"RAIN OF FIRE" by Sarah Ryniker

STORY LAST UPDATED ON 21/04/2002

Rain of Fire Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue

CHAPTER SEVEN

I waited that weekend for my tutor to show up. I sat in the library, trying to ignore all of the memories that were flooding over me. I didn't do very well, but I knew I would do better after I was enveloped in my tutoring. So I waited and waited.
    And the young man that walked in was handsome in the sweetest, yet nerdish way I had ever seen. He was announced quickly and when he came in, he tripped over himself and his books and papers fell all over the floor. His glasses slipped down the bridge of his straight nose, that was just slightly too big, but not horribly so. He couldn't push them back up, though, because he held in his arms whatever papers he was able to catch.
    His hair was a deep, dark, almost ruby red. Though it was closer to auburn. His eyes were beautiful behind his small, thin-rimmed glasses. They were blue violet. I had never seen anyone with that colour of eyes before. His eyes were perfectly almond shaped and set apart just as perfectly. His lips were full, his lower lip a little bit too full and his upper lip a little too thin. He wasn't very tall, nor big. He wasn't skinny, but he was on the thinner side. And he was no more than five foot ten. Yet all of his imperfections together made him very good looking.
    Being nice about it, I quickly rose and went to help him. I picked up his books and organised his papers to the best of my ability, to pick them up. I thought he was good looking, sure. But I certainly didn't obsess over him. I didn't want to have anything to do with him as a man. Only as a teacher.
    I was about to find out, that in spite of his clumsiness and his "nerdish" look, he had a lot more fire than what was shown on the surface. As rude as I was to him, to keep him at arm's length, he was just as rude back.
    After an hour of my not being interested in his "getting to know you" act, he finally got tired of it. "I didn't ask to come here and tutor you, Miss Parish. I came here to do a job. I am trying to be friendly. The least you could do is give some of that effort back," he snapped.
    My head shot up. "Who do you think you are to talk to me like that? I've had enough of people talking down to me," I growled.
    "I'm sure a little rich girl like you isn't used to at all having somebody give them attitude," he responded with just as much vigour.
    "You don't know me, so don't assume anything about me." I pulled my shoulders back, as I often did when I was on the attack. I lifted my head high. "Remember, this your job. You aren't here to be friends with me. You're here to teach. So teach!"
    I knew he had a response for that. It was in his eyes, the way they burned. Yet he didn't say another word about it. He simply taught me as he was supposed to. And he was fantastic at teaching. I had to admit that. I understood everything that he was telling me. I was glad that he was that good a teacher, even if he was a young man. I hated them now. I didn't trust them.
    When he left, I did walk him out to his car. Which, evidently after my attitude, was a mistake.
    "You have the audacity to walk me out to my car after being a complete bitch to me?" he asked with such attitude, I felt like slapping him.
    "Well, maybe if you wouldn't assume things about me, I wouldn't be a bitch to you." Never had anyone made me so angry in so little period of a time. Who was he to call me a bitch, anyway?
    "I'll try to do everything you tell me to do, from now on, Princess," he replied sarcastically.
    I rolled my eyes. "Well, I didn't say I was going to order you about! I don't do that. Usually. At least I think I don't." Suddenly I realised that I wasn't being as rude as I was meaning to be. The wall around my heart flared up instantly after seeing his smile of amusement. I quickly pulled back into my shell of attitude. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
    "Yes, you will," he said, getting into his car.
    "Peachy," I muttered and turned and walked back into the house.
    On my way back towards the house I looked up to see Ella in one of the windows. She sat there looking down at me. And I knew she wasn't seeing me as my mother. She recognised me. And it made me wonder if she had known it was me all of the time. It also made me wonder if she were truly as crazy as she had acted. I looked away from her and walked back into the house.
