Educated Love

Chapter 1

On the drive to school, Samantha became lost in thought. Back to before, she moved to Grass Valley with her father. When she lived in Southern California with her mom in Los Angeles, where the city was much bigger and there seemed so much more to do. She did not miss the crime or the smog buts she missed her friends very much.
As she came round the corner, she saw the high school on her right and frowned, not knowing if she was ready to start at a new school. She pulled up into the parking lot and after a little driving around, she found a parking spot. Getting out of her Jeep, she looked around at all pine trees and still surprised by all the abundance of greenery around her. Reaching in the passenger seat, she grabbed her backpack and admittance papers and went to the front of the school.
The first thing she noticed was the sign with the school’s name, Nevada Union High School, and the mining tools on the sign as well As she walked through the glass doors she saw the trophy case on her right and the sign stating where the office was. There were a lot of students and teachers milling around before the first class. Not watching where she was going, she bumped right into someone dropping all of her stuff onto the ground “I am sorry.” She whispered as bent down to pick up her things. Suddenly there was a man squatting in front of her helping with her papers. She looked up and almost stopped breathing. He had short hair, light colored brown with bright blue eyes, and a square jaw he was wearing jeans and a button up red shirt with short sleeves. Samantha realized that he was smiling at her and that without that smile he could have a hard face.
“Don’t worry about it; I wasn’t watching where I was going!” He said softly handing her the papers she had dropped as they stood up. She realized he was looking her over as well. Her ebony hair was in a braid down her back almost to her butt and she was wearing a white sundress and white sandals. He stood there memorized by her emerald green eyes.
“Thank you or your help.” Samantha said as she put her backpack on her right shoulder. “I better go; I’ve still got to check in with the office first before my class starts.”
“I’ll see you around then!” he said and then walking down the hall and around the corner. Se watched him all the way, until he was out of sight, realizing belatedly how tall he was at 6’ 3”. She smiled to herself and walked into the office. She stood at the front desk for several minutes before the receptionist came forward. “May I help you?”
“Yes, I was in here yesterday to enroll. They told me to come back today to get my schedule to start school. My name is Samantha Town.” Samantha said holding outer paperwork to her.
“Oh, yes they told me you’d be here this morning.” The woman said taking her paperwork and grabbing a file that was sitting on the counter, placing the papers inside, and then pulling out a card. “This is your schedule, and your teachers have been told your coming. And here’s a map of the school.”
Sam took the map, looked down at, and was surprised. “This is bigger then a college campus.”
“We house an average of 3000 students each year and it’s getting bigger all the time,” She said softly. Samantha nodded before heading out and looking at her schedule:



PERIOD CLASS ROOM NUMBER TEACHER
FIRST ALGEBRA C-2 MR. WADE
SECOND BIOLOGY B-8 MR. ELLIE
THIRD ENGLISH E-10 MR. QUAKE
FOURTH LUNCH
FIFTH HISTORY E-10 MR. QUAKE
SIXTH COMPUTERS C-12 MRS. McDowell
SEVENTH FREE PERIOD

As she was looking it over, she heard the first bell ring. She headed to her first class out into the next hallway, which happened to be open. Realizing that the whole school was an open campus. When she opened the door to Algebra class, the blue walls surprised her. Someone behind her cleared his throat; she turned and saw who must be the teacher. “Mr. Wade?” She asked, as she looked him over quickly taking him all in. He stood only a few inches taller then her at 6 feet even, with blonde short hair, hazel eyes and a warm smile that actually reached his eyes and made them sparkle. He was wearing cargo pants and a yellow t-shirt that made his dark tan really show.
“You must be Samantha Town?” He asked, she nodded in answer. “Let’s add your name to the roll list and my grade book. Then I’ll get you a book.”
Samantha followed him to the desk where he handed her a textbook and took her schedule to verify everything. “Oh you’ve got Mr. Quake as well.”
“Is that a bad thing?” Sam asked.
“No, good teacher and a close friend of mine.” Mr. Wade said with a smile. “Very idealistic man, we need more like him here at this place!”
“Idealistic how?” Sam asked.
