Before the bell rang

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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