Saving Mr. & Mrs. Miranda (Completed)

Chapter 5

So build me up (Build me up)
Buttercup, don't break my heart

_____

Chapter 5

The week went so fast for Lea. She was currently arranging her stuff on the table, ready to get on to her office, when a young, mestiza, brown-haired student approached her.

Lea showed her sweetest smile that could overwhelm anyone by just staring at it all day.

"Hey, what's wrong?" She asked the girl, when all of a sudden, the girl hugged her tightly. A gasp left her mouth for a moment before she slowly lifted her right hand to caress the small of the girl's back. Lea tapped the girl's back as she continued weeping on her chest. Something in her was telling her to ask the girl what was wrong, but she could not dare to do it.  

The girl let go of her grip on Lea's waist, trying her best to look straight into her teacher's eyes. Tears still streamed down her face. "I-I" She stuttered as she looked at the soaked area of Lea's uniform. Guilt was visible in her eyes as she modestly scratched her chin. "I must have soaked your uniform, M-Ma'am. I'm s-sorry. J-just pretend this never happened. I'm sorry, again, Miss Miranda."

"Hope." Lea could only whisper, looking at Hope's back as she awkwardly walked herself out of the classroom.

"Open page 48," Lea instructed her students. "I need you to read up until page 50, okay? And I want to know your thoughts about the topic. Write them down on one whole sheet of paper. Understood?"

It was her last period on Friday. She was exhausted. The back pain she was suffering for weeks was getting worst with each passing moment. All she wanted to do was to go home and lie down on her bed to relax her hurting back.

Lea slightly rubbed the right side of her hips as she roamed her eyes around the classroom. Someone was not attending her class, and it was bothering her.

"Syrelle, have you seen Hope? Why isn't she in my class today?" She quietly asked the student in front of her.

Syrelle put her pen down. "I don't have any idea, Teacher. She skipped classes this morning, too."

"She doesn't skip classes before." She blurted her thoughts out which made the students in her class look at her uncomfortably. Clearing her throat, she told them to continue reading.

I must have soaked your uniform, M-Ma'am. I'm s-sorry. J-just pretend this never happened. I'm sorry, again, Miss Miranda.

Lea bit her lower lip to vent her frustrations. She could not forget the girl's teary eyes; those eyes; those hurt and disappointed eyes that looked at her that morning.

Lea could not understand why was she affected so much. She was a Teacher for a long time. She had encountered students crying and even her co-teachers bawling because of certain reasons. She would try her very best to empathize with them. But it was different this time. She knew it was different this time around.

"Her parents had broken up."

"What?" Lea asked, snapping out of her thoughts.

"Hope's parents had broken up. It must have been hard for her. It's so scary to think that no one stays with each other anymore."

Claire, Hope's adviser, said. She was busy organizing her stuff on her table when Lea decided to stop by her table.

"It must have been hard," Lea whispered.

"Well, not you and Aga. I don't know how you guys do it. Come to think of it, relationships are scary. Some may decide not to enter a relationship because of how scary it is, but couples like you and Aga bring hope to them that being in a relationship isn't that terrible."