Free Her Teacher's Temptation by Alexandra Vos Page A

well.”
     
    I'd written a
different piece for my mum to read, which involved someone coming home from
war, so that she wouldn't be suspicious about my drug use. I figured it was
safer that way. She'd been impressed with it even if it hadn't been my actual
entry. “Thanks mum.”
     
    “See you
tomorrow evening!” I called as I slipped into the passenger seat of Ollie's
car, giving her a small wave.
     
    “See you soon,”
she replied, waving back and blowing a cheesy kiss. “Love you.”
     
    “Love you too.”
     
    I grinned as
Ollie started up his engine and pulled away from the kerb. These two days were
either going to be really good or horribly bad. I was surprisingly optimistic
it would be the first one.
     
    “You have got
everything, haven't you?” He checked just before we reached the end of my
street. “I'm definitely not coming all the way back to Sheffield if you've done
something stupid like forgotten your writing.”
     
    I rolled my
eyes. “Yes, I've got everything. Do I really seem that clumsy to you?”
     
    Ollie glanced
at me sceptically. “Yes,” he deadpanned. “Mind you, with that suitcase I don't
think it'd be possible for you to have forgotten anything.”
     
    I refused to
comment on that, in case he sniffed out my plan. I had to hope everyone else at
the competition wasn’t as studious as I was imagining them to be. “I've never
been to Newcastle. Have you?”
     
    “Yeah, my
sister goes to uni there. She's in her second year, so I've been quite a few
times. It's nice up there.”
     
    “I'm glad I'm
getting to go now, I'm thinking of putting it down as one of my uni choices,” I
explained. “What's she studying?”
     
    “Journalism.”
     
    “Oh cool,” I
beamed. “That's what I want to do too. Does she like it?”
     
    “Yeah, but she
failed her May exams because she went out drinking too much and had to resit in
August,” he told me with a chuckle.
     
    I smirked. “We
both know I'm more sensible than that, though.”
     
    He rolled his
eyes. “Sure.”
     
    “I don't think
I'll end up going there anyway.” I figured I may as well explain my reasoning,
since we had two and half hours of driving time to pass. “I think I should stay
closer to home, though, to help out my mum if she ever needs it. I definitely don't
want to stay in Sheffield. But Nottingham looks pretty good. Or Leeds maybe.”
     
    “If you want to
go further away from home, you should just do it.” Ollie gave me a serious
sideways glance. “My parents really wanted me to stay closer to home, even when
I got into Oxford, but I really wanted to just have some time away. I
definitely made the right decision. You should just do what you want to do.”
     
    I considered
this. “Maybe. I really like Nottingham anyway, though.”
     
    “Are you
thinking of applying to Oxbridge? Because I'm fairly sure you could get in.
Especially with this writing competition and stuff. You've got more to put on
your CV than I did.”
     
    “I used to
really want to do maths and Cambridge,” I admitted with a slight chuckle. “But
then when it came to A-levels I way preferred the English side of things. And
in terms of Oxbridge, I don't like the whole posh thing they have going on.
Formal dinners and stuff really isn't my thing.”
     
    He shrugged.
“Me neither,” he admitted. “I think I was pretty lucky to make friends who had
the same kind of interests as me and weren't bothered about the posh stuff. I
can see what you mean, though. Sometimes I wish I'd gone to a bigger city;
especially since now I'm not supposed to go out and stuff.” Then he snorted.
“And really, are you just good at everything?”
     
    I flushed
slightly. “I can't draw,” I offered with a small smirk.
     
    Ollie rolled
his eyes. “You could definitely get into Cambridge.”
     

 
    Chapter Nine
     
    “Wow,” I
commented to Ollie when the man lecturing us finally finished talking. “You
weren’t kidding, huh? Damn. If this is