Future KidPub (Chapter 3)

A/N : Um, this was written from a lond way back; so, if you're gunna read it, just read chaoter 1 and 2 again, okay? You know, to get the story. you may have forgotten.

Chapter 3:

Mr. O’Connor sipped his mug of coffee as he checked his student’s homework. Anna Kennedy was sitting next to him chattering away, yet doing her personal work too. They were in the staff room, it seemed to be a coincidence that both of them didn’t have any class to teach then.
“Oh – did you get that ‘Beats of the City’ book, ‘lec?”, Mrs. Kennedy suddenly said, switching from the topic of carroty-cheese ice-creams (Alec was barely listening or he would have thought, “Eww”) to the topic of a novel, as Mr. O’Connor scratched out a mistake in Haley Davis’s paragraph.
“Um, what?”, momentarily distracted, Alec looked up quickly and answered, “Um, yeah. It’s ‘City of the Beasts’, by the way, Mrs. Kennedy”.
Anna gave an very unladylike snort and said, “Oh, be quiet with this ‘Mrs. Kennedy’ posh – I’d probably told you a thousand times that ‘Anna’ is just plain fine”
In response, Alec just rolled his eyes.
Anna must have either ignored it or didn’t see it, but she continued, “So what did you get the kids?”
“Uh, the first book of Paira Lowen’s Adventures”.
“Whassat?”
“A book”
Anna did something of a snort or a sigh, and she said sarcastically, “It seems SOMEONE is thinking of something else today”
At this, Mr. O’Connor immediately came to his senses. He blurted, “What? I’m not- I mean-“, he regained his calm quickly enough and furrowed his brows, “Can’t I concentrate on my work? Is there a problem?”
Anna didn’t seem perturbed by Alec’s sharp tone, she just waved a hand in the sir casually and said airily, “Oh, no, no, continue concentrating, please do. No problem at all.”
Alec didn’t want to say anything, or he couldn’t have, probably, and turned to his work once again, though rather edgy somewhat.
Anna smirked to herself. Mr. O’Connor seemed to be in dream-world today, barely listening to what others were saying to him. Probably lots of stress over work or something, she thought. Or something else. But THAT theory couldn’t be possible… can it?
Anna knew people’s body-language well enough, and she could tell that someone who was acting like Alec was, normally had a worrying-about-date problem.
But she knew Mr. O’Connor well enough too, to know that, THIS man, for one, COULD NOT have a date problem. Mr. O’Connor was a serious, hard-working man; he had no time for love in his life. Nor femininity.
But… could Alec be in love? No, Anna forced herself to think. If he WAS in love, I would know already. Well, wouldn’t I? she mused.
“Ah-em”, Alec cleared his throat, standing up, and broke Anna out of her train of thoughts.
“Well, I got to go.”, he told Anna grabbing important papers off his desk. Anna asked at once, being the curious person she was, where and why he was going, since it wasn’t even the end of the period to go teach a class. This is getting more suspicious by the second, she thought. Alec wasn’t the type of person to go early.
But he said, “Well, I asked to be let off early. So, I’m leaving now, home.”
Anna stared at him for a while. When Alec didn’t get a response, he coughed and said, “Well, see you, Anna”, with a messy clump of papers in his arms.
Anna stared at Alec until he went out the staff room, taking the things he needed along with him.
“There’s some investigation I got to do…” she thought craftily as the door closed behind Alec.
Soon Anna was merrily chattering to another poor victim of hers, who was unfortunate enough to sit beside her and listen to the ravings of a history teacher.