Taking The Class Pt. 04

Will shivered, and Alaina pulled her lips away from his neck to give him a questioning look.

"William?" his father said.

"Sorry, Father," William said, snapping back to attention. "Nothing unusual happened," he lied again. "My schooling continues apace, and my grades remain unchanged."

There was an annoyed sigh from somewhere nearby which he ignored.

"Is that so. I'm pleased to hear it."

A pair of lips covered his, and a tongue thrust itself into his mouth.

A vortex of blueberries engulfed his brain for an instant.

Will blinked as Alaina pulled herself back, then leaned over to steal another quick kiss.

She grinned at him.

"The reason I've called is to schedule a dinner. You and I, your mother, your girlfriend. I'm available Monday evening at six."

"Um, hold on, let me ask if she's free then," said Will. He pressed the mute button on his phone.

Then he took a deep breath. "Wow," he said. "Thanks. Er... Do you think he heard us?"

"No, nobody can hear us, I've got a Trait. Remember this past Monday before Ms. Perez came in how loud I was? Anyway, is this going to happen any time you talk to one of them?" Alaina asked.

"Um..." How are her Traits so awesome?

"We'll work on it. What does he want?"

"Dinner Monday night. With both of us."

She frowned. "Dinner, huh?" Her mouth curved into a sinister-looking smile. "Yeah, sounds perfect. This'll be the start of getting you out from under his thumb."

"Er..."

"Will," Alaina said, reaching over to run a hand over his cheek. "He can't use his contract bullshit on you anymore. You can be free! And you heard Mom, if he tries something else she'll kick his ass or something. Come on, this could be fun! Imagine the look on his face when he realizes you aren't afraid of him anymore!"

Will shuddered. "But I am afraid of him, Alaina. That's not something you can fix overnight. I don't think it's a good idea. He's planning something. He always is."

She grabbed his right hand with both of hers. "Will, you said you trust me, right?"

"Yeah..."

"If we go, I won't let anything happen to you, all right?" Alaina said, giving him an earnest look. "I promise. If anything starts getting weird, I'll scream that I'm pregnant or something and we'll leave right away."

Will giggled, then started to laugh. "Pregnant? Oh, the look on his face would be..." he trailed off awkwardly. "Er, sorry... I know about your, um..."

Alaina blew a raspberry. "Don't worry about it, I wasn't planning to have kids any time soon, anyway. I'm still hoping I grow out of that part of the Trait. So what do you think? I won't push you anymore if you really don't want to go."

That was from a Trait? What the fuck! It makes sense in a twisted sort of way, but I take it back: her Class is a lot more messed up than I thought.

But... Hm. I trust her. And I believe she'll do whatever she can... Ugh, it would be such a disaster, though. Ah shit, she's right. I don't wanna live my whole life afraid of him. And this seems like a good time to start if she's with me.

He gave her a small grin that he wasn't feeling and nodded. "Alright, I'll do it."

"Yes!" Alaina said, bouncing his hand up and down in excitement. "I know just the place, too." She named a restaurant downtown.

Will frowned. "I think he might be offended if I suggested we go there. It's not really—"

"Will, trust me. Tell him you think it'll be special." Alaina's eyes sparkled.

Special, huh? "I'll try." He picked up his phone and hesitated a moment before unmuting it. "I asked her," he said.

"And?" his father said in an icy voice.

Alaina squeezed his hand between hers.

"She's agreed to Monday at six. We... We can meet at this restaurant." He said the name. "It will be a special dining experience."

"Special?" His father sounded annoyed. "If it's that place... Hm. I suppose I'll try to restrain my eagerness to find out what your idea of special is. I'll see you there at six. Sharp."

"We'll be there," said Will.

"I look forward to it. Goodbye, William."

The call ended.

Alaina attacked him before he even put the phone down, clamping her hands to his face and giving him a kiss so intense that he felt himself straining uncomfortably at his jeans long before it ended several minutes later.

"Wow," said Will. He reveled in the lingering blueberry flavor in his mouth. I don't think I'll ever get tired of that. I think I might even like blueberries more now.

"You did it!" his girlfriend exclaimed. "You stood up to him a little bit!"

