Title: Alternate Realities: Chapter Three, Date
Rating: R/NC-17
Warning: violence, language, sexual nudity




Sitting in her classroom while her students played at recess, Jane realized she was getting nervous. She hadn't been on a date in a few months, and that one had just been because of one of the little old ladies insisted on setting her up with her icky son. That was probably the grossest date she'd ever been on. Then explaining to Irene why it wasn't going to work out the following Thursday was just as unpleasant. However she fully expected her date with Jayden to not be icky at all. And thus the root of the nerves.

The ringing of the recess bell snapped her to attention. Shaking her head she attempted to focus on the lesson of the last hour of class. Her students filed into the classroom, taking their seats. Waiting a few minutes for them to calm down as well as to allow any scragglers to slip in, Jane glanced at her lesson plan. Somehow talking about the letter 'l' just didn't appeal to her right then.

"I know were were going to work on our L's today," she addressed the class, "but how about we do something else?"

"Like what, Miss Monroe?" one of her more vocal students asked.

"How do you feel about playing some games?"

"YAY!" the class cheered.

"We'll start with Heads Down, Thumbs Up," she declared. And the winner gets to choose the next game."

As the kids folded their arms on their desk and hid their faces, Jane got to her feet. Wandering through the rows of desks, she gently touched thumbs. The kids giggled and whispered to each other, making Jane smile. Sometimes playtime was worth its weight in gold.



Setting a lyrics page in front of the band, Adam waited for their honest opinion. The guys read over it, concealing their reactions. Each sat silently, waiting for someone else to say something.

"What do you guys think?" Adam finally asked.

"Who was he?"

Adam's eyes darkened and he looked away, "Her trainer."

The drummer flinched, "Sounds rough, man."

"Yeah. So the song?"

"Well how about a melody first?"

"Fair enough."

Humming the melody received only smirks from the guys. Rubbing the back of his neck, he chuckled. Without any further prodding from the band, he sang the song so they could hear what he did. A few tapped along. Jesse, the keyboardist, grinned.

"Dude. I think this will be a great album," Jesse said. "Course I'm sorry about the cause. But let's face it, she was a bitch anyways."



Riffling through her underwear drawer, Jane tried to decide what to wear. Not like she had much choice, most of her drawer was filled with plain white cotton panties. Nothing exciting at all. But she ignored them and pulled out her single pair of grandma slimming panties. They weren't the sexiest but they did flatten her tummy some. And with her single push-up bra, at least her foundations would make her feel slightly more confident.

Heading into her bathroom, she set her underthings on the counter and started the shower. While the water temperature evened out, she peeled off her plain white tee and dark jeans. Glancing at her nude reflection a minute later, she frowned. That particular day she didn't feel like plain was good enough. Jayden deserved someone who was—

"Oh shush, girl. He asked you out. He's interested."

After a quick shower, she dried her hair, leaving the dusty brown locks hanging straight. Attired in only her underwear, she headed towards her closet. Only standing there for a moment, she snapped a gauzy floral dress from the hanger and pulled it over her frame. While the dress choice had been simple, the shoe choice frustrated her. All her choices were dumpy schoolmarm shoes. Nothing pretty at all.

With a sigh, she slipped on the least frumpy shoes she had, "I guess this will have to do."

As she left her bedroom to feed the cats, there was a knock at the door. Pausing to scoop up Booger, the youngest cat named by her students the year before, she opened the door. With a grin she invited Jayden in, explaining she needed to feed the cats first. Leaving him in the living room she went to do just that.

Upon her return, Jane found him standing in front of her bookcase, looking at framed pictures, "Who's the woman in the photos?"

She smiled slightly, "My nanna. Techinically she was my nanny, but she's the only one who really cared for me unconditionally."

"You grew up around here?"

"My parents lived in Beverly Hills. My father was in Paris or Milan or some place like that last I heard," she responded, "with another one of his hussies."

"And your mother?"

"Scattered her ashes in the ocean two years ago," she responded. "Shall we?"

Taking the hint, he nodded. With his hand on the small of her back, Jayden guided her out towards his car. They chatted about everyday life, how their classes were doing. Jayden confessed a few of his students had formerly been hers and constantly talked about her. That was probably the single greatest factor in his finally asking her out.

"Really? The students talked you into it?" she glanced over at him.

"Not really talked me into it," he answered, "but pushed me that little bit I needed to get over my fear."

"You were afraid to ask me out?"

Jayden nodded, pulling into a parking lot, "How could I not be? You're an amazing woman."

She flushed slightly, "Plain."

"You most certainly are not, Jane," he argued. "Don't discount extraordinary. It's not a bad thing at all."



It was done. One demo recorded, two more on the schedule. Adam was fairly certain that the label wouldn't like something, but no matter on that. He didn't really care. Labels could—

"Yo, Adam, you home?" a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Yeah," he replied.

Gene, his housemate, entered the kitchen, "Where'd you disappear to?"

"Went to my mom's," he replied. "Then met the band for some studio time."

"Good. It's about time you got off your ass and did something productive," he opened the fridge, pulling out a bottle of water. "You wanna join me for a job?"

Glancing at the clock Adam realized it was in fact AM, though he had thought it was PM. Clearly he should start wearing a watch.

"Uh sure. Give me a minute first," he got up, "to change and stuff."

"Don't take too long. The pretty ones job between five and six."



Sitting at a cafe table with a large banana nut muffin and a mocha, Jane smiled to herself. The previous night's date had been very good. After dinner Jayden had taken her to a poetry reading in a tiny little cafe. They even walked the boardwalk later that evening as the sun set before he took her home. With a sweet kiss, he left her at her apartment, dancing throughout the rooms with her scared cats. It had been a very good date.

That was probably the greatest reason behind the fact that she was sitting at a Hollywood cafe for her breakfast. It was outside her normal pathways, but that was it's appeal. For once she actually felt like being plain wasn't... what she wanted. So she headed to Hollywood for breakfast, intending on doing a little retail therapy to find her way out of plainess.

Looking up from her copy of LA Times, her eyes were drawn inexplicably to the door of the cafe. As she did so, a tall man with dark hair entered the cafe. Their eyes met for a brief moment and she couldn't help but feel a little jump in her chest. Quickly trying to focuse back on her paper, Jane racked her mind for reasons why that would be such a cause for concern for her. Maybe she was just so excited about Jayden that it threw her off. That had to be it...


After a decent work out with Gene, Adam headed down to his father's store just to say hi. He didn't stay that long as he really wanted to get back to the band to record another demo. But presuming they would be just as tired as he sorta was, Adam stopped at a nearby cafe. Stepping into the small restaurant, his eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness. Gaze connecting with a woman sitting alone at a table, he froze. Unable to explain what it was about her, he took a step forward, intending on speaking with her. But she quickly cast her eyes down.

Frowning internally he headed up to the counter to order the coffees, pushing the second of conncetion with the woman from his mind. He had more troubling things on his mind than women. He had an album to get out.