The new teacher

Chapter 4

It took Hope all the way till the next morning till she texted the number left in her notebook. She had been staring at her phone all morning until she finally sent the simple word 'Josie?'

"Hope, no phones at the dining table, you know that." Klaus sighed, not even bothering to look up from his newspaper.

"Wait." Hope said, only holding her finger up without looking. The fact was, she was actually still waiting for a reply from the number.

"No." Klaus finally looked up and reached for his daughter's phone, successfully grabbing it out of her grip.

"Hey!" Hope quickly lunged forward, realising that her phone wasn't locked so her dad could easily read her text. Luckily she managed to hit his hand, the device being flung upward before she caught it in mid air.

"Wow you'd do anything for that phone." Hayley spoke up. Family meals weren't always the most quiet or calm.

"It's cause she's texting her girlfriend." Penelope teased, smirking down at her history homework she was meant to do last night but obviously didn't.

"Penelope shh, you're supposed to be doing your homework that is due for today." Hayley looked at her daughter warningly who only rolled her eyes in return.

"I don't have a girlfriend." Hope grumbled, setting her phone down on the table before sitting back with a huff. Just then her phone lit up with a vibration and she almost knocked the entire table over as she jumped forward to pick it up.

"Are you sure about that?" Hayley teased but Hope ignored her, instead unlocking her phone and reading over the message that she had received, her face instantly falling.

[From: Josie]

This was a huge mistake. I'm sorry.

[Sent at: 07:13]

What? Okay first of it had to be Josie because if it wasn't they'd text back something like 'Sorry you've got the wrong number' not 'this was a huge mistake. I'm sorry.' What did that even mean? It was a mistake leaving her number?

"Everything okay?" Klaus asked, noticing the change of expression in his daughter's face.

"Yeah, yeah it's fine." Hope lied, sliding her phone into her pocket, choosing not to reply to the obvious rejection after getting lead on.

"What was a huge mistake?" Hope, slightly-okay more than slightly pissed off, went to Josie's classroom that morning before the bell rang.

"Hope." Josie sighed.

"Don't bother giving me this 'Aw Hope' shit like you feel sorry for me. You lead me on, why would you do that?" Hope stood there helpless and confused.

"I don't know what I was thinking, honestly. I saw the drawing in your notebook and saw it was me. I thought it was really sweet and everything in my head went to mush. I'm sorry Hope but it was really wrong of me to give you my number. I really like you, trust me if I weren't your teacher I would've been more open about giving us a shot but I just can't." Josie spoke apologetically but Hope only stood there with her arms folded.

"So that talk we had in the coffee shop was pretty much bullshit too?" Hope spluttered out, hands flying everywhere.

"You asked me if we could be friends and I said yes, that's not changing."

"You know what?" Hope shook her head and walked towards the door. "I'm done with this,I don't know what it is but I'm done." She left the room with a helpless shrug, pretty much on the verge of wanting to punch a wall after Josie leading her on, getting her hopes up and then totally rejecting her. God dammit why did she have to like this woman so much in the first place?