The Not Gate (Tom and Alice #1) Read Online Free PDF

Thoughts flicking over rapidly in her mind. What was that? That was a reaction… wasn’t it?

A FINE LINE
    Friday 20 th October
    T om burst out of the room into the corridor and slammed the door shut behind him.
    Shit, that was too bloody loud.
    He paced quickly to the English resource cupboard, near the top of the stairs and stepped inside.
    ‘Get your shit together, Chambers, she’s just a girl,’ he whispered to himself.
    ‘Oh yeah read aloud – great fucking idea, “old enough to be your father,” brilliant!’ he cursed himself aggressively.
    What was she doing? This wasn’t her normal attitude.
    Tom reached for some old worksheets that weren’t even about Jane Eyre so he could go back in with something in his hand to cover his outburst. He didn’t even know why he’d had to get out of there? It was just something about the way she smiled at him. He has hot, he needed a drink and he really didn’t need to finish this lesson.
    He straightened his tie minutes later and started walking back towards his room. When he entered he didn’t even look in her direction, but he caught the light sandy shade of her hair out of the corner of his eye. He reached his desk and sat down, opened his drawer and slung the copy of the novel into it.

    Five minutes before the lunchtime bell, Tom consulted his homework diary and asked for all essays to be handed to the front. He counted them in and was impressed at the length of some of them. It turned out there were some very bright students in this class.
    ‘Why is there two missing, people?’ Tom asked stiffly, looking up.
    ‘My printer ran out of ink, sir, my mum’s getting a new cartridge today. So can I hand it in tomorrow please?’ David Pearce shifted in his seat awkwardly.
    ‘First thing lad and if it’s not I’ll come looking for you, okay? A-levels are hard things to achieve, they require forward planning and there’s always pen and paper.’
    ‘Okay sir, thanks.’
    ‘Who is the other?’ Tom put is pen down and scanned the room, he got to Alice and she was looking down at her feet and her friend Emily was staring at her very strangely.
    No, please…
    ‘Me, sir,’ she mumbled raising her head slightly and looking like she was about to be tortured.
    ‘Alice…but why…why?’ he stammered foolishly.
    ‘I don’t know?’ she shrugged with tears in her eyes.
    All her classmates were looking at her now. He had absolutely no idea what to do.
    ‘Right, stay behind a minute after this lesson. We need to have a chat,’ he ordered a little colder than he’d wanted to.
    He had been pushed into it. How on earth could he ignore a series of incidents with a student without trying to find out what was wrong? He couldn’t let it slide when he would’ve all too quickly picked any other student up on any such indiscretion. His bloody teaching ethics had really bitten him hard this time.
    He wanted nothing less than he wanted this chat with her.
    Count to ten…
    He stood at the back of the room, neatly stacking the essays into a pile as the last student left. The bell had gone three minutes ago.
    He was stalling.
    Ever since the first spark of something he’d felt when Alice Rutherford had looked at him he had avoided her at every turn. He just couldn’t afford to feel it again. He didn’t want anything confirmed, or to be reminded about that moment. He could pretend that he’d made it all up as long as it never happened again.
    But now here she was, sitting in his classroom waiting for a lecture or at least a conversation about what was wrong. He believed that as she was so bright and her commitment to education so steadfast he could sail through the next year without ever having to talk to her one-on-one about anything. She would continue to do well and he could watch safely from afar. He’d been foolish.
    Tom turned reluctantly and started to walk to his desk that she was sitting in front of now. Her back to him, long honey coloured hair fell down around