Tori is an intelligent, kind, beautiful and capable young woman who prioritizes meeting and upholding the expectations of her loved ones even if it means sacrificing her own needs and wants. As her father experiences a health emergency, Tori's life...
Liv ran to catch the door before it closed. She held the door so she and I entered the familiar halls of our high school as we had countless times before, but today would be like no other day I had previously experienced. My mother had already informed the school of my father's condition and explained needing to take time off to be with him. The school and my mother had agreed upon a permanent substitute replacing my mother for the rest of the year to ensure that she would have one less thing to worry about and could prioritize my father while the school and students would have uninterrupted learning for the remainder of the year. Because of the small size of my school, my mom had already prepped me about this change and the need for me to assist the substitute with locating books, lesson plans, and other supplies. I had agreed to assist without hesitation as that was my usual response to anything my parents asked, but I particularly wanted to alleviate any unnecessary stress for my mom.
"Do you think the substitute is going to be Miss Larney?" Liv asked with a snort. Miss Larney's reputation was horrific at best as she was easily the oldest substitute in history with the unnecessary addition of being overly opinionated against the generation that she was substituting. She also would frequently have intense, loud coughing spells which many of us assumed were connected with her not so secret smoke breaks. "Oh hell, I hope not. I'm just going to go in there, pull out the lesson plans and hope that's all she needs." I said prematurely exhausted. "Ha! Ten bucks says she lose the lesson plans by the end of the day." Liv said devilishly. "Please, don't speak that into existence." We replaced notebooks and books within our book bag and locker. I shut my locker door and said, "I'm going to go ahead and deal with Miss Larney now and get it over with. Let Mr. Parker know where I am if I'm not there in time." "Gotcha," Liv said without question. I zipped up my backpack and swung it back over my back. I then began making my way to my mom's classroom. I had been anticipating what this would be like to walk into my mother's classroom to not find my mother in it, and it did feel surreal walking up to the door. The slim window of the door was lit giving me a clue that the substitute had already arrived. I took a deep breathe, not looking into the window, but rather knocking on the door to obtain the necessary permission to enter.
"Come in." A voice responded to my knock. As I reached for the door handle, my mind began to register the voice not aligning with my previous assumption of Miss Larney. The voice was deep and masculine. I almost started laughing as I began to wonder if Miss Larney's voice had finally suffered a drastic change from her lifetime of chain smoking, but as I moved the door open, my eyes met those of a young adult male.
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Character Above: Mr. Wyatt Daniels (Generated w/ ChatGPT)
His rich, dark brown hair was stylishly combed, and his pale green eyes appeared a lively yet thoughtful. He was well dressed with a fitted button down shirt in a white tucked into his well tailored dark grey slacks. His face was young, unscathed by the wrinkles of time. He looked far to young to be a substitute teacher. Suddenly, embarrassment washed over me as I had been inspecting this individual rather than interacting with him. "Oh... uhhh.... hi, I ... uh.... was just looking for the substitute for my mom-" "Miss Simmons, right?" His voice saved me from further tortuous embarrassment. "Yes. Tori, please." I pressed my lips together and nodded lightly as if defeated. "Awesome! My name is Wyatt. I'll be the sub for your mom." He held out his hand for me to shake it. I looked down at his hand and slowly grabbed it. My eyes returned to his as we began to shake hands. A smile was introduced to his face showing a set of perfect teeth. His eyes crinkled with genuine kindness. I pulled my hand back and crossed my arms with nervousness. To say that I had limited interaction with the opposite sex was an understatement. I had grown up in a small town with my class averaging less than 50 people at any given time of the year. So, while other girls may have found begun dating, I could not shake the memories of elementary school with my fellow classmates causing me to view them more sibling-like than having any romantic potential.
