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.

a few times before he finally

"Hey, you,"

over the

healthy and

that I heard about? You're not attending

"Nope,"he said simply.

"Why?"I asked.

an

person when you

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

sighed and paused for a beat before

Fine.

parent teacher conferences because I don’t know what

worried about meeting my

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

tell me

"Every little detail,"

see you in

my phone away, I made my way back to Tiff and

still going on

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

you heard? The art teacher,

of

"He is?"

Tiff pretended to gasp.

contract for two years but suddenly he just wants to quit.No

that such

I asked cautiously.

"For his career? Yeah,"

the world, "My

"What do you mean?"

again, afraid that he might be on

Ms.Diaz, right? She probably broke

let out

relieved, I

one date! And she

to stop me

and said, "Never

Let’s go

exclaimed a little bit too

pulled my arm quickly and led me out

"Thanks for that,"

I whispered to her.

happening? Is Mr.Hayes really quitting?"she

"I think so,"

did

"Of us.Yeah,"I sighed.

out,"she paused for a moment before saying,

really like him

hey, at least this way

with a

and I

be thinking about colleges, but I

has to sacrifice so much..."I hated

to sacrifice anything to

him to have everything

he had to give up teaching, his job,

even be worth it?

conferences, I told my parents I was

making way to lan’s apartment

still in his normal sleeping clothes, no shirts

on and it looked like he had been sending a bunch of

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

a bunch of

"It's alright,"he shrugged.

paced around the

pretended to play

"lan, what's going on?"

, ‘Why did you ditch

not like this,

arms and raised

does that even mean?

I’m serious about us.

my future with

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

That would be confusing.

got a good

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

I asked cautiously.

caller, whatever you

and I couldn't help but

step towards me and closed the distance

tilted my chin up

and he coaxed

noticed something was off and he narrowed his

What’s with

away slightly and bit

had been thinking about this

About that word ‘sacrifice’.

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