Ms. Monroe drove her new red Porsche into the students parking lot and parked right next to Dan's rusty old station wagon. I didn't think anything of it at first, but when we got to class Ms. Monroe wouldn't leave Dan alone. She wanted to help him with everything. She probably would have helped him spell 'a' if he'd let her. It didn't end there either. She constantly sat at his table telling him stories, acting like a giddy little school girl. I watched her do this every day. I was shocked, and so was everyone else I talked to about Ms. Monroe and Dan. A woman in her thirties going after a guy who is only sixteen years old is sick. So I finally decided to talk to Dan and see what he thought was going on.

"Hey Dan, wait up!" Dan stopped and gave me a puzzled look. I had never really talked to him before and I guess he was shocked that I 'needed' to talk to him. "Dan, you know our language teacher, Ms. Monroe. Well, I was wondering if you thought she was acting a little ... odd lately?"
"No, well sort of. She's been too friendly lately. If that's possible."
"Oh, believe me it is. That's why I wanted to talk to you. I think she may think of you as more then just a student!"

After that Dan and I became good friends. Unfortunately, Ms. Monroe didn't seem to think that was such a great idea. You see, even though I did all my assignments well, paid attention in class, and had perfect attendance, I was failing. Dan, who handed in maybe two in ten assignments, and showed up late for every class, was getting eighties. To top it all off, she went up to Dan and told him I wasn't good enough for him. She was going to transfer me to the learning disabled program. Fortunately, for me, Dan didn't believe her. Then it happened, Dan asked me out! We both agreed that if anything was going to stop her, that was it. Once she found out that Dan wasn't available, she would give up. Right? We went to class, sure that our plan would work. We made it quite clear that we were a couple; or as clear as you can in school, any way. A few days later I, and I alone, was expelled for indecent behavior. I couldn't get back in. I mean, who would take the word of your average teenager over a rich respectable adult? I didn't know what Dan was going to do in that class by himself, and he couldn't have transferred -we already tried that- and he was not about to drop out of school. His job as a 'chef' at Dairy Queen doesn't really pay enough to live on.

Now, I can't say I blame her for thinking he was good looking for his age. Everyone did - with his wavy hair, green eyes and the sweetest voice you've ever heard. How could you not think so! But to have a crush on him was way out of line. She had to be stopped!

Dan and I gathered as much evidence on her as we could. We wanted to do two things: fire Ms. Monroe and get me back in school. For the next week Dan brought his tape recorder to school and recorded all of the conversations she had with him. We also had our friend Jake, from the year book, take pictures of how she acted towards him. Then we made a journal of everything that had happened, including the tapes and pictures. We then had all the people in our class to sign as witnesses. Once we had all the evidence together we took it to Ms. Jefferson, Jake's law teacher, to see what she thought we should do next. She took the evidence down to the head of the school board. The school board head decided to hold a meeting and present our evidence. At the meeting it was unanimously voted that Ms. Monroe be fired from the school and banned from teaching ever again. The next week I was back in class, and Ms. Monroe was in court fighting the harassment charges pressed by Dan's parents.

She never did get married but I did, and Jake and I couldn't be happier.