"I'm not sure that really qualifies—"

"No, it does! You didn't go all William during the call at the end! And you didn't just let him make all the plans, either. When was the last time you did either of those things?"

He thought about it. "Ugh, that's depressing."

"Small steps, Will," said Alaina. "And I'll be there to help and give incentives and rewards, I promise. Now come on, I need to change if we're still going for that ride." She opened her door and stepped out.

It somehow feels a little less scary thinking about having her with me. Not a lot. But maybe that's enough.

I should probably change, too...

* * *

"That's weird," said Alaina as she came down the stairs. She was clad in a form-fitting, black-and-green cyclist's outfit.

"What's weird?" Is it weird that I'm getting turned on watching her walk around wearing that?

"Tiff got back to me. Um." She looked up from her phone and met his eyes. "She just said thanks?"

"Thanks? As in, thanks for last night?"

"She didn't say. But she already thanked me a lot earlier, so I don't see why she'd message me, too..."

"That might not be so weird on its own," Will said in a thoughtul tone, "but she also sent me a message. And she used her code for when she wants to talk about something related to her Class next time we meet up." Maybe her Skill's scope expanded again and she thinks Alaina had something to do with her Class leveling?

"Code?" Alaina's expression became more confused. "Hey, now that I think of it, what was that about earlier when she said not to talk about her Skill in public? Is she shy about it or something? I thought [Appraiser] was a pretty valuable Class to have?"

"It is..." said Will hesitantly. "Er... If you think about it, Tiff's got a variant Class. So she's much better than a regular [Appraiser]. And, like you said, [Appraiser] is already valuable enough. You've heard those stories about how people get kidnapped for having valuable Classes, right?"

"Yeah, there was a big news piece..." she trailed off as it hit her. "Oh no! Really?" She stared at him with a worried expression.

Will nodded. "She has bodyguards that follow her around everywhere just in case."

"That's..." She tapped furiously at her phone for a moment. "Sorry, Tiff," she muttered. "I'll be a lot more careful now. Um..." She looked back up. "Okay." She paused for a moment, still in deep thought. "Alright. Actually, while I think of it, does she have any Quirks?"

"Yeah, she's got one. Really annoys her sometimes. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," Alaina said. "I mean, you know how my Quirks are, so I kind of want to hear about other peoples' now. For...comparison, I guess."

"Huh. Yeah, alright."

"What's her Quirk like, anyway?" Alaina asked, walking past him into the kitchen.

Will followed her, now wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. "Sometimes when she uses her Skill on things it flares up and she gets really fixated on them. One time we went to the aquarium nearby, and she appraised a dolphin. She kept going back to see it every day after school until it finally wore off. And she read a lot about dolphins, too."

She snorted. "That's not much of a Quirk."

"Uh... I think it's more like your Quirks are a lot more unusual and...sometimes debilitating than anyone else's."

Alaina left her phone on the table next to his. Then she nudged it so the bottoms of the phones were aligned. "I wonder if Mom has any other Quirks," she mused.

"Your mom has Quirks?" I figured she'd be able to just shrug them off and say, "No, I don't think so."

"Yeah, she's got one that makes her extra curious about things all the time," said Alaina. She reached into the cabinet under the kitchen island, pulled out a water bottle, and began filling it in the sink. "It's really annoying. She's always asking a million questions about everything."

That sounds like a total lie if I've ever heard one. But Alaina really admires her mom, so she probably never questioned anything she was told. And being the one to tell her might get me mind-wiped or worse, so I'm not about to say anything. "Sounds annoying," he agreed.

"Alright, we need to go out through the garage to get the bikes." She started off in the direction opposite the dining room, carrying the water bottle.

They proceeded through a door that led into the empty garage. Alaina pressed the button and the garage door began to open, letting light in.

"What's on the other side of that divider?" Will asked, gesturing to the large panel that blocked the second bay off.

"Oh. Um..." Alaina stepped down onto the floor of the garage and started walking towards a bicycle nearby. "We keep a bunch of my dad's old stuff in there. Neither of us wants to get rid of it, but... It would still be hard for us to have it sitting around the house, even after so long." She reached down and checked the tires after slotting the water bottle into its holster.

