"Lizzy!" She heard her mothers' voice calling but she didn't want to stop her stretching exercises. Her mothers frowning face appeared in the doorway and told her that she was to report to Mrs. Jamison's on Monday at 8 am.
"You're the only student in the class and you'll meet at her home." her mother said.
"OH GREAT!" Lizzy thought to herself sarcastically. It was bad enough she had to go to summer school for 6 weeks, now she had Mrs. Jamison, who had a reputation as the toughest math teacher at school. She was upset with herself. She should never have taken an honors math course in junior year when math was her worst subject but she needed this math course if she had any hopes of going to a decent college. It was only 2 days until zero hour and she was already dreading it.
On Sunday, Lizzy was out late celebrating her 18th birthday and went to bed after midnight. Monday morning dawned and Lizzy slept thru the alarm. Her mother was shaking her and telling her to get up.
"Shit!" she thought. "First day and I'm late." It was 8:10 am when she knocked on Mrs. Jamison's door.
Sarah Jamison kept looking at the clock. By 8:03 am she was peeved, by 8:05 am she was indignant and by 8:10 am, just mad. She let the raven haired beauty in and it was lecture time. Sarah had a "no nonsense" almost severe attitude in the classroom and Lizzy sat thru a 10 minute diatribe on Mrs. Jamison's classroom rules. No tardiness, one more late arrival and she would call the department head. If she was absent, it would seriously jeopardize her chances of completing the course. She expected summer casual dress, no swim suits or bare feet. Class would be held every day in the den and Lizzy should consider it a classroom. There was a table, desk and blackboard and no one other than herself and Mrs. Jamison was permitted to be in the classroom. She was allowed to wait indoors for transportation but no longer than ½ hour after 12 noon. All cell phones had to be turned off as she would not tolerate any interruptions. There were two 10 minute breaks at 9:20 am and 10:50 am. There would be a quiz every morning at 8 am. And on it went.
Lizzy thought the first day was rough but manageable and found that she preferred Mrs. Jamison's straightforward approach to the course material. She explained everything in detail and no question went unanswered. In fact, Sarah insisted that no question was a stupid question if Lizzy didn't know the answer.
After the 2nd break, Lizzy was more relaxed and wasn't intimidated by Mrs. Jamison's "no nonsense" attitude. She realized that it was her way of establishing control.
When Sarah Jamison saw Lizzy, she was struck by the teens' beauty. Lizzy was raven haired, Hispanic and of medium height. She had seen Lizzy compete at the gymnastics meets for the high school team. Sarah was smitten with her the 1st day of summer classes.
Sarah was lonely. Two years ago her husband had been killed in a boating accident while white water rafting in Colorado. She missed Robert as they had an active social life, but after only 1 year of marriage, she realized her sexual orientation was geared toward women. Before his tragic death, they were considering a divorce. During her college years, Sarah was no stranger to bi relationships. She had a relationship with Claire, her first college roommate and a few others until she met Robert.
Lizzy settled into the daily routine of taking quizzes and classroom instruction. After the 2nd break, Sarah would sit next to Lizzy and together they would go over each problem step by step. When she sat next to Lizzy, Sarah could see the desire and determination to succeed in Lizzy's eyes. Sarah was certain that all Lizzy needed was the proper tools to make sense out the material.
Prior to the start of the summer school, Sarah looked at Lizzy's transcript and was surprised she only had a "C" average in math. Otherwise, she had mostly "A's" and a few "B's" in her other subjects. If her math scores were higher, Lizzy would easily make the honor role.
At the start of the 2nd week, Sarah handed Lizzy the graded quiz papers from the previous week. Only one "B" and the rest were "C's." Sarah saw that Lizzy was disappointed and spent time up to the 2nd break reviewing her mistakes and teaching the methods on the correct way to study math. Sarah saw that Lizzy was trying very hard but by the end of the day, Lizzy was having problems with some new material. At noon, Sarah called it a day and Lizzy seemed upset. Sarah was about to ask Lizzy something when she saw tears in her eyes. Sarah felt her heart ache for the girl and her "no nonsense" demeanor crumbled.
"I guess I'm just dumb." Lizzy said in a teary voice.
"As long as you are in my class, don't ever refer to yourself as dumb" Sarah said commandingly.
"But I've worked hard and I'm not getting it." Lizzy almost sobbed.
"Give it time, and you will succeed" Sarah implored. "What was your goal when you came to my class?" Sarah asked.
"I wanted no less than an "A." Lizzy answered in a sniffling voice. Then added, "But I'm not so sure now."
Sarah knew from Lizzy's transcripts that she had the ability and if Lizzy adopted Sarah's methods for comprehending the material, she would achieve her goal.
"Use the study methods that I taught you today." "Use them over and over until they become second nature." Sarah said in a beseeching tone.
"Yes Ma'am" Lizzy tearfully replied. Overcome with emotion, Sarah took Lizzy in her arms and hugged her. Lizzy felt as close to Sarah at that moment as anyone in her family and it surprised her that Sarah embraced her and showed compassion. Despite all the warnings from her friends about Mrs. Jamison's "tight ass" ways, Lizzy thought that nothing could be farther from the truth. Even though Sarah was only 27 years old, Lizzy thought she was very attractive for an "older" woman.
From that day forward, Lizzy seemed to grasp a little more each day as she diligently applied Sarah's methods of study to homework and tests.
At the end of the 3rd week, Lizzy's quiz scores were up to a high "B" and when Sarah handed her the quiz papers, she let out a rebel yell and hugged Sarah. Then, realizing it was her teacher said she was sorry. Sarah said it was fine by her, anytime she wanted to hug her, she could. Sarah decided that her usual classroom persona wasn't necessary with Lizzy. She wanted to create a less formal environment and Sarah insisted that Lizzy call her by her first name.