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.

for a few times before he

"Hey, you,"

said over

healthy and

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

"Nope,"he said simply.

"Why?"I asked.

it's an archaic

meet in person when you can

was joking, but I could tell something

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

Fine.

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

worried about meeting my

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

you'll tell

"Every little detail,"

see you in a

my phone away, I made my way back to Tiff

going on and on

Carrie watched him as if he was a sight to

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

sudden change of

"He is?"

Tiff pretended to gasp.

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

that such a bad

I asked cautiously.

"For his career? Yeah,"

in the world, "My theory is that it's probably because of a

"What do you mean?"

asked again, afraid that he might be on

to date Ms.Diaz, right? She probably broke his

Carrie let

wasn't relieved, I

one

nudged my elbow to

quickly recovered and said,

NYU! Let’s go

little bit too loud than

arm quickly and led me

"Thanks for that,"

I whispered to her.

it's really happening? Is Mr.Hayes

"I think so,"

did it

"Of us.Yeah,"I sighed.

a moment before

really like

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

said with

talk, Tiff and I went around looking

I should be thinking about colleges, but I

sacrifice so much..."I

wished he didn't have to sacrifice anything to be

him to have everything he

he had to give up teaching, his job, his

that even be worth it?

told my parents I was hanging out

course, I was making

there, lan was still in his normal sleeping clothes,

on and it looked like he had

day?"he greeted me with

at a bunch of schools.How about

"It's alright,"he shrugged.

trailed and paced

pretended to

"lan, what's going on?"

‘Why did you ditch parent teacher conferences? And

parents.But not like this, Emma.Not as

crossed my arms and raised my

that even mean? "I'm serious about

I’m serious about us.

future with

for a moment before saying, "But if your parents meet me now as your teacher

That would be confusing.

got a

wanna meet my parents as my

I asked cautiously.

whatever you

chuckled and I

towards me and closed the

tilted my chin up and

lips found mine and he coaxed

was off and he narrowed his

it? What’s with that look

pulled away slightly

been thinking about this

About that word ‘sacrifice’.

don’t know how I feel about you quitting