Main Characters:

Aimee Stewart – A responsible and headstrong high school student who loses her parents and must take care of her younger brother. She’s practical, tough, but secretly craves affection.

Ralph Hall – A young, handsome, and strict English teacher with a mysterious past. Calm, composed, and principled—but has a soft spot for Aimee.

Yanely Stewart – Aimee’s precocious little brother, clever and often caught in the middle of hilarious situations.

Premise: After losing her parents, Aimee is left alone with her little brother. Desperate to avoid being separated by the system, she proposes a sudden marriage of convenience to her teacher, Ralph Hall. Ralph agrees for reasons only he knows. The story follows their secret married life—living together while pretending to be nothing more than student and teacher at school—filled with comedy, tension, romantic misunderstandings, and sweet moments.

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There’s a moment—right before everything changes—when life still feels completely ordinary.

Like the soft thud of a schoolbag being dropped beside a desk.

Or the way chalk squeaks on the board during first period.

Or the quiet panic of realizing your little brother just sneezed on your math homework and you still have to submit it.

For Aimee Stewart, life was all about survival.

Surviving the death of her parents.

Surviving her clingy, chaotic younger brother, Yanely.

Surviving the constant threat of being separated by distant relatives and child services.

And most pressingly—surviving high school.

Which, to be clear, was already its own version of purgatory.

So when her last living aunt dumped her with nothing but a duffel bag and an apology note that smelled suspiciously like wine, Aimee made a decision:

If the world wouldn’t protect her and her brother…

She’d protect him herself.

Even if it meant dropping out.

Even if it meant giving up every future plan she’d ever had.

But just before she could turn her back on the school gates forever—

He stopped her.

Mr. Ralph Hall.

Twenty-six. Stoic. Predictable. A homeroom teacher with a mild caffeine addiction and the emotional range of a teaspoon.

He wasn’t supposed to care.

He wasn’t supposed to notice her struggle.

And yet…

“Don’t throw away your future,” he said. “Let me help.”

And then—somehow—she agreed.

On one condition.

A secret marriage contract.

A roof over their heads.

A legal guardian for her brother.

A fake wife for a man who graded essays like his life depended on it.

Totally normal.

Totally temporary.

Totally fine… unless feelings got involved.

(Which, of course, they did.)

Now Aimee’s stuck living under the same roof as her teacher—balancing school, guardianship, and a very inconvenient crush.

But she’s got rules:

✔ No romantic feelings.

✔ No public slip-ups.

✔ No falling for her teacher-husband.

✔ And absolutely, under no circumstances, should anyone find out.

Because if there’s one thing worse than being a broke high school dropout—

It’s being the girl who secretly married her teacher.

And if love is the lesson…

Aimee is about to find out just how hard it is to ace.

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Rain poured from the sky in sheets, soaking through Aimee Stewart’s thin school uniform as she stood under the rusted roof of the school gate. Her umbrella had broken somewhere between the bus stop and the street, and now it lay uselessly at her feet. She shivered slightly due to the chill but gritted her teeth and apeared calm.

Beside her, a small boy clung to her hand tightly—her ten-year-old brother, Yanely. His wide brown eyes were heavy with sleep and worry, peeking from under a too-big hoodie. She tightened her grip on his hand.

They had nowhere to go.

Their parents had died two weeks ago in a car crash. Relatives had refused to take them in. And now, social services were stepping in. Yanely was to be sent to a foster home. Aimee, still a high school student herself, was deemed too young to be his guardian.

“Are they really going to separate us?” Yanely asked, his voice barely audible over the rain.

Aimee swallowed the lump in her throat. “Not if I can help it.”

She didn’t know where the idea came from. Maybe it was the desperation. Maybe it was the steady figure who had stood before them all this time—stern, responsible, untouchable.

Her eyes lifted toward the school building, and she saw a familiar figure approaching under a large black umbrella.

Ralph Hall.

