The Road to Recovery

A/N: Hey ya’ll! This is my first fan fic on AFF.net so please go easy on me! This chapter isn’t all that great because it’s basically setting the mood and the way things are. The school is a school that I went to except it wasn’t a boarding school. I was a Digital Communications major but I am not a teacher there; I am planning on becoming one when I get out of college. Well, here we go and on with the show! I hope you like the first chapter and please R&R!

Haley Johnson sighed as she parked her black, 2004 Mustang convertible in front of the new Academy for the Arts, Science, and Technology in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. “I can’t believe that I let Mr. Simmons talk me into teaching here,” she muttered to herself. She opened the door and stepped out. Then she leaned her seat up and grabbed her purse before she closed and locked her door. “I’ll come get my bags later,” she muttered as she closed her eyes and leaned against the car, remembering some of the things that she had been called while she was at the Academy.
She had been called ugly, fat, and disgusting, among other things, of course. But these were not true statements. The truth was actually quite the contrary. She was 5’6 with dark brown hair that fell in soft waves to her waist. She had a creamy olive complexion that had never been faltered by any form of acne and she had never weighed above 130 pounds in her life. But the most stunning thing about her, perhaps, was the color of her eyes. They were not the emerald green or the cinnamon brown that was to be expected with her complexion. They were, in fact, the one color that every child is supposedly born with. They were a deep blue that seemed never-ending. It was almost as if they glowed, even in the dimmest of lights. You could see her emotions in her eyes: they seemed to laugh when she laughed, cry when she cried, smile when she smiled, and burn when she was angered.
“Man, does the name of the school harbor so many memories for me. Most are good, some are bad. Why do I always forget the good and never forget the bad?” she muttered to no one in particular.

FLASHBACK

“You are the most disgusting, horrible, piece of trash that I have ever seen! Nick had to pay me to date you and I cannot believe that I let him do that!” screamed her boyfriend, Scott.
“What about when we were friends, Scott? Huh? Who paid you to be friends with me? Who paid you to talk to me and be nice to me and save me from James?” she challenged back.
“Nobody did, Haley. At that point I really did love you and I still do. I am so sorry that I am doing this to you. You just don’t understand, I can’t be with you anymore because I will eventually hurt you, just like every other girlfriend that I’ve ever had,” Scott whispered as he walked closer to her.
Haley backed away as she spoke with an icy tone still in her voice, “And what do you think you’re doing now, Scott?”
“No, Haley Ann, I’m not talking about emotionally, I’m talking about physically. You’re the only one I’ve ever truly loved and I want to end this before I hurt you,” Scott said.
“Scott, that’s bullshit and you know it. There’s something else to it and I want to know what it is!” Haley continued to back away from him, as if afraid of him touching her.
“Why won’t you just believe me Haley Angel? You can trust me,” he said.
“Correction, I could trust you, now I can’t. You’re a lying, cheating, son of a bitch! I don’t know how I ever loved you!”
She hit a nerve. He lunged at her and, before she could use her training, a large figure grabbed his fist with one hand and her waist with the other arm right before he broke her nose and she made it impossible for him to ever make babies. The person spun her away and threw Scott against the wall and pinned him there. “If you ever, and I mean ever touch her again, I will personally make sure that you will never walk again.”
Haley looked up and saw...

