Another High School Romance

twelve

During the whole second week of September, everything was a little chaotic. The year thirteen ball was coming up on the weekend, and they were all (mostly the girls) were very excited about it. The boys pretended they didn't care, but I knew most of them did. It was hard to get them to pay attention in class, but it wasn't like I tried very hard. We were a little ahead of schedule anyway, and I knew how important the ball was when you were that age.

"Are you coming to the ball Miss?" Lucy asked me on Friday once I'd given up on the lesson halfway through. "Like as a teacher chaperone?"

"No, I wasn't planning to." I shook my head. I knew Travis was chaperoning, so I'd declined to volunteer myself as well. We were keeping our situation under wraps, and both of us going to the ball would surely spark something we didn't want. He hadn't mentioned it, and neither had I, but I felt like I was making the right choice.

"Not even to see Coach Kelce?" Lucy teased.

"This again?" I sighed at her. "Why are you kids so insistent about it?"

"Because you two are so into each other and it's so obvious!" Lucy groaned. "Everyone knows it, except you apparently. Nothing much else interesting happens here."

"Well sorry to burst your bubble, but there's nothing going on." I lied.

"Are you sure Miss?" Another one of the girls - Katie - asked. "Because weren't you and Coach Kelce having a secret conversation behind the gym yesterday?" My head snapped up and I spoke without thinking.

"How do you know about that?"

The few girls that were listening giggled as I accidentally confirmed the claim, and more of the class turned their heads to tune in to the conversation. I pressed my lips together. I was sure no one had been around, and we'd just been talking, nothing more. But if anyone had seen us, it had probably looked pretty intimate. We found ourselves drawn close whenever we were around each other.

"It was on the page." Katie shrugged but blushed when Lucy shot her a look. 

"What page?" I frowned, very confused. Everyone was silent, exchanging looks. "What page?" I asked again, more insistently.

"Alright, but don't get mad Miss." Lucy hopped down off from where she was sitting on her desk, taking out her phone and tapping on it for a moment before placing it down in front of me. "Someone started it almost right after you came here."

I looked down at her phone, blinking in surprise at what she was showing me. It was an Instagram account under the username 'ship.swelce'. My eyes widened as I scrolled through the posts, looking through the photos and videos of me and Travis over the last few weeks, going right back to when we'd started being friendly. I scrolled back up to the top, scanning the bio of the account.

'We all know Miss Swift and Coach Kelce have the hots for each other, so this is a secret mission to see if we can bring them together. Nothing more romantic than the English teacher and the football coach falling in love.'

"That's insanely weird." I passed the phone back to Lucy. "Who started it?"

"I don't know."

"You're not a very good liar Lucy Graham but I'll let it go." I sighed. I knew she wouldn't tell me. "So you've all been seeing that this whole time?" She nodded. "And everyone knows about it?"

"Well most of the students do."

"Huh." I nodded. Yeah, it was a little creepy, but I knew kids. They did things like this and they meant well, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a tiny bit funny. Everyone was so invested in this.