“Always have new ideas on how to do things around here, but there are a few here who don’t appreciate him for that!” He said in a low voice as he added her to all of his books.
“I thought changes would be good.” Sam stated.
“I would agree, but there are those who don’t!” Mr. Wade answered. “Enough about him, let’s talk about you. You have only missed the first two weeks of school. To get you caught up, just review the first four chapters in the book and answer questions of the reviews in back of those chapters. You can have a week to turn them in.”
“That sounds easy enough,” Sam said as se took her things from him and found a seat among students already seated and waiting for class to begin. Biology was much the same way for her except without the commentary about her English teacher. Mr. Ellie seemed to be just as nice as Mr. Wade was he gave her a week to get caught up with the rest of the class. Once class was over, she found her locker and placed her two books in knowing that she would have to taking them home every night in the next week to be caught up with the rest of her classes. She then found her next class just as easily as she had the others and was about to walk through the open door when she spotted the guy she had run into earlier that morning.
He was leaning against the teacher’s desk flipping through a novel. She stood there a moment looking at him and trying not to drool. She realized she had not taken him all in the last time she saw him. He seemed casual, yet there was a contained energy to him as if he was ready to jump from his position into action in just a moment. He wasn’t smiling now and he could see that his darkly tanned skin face was almost hard without it. She was startled out of her reverence by someone tapping her shoulder from behind. “Are you new here?”
Sam turned to find a girl standing behind her smiling. “Yeah, today’s my first day here.”
“I’m Anne, are you taking this class?” She asked. Sam realized how bright she seemed with her blue eyes and long blonde hair. She was dressed in a red shirt, tan pants and flip-flops.
“Yeah, are you in this class?” Sam asked. “My name is Samantha, but everyone calls me Sam!”
Then you can hang with me, I have an empty seat next to me!” Anne said as she led the way to her seat. Sam pulled out her schedule fore putting her backpack down next to the desk.
“So, where’s the teacher, Mr. Quake? I have to check in with him first to get started,” Sam, said, Anne tried to stifle a small laugh.
He would be the one you were trying not to stare at when you first came in!” Anne answered pointing to him by the desk. “Not that I can blame you, he is definitely hot.”
“Oh, I guess there goes the whole marriage dream!” Sam said sarcastically as she started for his desk. When she got close enough he looked up at her and a smile broke out across his face when he looked at her.
“Hello, I didn’t think I’d see you again so soon!” He said.
“Well, here I am. There are some papers I am supposed to give you.” Sam stated and held out her schedule to him.
“Oh, I wanted to know if you would like to go to lunch today.” He asked taking her schedule not looking at it.
“Wouldn’t that be against school policy, Mr. Quake?” Sam asked.
“It’s Randy, and why would it be?” he asked.
“Because you’re a teacher and I’m a student!” Sam answered said as she pointed at her schedule in his hands. Randy was so surprised he looked down at her schedule then back at her.
“You’re pulling my leg, right?” he asked. “Aren’t you the new teacher down the hall, Ms. Kelly?”
“I wish, then I wouldn’t be upset that about not being able to go to lunch with you,” Sam answered. “Especially now that I know some good things about you!”
“And what would that be?” He asked.
“Heard that you are very good teacher, idealistic.” Sam answered with a smile. Randy looked at her schedule again and smiled as well.
“Been talking to Mr. Wade haven’t you. I think he needs to learn to keep his mouth shut in front of people.” He said with a little laugh.
“So, he’s wrong then?”
“No just nosy I think!” Randy said as he went to his roll sheet, grade book, and entered her info into them. “Why don’t we go to lunch anyway? You can bring a friend if you like! I’ll need find out where you are at so I can figure out what you need to get caught up with the class!”
“Sure,” Sam said, he gave her back the schedule and grabbed he books she would need for the classes. Sam took them, headed back to her desk, and sat down.
“So?” Anne asked.
“He wants to go to lunch with me and a friend, to find out where I am at for class!” She answered. “You want to go with me?”
“Okay, but can I ask you a question?”
“What?”
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Sam looked at her confused for a moment.
