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 before he

"Hey, you,"

over

healthy and fine, I

I heard about? You're not attending

"Nope,"he said simply.

"Why?"I asked.

it's an archaic

meet in person when you can basically do

if he was joking, but I could tell something

and paused

Fine.

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

worried about

this over the phone.Will you come over

tell me

"Every little detail,"

you in

away, I made

still going on and

on her face but Carrie

heard? The art teacher, Mr.Hayes is

of topic piqued

"He is?"

Tiff pretended to gasp.

contract for two years but

that such a

I asked cautiously.

"For his career? Yeah,"

scoffed like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "My theory is that it's probably because of a

"What do you mean?"

afraid that he might be on to

right? She probably broke his

and Carrie let out

wasn't relieved, I was

one date! And she

elbow to

and said,

NYU! Let’s

exclaimed a little bit too loud

pulled my arm quickly and led me out of

"Thanks for that,"

I whispered to her.

it's really happening? Is

"I think so,"

he did it

"Of us.Yeah,"I sighed.

all out,"she paused for a moment before

I really like him

that he has to sacrifice so much, but hey, at least

said with

I went around looking at

I couldn't

sacrifice so

wished he didn't have to sacrifice

have everything he

teaching, his job,

would that even be

fair and parent teacher conferences, I told my parents I was

I was making

still in his normal sleeping clothes, no shirts and a pair of

and it looked like he

me with a

looked at a bunch of schools.How about

"It's alright,"he shrugged.

and paced around

pretended to

"lan, what's going on?"

ditch parent teacher conferences? And why

parents.But not like this, Emma.Not as

 I crossed my arms and

even mean? "I'm serious

I’m serious about us.

see my future

your parents meet me now as your teacher and someday we tell them that we're dating, how do you think

That would be confusing.

a

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

I asked cautiously.

caller, whatever

chuckled and I couldn't help

me and closed

chin up and his face

found mine and he coaxed me into a

something was off

with that look

slightly

been thinking about this all

About that word ‘sacrifice’.

feel about you quitting your job, throwing away your career because of