Teacher's Girl (Aflyingwhale)

EMMA's POV 

"Don't forget to check out Duke, Rice, and Vanderbilt,"

Mom said as we made our way through the booths at the school’s college fair.

"Oh yes, I heard Vanderbilt's got a strong liberal arts program,"

Dad nodded in agreement.

The school’s holding a college fair this Saturday, along with parent teacher conferences.

All the junior students are required, or as they say, encouraged to attend the college fair.

I wasn’t complaining though.

I wanted to spend my precious Saturday looking through colleges all around the country.

The only good thing about it was at least my best friends had to do it too.

I spotted Tiff and Carrie over at the University of Florida’s booth, and I knew what to do next.

"Okay, I got it.You two go meet my teachers and hear about what a great student I am.I’m gonna catch up with Tiff and Carrie,"

I said, waving my parents away.

"I'm really looking forward to meeting your teachers.Especially your AP art teacher, Mr.Hayes,"mom said and I quickly turned back.

"What? Why?"

"You worked so hard on his class.

You spent almost every day after school working on your art portfolio.

He must have nice things to say about you, I wanna hear about it all,"

she said as she turned to her heels towards the art room.

"Oh, you don't have to —"

"The line at Duke is empty.Go, go check out the schools.We'll regroup here in an hour,"

Dad shooed me as he walked off with mom.

My parents are meeting...my boyfriend.

At parent teacher conferences.

Oh crap.

Making my way over to Tiff and Carrie, I sighed dramatically as I pushed past the row of kids.

Tiff and Carrie turned to see me and they immediately knew something was up.

"What's going on?"Carrie asked.

"My parents are meeting Mr.Hayes.I totally forgot about that.I am so screwed,"

"Don't worry about it.I’m sure he can handle your parents just fine,"

Tiff replied.

"Actually, you don’t have to worry at all,"Carrie added, "

My parents went by earlier.

They wanted to see my art teacher too, but he wasn’t there.

Something about a personal emergency.

He’s doing his conferences with parents via email,"

"Oh...that’s very smart of him,"

It was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

"See? He’s a smart guy.He’s handling it,"

Tiff said as she grabbed a few brochures from the University of Florida.

"In the meantime, I think you should check this out,"  "The University of Florida’s a total party school,"

Mark chimed in suddenly, appearing out of nowhere.

"Hey, babe.Did you see Rice and Duke already?"

Carrie greeted him.

"Yeah, you guys should see it.

Duke has the best engineering program—"

Mark was about to ramble on this topic for the next ten minutes, I could just tell.

"I have to make a call, I'll be right back,"

I said to Tiff and Carrie before slipping away from the crowd.

I found an empty, cozy spot at the end of the hallway and I dialed Ian's number.

a few times before

"Hey, you,"

over the

healthy and

personal emergency that I heard about? You're not attending parent teacher

"Nope,"he said simply.

"Why?"I asked.

it's an

when you

joking, but I could tell something was

going on,"I pressed on.He sighed and paused for a beat before finally saying,

Fine.

don’t know what I'll do if I have to

about meeting

this over the phone.Will you come over after you're

tell

"Every little detail,"

you in a few

away, I made my

on

but Carrie watched him as

guys, have you heard? The art teacher, Mr.Hayes

change of topic piqued

"He is?"

Tiff pretended to gasp.

talking about it.Apparently, he signed a contract for

such a bad

I asked cautiously.

"For his career? Yeah,"

the most obvious thing in the world, "My theory is

"What do you mean?"

he might

to date Ms.Diaz, right? She

Carrie let out a

wasn't relieved,

went on one date! And

my elbow to stop me

quickly recovered and

NYU! Let’s go check

a little bit too loud

and led

"Thanks for that,"

I whispered to her.

happening? Is Mr.Hayes really quitting?"she

"I think so,"

he did

"Of us.Yeah,"I sighed.

out,"she paused for a moment before saying, "He must

really like him

has to sacrifice so much, but hey, at least this way you two could

said with a

and I went around looking

I should be thinking about colleges, but I couldn't help but be reminded

so much..."I hated

he didn't have to sacrifice

him to have everything he

give up teaching, his job, his career...all for

that even

the college fair and parent teacher conferences, I told my

I was making way to

got there, lan was still in his normal sleeping clothes, no shirts and a

it looked like he had been sending a bunch of

was your day?"he greeted me

at a bunch of

"It's alright,"he shrugged.

paced

to play

"lan, what's going on?"

and asked point blankly , ‘Why did you ditch parent teacher conferences? And why don’t you wanna meet

meet your parents.But not like this, Emma.Not as your

arms and

even mean?

I’m serious about us.

see my future

a moment before saying, "But if your parents meet me now as your teacher and someday we tell them that we're

That would be confusing.

got a good

you didn’t wanna meet my parents as my teacher..but

I asked cautiously.

caller, whatever you wanna call

I couldn't help but

towards me and closed the distance between

chin up and

found mine and he coaxed

we pulled away, he noticed something was off and he narrowed

is it? What’s with that

slightly and bit

had been thinking about this all

About that word ‘sacrifice’.

about you quitting your job, throwing away your career because