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

"Hey, you,"

said over

and fine, I

heard about? You're not attending

"Nope,"he said simply.

"Why?"I asked.

it's an

person when you

joking, but I could tell something was

and paused for a beat

Fine.

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

about meeting my

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

tell

"Every little detail,"

see you in

my phone away, I made my way back to

on and on

bored look on her face but Carrie watched him as if he was a sight to

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

sudden change of topic

"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,"

the world,

"What do you mean?"

afraid that he might be

right? She probably

let out a relieved

wasn't relieved,

on one

my elbow to stop

and said,

Let’s go check

bit too

and led

"Thanks for that,"

I whispered to her.

happening? Is Mr.Hayes

"I think so,"

did

"Of us.Yeah,"I sighed.

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

really like

so much, but hey, at least this way you two could

with

talk, Tiff and I went around looking

about colleges, but I couldn't help but

so

to sacrifice anything to be with

wanted him to have

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

would that even be

conferences, I told

I was making way to

I got there, lan was still in his normal sleeping clothes, no shirts and a pair

looked like he had been sending

greeted me with a quick kiss

bunch of schools.How

"It's alright,"he shrugged.

trailed and paced around

pretended to play

"lan, what's going on?"

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

parents.But not like

arms

mean?

I’m serious about us.

see my future with

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

That would be confusing.

a

meet my parents as my teacher..but

I asked cautiously.

caller, whatever you

chuckled and I couldn't

me and closed the distance

tilted my chin up and

coaxed me into

pulled away, he noticed something was off and he narrowed his

is it? What’s with that look on your

slightly and

been thinking about

About that word ‘sacrifice’.

don’t know how I feel about you quitting your job, throwing