The school’s handsome and famously aloof English teacher. Her homeroom teacher. Always calm, always distant. He was on his way out, probably done with another late-night grading session.

“Mr. Hall!” Aimee called out suddenly, stepping into the rain.

He stopped, raising an eyebrow under his dark fringe as he noticed her. “Miss Stewart?” His gaze moved to the boy beside her. “Yanely? What are you two doing out here at this hour?”

Aimee was shivering. “I need to ask you something.”

Ralph looked at her, confused but attentive. “Go on.”

Taking a deep breath, Aimee bowed at a full ninety degrees, her voice shaking. “Please marry me!”

The rain seemed to pause around them.

Yanely gasped and tugged her sleeve. “Aimee?!”

Ralph blinked. “Excuse me?”

“I—I know it sounds insane,” Aimee stammered, lifting her head. “But I have no one else. They’re going to take Yanely away from me. I need to be his guardian. If I’m married, maybe… maybe they’ll let me keep him. You’re an adult. You’re responsible. I’m not asking you to love me or anything. It’s just… please. I’ll do anything.”

For a long moment, Ralph said nothing. His eyes, sharp and unreadable, studied her.

Then, without a word, he took a step forward and held out his umbrella to cover her and her brother.

“Let’s get you both inside first,” he said calmly. “We’ll talk.”

Aimee’s legs almost gave way. Her heart pounded, partly from the cold, partly from embarrassment, and partly from the faintest shimmer of hope.

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The warmth of Mr. Hall’s apartment was almost disorienting. The place looked and felt exactly as the home of a single young man.

Aimee sat stiffly on the edge of a neatly arranged couch, her damp skirt soaking through the cushion. She had changed into one of Ralph’s oversized T-shirts while her clothes dried in the bathroom. Yanely was wrapped in a towel, fast asleep on the opposite end of the couch, curled up like a kitten.

Across from her, Ralph Hall—her homeroom teacher, the man she had just proposed to—sat with the same unreadable expression he wore during pop quizzes.

“So,” he began, folding his hands. “Let me get this straight. You’re asking me to marry you… just so you won’t lose custody of your brother? Is that correct?”

Aimee nodded, clutching a steaming mug he had handed her earlier. “Yes. I know how it sounds. Ridiculous. Stupid even. But I’ve already lost my parents. I can't lose Yanely too.”

She expected him to laugh, to call her out for being absurd.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he leaned back slightly, his eyes never leaving her face.

“You realize what you’re asking, right? Marriage isn’t something to take lightly. Even a paper one. Are you sure you want to marry me? I could just shelter the two of you for a few days without you having to marry me”

“I do,” Aimee said firmly. “I know that you might be able to shelter us for a few days but after that I would have to eventually be back to square one. I’m not looking for romance. Or a real relationship. Just something that will look real enough to get child services off our backs. I’ll cook, clean, stay out of your way. I just need time until I can become Yanely’s legal guardian.”

Ralph was silent for a while, tapping his fingers on his knee.

Then he stood up.

“Alright.”

Aimee blinked. “What?”

“I’ll marry you,” he said, walking to his bookshelf and pulling down a folder. “But there are conditions.”

“Conditions?”

“One,” he said, holding up a finger. “This marriage will stay absolutely secret. No one—especially not the school—can know about it. Understand?”

“Of course.”

“Two. While we’re under the same roof, you follow house rules. No sneaking around, no inviting friends over without permission, and don’t go through my stuff.”

“Fine,” she agreed quickly.

“Three. In public, you’re still my student. At home, we act like siblings for Yanely’s sake. This is not a romantic relationship. There will be no funny business.”

Aimee felt her face burn. “That’s… not what I meant when I said marriage!”

“And finally,” Ralph said, his tone softening just a bit, “if at any point you want out, you tell me. No questions asked. Deal?”

Aimee hesitated, then nodded. “Deal.”

He extended a hand toward her. After a heartbeat, she shook it.

And just like that, Aimee Stewart became Mrs. Hall.

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