“That is a lot, just say it!” Sam insisted.
“That you want to be with him!” Anne stated.
That is all relative, even if I was thinking all that. It doesn’t matter unless he wanted it as well.” Sam answered softly she was looking at him from the corner of her eye.
“Were you not paying any attention to the way he was looking at you?” Anne demanded. Sam looked confused.
“What are you talking about?”
“He was looking at you like you’re the first and last woman he would ever see in his life!” Anne said with a shake of her head. “I would give anything to have a guy look at me like that.”
“One day you will, give it time!” Sam said and just then, the bell rang for class to start. They both turned to face the front of the classroom as Randy stepped away from his desk and started class.
When the bell rang to end class most of the students made their way out quickly for lunch. Sam and Anne waited patiently for Randy, who was putting some things away he looked up and saw that they were the only ones left in the room. “Are you ladies ready for lunch?” He asked coming around his desk and came forward.
“Just waiting on you Mr. Quake!” Sam said with a smile.
“Again it’s Randy,” He stated. “You are going to make me feel old before my time!”
“How old are you?” Anne asked.
“I’m almost 25, why?”
“Almost, and that would mean your birthday is when?” Sam asked.
“In November, on the 25th to be exact,” Randy answered as he walked o the door and then waved them trough. “Ladies first.”
“So Sam, what brings you to Grass Valley?” Randy asked as they were waking down the hall to the cafeteria.
“My father got transferred to Pac Bell here from Los Angeles a week ago and I decided to come with him.” Sam said, looking away from both of them.
“What about your mom?” Anne asked.
“She’s still lives in Los Angeles, working for an ad agency. My parents have been divorced since I was about 2,” Sam replied. ”I lived with her till about a week ago.”
“Do you not want to talk abut this?” Randy asked, sensing there was so kind of issue with her mom.
“Not really, I haven’t made peace with my mom since I left. She’s not happy that I moved out here, but she couldn’t really stop me since I’m 18 now!”
“Well, let’s change the subject. What do you want to do when you get out of high school?” Anne asked.
“I want to be a writer,” Sam stated firmly as if expecting arguments from one of them. Anne looked over at Randy as if for guidance.
“I think that’s a great idea, what kind of writing?” Randy asked. “Short stories, articles or novels?”
“I want to write novels,” Sam answered as they turned the corner to the cafeteria.
“Well, there is nothing wrong with that; you just might want to study up on that before you get started.” Randy said as he dug into his pocket and pulled out some change. “Here; why don’t you ladies get us all some sodas and I’ll get us some food!”
Sam took the change and they headed for the vending machine. When they met back up with Randy, he was sitting at a secluded table in the grass that was covered in sunlight. They sat down and Sam handed Randy a Pepsi. “What about you Anne? What do you want to do when you graduate?” Randy asked.
“Haven’t decided yet, am not really sure!” Anne answered before taking a sip of her soda.
“What about college?” Randy asked both of them looked at him in confusion. “Neither of you have even thought out it, have you?”
“No,” They both chimed in. Suddenly Randy saw the principal heading his way and had to stifle a groan.
“Now you’re hanging out with your students. Don’t you have anything else to do?” Sam looked up at him in surprise, he was not a tall man, maybe an inch taller then her. With mousy brown hair and none distinctive brown eyes, he seemed almost like a weasel except for the straight-line posture that seemed too radiated over used authority.
Actually Jason, I’m getting to know my new student,” Randy said pointing at Sam. “Jason Dodson, this is Samantha Town. Sam this is our principle Mr. Dodson.”
“Samantha…”Jason Dodson said thinking for a moment. “Oh, yes now I remember. The young lady from Los Angeles, I read your file yesterday.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Sam asked, eyeing him skeptically.
“So far not a bad thing!” Jason answered, and then turned back to Randy. “We need to talk after school about some of the ideas you purposed to the school board last Monday!”
“That was the idea; it was to the school board, not you Jason!” Randy stated flatly.
“This is still m school to watch out for and I’d appreciate you running your ideas through me first,” Jason said before turning to go, hen stopped mid stride he looked at Randy over his shoulder. “Three o’clock, Randy!” Then was on his way again.