    I went back into the library to pick up the books of mine I had left there and Mitch intercepted me. When he said my name I spun around and I was cornered against a table, with him hovering over me. His eyes held amusement and lust and I wanted nothing to do with it. I wanted to get away from him.
    "What do you want?" I snapped, trying to hide my real fear. I didn't want to be afraid of him, but I definitely was.
    "So," he purred, like a cat on the prowl. "What do you say you and me go for another round, Phoenix? It was pretty good sex." He laughed at the look on my face.
    "Get away from me!" I shoved at him and ran out of the library. I didn't understand my fear. The morning when it all had happened, I had attacked him. Yet he had been sitting down then, and I was positive he wasn't going to let me get away with that again.
    The next day I waited out at a picnic bench in the garden for Jacob Weston. I didn't want to be caught in the library again with Mitch. I didn't know what he would do now. I didn't trust his intentions at all anymore. I had a feeling he didn't just want to tease and make fun of me.
    When Mr Weston came out and found me, I quickly pulled myself into my shell. I wasn't going to let him know what was going on in my mind. Besides, I kind of enjoyed the battle of wits. At least he put on a good show. He interested me. I wasn't going to admit that, though. I was sure he had some hidden agenda. I just had to wait to meet with him a few more times and I'd know what it was. I was good at assessing people. I had just gone wrong with Mitch. It was something that would never happen again.
    "So, you chose a more romantic setting for us today, Princess?" he asked with a sarcastic smile on his face.
    "Ha! The day you sit anywhere romantic with me is the day hell freezes over!" I declared.
    He nodded. "I expected you'd say something like that." He set his stuff on the table and took out his agenda book to decide what we were working on today.
    "Is what I say that tedious? Am I truly so boring and predictable that you know what I'll say before I say it?" I knew I was getting angry with him. I wasn't predictable! At least, I had never thought so.
    He shook his head. "No, not boring. Not really predictable, either. I just know the type of person you are. By the way, you're pretty good at keeping a wall around you. But, have no fear; my intentions are only to teach you science and math. I don't need to get involved with some little rich girl, and will not do so." And with that the lessons started.
    Somehow, his words got to me. He wouldn't get involved with some little rich girl? But I wasn't what he expected. I wasn't just some little rich girl. Why did he assume that I was? Was it my attitude? Then I quickly changed my train of thought. If he wanted to think that of me, I would let him. What did I care if Jacob Weston liked me or not?
    My weekends and weekdays were completely full of lessons. During my breaks in school he was there, during after school he was there and nearly all day on the weekends. Sometimes I truly thought it wasn't necessary. But then it was. I was getting ahead of my class. He needed a pupil to practice on for when he became a teacher. It was one of the things I understood about Mr Weston. He tried his hardest and always succeeded. I honestly didn't think his intentions were ever bad. And though I did keep up my wall, I did like him. I put on my show of attitude, but I enjoyed his lessons and his wit. He made learning fun and I told him so.
    "You know," I began as he was leaving. "You're going to be a really great teacher, Mr Weston. You make learning fun to do. Schools need more teachers like you."
    "I do hope you're being honest and not sarcastic." It seemed to be his turn to be bitter. Did he not believe in himself that much? Or did what I say really matter?
    "I'm not being sarcastic. I really mean it," I told him with a smile.
    He smiled back. "You're really not that bad, Phoenix. I just wish I understood why you try to be so mean and nasty, even though you tend to show your true colours more than you know."
    "If I do show my true colours it's only because I trust you not to hurt me," I confessed, looking down at the table. "Even though that may be a stupid move."
    "You can trust me. I wouldn't hurt you, Phoenix. You're a good person. Maybe you should show it more often."
    I looked up at him and shook my head. "Don't you think I have shown it? That's what has got me into trouble and pain before. No, Mr Weston, I am definitely tired of people treating me badly. I'll stick to being rude." I was determined not to let my guard down around anybody anymore. If that meant being ten times more rude than I was before, then so be it.
