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 he finally picked

"Hey, you,"

said over the

healthy and

emergency that I heard about? You're

"Nope,"he said simply.

"Why?"I asked.

an archaic

you can basically do

was joking, but I could tell something

me what’s going on,"I pressed on.He sighed and paused for a beat before finally

Fine.

conferences because I don’t know what I'll do if I have to see

about meeting my

don't wanna do this over the phone.Will you come over after

you'll tell

"Every little detail,"

you in

made my way back to Tiff and

on and

her face but Carrie watched him as if he

heard? The art teacher, Mr.Hayes is resigning from the

of topic

"He is?"

Tiff pretended to gasp.

I've overheard some teachers talking about it.Apparently, he signed a contract for two years but suddenly he just wants to quit.No one even

that such

I asked cautiously.

"For his career? Yeah,"

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

"What do you mean?"

he might be on

She probably

let out a

I wasn't relieved, I

on one date! And

elbow to stop

and said,

It's NYU! Let’s go check it

a little bit too loud than

and

"Thanks for that,"

I whispered to her.

really happening? Is

"I think so,"

did it

"Of us.Yeah,"I sighed.

for a

I really like him

to sacrifice so much, but hey, at least this way you two could be together.You two

with

Tiff and I went

thinking about colleges, but I couldn't help but be reminded of Tiff's words

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

he didn't have to sacrifice anything

to have everything

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

would that even be worth

I told my parents I

course, I was making way to

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

was on and it looked like he had been sending a bunch

greeted me with a quick kiss on my

bunch of

"It's alright,"he shrugged.

trailed and paced

pretended to

"lan, what's going on?"

point blankly , ‘Why did you ditch

meet your parents.But not like this,

 I crossed my arms

even mean?

I’m serious about us.

my future with us

saying, "But if your parents meet me now as your teacher and

That would be confusing.

a good

meet my parents as my

I asked cautiously.

caller, whatever you wanna call

chuckled and I couldn't help

towards me and closed the

up and his face leaned

coaxed me into a

away, he noticed something was off and he narrowed his eyes at

it? What’s with that look on

slightly

thinking about this all day

About that word ‘sacrifice’.

feel about you quitting your