School Daze Boxed Set: African-American Romance

By Lexy Harper

FIVE NEW ADULT SHORT STORIES

Most of us have experienced the agony and the ecstasy of a schooldays’ crush on an unattainable boy or girl—the crush that has lived with you and shaped all of your other relationships and life experiences.  If you were one of the lucky people who shared their first kiss with their first love, then married them, settled down and are now living happily with them, then you are incredibly lucky and these stories may not resonate with you.  But for the less lucky ones, the ones who still secretly yearn, I hope these five heart-warming stories of first love and second chances will give you hope and keep your dreams alive. 

Short, skinny Tyrell Montague rescues tall, plump Claudine Wilson when she’s in danger of being the only girl in the class not formally asked to the school dance.  Grudgingly, she accepts knowing that they will make the oddest couple on the evening and be the laughing stock of their classmates, but to her surprise she has more fun than anticipated.  Life takes them on different journeys, but now they’re back in each other’s lives and for Tyrell, Claudine is Still the One.

Tonya Reynolds dances The Last Dance with Gerard Fitzpatrick because his date, her identical twin, wants to dance with someone else.  Things don’t go as planned and Gerard realizes that the sisters have switched places.  He and Tonya leave secondary school without making up their differences, but surely six years is long enough for him to have forgiven her?  Especially since he’s the newest member of staff at the school and they have to work in close proximity.

Yolanda Peters and Christopher Cromwell share The First Kiss at fourteen when he acts on a silly dare.  She never forgives or speaks to him throughout their time left at secondary school, but she’s back in town and all grown up.  Will she give him the chance to apologize and perhaps another taste of her sweet lips?

The youthful attraction between Melanie DuBois and Philippe La Monte ends abruptly when his divorced father marries her widowed mother.  As the step-siblings mature they try to deny their Simmering Desire, but can true love be denied?

Teacher Dillon Welch knows he’s Forbidden to love his student Collette Adams even though she’s declared her love for him.  He fights his attraction, doing what is right and moral, and hurts them both in the process.  He’s never forgotten her and when fate throws them together, he’s grateful for the chance to finally admit that he’s always loved her.  But now she’s an older, sophisticated woman who can get just about any man she desires.  Has he left it too late?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ebonique Publishing
• Release date: Jul 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781536524536

Book preview

Lexy

Harper

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School Daze

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All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher or author, except for brief quotes used in reviews.

First published in Great Britain 2012

Copyright © 2011 Lexy Harper

All Rights Reserved.

www.lexyharper.com

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Contents

Still The One

The Last Dance

The First Kiss

Simmering Desire

Forbidden

Author’s Note

Other titles by Lexy Harper

This book is for anyone who has experienced the agony and the ecstasy of a schooldays’ crush on an unattainable boy or girl.  Here’s to a second chance at first love!

Still The One

Chapter One

"Please, dear Lord, let somebody...anybody ask me today!  Please, please, please!"

Claudia, we’ll be late!  A voice called up to the desperately praying fourteen-year-old.

Coming, Mum.  She got awkwardly to her feet and quickly neatened the edge of the bed she had rumbled while praying.  Fingers crossed one of the boys in her class would finally ask her to the dance today.  She was the only girl who hadn’t yet been asked.  Up until yesterday it had been two of them, but brainy Isaac had finally built the courage to ask the equally brainy Amelia to the dance, leaving Claudia like the cheese that stood alone.

I asked God for someone to ask me to the dance today, she told her mother as she fastened her seatbelt.

That’s good, honey.  God always answers sincere prayers.

Claudia pressed a button and Anita Baker’s distinctive voice filled the Range Rover.  She and her mother sang along to the Rapture CD, neither giving Anita any real competition but having fun as the vehicle covered the fifteen-minute journey to the school.  After her mother parked in the teachers’ car park, they held hands and walked into the school building together.

Good luck, sweetheart.  Her mother gave Claudia’s hand a squeeze before she let it go.

Thanks, Mum.

It was a surprise that no one had asked Claudia to the dance yet.  Although overweight, she was one of the most popular girls in the class.  She was a tomboy and the boys regularly asked to join in if they were playing a game and were one player short.  Her mother, the guidance teacher,  as one of the best loved teachers in the school.

