The English Teacher ➳ Emison

Chapter 2 | One-On-One Sessions

Emily walked through the halls leading to her high school's library, anxiously shrugging her purse higher on her shoulder. Her arms and legs were sore from swim tryouts earlier that day and she was a bag of nerves for this upcoming tutoring session. Not only was she going to go over the semi-average quiz she'd done in English class today, she was going to do it with the help of Ms. DiLaurentis, and after last night, she wasn't sure how to even act around the teacher.

Their encounter had felt like an alternate universe of some sort. She had never spoken so freely with a teacher of hers before, she didn't know what came over her last night. Something about Ms. DiLaurentis just put her at ease and she felt like she could joke lightheartedly back and forth with her, even though she barely knew her.

That was the thing - she found herself wanting to know more about her.

Maybe she really did have a crush on the woman, she thought miserably. It only proved to stress her more about this upcoming hour.

Something else that didn't help her tense state was running into Paige earlier at the tryouts. She somehow managed to avoid the girl these past few days but she had known they would inevitably cross paths at the pool. They even spoke briefly, just quickly catching up. Emily hadn't seen her in nearly three months before today, and coming into contact with her just then... It did something to her.

It didn't make her want to take back her decision. In fact, it made her more confident in it. Speaking to Paige felt friendly at most. Her ex, on the other hand, seemed like she wanted to talk more before they were called on by their coach, but Emily didn't know what they could possibly speak further about.

She opened the door of the library, scanning the area as she walked in. To her right were closed booths meant for studying in groups and a corner with beanbags for students who wanted to read. To her left were many tall, categorized bookcases alongside an area with long library desks. She saw that some of the closed booths were occupied but she couldn't spot Ms. DiLaurentis anywhere, so she turned left and went to the area of desks, sitting down at one of the many empty ones and waiting for her teacher.

She pulled out her notebook and her copy of The Great Gatsby, sitting patiently. A few minutes passed before she glanced around at the people in the library, spotting some familiar faces. There weren't many students there since it was past school hours and people always rushed to get out of this building.

Other than that, the elderly librarian was silently watching cat videos on her ancient computer, which made Emily smile for some reason.

Glancing at the time on her phone, she realized her teacher was actually late. She hoped Ms. DiLaurentis hadn't forgotten about this, or worse, intentionally didn't come because she was weirded out by last night.

Emily turned back to the desk, her eyes closing on their accord for a few moments. She was fairly tired from swimming, from the whole school day, and frankly, just from thinking.

Last night, she had fallen asleep long after Aria. She had over-analyzed her entire odd interaction with Ms. DiLaurentis for the longest time. She hadn't told her friend about it, either. She had only tried to mute out her thoughts with the movie Aria allowed her to pick, but that didn't work. She couldn't stop thinking about her teacher.

What was wrong with her?

She heard the chair next to her scrape against the floor as someone pulled on it and opened her eyes, expecting to see her teacher, but instead, she came across Paige.

She sat up slightly in surprise. "Paige? What are you...?"

"Can we talk, Em?" Paige asked softly, silently pleading.