Will spotted the other bike leaning up against the divider. Should I ask? Vin said not to, but that was a joke, wasn't it? "So your dad..." he trailed off as he walked to the bike, looking back at Alaina to gauge her reaction.

"He's gone," she said in a surprisingly normal voice. "Passed away when I was eleven. On my birthday. Sudden and complete heart failure, the autopsy said."

Will goggled, even though he tried not to. That's fucked up. On her birthday? Shit, and then this year she gets her Class on her birthday and it's [Onahole]? What the fuck. "That's..."

For the first time in a long time, Will White didn't have the words that he needed.

"Yeah, pretty fucked up," Alaina sighed, strapping on her helmet. She began wheeling her bike out through the garage door. "But that's life, right?

He tried on the helmet that was wrapped over the handlebars of the bike he was borrowing, adjusted the straps a little, then clicked the fasteners together and wheeled out after her. "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked," he said.

"It's fine," she said. "It's been seven years already." She turned and gave him a look. "And before you even think it, no, I don't have daddy issues."

"The thought never crossed my mind," said Will. "So how far are we going?"

Alaina reached inside the garage and the door began to close. She retracted her arm and turned to look at him. "We'll go until we're back, of course!"

Chapter 5: Saturday Afternoon, 4:43PM

"Ugh, I can't believe you," said Alaina. She pulled a key out of a little pocket in her top as they walked towards the front door. "It's not fair! How are you good at everything?"

Will wiped his forehead on his sleeve. "I said it had been a while, not that I'd never done it. And it's just pedaling, what's hard about that?"

"I was breathing harder than you after that big hill. You're like Mom; it's like you go faster up hills than you do on flat ground." She clicked the lock open and let herself in to her house.

"Vin and I usually do resistance bike a couple times a week at the gym instead of running; it probably helped." He followed after her, locking the door again behind him. That was pretty fun. And I got to learn a little more about her. "I can't believe you like science fiction that much."

"What's wrong with me liking sci-fi?" Alaina frowned at him as she started towards the kitchen. "Is it because I'm a girl?"

"No, nothing's wrong with it," said Will quickly. He followed after her. "It's just not quite what I pictured. You're always so grounded and taking things so seriously." He ran a hand through his matted, sweaty hair and grimaced as it came away damp. "I guess I figured you to be reading biographies and memoirs, watching documentaries. That kind of thing."

His equally-sweaty girlfriend gasped and turned back to face him with a mock-outraged expression. Her mouth opened, and she gaped at him incredulously. "You thought I was boring?" she asked, moving closer and poking at his sides. "You did! You thought I was Prez in my private time, too!"

"It's been fun learning how not-Prez you really are," said Will between chuckles.

"Ugh, you're not ticklish at all, are you?" Alaina huffed, putting her arms down. "Let's put the bikes back in the garage before we get more distracted."

"Nope, not ticklish. And what kind of distracting did you have in mind?" He checked out her spandex-clad butt while he walked behind her to the garage.

"Well, there's a documentary coming on soon that I was hoping we could watch." She pressed the button to open the garage door.

"Oh?" Will walked out after her with a smirk. I knew it.

"Yeah, I've kind of been looking forward to it most of the day," she said slowly as she put up the kickstand on her bike and wheeled it to its spot at the back of the garage. "I was hoping you might be interested in experiencing it with me."

"Huh." He wheeled his borrowed bike back to its spot and left the helmet straps wrapped around the handlebars just as he'd found them. "Sure, what's it about? And thanks for the bike loan, that was fun."

Alaina grinned at him. "It was, wasn't it? I would never have figured you to be the type to sing in your car. Or to like romance novels." She snickered and stepped back into the house with her water bottle.

Will kicked his own sneakers off and pressed the button to close the garage on his way into the house after her. "What's wrong with romance novels?" he asked in a somewhat defensive tone, waiting next to her while she finished untying her shoes before removing them. "And I didn't say I liked the genre, I said I liked a specific author." He followed her back to the main entrance and placed his footwear next to hers on the mat by the door.

