Disclaimer -- All characters are 18 or older.
Introduction -- An older straitlaced 48-year-old high school teacher is attracted to a high school student from out of town. She's not a model. She's a 48-year-old woman who looks her age. And she strikes up a relationship with a much younger person. If none of this is your cup of tea, then kindly move on.
Callie started her car and backed out of the driveway. She questioned herself for the one millionth time if she was really sure she wanted to go through with this.
She watched as she passed her neighbor's homes, the familiar trees and driveways lining her path. It was a comfortable typical middle-class suburban neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. She had taught high school for the past 25 years and lived in this neighborhood for the past 18. Callie had done everything by the book and as expected. She was always a good girl growing up, listened to her parents and got good grades in school. After high school, she went to college and got a degree in History and Education. She came back to her hometown and her alma mater to teach.
She watched her friends get married off and have families, but her life just didn't work out that way. She'd had some serious relationships and was even engaged once, but things just fell apart, and the marriage never happened. Her parents and friends used to always ask or tease her about getting married and having kids, but after she turned 40, they stopped bugging her about all that. Now she was just resigned to being the old maid in their eyes. Maybe in her own eyes, too.
Now 48, she was single and lived alone, as she had lived her whole adult life. For the most part, she was happy. Friends always remarked how they wished they had her freedom. She wasn't tied down by a husband and kids. She could go out wherever and whenever she wanted. Still, there were times no one was available to go out with her, and that just left her feeling an emptiness.
As her car turned onto the interstate on-ramp, Callie thought about how she had arrived at this point. It was about 6 months ago that Brandon first texted her.
It was obviously a wrong number, and she replied as such. But then they started up a friendly banter. He was friendly and flirtatious, and it all started as harmless fun. It had been a while since Callie had been in a relationship, and the playful conversation reminded her of what was missing in her life. Fun.
Brandon was coy for a long time on specifics about himself. He said he lived in the Nashville suburbs, which was about 2 1/2 hours away from her. She suspected for a while he was married and bored at home. She gave him such a hard time about it that he finally came clean. He was 18 years old and a high school senior.
As a high school teacher, she was used to dealing with the raging hormones from the teenaged boys. Usually it was centered on maintaining classroom order and separating the oversexed boys' minds from the teenaged girls who relished the attention.
Usually, teachers could remain invisible, but there were always a few boys who definitely sent signals and innuendos to their teachers, fishing for any luck. There was a teacher at her school who gave in to the temptation about 5 years ago. She ended up losing everything. She was caught after her nude pictures had circulated amongst all the students. Her reputation was ruined, and she was fired, served a year in jail, and became a registered sex offender.
Back in her 3
rd
year of teaching, Callie grew close to one 18-year-old senior, tutoring him after school most days. He made it obvious he was interested in pushing their relationship into forbidden territory, but Callie came to her wits and ended their tutoring sessions.
She still caught the teenaged boys dropping their crass innuendos and double entendres whenever possible. She blew off most of it as harmless bluster with the knowledge that horny teenaged boys were probably desperate enough to sleep with any vagina with a pulse.
Callie couldn't afford to throw away her teaching career and life for a relationship. She decided to keep her distance from the students, although there are always some that become your favorites and you grow closer to.
Every year, it seemed there were one of two boys she taught that became objects of her affection. She could never act on the feeling and risk her career, but she envied any girls that garnered their attention. This year the flight of her fancy was Edward Moore, an 18-year-old senior in her AP US History class. He was sharp and witty, but also a star on the track team. Physically, he was 5'9" and very fit since he ran long distance track events.
Part of her was enamored with the youthful perfection of Edward. He was a young intellectual with a bright future ahead of him. The kind of guy Callie wished she could have dated in high school, but it never worked out for her.
Even now, Callie was still relatively fit herself. She walked regularly, watched what she ate, and had stayed in far better shape than some of the other teachers in the building. She was shorter, about 5'3", but still weighed about 120 pounds, only a little bit more than when she was in high school herself. She knew she was rather plain overall, though. She came off almost like a mousey librarian. Her skin was too pale, and old age was catching up with her. Her shoulder length brown hair was streaked with grey, the wrinkles were becoming impossible to hide, sunspots dotted her arms and shoulders, and her glasses were at least a decade out of fashion.