The clock struck one. Teenagers gathered their notebooks and loud chatter broke out, with stories of what they've got planned for break this year. With the holidays approaching, everyone was eager to get home as soon as possible. Even Luke, and he loved being a teacher.
"Have a good holiday, Mr. Hemmings!" a few students called cheerfully before they exited his classroom. He smiled back at them while sifting through a pile of the classwork handed in during that period. A whole eleven days without being pestered about grades or coming into school at four in the morning—not that he didn't love it, because Luke was dedicated and came into school early because he cared about the kids he taught.
Glancing at the calendar taped to his desk, Luke's lips stretched out into a grin as he saw the circled 23 with the words, LAST DAY BEFORE WINTER BREAK written within the box. He'd be flying out of town to visit his parents for the entirety of the break, back home to where he grew up in Vermont. It was a small town in which Luke held a lot of fond memories.
From the time he was brought home as a newborn to the day he left for college, Luke had an eventful youth in Vermont. He was popular throughout all years of elementary, middle, and high school, so it was a good eighteen years spent in an otherwise irrelevant state to anyone else.
That day he left for college, however, seemed to start a spiral of other events in Luke's life that he still, even at twenty-eight, has a hard time coming to terms with or thinking about. It was there that he found his first ever experimental boy. It was there that, in the form of shaggy brown hair and glasses that framed his face, Luke found comfort.
Luke knew Vermont was his home, knew that's where he grew up. But, sometimes, home is a lot more than the house you grew up in. And it sounds absurd now, but Luke found a home in his first love.
Walking out of the school building, bag filled with student papers over his shoulder, Luke shook his head and chuckled quietly to himself, a cloud fogging within the cold air.
He missed Vermont, and he missed home.
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welcome pals. this is cliché. i'll edit it later, probably.
so, this is different. not sure when it's going to start.
