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.

bet,"Carrie laughed

to

walked over and nodded to us. Mark still had no

Mr.Hayes,"Tiff and Carrie said

second before giving me a look and

head to toe.He bit his lip as he noticed how short my skirt was.He narrowed his eyes at me, but I just gave him a

"Hi,"I said.

great first day,"he meant to say it to everyone,

having a hard

I muttered

shoving Tiff and Carrie to

this situation awkward as hell, but lan was unfazed by

small

on your art portfolio, by the

soon as I caught his delicious

of

his smell

twitched into a naughty smirk as

friends one last time before

him as he walked away, all cool

was gonna be

my AP Art class so I had

of me to think that things wouldn't be awkward with us

gonna let me off so

do

to meet Mrs.Ash, our guidance counselor for some wisdom in regards to my college

a small red- haired woman in her

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 is sufficiently motivated, discipline will

time to read through the motivational posters and letters from her previous

really loved and thanked her for helping them go

to

up if you weren't Harvard

she saw something good in you, she would make sure you know

call , Sorry about the interruption.My husband forgot where he put his

hope he

eyes and

name on it and she

schools out of state.And one school in

parents think we might not have enough

for a moment before continuing, "But I've been working all summer.I'm working

there are financial aid and scholarships available.I can help you look

be

take a look at your grades,"Her eyes busily scanned

a few times, so I took it as

but nice things to say about you.And your extracurricular activities are superb,"she said as she

that I have a good chance at Princeton, Columbia, or U Penn?" I

answer right

Ms.Sinclair, I think you can go far," I let out a relieved sigh and said,

tell me, why these schools in particular?"she paused for a moment before saying,

school.But you don’t seem

but..."

the east coast next

Ivy

then I must tell you, they're

number one.And then you need to prepare yourself for an interview, either with a staff from

daunting.That tone of voice hers wasn’t helping

you can handle all

hard at her question

thinking hard about the future—about how it could