“Is he always like that?” Sam asked looking back at Randy.
“He thinks I’m to extreme a thinker for this school and what I think should be done in the way of education. Heaven forbid I should try out new ideas or purpose them to the school board in hopes of it being implemented through out the district!” Randy stated and both Anne and Sam could see this really bothered him. “Sorry, you guys don’t need to hear this. What were we talking about before he interrupted?”
“I think it was college!” Anne spoke up realizing that Randy needed a change of subject. For the rest of the lunch period they talked about school, and college. When the bell rang, they headed back to class with everyone else. Class went by fast and before long, the bell rang. Anne stopped Sam before she could leave. “We should exchange phone numbers or something!”
“Good idea.” Sam said and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. She wrote her number down and handed it to Anne who then wrote on a piece of paper her own number and gave it to Sam. “Maybe we could do something this weekend. After all today is Friday, I’ll call you tonight.”
“Okay, just not too late, my mom is kind of a pain about that!” Anne said before they headed for their next classes. For Sam Computer class was easy and it went by fast. When it was over, she realized that unlike some people she had the rest of the day off and headed home to start on all of the homework she had to catch up on. When she pulled into the driveway, she didn’t see her dad’s car and realized he wasn’t home yet. However, it was also his third day at work and he probably wouldn’t be home for a while. She looked around the outside of the house with a sigh. It was hidden on one of those tiny dead end streets and had a large front yard. The house was honestly too big for just her and her father. She walked through the metal gate onto the patio and then through the sliding glass door into the kitchen. Looking around Sam still didn’t feel like she belonged in this house let alone this town. She looked to her right at the dinning room, saw a note on the table, went, and picked it up.
Sam;
I have to work late tonight; I left some money on your bed if you want to order pizza or some thing. See you later.
Love you, dad.
Sam went around the counter that had the microwave and through the door that had a walk through laundry room and pantry and on the other side was a hallway to the garage but there was one door. She opened the door to her bedroom and smiled because everything in there was familiar. Her bed was under the only window, which looked out onto the driveway. She saw 20 dollars sitting on her unmade bed and smiled. Tossing her bag on the queen bed, she grabbed the 20 and put it in her pocket before taking off her shoes and socks. She walked back out into the kitchen and started to make herself a snack, before heading into her bedroom to start her homework.
Sam was startled out of concentrating on her homework when the phone rang, turned and looked at the extension with a frown. Reaching for it on her nightstand. “Hello?” Sam answered.
“Sam is that you?”
“Yeah, who’s this?” Sam asked confused.
“It’s Anne!” She whispered Sam could hear that her voice was shaking somewhat.
“What’s wrong?” Sam asked.
“Can I come over and stay at your house for the night?” Anne asked quickly. “I’ll understand if you can’t have me over!”
“Do you need a lift?” Sam asked realizing that something must be wrong for Anne to call her after only knowing her one day.
“If you don’t mind, there’s no way my mom or dad will let me take the car,” Anne whispered again.
“Just give me directions and meet me out front okay.” Sam said Anne quickly gave her directions. This turned out to be about two blocks away from her on walker drive. Sam pulled in front of the house and saw Anne standing out at the end of her driveway with her backpack and a suitcase on the ground next to her feet. Sam saw the black eye that Anne was now sporting on her left eye. She got out of the car and helped throw her things in the jeep without a word, when suddenly a woman came out the front door.
“Where do you think your going you little slut? Think your friend can save you from getting your ass beat for what you did?” The woman almost yelled at Anne, Sam turned to Anne.
“Get in the car, Anne!” Sam said. “Now!”
“But…”
“Now!” Sam said firmly, she then turned to the woman who was walking towards them. “Ma’am please don't come any further. I don’t want to have to call the police for domestic violence.”
Stunned, the woman stopped for a moment. “She’s my daughter; you can’t take her away from here.”
“How old is she?” Sam demanded.
“Just turned 18 last month, why?” The woman demanded.
