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.

few

"Hey, you,"

over

sounded healthy and fine, I was

that I heard about? You're not

"Nope,"he said simply.

"Why?"I asked.

it's an

in person when you can basically

as if he was joking, but I could tell something was

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

Fine.

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

about meeting

I don't wanna do this over the phone.Will

you'll tell

"Every little detail,"

see you in

my phone away, I made my way

going on and on

on her face but Carrie watched him as

heard? The art teacher, Mr.Hayes

change of topic piqued my

"He is?"

Tiff pretended to gasp.

about it.Apparently, he signed a contract for two years but suddenly he just wants to quit.No one even knew

that such

I asked cautiously.

"For his career? Yeah,"

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

"What do you mean?"

that he

date Ms.Diaz, right? She probably broke his heart or

Carrie let

wasn't relieved, I

one date! And she

elbow to stop me

quickly recovered and

It's NYU! Let’s go check it

bit too loud than

and led me out of

"Thanks for that,"

I whispered to her.

happening? Is

"I think so,"

he did it

"Of us.Yeah,"I sighed.

a

I really

to sacrifice so much, but hey, at least this

said with a

and I went around looking at the

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

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

to sacrifice anything

wanted him to have

give up teaching, his job, his career...all for a girl.A silly,

that even be worth

teacher conferences, I told my parents I was hanging out with Tiff and

was making way to lan’s apartment

got there, lan was still in his normal sleeping

it looked like he had been sending a bunch of

was your day?"he greeted me with a quick kiss on

at a bunch of

"It's alright,"he shrugged.

and paced around

pretended to

"lan, what's going on?"

‘Why did you ditch parent teacher conferences? And

not like this,

arms

mean? "I'm

I’m serious about us.

see my future

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

That would be confusing.

a

you did it because you didn’t wanna meet my parents as

I asked cautiously.

whatever you wanna call

chuckled and I couldn't

a step towards me and closed the

tilted my chin up and his face

he coaxed me

we pulled away, he noticed something was off and

it? What’s with that look on

away slightly

had been thinking about this all

About that word ‘sacrifice’.

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