END FLASHBACK

“Haley Ann! Is that you?” she heard a familiar voice say. She looked up and saw her former teacher, Mr. Simmons, standing in the doorway. She smiled and walked over to him, the only noise being made was the swish-swish of her blue pants.
“Haley Angel! My, my, my you’ve grown up! It’s been forever since I’ve seen you,” her former teacher exclaimed.
“Mr. Simmons, why do you insist on calling me Haley Angel? You know that was Alan’s nickname for me,” she said with a laugh as she hugged him.
“I know, I know, I know, but Haley Angel is a perfect name for you. You truly are an angel to come back here after all that has happened. I know how many memories this place must bring back to you.” His expression suddenly became somber and he gained his fatherly stature that she remembered all too well.
“It’s not the place, it’s the name, but I’ll live. I suppose the principal will want to meet with me?”
“Of course, you know that he will. You should expect a briefing on how the school works, even though you know how it goes,” he said with his usual chuckle. He put his arm around her shoulders and guided her into the new building.
They walked into the principal’s office and the person in the chair turned around, then smiled. “Hello, you must be Ms. Johnson. I am pleased to finally have the pleasure of meeting with you after all of the compliments that Mr. Simmons here has given you.”
Haley smiled and said, “Sir, please call me Haley. I prefer that over Ms. Johnson.”
“OK Haley. I am Mr. Granger, the principal here at the Academy. I wish to brief you on exactly how this school works since it is like no other high school.”
“Yes, sir. I’m all ears.”
“OK. The Academy is a school based strictly on education. We consist of eight majors: Advanced Art, Pre-Engineering, Dance, Theatre, Education, Pre-Medicine, Entertainment Technology and, of course, Digital Communications. We are also a boarding school. Each major has its own dormitory that is hidden from the rest of the school and protected by a digital PIN. Since you are the Digital Communications teacher, you will have the PIN and location of the Digital dorms but you will be sharing a dormitory with the Entertainment Technology teacher. There will be a living room with two doors in it, one on each side, with a bathroom joining them in the middle. I must warn you, the ET teacher is a male. Mr. Simmons assured me that there would be no problem with this but I wanted to make sure that it was OK with you first.”
“That’s fine with me, Mr. Granger. I’ve grown up with males so they don’t bother me.”
“OK then, I will now explain the schedule. There are four class periods in a day and each student will spend three periods in their major over the course of two days. Lunches are an hour long and we are on the A/B system. Allow me to give you an example of a class schedule. Say a student has Geometry during first period, Chemistry during second period, US History during third period, English during fourth period, Digital Communications during fifth and sixth periods, Spanish I during seventh period, and Digital Communications during eighth period. On ‘A’ day the student will have Geometry, Chemistry, lunch, and then two periods of Digital Communications. On ‘B’ day the student will have US History, English, lunch, Spanish I, and one period of Digital Communications. Do you follow me?”
“Yes, sir, I do. I understand perfectly. Ummm, Mr. Simmons, do you think that I should tell him now?”
Mr. Simmons laughed and said, “Sure, go ahead Haley.”
“Tell me what?” Mr. Granger asked.
“Mr. Granger, did you look at my application?”
“Well, actually, no ma’am I did not. Mr. Simmons assured me that you were perfectly qualified for the job.”
“Well, Mr. Granger, I am. The reason I’m so qualified for the job is not only do I have a Master’s in Computer Science and a Bachelor’s in Web and Graphic Design but, well, you see, I attended the former Academy when I was in my Junior and Senior year. I was a Digital Communications student myself. I’m sure that you have heard Mr. Simmons complain about the slack senior class of 2004?”
“Actually, yes I have Haley. Please tell me that you weren’t a part of that class?”
“I was a part of that class sir, but I refuse to say unfortunately. That class may have been full of slackers, but we always had fun. And, to top it all off, I was born and raised in North Myrtle Beach so, naturally, that made it more likely for me to be slack. On top of it all, I was best friends with the worst slacker in my class: Alan Phillips. Fortunately for Mr. Simmons and my grade, I’m not near as slack as my reputation says that I should be. I escaped all odds. Just because I’m the typical ‘Southern female’ does not mean that I didn’t learn from the school system, though with the way it was back then, I am quite surprised that I did.”
Her last statement caused both men to laugh. Then Mr. Granger stood up and said, “Haley, I like your style. I don’t usually do this for new teachers but you can call me Josh since you won’t let me call you Ms. Johnson.”
“Thank you sir,” Haley said as she stood up and shook hands with Josh.
“Come on Haley, I need to show you to your room. I’m sure that you won’t have any trouble finding your way around the rest of the school. There’s someone waiting in there for you,” said Mr. Simmons.
“OK, I’d better get going then. I’ll talk to you later Josh.”
“OK Haley, have a great morning. I hope you enjoy the surprise that Mr. Simmons has set up for you.”
“I’m sure that I will Josh. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Mr. Simmons walked Haley out of the office and turned left. They reached a long hallway and turned right. Haley counted the amount of rooms down her classroom would be and found that it was the sixth classroom down. He opened the door and she stood there in awe.
“This room is huge! And look at all of these computers! There must be fifty Dells in here, and all with flat LCD screens! And there’s the same amount in Dell laptops, all top of the line! Oh, my gosh, and two brand-new Phaser laser printers, one color and the other black-&-white, a top-of-the-line Hewlett-Packard scanner, a copy machine, and a Hewlett-Packard projector!” All of this was said very fast as she observed the room. She noticed an office to the left of the room and two doors on her right. “What do those doors lead to?”
He laughed and walked over to the one that was the farthest back. When he opened it she smiled and her eyes lit up even more. “A yearbook room! This is just perfect. We have layout paper, extra color and black and white cartridges for the printers, croppers, a dark room, and everything! What does the other room lead to?”
“This is probably going to be your favorite room in the whole school,” he stated as he led her to the other door and opened it for her.
She turned the lights on and nearly screamed in delight. “Oh, my God, it’s a repair room!” She walked around and opened all of the cabinets. “Motherboards, network cards, video cards, hard drives, floppy drives, CD-ROMs, CD burners, DVD players, DVD burners, memory, power supply boxes, CPUs, fans, box screws, case screws, batteries. Wow, you even have cases, network cord, and ends in here! This is awesome!”
She started looking at the different brands of things when she felt a pair of hands fall lightly onto her waist as someone softly whispered into her ear, “How is my precious Haley Angel doing?”
She whipped around and her eyes grew wide in surprise as she screamed, “ALAN?!?! What on earth are you doing here?” She threw her arms around his neck and he picked her up, spinning her around in circles like he did when they were in school.
“I’m here to see you Baby Girl. I’ve missed you honey. My life just hasn’t been the same without seeing my best friend every day.”
“Alan, oh my goodness, you came all the way here from NYU just to see me? There’s more to it than that. You might as well go ahead and tell me since you know I’ll find out soon.”
“Well, you see, I’m teaching here as well.”
Haley looked at him suspiciously. “You wouldn’t happen to be the ET teacher would you? Tell me the truth Alan,” she added when she saw his nose flare slightly like it always did when he was planning to lie.
“Well, I do know a thing or two about cameras and editing machines,” he said with a grin.
“Oh thank God! By the way, Josh said that we were rooming together, is this true?”
“Yes it is Baby Girl. Fortunately, we’re used to sleeping in the same bed together so sleeOOF!” he exclaimed in mid-sentence as he caught a network cord end in the face and laughed.
“You know the only reason we ever stayed in the same bed was because I was scared or worried!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Keep tellin’ yourself that,” he said with a laugh.


Well, what do you think? Please r&r! Comments and critiques are much appreciated and flames will be used to fuel my fireplace in a few weeks when it actually gets cold here in South Carolina.