The moonlight cast a soft glow on the ancient library's empty corridors as she sneaks inside to explore it.
She knows she isn't supposed to be here, but she has had little faith in her own self-restraint ever since she heard about the restricted library two nights ago,.
It's 1 am. Everyone else is asleep and this is her chance.
She tiptoes over the cold cobblestone floors, using only a thin, white candle to illuminate her path as she goes.
The library is dark, cold and a little creepy. Which is why she can't seem to get enough of it.
The books are colour coordinated, arranged in sections of deep reds, greens and blues, and there are a few piles of books on the floor that don't seem to fit anywhere.
She wonders if she can manage to sneak out a few. No, she can't risk dropping one or two on the way and waking up the entire dorm.
Moving over to one of the neglected piles, she sits beside it, tucking her nightgown under her thighs and beginning to go through the dusty old books.
She wonders why the library is closed. Of course, Brighthorn High has a well-equipped, much more modern library upstairs, but this one just seems much more interesting.
After a few minutes of sorting, she decides on a thin brown book with a red rose on the cover, not bothering to see what its about. Anything is better than the 'educational' nonsense upstairs. This one might actually make her feel something.
She stands. 'I better get back upstairs into my room before I get caught,' she thinks to herself.
She turns to find her way out when a voice startles her. A stern voice, echoing through the walls and keeping her feet planted in the spot.
"Leaving already?"
Her heart lurches into her throat. And in a panicked effort to escape the stranger, she blows out the candle.
But the stranger switches on the lights, illuminating the section she's standing in much better than her miserable little candle.
She squints, dazzled, but only for a few seconds as the stranger soon comes into view.
If she wasn't afraid before, she is terrified now to find the headmaster scowling at her from only a few feet away.
"Nice try," he says.
He tilts his head, watching her intently, as if trying to figure out who she is. "Which one are you?" He asks.
She crosses her arms behind her, hiding the book, but she knows its a little too late for that.
She swallows, finding it a little too hard to find her voice.
"Your name," he demands.
"Jane," she says finally.
"Jane," he repeats. "What's that behind you, Jane?"
He's teasing her. She knows he is. He already knows what it is.
She shows it to him, hesitantly.
"The fact that I don't know you means you've never been in trouble," he says, walking over to her until he's close enough to take the book from her shaky fingers.
"You're one of the quiet ones, aren't you?"
Jane nods. Indeed she is. It's no surprise that the headmaster has never even noticed her before in an all girls boarding school with over two hundred students.
He looks between the book and her. This one is not good at sneaking around, anyway. He noticed her on his way out of his office after staying up this late to grade papers and followed her here. And now, he's too tired to deal with this shit.
"Alright Jane," he sighs. "Meet me in my office tomorrow. I'll give you your punishment then. But for now…" he gives her a long, hard look. If she went through such lengths to get a book, perhaps he should just let her have it. She looks pitiful shaking like a leaf under his gaze and he must have given her the fright of her life when he spoke to her in the darkness. He hands her the book. "Take it."
She looks up at him from the floor, eyes wide in shock. She takes the book, slowly, watching his eyes to see is he means it.
She wonders if she should decline, or apologise, or say anything at all. Her mouth opens and shuts a few times and he shakes his head. "Don't bother," he says, turning away from her. "Now get out."
Jane rushes out, clutching the book over her chest, and dreading what is to come.
The Headmaster isn't very tolerant. Everyone knows that.
If there was ever a dark presence keeping the students in line because they would do anything not to earn so much as a cold stare from him, it was the headmaster. Feared, respected, admired. He's also younger than most teachers and the most good-looking of them all.
Jane always thought she felt more fear than admiration for him. She never thought she'd be here, her hand floating around his office door, hesitant to knock. She never thought she'd get in trouble.
Finally, she knocks three times, withdrawing her hand quickly and fidgeting nervously as she awaits his response.
"Come in," she hears him say in a voice bored enough to help her relax a tiny bit. Perhaps he isn't at all interested in dishing out a punishment today she thinks, knowing damn well that she's wrong.
"You asked me to see you today, sir?" She says when he doesn't even bother to look at her.
He's seated behind his desk, a small line resting between his brows in a frown of concentration. With his glasses on, he seems a little less intimidating and a little more arrogant. His head is bent over slightly, allowing bits of his dark hair to fall over and frame his perfectly sculpted face.
Jane shifts uncomfortably from one foot to the other as a tension she's convinced she is the only one affected by fills the office.
Finally, he sits up, pushing his chair back and crossing his arms over his chest.
"Yes," he replies finally. "I hope the book was worth it," he says, mocking her with a small smile. Jane doesn't respond.
"Detention. With me. Right after lunch and don't be a second late unless you would like to prolong your punishment," he says.
With him. Jane can't help it but think about his choice of words. This isn't punishment at all compared to what she had in mind only a few seconds ago.
"Understood?" He adds.
"Yes, sir."
Even after she answers him, Jane knows she must wait for his permission to leave. But the headmaster stares at her a bit longer, the frown returning to his features. She looks everywhere and anywhere but at him, admiring the floor, the ceiling and the fancy shoes he's wearing today.
Finally, he sighs and says, "you may go" and she practically bolts out of his office, only able to breathe once she is back in the hallway.