There was a lull as soon as Claudia entered the classroom and she sensed that her classmates had been talking about her.  She smiled brightly and squeezed herself into her seat at the front of the class.  As she felt tears prick her eyelids, she dove into her pocket and pulled out the small Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut bar her father had sneaked under her pillow when he had come up to kiss her goodnight the previous evening.  She quickly broke off a piece and popped it into her mouth.  It melted on her tongue and she immediately felt happier.

Who wanted to go to the stupid party anyway?

The day dragged on and on and she was sure that every eye was on her the entire time.  By the start of the last period she began to feel self-conscious, and despondent that God hadn’t answered her prayers.

Claude?

What? she snapped, without looking around.  She couldn’t understand why her classmates insisted on calling her that name. She was a girl not a boy!

N-never mind.  A soft, hesitant voice answered.

She turned and looked up into the embarrassed eyes of Tyrell, one of the shortest boys in her class.

I’m sorry, Ty.  She reached out and held on to his sleeve as he turned to walk back to his desk.  Did you want something?

I wanted to know if you...you would like to be my date for the dance?

At first she thought that it was a joke, that maybe the class had set him up to ask her so they could die of laughter, but as she looked around the class she realized that everyone was looking on curiously as though they too wanted to know the reason he had come over.

She looked back up at Tyrell, about to politely refuse and something in his eyes made her reply instead, Why not?

He smiled, went back to his seat and continued reading his book on electronics.  At fourteen he could dismantle pretty much any electrical or electronic device and put it back together in perfect working order.  But not only was he short, he was quite thin.  Puberty seemed a long way ahead of him.  He and Claudia would make the oddest couple at the school dance—she: tall and plump, he: short and thin! 

She was going to pretend that she was ill, she decided.  She couldn’t, absolutely couldn’t, go to the dance with Ty!

By the end of the class word had gotten around that she was Ty’s date for the dance.  The nosy boy sitting behind her had passed a note to the girl behind him, and she had passed it to the girl behind her...

I’m not going to the dance! Claudia declared as she jumped into her mother’s vehicle after school that afternoon.

Honey, someone will ask you, there are still three days left.

Tyrell asked me today!

And did you say yes, honey?  Her mother asked gently, calling on her high school acting abilities to try and keep a straight face.

"I didn’t want to say no but Mum I can’t go with him.  I can’t!"

Darling, he’s the answer to your prayers.

He’s not! Claudia denied.

He is.  Tell me exactly what you prayed for?

"I prayed that somebody would ask me to the dance."

Honey, you asked God for a date to the dance and he sent you Tyrell.  Never be ungrateful when God sends you a blessing.

Okay, Mum.  Claudia knew that it was no use trying to convince her mother that going to the dance with Tyrell would be worse than going alone.  And there was no chance her mother would let her stay at home now.

***

Late Saturday afternoon Claudia sat on her bed, dressed in a beautiful, pale yellow dress that her mother had bought for her in the ladies’ section and taken up at the hem.  Earlier she had been to a hair salon for the first time and now dozens of tiny single plait extensions, braided in a remarkably short time by two young Sudanese women in the local saloon, cascaded past her shoulders.  She was wearing her flat church shoes instead of the stout-heeled pumps she would have worn if she’d had a taller date.  And she was wearing lipstick for the first time—a shade just darker than the pink of her lips.

She was pleased with her appearance.  She had never looked nicer, but all she wanted to do was take her clothes off and crawl under the covers with a tub of chocolate ice cream and a good book.

The front door chimed and a minute later her mother rapped on her door and walked into her room.

"Sweetheart, Tyrell is here.  He looks really handsome."

Claudia got sulkily off the bed and plodded down the stairs, not bothering to disguise her reluctance.

Hi Claude!  Ty’s bright smile almost blinded her.  While she looked a little more grown-up with her lipstick and sophisticated hairstyle, in his tuxedo he looked about ten years old.

Hi, Ty.

Bye, Mr and Mrs Rayner!  Tyrell took her arm and turned to escort her to his grandmother’s Ford Mondeo which was parked outside the gate.

