark hair as footsteps echoed in the hallway. The bitter aftertaste of vomit still lingered in his mouth from this morning and he was dying for a cigarette. "I definitely owe you one Jackson for taking over for Mrs. Trumpet. Who would have thought that the old bat would’ve ran off during the last semester?" Jordy Bransom mused, the tint of amusement shining through his eyes.

Jackson’s stomach was bubbling. He wasn’t ready to be a teacher. Christina and him wanted to travel a little before they got married that August. God knows it took him long enough to pop the question. Jackson was never good with being bound and constricted. He saw marriage as a prison, no matter how wonderful the girl was, and god Christine was wonderful. She was the epitaph of perfection. She had legs that went for miles along with a full head of golden blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She cooked, she cleaned, and she screwed him when he wanted it. What else could he want?

"Ah…it’s no problem Bransom. Shit happens right?" Jackson smiled his black eyes focusing on the older male.

"Right you are," Jordy replied stopping at room D8. "Well here we are. Mrs. Trumpet left all her records and you should find them in the desk. If you have any problems, I’ll be in my office. Okay?"

"Yeah," Jackson stated biting his lip and looking at the door. What the hell was he doing? He wanted to be a professor not some little small town highschool teacher to seniors suffering majority from senioritis.

"Oh and Jackson," Jordy’s voice replied from the hall. Jackson looked up, his dark black eyes focusing on his superior. "Why don’t you come over for dinner tonight? Maybe bring Christina? I’m sure the Misses and my daughter would love to meet you."

That was supposed to be a question? That was more like an option. Either you come to dinner and pretend that you’re awake while Jordy tells the same fishing story he always tells, or you can not, and then ultimately get on the bad side of your boss. "Sure, we’ll make it," Jackson smiled.

Jordy flashed a dazzling smile, pointing at Jackson affectionately. Jordy’s charm nauseated Jackson. Jordy was like the Burt Reynolds of Fairy Briar, North Carolina. Jackson had heard plenty of rumors of Jordy’s extracurricular activities with some of the other teachers, and Jackson wasn’t about to be in the middle of a controversy. Just stay neutral, he told himself and twisted the doorknob to open the door to his classroom.

At first he heard what seemed like a million voices, but as he opened the door, maybe seventeen faces stared back at him. Faces that he had seen in the area’s grocery store or mall, but just brushed off. Some of them were brunettes, some of them were blonde, some of them had curly hair, and some of them had straight, and then there was her. She was sitting in the front row, slumped down in the chair, but that couldn’t disguise her beautiful figure.

Her legs were bare and brown up to her knees were her jean skirt laid perfectly. She wore a burgundy shirt, which accented her olive complected skin along with her long and dark ebony hair. Her eyes were turned down to a piece of paper that was lying on the desk, but even those he could tell were amazing.

Eyes looked at him expectantly and Jackson pulled his dark eyes away from her. He settled them on the center of the room and his voice groped for words to say, but luckily a smartass in the back saved him. "Nice tie Mr. Roberts," A lanky boy with dark brown hair stated from the back. His legs seemed to stretch out two desks in front of him and immediately the word skater came into Jackson’s mind.

A grin spread on Jackson’s face as he touched the tie. He hadn’t been able to find the burgundy one that Christina had ironed the night before so he had to pick the piss yellow tie that reminded him of his vomit from earlier. "Thanks…" He stated letting the last part of it fall, so that the boy would introduce himself.

"Landon, Landon Bricket," The boy replied smoothly.

"Thanks Landon," Jackson corrected as he walked over to the old crickety desk in the cornor. He set his bag on the floor and then looked towards the front of the room. In big white letters on the black slate of the chalkboard was his name: Mr. Roberts. Just the thought made Jackson even queasier. He immediately stole his eyes away and looked back to the kids. His eyes were immediately drawn back to the girl in the front row. Her eyes were now transfixed on him. They were big, almond shaped with this odd color to them. Jackson immediately felt him swallow hard and moved his eyes to the beanpole in the back that had dared to pull a fast one on the new teacher.

"Landon, since you’re so voicetreous today…why don’t you be the class spokesperson and tell me what you’d like to do this last semester," Jackson questioned rubbing his hand on his chin. It was smooth, something he wasn’t really used to, but he wanted to make a good impression before he was able to settle in.

