• Chess Pieces
    By Claire Hawthorne


    “Hey, can someone help me out?” Katie lifted her head, diverting her attention away from her chicken-scratch handwriting. Her dirty, muddy eyes looked up at her History teacher from behind her thick-rimmed glasses. “I need some help getting the chess boards and pieces down from my room.” She watched as his beautiful, blue eyes scanned the room and finally met with hers. Katie nearly swooned.

    The library. Mr. Bryant was hosting the chess club. Katie was trying to dedicate the last few minutes of her freedom to finishing her homework before the chess club started. He was the hottest, most gorgeous 26-year-old teacher to ever grace a school’s presence, let alone Berkley High. In contrast, she was the dorkiest 15-year-old sophomore at the same place. He’s just too hot to host a club for the geekiest sport ever, Katie thought to herself. But, nonetheless, she agreed to help out her secret teacher crush.

    She hopped up from her seat with no hesitation and ran over to Mr. Bryant. “I’ll help!” she said enthusiastically, almost wanting to salute to him.

    “Thanks,” he said in return, revealing his famous smile to her. And once again, Katie nearly swooned. He was so perfect. His white, gleaming smile, his neat, shiny, brown hair, his statuesque posture, his suave sense of fashion that was professional, yet sleek and sexy… Nearly every teenage girl at Berkley High had an infatuation with him, and Katie was no exception. However, those that, “didn’t have the time for childish teacher crushes,” absolutely hated him. Mr. Bryant was an awful teacher, as the first few weeks of school had revealed. Obviously he was new to teaching, so some students thought he would learn over time. Others did not think so highly. They said that he was creepy and perverted. Some people even dared to believe that he wasn’t even at Berkley for teaching.

    But Katie did not care one bit what the others said. Her History teacher had to be the most beautiful creation of God, and that’s all that mattered to her. She dreamt of a day where she could be with him, breaking the boundaries of the law. Two crazy kids in love, Katie thought every time the dream would cross her mind, even though he’s almost ten years older than me.

    So their journey began. Katie followed Mr. Bryant up the several flights of stairs to his room on the top floor. Her eyes brightened with every step, knowing that it was just her and her love walking up those stairs.

    They finally arrived at Mr. Bryant’s room. The History teacher unlocked the room and held the door for his student, just as a gentleman would. Katie went in first, walking into darkness. The only illumination was from the thin blinds that enveloped the windows. Katie went for the chess pieces, which she knew were in Mr. Bryant’s closet. A thought crossed her mind, and she stopped suddenly. She remembered that the announcements had said that the chess club meeting was to be the next day, but Mr. Bryant had told her last period that he “changed the meeting to today.” Maybe… Her mind wandered to a scary thought; did Mr. Bryant lie to her? And if he did, why?

    “You know, Katie,” she heard Mr. Bryant say. His voice was no longer a resemblance to Prince Charming’s, but rather, that of a monster’s. “I don’t really feel like playing chess today. Let's play a different game, and let's see how good you are at it...” A shiver went up her spine. Tears added to the muddiness of her eyes as she heard Mr. Bryant click the lock on the shut door.

    The End.