Bye, Mum and Dad.  Claudia turned just in time to see her mother poke her father in his ribs as laughter threatened to overcome him.

Bye, sweetheart!  He managed to hold it together and smile at her encouragingly.

They got to the school in less than twenty minutes although the roads were busy.  Once again Tyrell proudly offered her his arm.  Her face was so red when she walked into the dance Claudia she felt like she had a fever.  Maybe she was coming down with something, she hoped frantically.  Maybe she’d have to leave the party before the end.

Tyrell immediately went over to the punch bowl and brought back two plastic cups of punch.

Those are for you, Claude.  I know that you like lots to drink.  I’ll get another one for myself.

She couldn’t believe that he’d noticed she always bought a larger bottle of soda at lunch time—most of the other students bought the regular size.  She was really touched and she smiled at him when he returned with his own drink.

They stood swaying to the music, side by side, until the DJ started playing rap music.  Tyrell took her hand and tried to pull her onto the dance floor.  She resisted at first and he couldn’t shift her, but she looked around and realized that a few of their classmates were looking on in amusement.  Reluctantly she let him pull her to the middle of the floor.

She was unprepared for what came next.  Tyrell started to bust some moves and soon everyone was looking at him and clapping wildly.  Claudia was no slough herself and pretty soon there were shouts of, Go Ty!  Go Claude!

Suddenly she was having the best time ever!  She grabbed Ty from behind, lifted him up and spun him around at the song ended. The applause was deafening!

Everyone joined in at the beginning of the next song, the girls imitating her moves and the boys Ty’s.  Soon the party was rocking.

The following Monday everyone wanted hang with them. They had become ‘supercool’ overnight.

***

By the time she was sixteen Claudia had lost most of her baby fat and was able to squeeze into size twelve clothing.  Boys suddenly started noticing her generous curves.  When Bruce Wilson, the hunkiest boy in the class, asked her to the cinema one Saturday she almost died of excitement.

She was dressed in a new dress, a slim-fitting, spaghetti-strapped, powder-pink sheath and applying matching lipstick when Tyrell rapped on her bedroom door.  He burst in seconds later waving the new computer game he wanted them to try out.  The two of them had become good friends after the dance and had been amazed to discover that they both loved the same computer games.  They usually spent Saturdays challenging each other or pitting their combined wits against a new game.  In her excitement of going on her first date she had forgotten to cancel their usual Saturday afternoon hangout.

He came to an abrupt stop, his eyes opening wide as she turned away from her dresser and faced him.

He smiled as he complimented, "You look really nice!"

Ty, I’m sorry, I should have called you.  I have a date this afternoon.

A date?  His eyes went blank, as if he had been suddenly hit over the head.  With whom?

Bruce.  She knew that he didn’t particularly like Bruce, who was almost six-foot tall and loved to tease Ty about his lack of height. Ty had finally started to mature but he was still an inch shorter than Claudia’s five-foot-eight.

Oh!

We could play the game tomorrow, she assured him hastily.

It’s okay, we’ll play next week.  Enjoy your date.

He spun around and ran down the steps without another word.  Claudia felt a twinge of regret.  She should have really remembered to call him.

Bruce kissed her in the darkened cinema and asked her to be his steady girlfriend after the movie while they sipped the colas that accompanied the large pizza they shared. She didn’t hesitated to say ‘yes’.

The following Monday when they walked into the class hand-in-hand, she was the envy of every girl.  She went to lunch with Bruce, thinking that Tyrell would join them but instead he sat with another group from their class and didn’t make eye contact with her though she tried in vain to catch his gaze.

The next Saturday she waited for him to come over, having refused another cinema date with Bruce, opting to go on Sunday afternoon instead.  When Tyrell didn’t turn up by four o’clock she went over to his grandmother’s house and found him packing his suitcases to leave the country the next day.  He had decided to go and live with his parents in the USA.

Three months previously Claudia had been surprised when Tyrell had decided to stay with his grandmother in the UK when his father had been offered a post at Harvard and had moved to the US with his wife and Tyrell’s two older sisters.

Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving? she demanded feeling incredibly hurt.

You’ve been so busy with Bruce I haven’t had a chance to talk to you all week.

