Zack and Heather at a laundromat back in town

Back at Azure Rocks, Zack observed Heather paying the Laundromat’s employee while sporting a smile over his face. It had been a fun one-hour ride, with the two of them arguing on what kind of music they would listen to, Heather was all for her pop songs, while Zack insisted on his classic soft rock ones. Eventually, Zack won the argument and the busty brunette by his side even ended up liking his selection.

“Zachary Bishop, I must admit I’ve never pegged you for someone to be at a Laundromat on a Saturday morning.” A female voice coming from behind him broke Zack out of his musings.

He turned around and was mildly surprised on seeing Mary Moreau, one of his teachers at school. Not just any teacher in his opinion, but the most adored one amongst the students, especially the male ones. At thirty-one, she had come to town two years ago and took over the History classes at Azure Rocks High School, turning both herself and the class into immediate hits. Being relatively young compared to her colleagues, the blue-eyed teacher seemed to relate well to her students, going along with everyone except the usual trouble-makers who liked to disrupt the peace during a lesson.

Nine amongst ten male students, and even a few females as well, had some sort of crush on the beautiful teacher. Her dark, reddish brown hair was long and wavy, a fact that amazed Zack even more as to her beauty, at school she always had it up in a bun over her head. She had a petite body, being about an inch shorter than Zack, and her medium-sized breasts swelled under the fabric of the powder blue summer dress she was wearing.

“Uhn, hi Ms. Moreau,” Zack stammered. “How’s your break?”

“Relaxing, I think, as I hope yours are being before you come back to school for the end of your senior year,” She replied, looking behind Zack for a moment. “Is that Ms. Ravers over there?”

“Oh yeah, we are spending the break with a few more friends at Heather’s dad’s cabin on Silver Lake Park,” Zack answered. “We came back to town to get a few supplies we needed at the cabin.”

"Just a few of you or ‘The Magnificent Seven’ as a whole?" Mary asked. At Zack's look of confusion, a small grin formed on the corner of her lips. "Don't give me that look, that's how your group of friends is known amongst most of the other teachers."

At that moment, Heather returned from speaking with the employee. “Oh, hi, Ms. Moreau!” She greeted the older woman in an excited voice. Heather made no secret her favorite teacher at school was Mary Moreau, the same being true for most of their group.

“Hello, Heather, I was just talking to Zachary here about your Spring Break,” The teacher replied, and then frowned, as if remembering something. “Is Ms. Woodsen with you on your cabin? Is she okay? She seemed so, how should I say, distracted, in my class last week.”

The two teens briefly looked at each other. “Well, she broke up with Brandon last night.” Heather answered.

“Oh, the poor thing!” Mary exclaimed, distressed. “I know she and Mr. Cole were together for a long time by teenagers’ standards.”

“It came as a shock to everyone, but Ashley seemed to know what she was doing.” Heather said.

“Tell that to Brandon, guy was looking destroyed last night.” Zack added.

Their auburn-haired teacher smiled at them. “Don’t worry, it’ll work out for them and for all of you, only the future can say if they were meant to be,” She said and sighed. “And to think the mood around the school was just starting to improve after Emily Jackson’s ****.”

The honking sound of a car’s horn coming from outside the Laundromat interrupted their conversation and Mary turned around to face its owner. “I’m talking to them, I’ll be back there soon, okay?” She yelled to the man on the driver’s seat before turning back to her students. “Well, I can see you two have more places to go, so I’ll leave you to it.”

“Okay then, Ms. Moreau, bye!” Heather waved as she pointed Zack outside.

“See you after the break!” Zack said before they got out of the Laundromat.

“Don’t forget we’ve got work to do on the yearbook, Heather! And tell Victoria too!” Mary called out to them from the inside.

Heather nodded from the outside as she and Zack walked by the car that belonged to Mary’s fiancé, another teacher of theirs, Jacob “Jay” Ward. Mr. Ward was a man approaching his forties who taught Chemistry at Azure Rocks High School, and differently from his sweet fiancée, he was the most disliked teacher on the school. None of the students appreciated the way he snapped at everyone for whatever reason or the way he expected everyone to learn everything by themselves before coming to class. Heather always wondered how someone like Ms. Moreau could have fallen for someone like Jay Ward.

The man barely acknowledged them as they passed by his car’s window. Once they were a block away, Heather stopped and then broke out laughing. Zack stared at her weirdly, with an eyebrow raised. “What?”

“You,” She managed to croak out between laughs. “You were gawking at Ms. Moreau, weren’t you?”

Zack felt embarrassed for a moment, but then he figured that if someone would be able to catch on to those things, that someone was Heather.

“Well, yes,” He shrugged. “But…”

“It’s okay, Zack,” Heather interrupted his sentence and smirked at him. “You wouldn’t be a guy if you hadn’t looked at her, every guy at school does.”

“I’m glad that your logic says it’s not my fault, then,” Zack returned her smirk with one of his own. “But let’s talk about something else, what are we gonna do while our clothes get washed and dried?”

“We can hit the grocery shop.” Heather suggested.

“We could, but we’d have to carry everything back to the car and still wait for the clothes,” Zack replied, scratching his chin. “I think we should do something else to kill some time and then go get the supplies, what do you say?”