It hadn't taken him long to figure it out. Only a few hours of sifting through homework essays with the notes in hand and he'd matched the distinctive handwriting to a boy in his class -- Bryce. Part of him had been hoping it would be someone else; someone unpleasant and misbehaved that he could reprimand harshly for ever making such inappropriate advances, yet the one who held affections for him in class of course happened to be one of the nicest, most likable students he'd had the opportunity of teaching.
And he also happened to be someone that Jonathan had, on occasion, forced himself not to think about out of school hours. And failed miserably.
Whether Bryce was a pleasant student or not, Jonathan needed to nip this little problem in the bud before it became an even bigger problem -- one he wouldn't want to nip in the bud. "Bryce, could you stay back for a moment?" His voice came out gentle and pleasant, which was a distinctive difference from his usual playful tone. For a teacher and an authority figure, he really didn't play on the commanding role -- he sort of landed somewhere between older brother babysitting for the weekend and cool, older friend. That came down to his age, he figured, since he was only twenty-four, fairly young for a teacher. Right now, though, he needed to have authority. Even if the idea of it killed him.