“Because that means that she’s old enough that you can’t make her stay. She’s coming with me; we’ll call in a day or two and let you know what’s going on. Until then stay away or she will file a restraining order against you.” Sam said before heading around to the driver’s side of her Jeep and got in. She started the Jeep, did a u-turn, and headed back for her house.
“I didn’t even tell you what was going on. How did you know?” Anne asked softly, Sam stopped at a stop sign and turned to Anne. She placed a hand on her face near her left eye.
“Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words; in your case it spoke volumes. And that is all I need to know right now.” They drove the rest of the way in silence and it wasn’t even strained. When Sam pulled into her driveway, Anne looked around in awe.
“This is your house, it’s huge,” Anne said as she got out of the Jeep and grabbed her backpack. Sam helped by grabbing the suitcase.
“Come in, I’ll show you around,” Sam said leading the way through the patio and the sliding glass door. “This is the kitchen and dinning room. Oh do you want your own room or you can stay in my room with me?”
“Your room is fine,“ Anne said as she looked at the kitchen with all the new appliances and everything was clean and neat. Sam led the way through the laundry room and pantry. When they entered Sam’s room Anne took in the huge queen sized bed and two nightstands, the dresser. Then the book shelves full of various books, Sam put the suitcase down at the end of her bed then took Anne’s backpack away from her and put it down next to the suitcase.
“Come on, I’ll show you around the rest of the house,” Sam said leading her out of the room; she pointed to the door at the end of the hall. “That’s the garage.”
Sam lead the way back through to the kitchen and near the sliding glass door there were two steps up to the living room. Anne saw the living room and was amazed at the size. “And the football field is the living room.”
Anne looked around and saw a big 32” TV on an oak entertainment center with a stereo system, DVD player and video combo player. There was a leather recliner in one corner and two couches placed in odd places to make it like a home theater. There was a large oak coffee table in front of one of the couches. “Are you guys rich or something?” Anne asked.
“No, just not poor!” Samantha stated. “There are still three more rooms.”Anne saw that there was a doorway in the wall opposite where they had come into the living room. Sam lead the way and stopped and Anne could see that it was another hall way. Sam pointed to her left, “This is a guest room, and that is another guest room.” She said as she pointed to her right.
“What’s at the end of the hall?” Anne asked softly. Sam grabbed her hand and started leading her down the hall turning on the light as they went. Anne saw that there was a long closet that lined the right side.
“There’s a bathroom on the right and then the master bedroom is on the left,” Sam answered. “The bathroom you can use it’s just mine. My dad has his own bathroom in the master bedroom." Sam opened the bathroom door and led the way in. There were double sinks on the left with a large mirror covering the wall above it. “The cabinet next to the shower has towels and sheets if you need anything like that.”
Sam then led her out of the bathroom and opened the door to the master bedroom. The room was wider then the living room and almost as long. As soon as they walked in there was a desk with a computer and other office type equipment. On the opposite wall from that was the California King bed with oak frame and matching nightstands. “This is huge, several people could live in this room,” Anne stated in amazement.
“Wait until you see his walk in closet, it’s enough to make any woman jealous, except for the wardrobe itself. This consists of mostly suits of some sort and hardly any jeans or t-shirts.” Sam said with a small smile. Leading the way over to the closet, which had a sliding door and opened it then turned on the light. On the left were all of her dad’s white dress shirts and tie rack. On the right were all the suit jackets and pants to match. On the floor under the pants and jackets were racks of dress shoes in browns and blacks. At the end of the closet stood a four drawer dresser.
“Does your dad know anything about style or relaxing?” Anne asked.
“No, he only knows that suits are what he wears to work, being an administrator for the company anyway. I don’t think he knows what total relaxation is.” Sam answered. “But on the good side he left me 20 dollars to get food with, so how does pizza sound?”
“Like a very good idea, combo or just pepperoni?” Anne said.
“Combo pizza it is then,” Sam said and led the way out to the kitchen, where the phone was. Picking up the cordless phone and grabbing the phone book, she looked up the nearest pizza parlor. After calling in the pizza for delivery, they sat at the kitchen table. “So do you want to tell me what’s up or do you want to leave it be?”
