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

"Hey, you,"

over the

sounded healthy and fine,

this personal emergency that 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

was joking, but I

on,"I pressed on.He sighed and

Fine.

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

worried about meeting my

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

tell me

"Every little detail,"

you in a

my phone away, I made my way

going on

but Carrie

The art teacher,

sudden change of topic piqued my

"He is?"

Tiff pretended to gasp.

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

that such

I asked cautiously.

"For his career? Yeah,"

was the most obvious thing in the world, "My theory is

"What do you mean?"

that he

She

let out

I wasn't relieved, I was somewhat

one date!

nudged my elbow to stop me from

quickly recovered and said,

NYU! Let’s go check

bit too loud

arm quickly and led

"Thanks for that,"

I whispered to her.

happening? Is Mr.Hayes really

"I think so,"

did

"Of us.Yeah,"I sighed.

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

really like him

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

said with

talk, Tiff and I went around looking at

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

to sacrifice so much..."I

wished he didn't have to sacrifice anything to be

him to have

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

that even be worth it?

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

course, I was making way to

in his normal sleeping clothes, no shirts and

looked like he had

day?"he greeted me with

a bunch of schools.How about

"It's alright,"he shrugged.

and paced around the room

pretended to play

"lan, what's going on?"

asked point blankly , ‘Why did you ditch parent teacher conferences? And why don’t you wanna meet my

not like this, Emma.Not

my arms and raised

that even mean? "I'm serious

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,

That would be confusing.

a

wanna meet

I asked cautiously.

whatever you wanna call

I couldn't help

step towards me and closed the distance between

tilted my chin up and his face leaned

lips found mine and he coaxed me into a long,

we pulled away, he noticed something was off

it? What’s with that look on

pulled away slightly

thinking about

About that word ‘sacrifice’.

how I feel about you quitting your job, throwing away