The English Teacher ➳ Emison

Chapter 14 | Precise Intuition

Alison stepped out of the vice-principal's office and into the busy hallway. It took everything in her not to slam the door. Instead, she plastered on a fake smile, cast it over her shoulder, and pulled the door politely shut.

She couldn't believe her luck. First, she was wrangled into being the Homecoming chaperone, and now Hackett had dumped yet another pointless extracurricular task on her plate. She didn't understand why he kept singling her out, though Debby had warned her this was just the standard hazing for first-year teachers. Alison didn't exactly appreciate the initiation. Between lesson planning and grading, she was drowning in her own work as it was. But she was a first-year teacher - it wasn't like she could say no.

Truthfully, every time Hackett summoned her, a spike of pure panic hit her chest. No matter how careful she and Emily were, there was always that lingering, suffocating dread that someone had found out. But Hackett never suspected a thing. If anything, he seemed to have developed a weird fondness for her. He insisted on telling her a terrible new literary joke every time they spoke, and Alison—because he was her boss—forced a polite laugh every single time.

If her teenage self could see her now, laughing at a principal's bad puns to keep her job, she would have absolutely gagged at how lame teacher-Alison had become.

She walked over to the cafeteria, where most students were in the midst of their lunch hour. Surviving a meeting with Hackett always left her craving something terribly salty, if only to salvage her mood. She offered a brief, obligatory nod to the few teachers she actually tolerated at the front table before making a beeline for the vending machines at the far end of the room.

She was mindlessly scanning the rows of chips in contemplation when someone stepped up to the machine beside hers. She didn't even need to look. It was terrifying how easily she could sense Emily's proximity now, like a sudden, magnetic shift in the air.

"Hey," Emily greeted lightly.

"Hi," Alison said back with a sigh, glancing at her. Trust Emily to look gorgeous in the simplest black jeans and a burgundy sweater.

Emily giggled under her breath, teasing, "What's gotten you in a mood?"

"What makes you think I'm in a mood?" Alison returned easily, keeping her eyes fixed safely on the glass in front of her.

"Well, your face doesn't usually have a frown on it," Emily shrugged, still pretending to choose something from the machine.

Alison acknowledged the truthful saying with a wry chuckle. "It's nothing. It's just that I've been assigned to manage the Senior field trip to the historical Philadelphia theaters that's coming up, so I have to start coordinating all the details."

"Ouch," Emily winced, realizing that sounded like a real burden. She looked at Alison with a mischievous grin, "Is it overnight?"

"No," Alison retorted, but had trouble hiding her grin at Emily's faux-innocent inquiry. She knew what was going on in the girl's mind when she asked that. "And even if it was, you wouldn't have any reason to be excited."

"Why not?" Emily questioned. She looked around them before lowering her tone playfully, "Would you have not let me into your room after lights out?"

Alison smothered her smirk as she lowered her face, still feeling Emily's eyes on her. "Not when there are other teachers and students down the hall, no."

"Even if I came up with a secret knock?" Emily quipped.

"Even then," Alison affirmed, not resisting from adding quietly with a taunting grin, "but who needs a cheap hotel room on a field trip when we've already got a whole house for that right here in town?"