Weren’t you going to say goodbye? she asked, staring at him in disbelief.

I was going to call you later.

Why are you going?

He shrugged his broad bur bony shoulders and gave her one of his crooked smiles.  I miss my mum.

I understand.  She did.  She had thought him unbelievably brave to stay when the rest of his family had moved.  She couldn’t imagine being away from her parents.  When are you going to come back to visit your grandma?

Maybe next summer, he promised.

But he didn’t and his grandmother moved to the States two years later.

Chapter Two

Thirteen years later.

Claudia sat idly tracing one of the horizontal lines of her legal pad as her boss’s voice droned on in the background.

..., Claudia.

Looking up at the sound of her name, she found her colleagues looking at her expectantly.

Pardon?

Are we boring you, Mrs Wilson?

Of course not, she denied untruthfully.  I’m just missed the last bit of what you were saying.

"I was saying that we have an important new case coming in and I want you to handle it personally."

Royston, I already have a heavy caseload, she reminded him in exasperation.

Pass a few of your cases to Martina and Trevor.  This new case is worth a lot of money.  I want you to handle it personally.  We are going to take  Tyrell Montague to the cleaners.  That flimsy pre-nup agreement he signed is not worth the paper it’s printed on.

Ty Montague? Claudia queried in surprise.

You know him?

We went to school together, but I haven’t seen him in years.

Well, I doubt that the man remembers you, Royston informed her nastily.  He’s a multi-millionaire now.

Good for you, Ty.

He’s a friend of mine, she informed her boss.  Sorry, I can’t take the case.

"You can’t take on the case because you used to know him at school?" Royston demanded as he glared at her.

She glared right back.  He was trying to browbeat the wrong person.  She wasn’t going to change her mind.

Dorothy and Eileen, the two of you handle the case for now.  Claudia, I’ll give you a week to decide and if your answer is still no, you are dismissed.

All Royston understood was money.  Most of the staff secretly thought he would sell his own mother for a loaf of mouldy bread.

Royston, do what you have to, Claudia responded.  I’m not taking this case.

She had worked with the firm for five  years.  When Arnold Barnes had retired a year ago she had been tempted to leave but his son, Royston, had reassured everyone things would remain exactly the same and that he would be constantly liaising with his father.  Less than a month after taking the reins he had introduced sweeping changes.

***

Mrs Wilson, a Mr Montague is here to see you, her ever-efficient assistant Rosalind informed Claudia a week later.

Claudia sensed the woman was smiling even over the intercom and wondered what the woman found so amusing about her old friend.  Send him in, please.

She rushed around her desk as a sharp knock preceded the opening of her office door.  Claudia gasped in surprise at the toned, well-built giant standing before her.

This could not be Tyrell!

Ty? she questioned uncertainly, making to retreat back behind her desk.

Yes!  His deep voice was almost as startling as his physical transformation.  He looked at her suspiciously and then a slow smile spread across his face. Claudia?

Tyrell!  Oh my God!  Mouth opened in shock, she launched herself at him.

He hugged her tightly for several long moments before slowly letting her go.

"I warned you that I would be tall eventually!"

She had laughed every time he’d said it.  His parents were both tall and so were his older sisters.  The last time she had seen him at sixteen, she had been convinced that he would be the only one of average height in a family of giants.

Where did you get those shoulders? she demanded, standing back to take in their incredible breadth.  "There must be some kind of new plastic surgery I haven’t heard of—you couldn’t have gotten that broad without medical intervention!"

It’s all natural, baby!  He smiled, that same sweet smile she remembered.  And then her heart fluttered unexpectedly, shockingly, at his next words. I see you still have those luscious curves.

Luscious?  Hah!  Bruce doesn’t think so!

The mention of her husband seemed to remind Tyrell of his purpose of coming to see her.  His face sobered as he asked, "Are you representing my wife?"

No.  Two of my colleagues, Dorothy Macmillan and Eileen Price, are handling the case.  Actually this is my last day with the firm.  I told my boss that you were an old classmate of mine and refused to take the case.  He gave me an ultimatum: represent your wife or leave.  I’m leaving.

Don’t lose your job on my account, Claudia!  His dark eyes mirrored his