Pheacker Teacher AU (because I can't think of a better title)

A break from The Usual

The bell rang, signaling the end of class for the day. Philip, as usual, helped his students pack up their bags, tug on their coats and boots, and rush out the door to the buses, or to the lobby to wait for their parents.

As usual, he walked to the lobby next to Katie, while his other few students that got picked up strayed a few paces ahead of them. As usual, she chattered to him about her friends and adventures at recess and dinosaurs, and whatever else currently occupied her mind.

The weather had slowly started to warm, although only by a few degrees, but just enough for Philip and his gaggle of students to stand outside. As usual, parents picked them up quickly, and Katie was one of his last few who's parent(s) had yet to arrive.

Then, unusually, a sleek black car rolled up to the pick up area outside the lobby, one Philip didn't recognize. It parked, and likely one of the most gorgeous women Philip had ever seen stepped out.

She was fairly tall, about Philip's own height, with long, black curls that cascaded down her back and over her shoulders. Her skin was a warm, earthy brown, and her eyes large and bright. She smiled brightly, walked confidently, wore flattering jeans.

Katie rushed to her, swung her small arms around the woman's waist. Standing side by side, the similarities in their smiles and hair and shape of their faces were obvious, Philip didn't have to guess to know who she was.

And some ugly feeling took ahold of him that he struggled to shove off.

Katie took her hand and pulled the woman towards Philip. "This is Mr.Hamilton, my teacher, he knows how to draw flowers!" Katie told her, jumping with the uncontrollable excitement typical in kindergarteners.

The woman smiled warmly, her eyes crinkling along already forming laugh lines at the edges of her eyes, common in people who spent their lives laughing. She extended her hand, and he took it, despite how he felt about her.

"I'm Alyssa, Katie's mom." She said, continuing to smile like the wonderful person she probably was, and Philip tried to shove his ugly feelings down, felt bad for feeling the way he did.

"Katie's told me so much about you," Alyssa continued "she really enjoys your class."

"Oh, does she?" Philip said awkwardly, mentally cursed himself for sounding so awkward and dumb.

Alyssa laughed. "It's nice to finally meet you. I'm sorry we weren't able to earlier, I've been in Italy."

"Oh, I've been a couple of times. It's a lovely country." Philip said.

"You've been there?!" Katie gasped "Did you guys see each other?!"

"No, no, darling, Italy's big enough for two people to go and not see each other while there, if we happened to be there at the same time at all." Alyssa said, stroking Alyssa's hair affectionately.

Another parents arrived, and another one of his students called out goodbye to him as the ran towards their car. Philip smiled and called goodbye back.

"We better get going too, darling." Alyssa said, gesturing to her car. Katie nodded, said goodbye to Philip, and started in the direction of her mother's car.

"Again, it was nice to meet you." Alyssa said. She glanced around and leaned towards him, making Philip instinctively lean in too. "George talks a lot about you, too." She said quietly too him, reminding him of middle school, and whispering to his friends between classes, about who happened to like who.

She smiled conspiratorially at him and she leaned back, turned, and left, waving as she stepped into the car.

Philip was hit with a wave of all sorts of emotions at once, that all together, made him feel vaguely like throwing up.

"Why is your face so red, Mr.Hamilton?" One of his last two students asked him, tugging on his coat.