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.

line rang for a few times before he finally picked

"Hey, you,"

said over

sounded healthy and fine, I was

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

"Nope,"he said simply.

"Why?"I asked.

an archaic

you can basically do

as if he was joking,

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

Fine.

know

worried about meeting

wanna do this over the phone.Will you come over after you're

tell me

"Every little detail,"

in a few

phone away, I made my

was still going on

had a bored look on her face but Carrie watched him as

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

of

"He is?"

Tiff pretended to gasp.

he signed a contract for two years but suddenly he just wants to

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

"What do you mean?"

he might be on to

right? She

Carrie let out a

I wasn't relieved, I was

one date! And

to

quickly recovered and said, "Never

Let’s go

exclaimed a little bit

quickly and led me out

"Thanks for that,"

I whispered to her.

it's really happening? Is Mr.Hayes

"I think so,"

did it

"Of us.Yeah,"I sighed.

out,"she paused for a moment before saying, "He must really like

really like

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

with a

talk, Tiff and I went around looking

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

so much..."I hated the

didn't have to sacrifice anything

wanted him to have everything

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

even be worth it?

told my parents I was hanging out with Tiff

was making way to lan’s

got there, lan was still in his normal sleeping

like he had been sending

was your day?"he greeted me with

looked at a bunch of

"It's alright,"he shrugged.

trailed and paced around

pretended to

"lan, what's going on?"

ditch parent teacher conferences? And why don’t you wanna meet

not like

crossed my arms and raised my

even mean? "I'm serious about

I’m serious about us.

see my future with

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

That would be confusing.

a good

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

I asked cautiously.

caller, whatever

chuckled and I

a step towards me and closed the distance

my chin up

coaxed me into a long,

pulled away, he noticed something was off and

is it? What’s with that look on your

slightly and bit

thinking about this all

About that word ‘sacrifice’.

about you quitting your job, throwing