***
"Why are you eating so damn fast?"
"I have detention."
Charlie and Grace stare at her in absolute horror. "You have what!?" Charlie exclaims, startling half the other students in the dining room.
Jane rubs her face with her palms. "I know, I'm supposed to be the quiet one that doesn't get in trouble and I'm not exactly excited about spending God knows how long in silence with the headmaster, studying, but at least he didn't make me clean the toilets or something," she rambles while her friends stare at her in disbelief.
"And what exactly did you do to get detention?" Grace asks, amused.
"Well I…"
"Well?"
She looks between her friends who are now staring at her expectantly, with her half-eaten sandwich waiting between her fingers.
She sighs and swallows the bit of food in her mouth. "I snuck into the closed library last night."
"I knew we shouldn't have told her about it!" Charlie says, nudging Grace in the arm.
"You are such a nerd," Grace adds, shaking her head in disapproval.
Jane ignores them, shoving the rest of her food down. "Whatever. I'm going to be late," she says wiping her arms and brushing the crumbs off her uniform.
"It's honestly not that bad, you know," Charlie says, speaking from experience. She has gotten into trouble so many times before that she can probably rank all the school's famous punishments from top to bottom.
And before any of them could say anything else, Jane rushes off.
***
She opens the door to her classroom and he's already there, seated behind the teacher's desk. She looks around and seeing as there are no other students there, she might have to bear this alone.
She walks in, closing the door behind her and waiting. Waiting for him to say something. Anything. She has no idea how this really works.
He raises an eyebrow at her and she shrugs.
"You really don't know how this works?" he says. He opens up a big black book and picks up a pen, motioning for her to come over and take it.
She does, looking at the grid lines on that page and realising that this is some kind of record.
"Name, time and date," he says. He watches her click the pen and lean over to write them down.
And once she's done she slides the book back towards him before straightening up and looking back for a place to sit.
"Sit there," he says, gesturing towards the desk right in front of his. There is no reason for making her sit there only to make this just a little bit more difficult for her. He fights back his smirk as she takes she takes off her school bag, drops it on the floor right next to the desk and sits before taking out a few books and placing them on top.
She wonders if she should ask how long she's going to be here. 'Would that be rude?' She thinks to herself.
"How long is this going to be?" She asks before she can talk herself out of it. He looks at her through the top frame of his glasses. "Two hours."
"If its not too much trouble, Sir, could you talk me through the rules?" She asks, not wanting to annoy him any further with her ignorance.
"Yes. No standing, no talking, no eating and no use of any electronics that you might have in your possession. I could choose to prolong the hours of your detention if I feel like you haven't studied enough during this time. Any more questions?"
She shakes her head.
"Ah. One last thing. Always use your words with me, Jane."
Her heart skips, and she doesn't know why. "Yes, Sir."
The classroom falls silent as he shifts his attention to his work.
Jane tries to focus and be productive as well, she really does, but after a few minutes, she finds herself stealing glances at the headmaster.
He looks just like he did when she walked into his office earlier. But now that he's much closer, she can take in a few more details. Like the fact that his sleeves are rolled up, revealing his nice, big arms and the pattern of his veins all the way down to his hands, stopping right below his long, delicate fingers. There is a sort of neat, manly perfection that she sees in him, different from the boys her age for sure.
She looks away. She should be studying her history notes and not him. Not the history teacher who is also the headmaster, and also the one that is keeping her here when she should be resting after a long day in class.
But she wants to see more. More of his hair which is now a little out of place. The perfect mix of fluffy and spiky even though he probably doesn't put much effort into making it look this way.
She looks away again. 'Don't stare at him! That's weird!'
The words she had written down in her notebook only a few weeks ago don't seem to make sense now because she's too busy fighting the urge to look at his face.
She rubs her palms over her skirt as they start to become sweaty. 'There's no harm in looking, right? He won't notice me looking anyway.'
He has what Grace would call hooded eyes, with unfairly long eyelashes to complete the effect. That must be why she doesn't dare look into them. They make him so much more intimidating.
His nose is perfectly straight and in perfect proportion to the rest of his face, especially his lips.
His lips. They're pressed into a hard line now as he works, but she can still see how pleasing they are. His upper lip is slightly thinner than the bottom lip, and their corners are sharp enough to enhance every expression he makes.
No wonder he teaches Greek mythology so well. He must be one of the gods reincarnated.
And she knows she shouldn't be staring at her teacher's lips unless he's… well… teaching, but she stares long and hard enough now to notice when he finally looks at her.
"What are you staring at?"
She jumps slightly in her chair, looking away.
"I- I'm sorry," she stutters.
He stares at her blankly for a few seconds before returning to his work, and that's enough to keep Jane's eyes off him until her detention comes to an end.
"Alright. You're free to go," he says, exactly two hours later.
The most thrilling two hours of Jane's life at the school. But she's glad detention is over.
He gathers the graded papers while she packs up her books and stationery. They meet at the door and he opens it.
"After you," he says, making her blush. And once she's out the door, she jogs away.
He watches her leave before making his way back to his office.
Silly girl. Staring at her teacher during detention.
He can't say it's the first time this has happened but its a lot more flattering coming from a girl like her.
She's a smart girl. She would only observe something she is truly interested in.