Lessons in Love Read Online Free PDF

day previous he had assigned the punishment.
     
    “There’s nothing good about it,” Alex retorted, throwing her backpack down on a nearby desk and settling down at it.
     
    It was eerie to be in the empty classroom. All the neatly lined up desks were empty, and the room was totally still, apart from their breathing. The late afternoon sunlight spilled through the windows, bathing the room in an ethereal golden glow.
     
    “That’s the spirit,” Mr. Simmons joked. “It’s always best to be positive about these things.” 
     
    Alex smiled falsely at him and got out her workbook and pen.
     
    “Before we start work, we need to talk about why you’re here,” Mr. Simmons said, leaning against his desk rather than sitting behind it, adopting that stance which all young teachers do when they’re eager to connect with a student. Give them a few years and they’d be sitting behind it like all the others, thankful of the barrier it provided.
     
    He was wearing a pale blue shirt with dark jeans, his hair lightly styled with gel, and Alex could smell cedar wood, which she assumed was his cologne. He looked good, there was no doubt about it, but Alex didn’t care how he looked. Nor did she care about how any of the guys at her school looked. She’d stopped caring about those sorts of things when she was fourteen. At eighteen, she had almost perfected her apathy towards the opposite sex.
     
    “I’m here because you gave me detention,” Alex responded simply.
     
    “But why did I give you detention?” Mr. Simmons pressed her further.
     
    Alex squirmed beneath his scrutiny, fidgeting nervously with her hair, which she’d chosen to wear in a plait, along with a pink gingham shirt, denim hot pants and black Converse sneakers.
     
    “You gave me detention because I was rude to you.” Alex sighed.
     
    “So you know what you did wrong, so why were you rude?” Mr. Simmons asked. He wasn’t grilling her, he sounded genuinely interested in her explanation.
     
    “I don’t know.” Alex shrugged, adopting the petulant teenager approach.
     
    “You don’t know?” Mr. Simmons echoed. “Do you talk to all your teachers that way? With that lack of respect?”
     
    “Sometimes,” Alex admitted.
     
    “Don’t you respect them?”
     
    “Generally, no.”
     
    “No?” Mr. Simmons was surprised. “Why don’t you respect them?”
     
    “Because they haven’t earned it yet.” Alex surprised herself with her answer and blushed. She’d heard those words before, many years ago, from her father. She didn’t even realize she’d been thinking that way until that very moment.
     
    “You should respect authority figures,” Mr. Simmons told her gently. “The teachers are here to try to help you.”
     
    “I don’t need help,” Alex instantly snapped at him.
     
    “I think you do,” Mr. Simmons stated, his eyes boring into hers.
     
    “No, I’m fine. Stop doing the creepy caring teacher act.” Alex folded her arms across her chest and stuck her chin out defiantly.
     
    “I’m not the one acting,” Mr. Simmons told her. “There’s only us in here. You can stop pretending to be head cheerleader and just be yourself.”
     
    “Excuse me?” Alex asked, incredulous at the accusation.
     
    “I saw you at the game,” Mr. Simmons told her. “You couldn’t have looked less enthused as you sat on the sidelines. Hardly your typical head cheerleader. Normally girls in your position are just oozing school spirit to the point where it’s nauseating.”
     
    “Maybe I just felt ill!” Alex tried to defend herself but heard her voice faltering. “Perhaps it was my period or something!”
     
    Usually male teachers could be stunned into silence by the mention of a woman’s menstrual cycle, but Mr. Simmons was undeterred.
     
    “Perhaps you don’t really care about your football team,” he suggested, watching her intently.
     
    “Am I here to have my school spirit put on trial?” Alex remarked