{Note: All characters are 18+. }
Jen woke up from her lovely daydream, interrupted by the bell. How rude. She just wanted to sit there and think about Lucas all day. With a sigh, she stood up from her desk.
She started filing out with the rest of the class, but Mr. Taylor pulled her aside. He almost chuckled seeing the panicked look on her face.
"Don't worry, you're not in trouble," he said.
Jen, in fact, was one of his best students, a good girl to her core. She was terrified of breaking the rules.
"I need to talk to you about something after school," Mr. Taylor explained. "I have an extra credit assignment for you, and there's something we need to discuss. Nothing to worry about, though."
"Oh. Okay..." she said, hesitant.
"Just meet me here right after school. Sound good?"
"Sure. Sounds good," she said, smiling.
Despite Mr. Taylor's advice, Jen spent the rest of the school day fretting about the meeting. She'd never been asked to see a teacher after class, much less after school. Was she actually in trouble, maybe? Did he just not want to embarrass her in front of her classmates? What did she do wrong?
To make matters even worse, Jen ended up being a couple minutes late. Would she be in even more trouble now?
"Oh my goodness. Take a breath," Mr. Taylor said, seeing her distress. "Here, walk with me."
Jen followed him out of his classroom and down the hall, to some unknown destination.
"So here's the main reason for this, Jennifer. I notice you've been staring at Lucas quite a bit, and I'm afraid it's distracting you from your schoolwork."
Jen turned bright red.
"Your test scores have been steadily declining," he continued. "I've never seen you go below an A before, and now we're approaching B minus territory."
"I'm so sorry," Jennifer said, looking like she was about to cry.
"No, it's okay. I think you can make it up with extra credit. But you also have to address the root of the problem."
"My feelings?" Jen guessed.
"No, silly. You can't change how you feel about this guy. That's not your fault. It's the situation that's the problem. But maybe we can do something about it."
It was obvious to him and probably everyone else in that classroom that Jen had an intense crush on Lucas. But Mr. Taylor also suspected the feeling was mutual. He saw the way Lucas looked at her. And could you blame him? Jennifer was this insanely pretty blonde girl with the type of personality some guys went crazy for — very sweet and cute and feminine. Luke was into her in some significant way for sure. Anytime the two interacted, Luke got just as nervous and excited as Jen, even if she didn't see it.
"If you had to describe your feelings for Lucas on a scale from one to ten, what would you say?"
"Like, eleven," she said, smiling bashfully.
"I figured. You do seem slightly obsessed with him."
"Yeah," she said, giggling.
"You're probably wondering what the solution is. Well, I have some ideas."
"Really? Cool."
"I'm on your team. We're gonna figure this out."
Jen smiled at him. Mr. Taylor always so kind to her. He was just so thoughtful. The idea of a teacher assisting her with a crush was admittedly kinda weird, but if she knew Mr. Taylor, he probably had something really smart and helpful in mind.
"Where are we going?" she asked, after they turned another corner.
"My office in the theater department. It's a little more comfortable there."
Jen followed him right into the office, and they both sat in swivel chairs by his desk.
"Now call me crazy," he said, "but from my observations, I think Lucas might have a thing for you too. Which is not that surprising. You're a pretty girl with a lovely personality."
Jennifer, in fact, was easily one of the most beautiful girls in the entire high school. If she weren't so introverted, she could have any guy she wanted. Mr. Taylor didn't want to put it in those terms, though, so as not to overstep his boundaries as her teacher. Nevertheless, she still blushed intensely.
"So what do you when you want your crush to be something more?" he asked.
"Umm, I don't know, talk to them?" she said, slightly unsure.
Jen's social skills were not on par with her beauty. Which was the very reason for this meeting.
"Yes. You talk to them about common interests. Maybe hang out and do fun things together. That can create a bond."
Jen was starting to think Mr. Taylor should've been a school counselor instead of a social studies teacher. He was giving her really good advice!
Mr. Taylor was now digging through a desk drawer.
"Now, I have it on good authority that Lucas is bit of a stoner."
"Really?" Jen said, surprised. Lucas didn't seem like a stoner at all. Now she was suddenly having second thoughts. Did she really want to date a guy who was into drugs?
Mr. Taylor came back up holding a sandwich-size plastic bag full of marijuana. He unzipped it and began emptying its contents onto a piece of paper on his desk.
Jen's eyes widened. Was this really happening right now?
Mr. Taylor took out two pieces of rolling paper, putting one in front of himself and handing one to Jen. She took it, not knowing what else to do.
"Alright. See how it folds in half? You kinda want to fill the joint along that line."
Reluctantly, Jen reached into the pile of weed and delicately picked some up with her fingers.
"Okay now just drop it in. Or sprinkle it — that works. Yup. Good job. Add some more."
Jen just sort of followed his instructions in a daze, filling the joint with weed the way he was showing her. Is this was Lucas did in his free time?
"Let's try to make a fat one. There we go. Now let's seal it. Watch what I'm doing with my joint. Yup, just like that. Roll it. Seal it up."
Jen held the finished joint in her hand with some amount of fascination. What did she just do?
