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.

rang for a few times

"Hey, you,"

over the

sounded healthy and fine,

personal emergency that I heard about? You're

"Nope,"he said simply.

"Why?"I asked.

an archaic

meet in person when you

as if he was joking, but I could tell something

pressed on.He sighed and paused for a beat before finally

Fine.

conferences because I don’t know what I'll

worried about meeting

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

you'll tell me

"Every little detail,"

in a few

phone away, I made my

was still going on

a bored look on her face but Carrie watched him as if he was a

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

of topic piqued

"He is?"

Tiff pretended to gasp.

some teachers talking about it.Apparently, he signed a contract for two years but suddenly he just wants

such

I asked cautiously.

"For his career? Yeah,"

the most obvious thing in the world, "My theory is that it's probably because

"What do you mean?"

asked again, afraid that he might be on to

She probably broke

Carrie let out a relieved

relieved, I

one date! And

to stop me from

and said,

NYU! Let’s go check

little bit too loud than

and led me

"Thanks for that,"

I whispered to her.

happening? Is Mr.Hayes really

"I think so,"

did

"Of us.Yeah,"I sighed.

a

really like him

to sacrifice so much, but hey, at

with a

and I went around looking at

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

has to sacrifice so much..."I hated the word

to sacrifice anything to be with

to have everything he

his job, his career...all for a

that even

the college fair and parent teacher conferences, I told my parents

course, I was making way

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

and it looked like he had

greeted me with a

bunch of

"It's alright,"he shrugged.

trailed and paced around

pretended to play

"lan, what's going on?"

‘Why did you ditch

wanna meet your parents.But not like this,

arms and raised my

mean? "I'm serious

I’m serious about us.

future

said, pausing for a moment before saying, "But if your parents meet me now as your teacher and someday we

That would be confusing.

got a

because you didn’t wanna meet

I asked cautiously.

whatever

and I couldn't

me and closed the

up

found mine and he coaxed me into a

away, he noticed something was off and he narrowed

is it? What’s with that look on

pulled away slightly and bit my

about

About that word ‘sacrifice’.

know how I feel about you quitting your job,