“You kind of saw the whole of it. My parents are somewhat abusive, my dad beats my mom and me, and he’s a drunk. My mom is convinced that it’s my fault and that means that shit rolls down hill.” Anne stated not looking at her.
“And you haven’t left why?” Sam demanded.
“Because I’ve got two more semesters then I graduate from high school. Then I can see about college or something!” Anne answered.
“Do you have any other family in town that you can stay with until you graduate?” she asked.
“My Aunt lives on the other side of town but she won’t have anything to do with my mother, her sister, or the rest of us!” Anne was now starting to feel the effects of everything and was now trying not cry.
“Do you have a phone number?” Sam asked trying not to push.
“I’d have to go home to get it and right now I can’t do that!” Anne said sitting down at the table, she looked up at Sam sadly.
“Well, we’ll deal with that later then. For now let’s just relax and put it behind us for now.” Sam turned and went to the fridge; opening it she pulled out two Pepsi’s before sitting down with Anne and handing her one.
“So what were you running from when you moved here?” Anne asked popping open her soda and taking a sip.
“My mom actually, not as big an issue as what you’ve been dealing with, but something I couldn’t handle anymore. My mom works for an ad agency, and is big on the whole control thing.” Sam looked around at the room before turning back to Anne. “She tried to control everything I did from what I did in school, how I studied, who my friends were, and then this summer she started in on the whole college thing and tried to tell me where I would be going.”
“I honestly think she must think that she messed up with my older sister and brothers and had to fix it with me or something,” Sam took another sip of her soda. “My dad has been planning this move for about six months now but it hadn’t included me until about two weeks ago. I had come to visit him and literally had an emotional brake down in front of him. That’s when he decided to let me come with him.”
“Did your mother ever let you date?” Anne asked.
“What’s that?” Sam looked up at her eyes batting innocently. Then couldn’t help it she started to laugh. “No dating wasn’t on her agenda for me.”
“So, what about the teacher then?” Anne asked, she looked at Sam directly and waited.
“You mean Randy?” Sam asked.
“No, the principle Mr. Dodson, yes of course Randy!” Anne said exasperated.
“What about him, he’s my teacher.” Sam said and then suddenly the door bell rang, “Saved by the bell.” She stood up and went to the door, where she opened it for the pizza guy and took the pizza and handed him the 20.
“It was only $10 with delivery charge.” The guy said.
“Just give me back 5 bucks back.” Sam said with a smile. The guy handed her back $5, said thanks, and was gone.
When she came back into the dinning room, it was to find that Anne had found the plates and some more sodas and had put them on the dinning room table. “You never answered my question about the teacher, Randy!”
“There is nothing to say because right there is nothing happening. Plus I am not sure what would happen even if I wanted anything to happen with him,” Sam said pulling a slice and starting to eat. They sat eating and talking for a while about school and what there was to do in Grass Valley until about 7 o’clock when Sam heard her father’s car pull into the driveway. “My dad’s here!” Sam said with a small smile, Anne looked up worried.
“Is me being here going to be a problem?” She asked quickly.
“Don’t worry it’s not a problem.” Sam said as she heard her father walk through the front door. “Hi, Daddy, how was work?”
He came around the corner to enter the kitchen. “What did you do now; you don’t call me Daddy for nothing!” He stopped at the sight of Anne and smiled. Anne noticed he was tall at 6 feet even, and that he had thick almost black hair, and bright emerald green eyes much like Sam’s eyes. He seemed to have a presence around his thin but well built frame.
“This is Anne a friend I met at school. She’s staying the night if that’s okay.” Sam said with a smile.
“That was quick, but sure.” He said softly.
“Anne this is my father, James Town.” Sam said quickly as introduction. Suddenly James saw the black eye on Anne’s face and came forward he touched her face lightly.
“Stay as long as you need too, Anne okay.” James said then turned to his daughter. “Did you save me any pizza?”
“Yes, there are several slices for you!” Sam said and then turned to Anne. “Well, I’ve got about 2 weeks worth of homework to do in a week, do you want to help me?”
“Sure!” Anne answered following her into the bedroom.