Teacher's Girl (Aflyingwhale)

EMMA’s POV : 

"Can you believe it? We're officially high school seniors,"

Carrie exclaimed as we walked down the long hallway and rows of lockers.

"l suddenly feel so old,"

Mark said as he put his arm around Carrie.

"I think I'm having senioritis already,"Tiff added, rolling her eyes.

 "Look alive, Tiff.College applications are coming up,"Carrie said.

"I’m not gonna go to college.I'm taking a gap year to backpack across Europe,"Tiff announced proudly.

"Are you really?" I narrowed my eyes at her.

"My parents think it's a good idea.This way I can figure out what I really want in life.I also have an aunt that lives in Barcelona.She’s gonna let me stay with her,"

"Wow, your parents are the best,"I admitted.

Tiff really had the coolest parents out of all of us.

They were these vegan, hippie, and earth loving type of folks.

They were always happy, positive, and Zen.

They encouraged their kids to explore and live life boundlessly.

I would say they did a great job because Tiff turned out to be an amazing girl.

"God, I wish I could do that.My parents would never let me,"Carrie sighed.

"Me too.They‘re dead set on sending me to college ever since I was two.When I told them UC Berkeley is my first choice, they actually laughed at me.They said UC Berkeley's a safety school.They don’t want anything less than Ivy Leagues or MIT and Stanford,"

Mark rambled about his home life.As student body president, his whole life was dedicated to college.This was his moment.

"My parents met in Berkeley,"Tiff cut in, 

"What, your parents don't think UC Berkeley is good enough for you?"

"Clearly, you've never met my parents,"he replied.

"Yeah, and trust me, it’s better that way,"Carrie scoffed ,

 "They actually think that I was the one that poisoned Mark into wanting to go to UC Berkeley,"

"But it’s kinda true though? Mark’s only applying to Berkeley because you wanna go to Berkeley," I pointed out the obvious and Carrie glared at me.

"Yeah, but that’s not the point now is it?"

Carrie slapped my arm playfully and I laughed.

"How about you, little miss perfect attendance? You thought about where you're applying to?"

"A bunch of schools in the east coast.And like, one school in the state,"

I sighed when I remembered I had to apply to one, "Safety net,"

"The east coast? Like what?"Mark asked.

"Some schools in New York like the CUNYs, Fordham, Barnard, and Columbia.Also Princeton and University of Pennsylvania, but I wouldn't count on those,"

"Why not? You're definitely Ivy League material,"Carrie stated.

"Yeah.You scored a 1500 on your SATs, your grades are amazing, and you did a bunch of extracurricular activities,"Tiff added.

"And teachers love you.I bet they'll write you a kickass recommendation letter,"

Mark chimed in.

I bet,"Carrie laughed

you,"Tiff winked and nudged me to the direction of a teacher that was walking towards

it,"I shushed them quickly as Mr.Hayes walked over and nodded to us. Mark

Carrie said in

Tiffany,"he greeted everyone, pausing for a second before giving

from head to toe.He bit his lip as he noticed how short my

"Hi,"I said.

first day,"he meant to say it to everyone, but his eyes

having a

I muttered

Tiff and Carrie to keep

as hell, but

out a small chuckle and leaned closer to

portfolio, by

breath hitched as soon as I caught

out of five,"

his smell is

as he knew the effect he had on

one last time before turning to

as he walked away, all

senior year was gonna be a

AP Art class so

wouldn't be awkward with

course, he wasn't gonna let me

do I like

period today after lunch, so I decided to meet Mrs.Ash, our guidance

red- haired woman in her

year she said she was retiring, but she never did.Her office

posters on the wall with cliché quotes such as, ‘The Only Way to Guarantee Failure is to Never Try" or "Discipline: When a man

the phone for a while, so I had ample time to read through

loved and thanked her

was known to be a

you straight up if

in you, she would make sure you know about it and not

when she finally finished her call , Sorry about the

hope

her eyes and grabbed a

name on it and she started

schools out of state.And one school in

parents think we might not have enough money for

working all summer.I'm working on the weekends too.I've been saving up.I think I can

financial aid and scholarships available.I can help

would be great,"I

your grades,"Her eyes busily scanned the papers in

appreciatively a few times, so I took

scored very well on your SATs.You've got marvelous grades.And your teachers all have nothing but nice things to

saying that I have a good chance at Princeton,

answer right

watched me intently."That's possible,"she said finally, "With the right college essay, Ms.Sinclair, I think you can go far," I let out a relieved sigh and said,

why these schools in particular?"she paused for a moment

good school.But you

great school, but..."

the

Ivy

Ivy League, then I must tell you, they're not easy," she said in a

you need to prepare yourself for an interview, either

everything looked so daunting.That tone of voice hers wasn’t helping

can handle all that?"she

at her question

thinking hard about the future—about how it could