Perfecting the Odds by Brenna St. Clare Page A

though the students begged for it. She encouraged them to use their own minds, to trust that each of them was an intelligent, critical reader and writer. The only time she had them collaborate was for peer review. But despite how strict she was, she balanced her hard-ass teaching style with quick wit and sarcasm and welcomed student-led discussion and sometimes bantering as well. In fact, it was common to hear random bursts of laughter coming from her room.
    Simply, it was a place of mutual respect.
                  By 8:00, Karis was herding the students into the auditorium, and as she made her way to her front row aisle seat, she reminded her students to be respectful. The auditorium was nearly filled and the hum of teenage conversations began to vibrate off the walls.  She sat down and scanned the chairs on stage to ensure all speakers were in attendance. Shit ! screamed loudly within. Of course, the last chair, her speaker’s chair, was empty. She turned around in her seat to see if a confused professor-type individual was milling around.
    Just as she turned her head back to the stage, Mrs. Winston dropped down beside her and bit out, “Where’s your speaker, Mrs. Bennett?”
    “Mrs. Winston, good morning to you too,” Karis replied, sugar sweet. “I’m sure he’s just running late. He assured me he would be here.” Liar, liar, pants on frickin’ fire…and not in the good way. And to make matters worse, she had just riddled her response with a series of He’s. He had better be male. If not, Karis’d be up shit’s creek, and …well…that didn’t sound too bad right now. At least it would be quiet and definitely not smell like coconut.
    “Well, you seem to have something in common already. What’s his name? I’ll be sure to have someone bring him down if he arrives.”
    Double Shit! “His name?”
    “Yes, Karis, your speaker does have a name?”
    Karis shot her a “duh” look. “Of course.”
    “Well, what is it, Karis,” Winston whispered between clenched teeth.
    “ Er...it’s.” And just as Karis was about to utter her second lie in less than thirty seconds, an eraser from somewhere in the back of the auditorium hit Mrs. Winston square in the back of her the head.
    Her head jerked up. “Exc uuuuse me!” The woman fumed like a caged animal. “ Who did that?”
    Karis gnawed her bottom lip to stop from laughing. Thank God for ornery kids. Mrs. Winston was, in a word, a bitch. The students hated her, and even worse, they didn’t respect her. After slowly scanning the auditorium to sniff out the culprit, Mrs. Winston left in a huffed stride toward the stage to begin the assembly.
    She all but snarled before speaking. “Good morning, esteemed guests, teachers, community members, and students. Welcome to our annual Career Day. Let’s continue our tradition of being a mature group of students by welcoming Mrs. Bennett, English teacher and our Career Day Coordinator.”
    Applause ensued as Karis rose from her auditorium seat to make her way to the stage steps. Just as she started her first step, the creek of a door prompted her glance toward the back of the auditorium.
    Well, Crap a shit.

Chapter 13  
     
    Michael, hotter-than-Hades, Finn met Karis’s wide-eyed stare and grinned. Like a damn on-switch to her arousal, her pussy wept and her breasts grew heavy. Gripping the handrails with white-knuckled ferocity, Karis shook her head. For a moment Karis felt stupid. She should have known. How many of these Marine slash professors existed? Was this some sort of twisted cult? And how is it, dammit, that she knew both? Karis caught the audience in her line of vision and saw only the backs of teenage heads. No doubt, the females were swooning, and the males were saying things like, I hope I look like that badass motherfucker when my body hair grows in . Ter-rific.
    And then he began to move, his eyes still locked with hers, a knowing smile still playing on those lips. With a natural