Chapter 18: Hello It's Me

Jerry's POV

"It's been two days since you three have been assigned to active duty," Jerry says to his three sentinels sitting at table across from where he stood. "You've made some good choices, believe me on that. But there have been some terribly stupid choices made." Jerry throws a file on the table in front of each student.

"Marina, you've turned one student into a dog after refusing to listen to you instead of reporting the situation to me," Jerry recounts.

"Arnold, you threw a student into the fountain when they threatened to sue you-just childish," Jerry urges.

He then looks at Lenka who stares back at him head on, "And you've done nothing but complain every hour and every minute instead of actually doing your task Lenka."

"I didn't sign up for this, you should be honored that I even show up-if it weren't for Ms. Andrews-"

Jerry interrupts Lenka with, "Ms. Andrews assigned you here, I didn't. So deal with it." Lenka glared at Jerry before rolling her eyes and staring at the file in front of her.

"You three are making this more difficult than it needs to be," Jerry says bringing his hand up to massage the bridge of his nose. "Just do what I say, and this will all be over with sooner rather than later."

He then glares at each of the three students before waving them away with a hand. "Dismissed," he says. He's the first to leave the room, and heads out of the training center building to walk over to the cafeteria. Under the night sky, a chilly wind blows its way through the walkway in front of the cafeteria as Jerry stares at Nancy inside, moping the floor. He opens the door and walks over the area where she mopped already leaving light footprints in his wake. Nancy turns around and sees him first and then the footprints and she squeezes her eyes shut as she massages one of her temples.

"Why did you just step on the part I just cleaned?" Nancy asks.

"What? That was wet? I'm sorry, I didn't realize," Jerry says hiding a smirk that was threatening to turn into a grin. Nancy shakes her head and continues to do her task.

"You here to see if I'm suffering enough?"

"Yeah, I think I need to add on a few more days... you seem entirely way to happy." Nancy looks up from the floor she was mopping and stares at Jerry, finding his joke completely unfunny. Instead of saying anything, she returns to moping the floor. When she turns around, Jerry lets his eyes wonder down her back to her bottom for a few moments until she turns back around towards him, forcing him to stare over at the soda machine in the distance. Clearing his throat, he walks over to the soda machine and puts in some coins to get a bottle of water. Jerry then walks back over to where Nancy stands.

"How is Ms. Bellmen treating you?"

"Roughly. That woman is pure evil. I've got bruises to show off since she doesn't hold back any of her attacks. At least she avoids my face," Nancy says motioning to her face. Jerry looks over her eyes, her nose, and then her lips-licking his own in response.

"I've got to go," he says before leaving. "Do a good job with the tables," he throws over his shoulder before letting the door close behind him. He braces the cold and goes to the staff dorm rooms. Since each staff member has a private room, there is no need to worry about waking someone else up when entering or exiting. Jerry places his bottle on his desk and then throws off his jacket on a chair. He sinks onto his bed and closes his eyes, trying to imagine away the image of Nancy in his thoughts.

This was the first time he even had intimate, romantic thoughts about a student. While he hated the situation, he reveled in it. He had the upper hand in their "relationship", but somehow... he felt disadvantaged. After all, he was sure that he was the only one that felt this way. It started when he saw her smile at the back-handed compliments he gave her. She chipped away at him slowly with her voice and her intellect. She had eyes that set him on fire, and now he wanted to be near her-instead he forced himself away.

But how long would that work?