"Fine, this Tremaine woman, or whoever," Alaina said as they walked back into the kitchen. "I just think it's a little funny, that's all." She dumped the small amount of water remaining in the canteen into the sink and set it aside. "After the past week, with you going of on some absurdly specific tangents, I thought you mostly read non-fiction."

"So it's fine if I'm boring, but Miss Hey-Do-You-Wanna-Watch-A-Documentary-With-Me over here—"

She blew a raspberry at him, then picked up her phone off the table and tapped at it a few times. "Aw, Mom's staying over again? I thought she said she was cutting back a little after the conference was over!"

Alaina stared at her phone and frowned.

She must've really been looking forward to seeing her Mom more. I wonder if she was around much during the week after Tuesday? Better try to distract her... "So what about that documentary you were talking about?" He checked his own phone briefly, seeing a single "K" message from Kay.

Will mentally rolled his eyes at the tattooed girl. Why do I need a new joke if she's going to keep using it?

"Well!" said his girlfriend, drawing his eyes away from his phone.

He placed the device on the table next to hers once more.

She drifted closer to him, then tugged on his shirt until he bent down. "It's a very slow-paced documentary," she whispered into his ear, "about the mating habits of student government officials." She bit his earlobe gently.

Will struggled not to laugh, but lost almost instantly. "I can't believe you said you were a cool nerd earlier," he said, grinning at her as he stood upright again. "That was unbelievably corny."

Alaina blushed.

"Sorry, sorry. That's definitely a topic I have a strong interest in," he continued with a wink. "Purely for academic purposes, of course."

"Ugh, no, you ruined it," she said, wrinkling her nose up at him. She grabbed his shirt and pulled him down for a short kiss.

"I was thinking maybe we could try doing it one time, um... Y'know, normally?" Alaina said, fidgeting a little. "Like, without Skills?" She looked up at him questioningly. "I mean, I guess if you really want me to, I can still..." she trailed off, avoiding his gaze.

Will reached under her chin and gently tipped her head up, then lowered his lips to hers. The kiss deepened quickly, and her hands rose to run through his hair as their tongues entwined.

He moved his hands around to her back, causing his girlfriend to moan against him when he pulled her more tightly against him. One of her hands reached into his shorts, and then he was the one moaning.

Abruptly, Alaina pulled back, her hand giving him one last fondle before it left his erection. She grabbed his hand and started leading him towards the stairs. "Come on, I want a bed for this."

He allowed himself to be dragged along after her, continuing to grin as she repeatedly looked over her shoulder at him. "You have something specific in mind?"

"I've got one very specific thing in mind," she said, leering at his crotch. She started to climb the stairs.

"Is it how slowly you're climbing these stairs?"

Alaina stopped and turned around, her head now at the same level as his. "Maybe I just need to be persuaded again," she said teasingly, her lips grazing his as she rested her arms on his shoulders.

Will leaned forward and sucked on her lower lip, bringing his hands up under her butt. He pressed upwards as he released her lip.

Her right leg hooked around his hip, and she smashed her lips against his, seeking out his tongue with frantic licks. Her left leg lifted next, and she wrapped them both tightly around his waist, resting her hands on his shoulders as he easily held her small body aloft.

He took a careful step upwards, then another.

His girlfriend disengaged her lips, giving him a lewd smile as she started to kiss him in shorter bursts, each one just long enough to give his tongue a stroke with hers. "I'm feeling pretty persuaded already," she cooed as he reached the stop of the stairs.

Another kiss changed her cooing into a moan. She started to run her thumbs up and down against the back of his neck.

Will turned into her bedroom. He moved next to her bed, nearly losing himself in the continuing caresses of her blueberry-flavored tongue, the feel of her body pressing into him, and the sexiness of her moans. With the last of his higher order thinking, he decided to turn around and fall backwards onto the bed.

Alaina smiled down at him, her legs at his sides and her hands on his chest holding her face up over his. "Thanks for not squishing me," she whispered before giving him another quick kiss. She pushed herself up off the bed.

Her hands went to her sides, lifting up the bottom of her skin-tight cycling jersey. She raised it a bit, then hesitated for a moment, frowning. She blinked, shook her head, and pulled the garment the rest of the way over her head, revealing a wide expanse of pale skin and a gray sports bra.