    He smiled. Yet he didn't respond to what I said. I was grateful for that. "You know, I know that teachers are supposed to be called Mr, Ms, or Mrs. But really, Phoenix, I feel very strange having someone barely younger than me call me Mr Weston. Call me Jacob from now on, please?"
    I shrugged. "Okay, if that's what you want. It's up to you. You are the teacher."
    I helped him take his books out to his car as I often did. We said our goodbyes as always. Yet this time when he left, it felt different. I felt as if I were gaining a friend. And I was scared to death to do that. After what had happened with Mitch, I was so afraid to trust anybody. Yet here I was, trusting someone.
    I walked back to the garden and gathered up my things, only once again, Mitch cornered me. I was bending over the table picking up my papers and organising my books when he came up behind me and grabbed my hips and push his crotch right up to my rear. I was shocked and jumped.
    "Now, hush, Phoenix. You have nothing to worry about. We've done this before," he cooed in my ear, as if I was a wild, bucking horse and he was the horse whisperer.
    Before I could cry out, he clapped his hand over my mouth. I tried to pull away from him, but he was a lot stronger than I had assumed before. He held me tightly and unfortunately, I was wearing a dress that day. He shoved me onto the ground roughly, kissing my mouth and making sure not to let me breathe enough to scream.
    He kept my hands behind my back so I could do nothing, while his other hand flipped my skirt up and yanked my panties down. When he unzipped his pants I really began to panic, trying to scream as loud as possible, even though his hand was shoved roughly against my mouth again.
    "Shut the fuck up!" he screamed at me.
    "She doesn't have to!"
    Mitch was stunned to hear the voice of my tutor, who at the moment was my saviour. Thank you, God! I thought to myself, relieved. Whatever made him come back, thank you!
    I was shocked to see Jacob fight. I had thought surely Mitch, who was quite a bit taller than him, would nearly kill him. But I was wrong. Mitch was the one who ended up on the ground, moaning and groaning. Then he glared me, glared at my tutor and got up. "You can have the little whore!" he screamed and then turned and ran.
    Mitch had got a punch enough to make Jacob's nose bleed and his lip split open, but that was fine. He hadn't done much damage and I quickly helped Jacob into the house to help him clean up.
    "Are you all right?" he asked, after I had given him a cloth to hold on his nose and was putting alcohol on his lip.
    I laughed. He was asking me if I was all right and he was the one bleeding? "I'm fine. I should be asking you that!"
    "I'm fine, even though that alcohol burns like hell. Don't you rich people carry peroxide?" He was getting cranky because his nose was, I was almost positive, broken and his lip was split pretty badly.
    I shook my head in answer to his question. "No, my grandfather says that alcohol does much better on wounds, so he only gets alcohol."
    "I can do this myself, you know." He groaned as he switched hands holding the cloth on his nose.
    I simply shook my head back and forth again. "No, I can do it. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be having this problem, anyway."
    "I think it stopped bleeding," he muttered and pulled the cloth off. "Yes, it did." Then he looked at me. "Phoenix, it's not your fault he was trying to rape you. I came back luckily because I had forgot a book. I saw that happening and I wasn't going to just allow him to do that to you." He thought for a second. "Do you honestly think I would let somebody do that to you?"
    "You have no reason to defend me," I reasoned with him.
    His jaw fell to the floor. "You think I would have saw that and gone away? What's wrong with you, Phoenix? What has somebody done to you?" He shook his head. "At first, I thought it was just because you're a little rich girl. But it's far more than that. I can see that now."
    "You'd better get going" was all I managed. I walked him out to his car, letting him keep the cloth just in case his nose started bleeding again. "Thanks for coming back," I muttered, then I turned and ran back into the house.
    I hid in my bedroom until dinner that night, fearing Mitch. But I also had a lot to think about. And the main thought running through my head was how I could so easily let myself begin to fall for Jacob Weston. And I knew that I was. And I was scared to death.

Rain of Fire Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue

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