Matilda Collins was waiting for lunch to be over so she could go to her English lesson. Throughout the day, all she'd heard were comments about Mr Gaskarth. All the boys were going on about how cool he was, and all the girls were talking about were how they'd 'do him', given the opportunity. Matilda was just wanting to get to the lesson, to make all the gossip stop. Quite frankly, she didn't give a damn about the teacher, he was nice and good-looking. That was it. Matilda just assumed that because the new English teacher was young and good-looking, unlike all of the other teachers, that were old and boring, all the students had gone crazy.

"Matilda! Were you listening to me?"
Matilda snapped out of her daydream, and focused her vision onto her best friend, Eva, and her boyfriend, Oli.

"What? Sorry." Eva rolled her eyes at how distant her best friend was being, and Oli sniggered at how pissed off his girlfriend got when people didn't listen to her.

"I was saying that you've been single for too long."

This time it was Matilda's turn to roll her eyes.
"Eva, I've been single all my life."

"All the more reason for you to get a boyfriend!"

"I don't want one! I want to focus on my studies before I think about that sorta' stuff."

"But you've been saying that since you was fifteen, Mat!"

"Eva, chill." Oli defended Matilda. "Just because you're in a relationship doesn't mean that everyone else has to be!"

Eva pouted when her boyfriend defended Matilda instead of her. However, Oli just laughed at Eva's pout, but pecked her lips all the same.

Matilda pretended to gag at the couple, but she couldn't deny her feeling in her gut. It wasn't as though she didn't want a boyfriend, it was more of a fact that she couldn't get one. Of course, she was always receiving compliments from Eva or Oli, but it wasn't as though they were wanting to go out with her.

Matilda decided to group boys: Boys were either, taken, gay or just complete arseholes. And no matter how hard she tried, Matilda couldn't seem to grab anyone's attention.
That lowered her confidence a little.

In her opinion, Matilda believed that guys were only interested in girls who felt it necessary to cake themselves in makeup, and to be someone who they weren't. And that was something Matilda refused to do. No way was she going to change for anyone.

You either accepted her for who she was or you didn't accept her at all.
And that was probably why she'd never had a boyfriend.

- - -

"Okay, class! So today I thought we'd study Pride and Prejudice!" Mr Gaskarth gleamed, just as the whole class let out a groan.

"Oh come on. It isn't that bad." Mr Gaskarth argued back.

"No-one wants to read about some boring, old book!" Josh Franceschi moaned.

Alex mocked astonishment as he placed a copy of the book onto Josh's desk.
"Pride and Prejudice is not boring! I'm offended Franceschi!"

Josh's lips twitched at his teacher. "Yeah right."

"Okay," Alex began to talk to the whole class. "Who's ever been lied to?"
The whole class put their hands up.

"And who's ever fallen in love with someone the probably shouldn't have done?"
Everyone except Matilda kept their hands raised. Alex picked up on this, and tried his hardest not to comment.

"Exactly! This book has all that, and more!... Erm, just out of curiosity, has anyone watched the film... Or even, read the book?"

Alex looked around the class, not really surprised when he saw no-one put their hand up, but then in the corner of his eye, he saw Matilda Collins raise her hand slightly.

"Really Matilda? You've watched the film?"

"Read the book." She corrected with a tight, small smile.

"Really? Wow that's impressive. What's your favourite part?" Alex watched as Matilda began to think. Eventually she spoke.

"I like the tension between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy... It kind of reminds me of Romeo and Juliet."

Mr Gaskarth blinked at his student. "But, their families allow them to be together."

"But they don't allow it themselves. They refuse to admit they love one another until the end."

Impressive.

"I-I've never thought of it like that." The English teacher finally spoke. Matilda simply shrugged her shoulders and lowered her head, so she could continue to doodle on a scrap piece of paper she had.

Alex couldn't quite recognise the feeling in his stomach when Matilda turned away. In a way, he was hurt. He couldn't understand for the life of him, why, but he was.

- - -

Once the school bell had rang for the end of the day, Matilda started to walk home with Oli.

"Eva was telling me about the new English teacher..." Matilda rolled her eyes.

"Despite anything that Eva says, he's nothing special, trust me."

Oli burst into a fit of laughter when he noticed how disgusted his friend's facial expression was.

"Matilda Collins, there must be a reason why you seem to hate every male in the universe."

Matilda laughed along, trying to ignore the sick feeling in her stomach. Her reason for 'hating every male in the universe' was something Matilda didn't feel comfortable talking about, Oli knew that.

There was something about Mr Gaskarth that Matilda didn't like. Perhaps it was the all too familiar smile that matched the one which she hadn't seen in years. Or maybe it was because he was simply a teacher that actually seemed to give a damn about her. In some ways, Matilda was happy, to regain something she'd lost so many years ago, even if it wasn't exactly the same. But in another way, Matilda didn't want memories of her past being brought back up again. Her past was her past, and as far as Matilda was concerned, that was the way it was going to stay...in the past

She didn't like Mr Gaskarth because he reminded her too much of her past, and that was something Matilda didn't like at all.

Notes

Okay, so the end doesn't quite make sense, but I don't want to ruin the story, I want to keep this as realistic as possible, so I do apologize for that.

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