mr. hemmings // l.h.

4 • madeline

I worked my ass off all weekend on that renaissance project. I added so much precision, detail, and incredible information all to impress Mr. Hemmings.

Soon enough, I was sitting in the farthest table in the corner of the library, waiting for him. The last bell had rung, and he told me to go ahead and set up in the library for him while he finished some grading.

I got out my laptop, pulling up my presentation. I took out my notebook and opened it to display all of my neatly organized notes I had taken. I had even gone as far to print out pictures of Botticelli's paintings.

His voice startled me, while I was situating all of my belongings on the table.

"Madeline." He said. I jumped a bit, and looked up at him. He looked pleased.
"How long did all of this take you?"

I smiled, enjoying his praise. "I worked all weekend."

"I only assigned it on Friday," he chuckled, "it looks finished already!"

He sat beside me, smiling and looking over everything.

"Not quite." I blushed. "I have my presentation here, it's not completely finished, but I have a lot of slides so far. I took a lot of notes to be used. And, I think I'm going to put together a bulletin board kind of collage of his paintings, and bring that to display for the class as well."

"That's a great idea," he nodded, and smiled again, "Madeline, you really went above and beyond for this project. I can not stress to you enough how impressive this all is."

I blushed, hard. "Thank you, Mr. Hemmings."

"Can I see what you have on your presentation so far?" He asked, scooting closer to me, making my heart stop. "Only a sneak peek, though. I want to be surprised when you present it to the class."

I giggled a bit. He was so close I could feel the material of his pants against my leg.

"Sure." I giggled. "So these first few slides are about his early life, and background on the early renaissance. And then of course his early works."

Mr. Hemmings nodded, looking over my work intently.

"And then these," I continued, "are on the Birth of Venus."

He smiled, "It's so beautiful, isn't it?"
He looked at me, and his face was so close.

"Very." I nodded slowly, looking in his eyes. It was hard to pull them away from his. He smiled softly again.

My cheeks felt hot, and I turned my attention back to my computer screen.
I cleared my throat, "And then, I moved on to his different art styles. Mythological works, religious paints, and so on."
I closed my lap top and looked back at him with a playful smirk, "And that's all I'm showing you."

He laughed, "What a tease."

That made my heart stop, again. I was absolutely swooning over him. It was pitiful, honestly.

"What did you think?" I asked, wanting more of his opinions and tips.

"I mean, obviously, it's outstanding!" He beamed. "Again, I'm so impressed. I can't believe you did all of this in the span of one weekend. I hope I didn't work you too hard."