Jackson could tell that the students didn’t believe him. They kept looking at each other before Landon muttered a, "You’ve got to be kidding me."

"Do I look like I’m kidding Landon?" Jackson asked holding out his hands and looking to the class. "I couldn’t bluff when I played poker, I’m not bluffing now. So come on…let me hear it. What would you guys like to do?"

At first the room was silent before a girl towards the back spoke out. Jackson’s eyes immediately connected the voice to the face and Jackson immediately surveyed that, which had to be the senior class beauty queen. A cocky smile formed on her full lips before she spoke, "Something that isn’t classified as shit."

Jackson felt himself chuckle. "Ah….so I guess everything I had in mind. Can you be more specific as to the non-crap stuff?" Jackson’s black eyes looked back to the students who again decided to go mute. His eyes drifted to the girl in the front row again and he pointed at her. "You…what’s your name?"

Beanpole was speaking again; "If you don’t know who she is then you’re as good as dead."

The girl’s almond shaped eyes regarded Landon in a glare before she stated very calmly; "Oh shut the fuck up Landon."

Hollers of excitement chattered through the classroom as Jackson looked at the girl. Who would have ever known that such a pretty little mouth could be so dirty? He liked that. He liked that a lot. "Now, now. I know I may be new, but let’s try to refrain from the language, alright guys?" He looked back to the girl and waited for her to state her name.

"Madison," She replied softly looking up into his face before breaking the gaze quickly. Shy, Jackson surveyed wishing that she had kept the gaze. He ached that she would look back up. Cool it Jack old boy, she couldn’t be more than sixteen.

"I want to know your input. What do you think we should do?" He asked his eyes watching her intently.

One of her tiny shoulders turned up in a shrug; "I don’t care."

Jackson raised an eyebrow and asked with a little smile, "You don’t care? So if I made you all read the unabridged Beowulf, you wouldn’t care?"

Jackson heard cries of protest, but just kept his attention on Madison who looked at him alarmed. "Okay, I do care," She stated, "Anything but that. Okay?" She replied her voice tart with attitude and Jackson immediately felt the sting of it on his ego not to mention the powerful pulsing from between his legs. She had shifted in her chair, her legs crossing over one another sliding the jean fabric a little more from her legs revealing clear soft tawny skin. He wondered what it would be like to move in between them, his groin rubbing against her silky thighs. He could feel himself harden and he quickly moved from his position trying to shake his guilty imagination. He cleared his throat and then headed back behind the desk.

He saw that the kids were curious about him. They might not have known about his dirty mind, but they knew that he wasn’t an iron rod like all the other teachers. They knew they had room to fuck around in. Pull all the right strings, and Jackson was more than willing to allow them to do so. One of his favorite teachers out of college had been like a best friend to him, and on his last night of staying on campus, they had taken a trip out to the nearest strip joint and blown close to three hundred dollars on under the table blow jobs and hand jobs. Jackson wasn’t willing to part with his ways just yet. He still had a few more years of free passes.

Jackson’s dark eyes caught a couple of girl’s in the back whispering and giggling. Jackson wasn’t stupid in the fact that he knew that they were talking about him. A soft smile crossed his lips as he then addressed the room, "As the board up there indicates, my name is Mr. Roberts." He paused giving a sweep of the class with his dark eyes as he then continued, "I’m probably just 6 years older than some of you and unfortunately I’m being dragged into adulthood without my consent, so please refer to me as my first name, Jackson. So now that you know something about me, how about we get better acquanted?" He questioned and grab the stack of papers that were on his desk. "Here’s a survey. I require everyone to fill one out, that way I am able to know a little bit more about you."

Jackson held one out to every first person in each row before finally getting to Madison. "There you go Miss Maddy," He stated giving her the papers.

Her eyes narrowed a little as if scrutinizing him as she stated while passing it out, "So you riddle us with a survey to fill out and waste time, but yet we hardly know anything about you." Her heavily lashed eyes laid on Jackson’s face.

Jackson felt a smile creep on his face as he looked down at her. Her mouth moved in a smirk as Jackson replied, "Well if you want to make a survey for me to take, then I guess we’ll call it even?"

"I might hold you to that," She stated in warning looking down at her paper. Jackson could see it in her face that she would. She seemed to like the challenge and Jackson was glad that he had finally got some kind of response from her.

"Try it," He dared with an equally as mischevous smile, and that was the beginning of the affair.