Forbidden Miss Foster

Chapter 29

Chris smiles , first giving Rosie a quick kiss on the cheek before wrapping her arms around me momentarily, in the form of a quick hug goodbye.

"I'll speak to you tomorrow.." she says , directing her speech towards Rosie , "and I'll be thinking of you Kenn." she says in a gentle tone , smiling softly.

I nod my head gratefully , not saying a word for the fear of breaking down at the prospect that I even need to be kept in anyone's thoughts.

Rosie smiles empathetically at me before walking Chris out to her car.

"I'll be back in a minute , love." she calls out to me over her shoulder.

"Take your time" I reply , before hearing the front door close behind her.

Rosie's POV

"What's up? Did me mentioning your pants draw in front of Kennedy offend you?" Chris mocked me , crossing her arms.

I roll my eyes , leaning against the boot of her car.

"No it didn't, although it did make me question your maturity." I told her.

Chris smiles , "We both know you do that anyway. Now talk to me."

I sigh , looking down at my feet.

"Kennedy's going back home tomorrow..which is all fine and well and whatever, but she's so similar to me in terms of she never tells anybody she's struggling..so if something were to happen I know almost definitely that I wouldn't come to know about it. Plus she's going back to an empty house , no siblings or pets or just anything that typically keeps a person going." I ramble , actively forcing myself to slow down in what I'm saying.

Chris raises her eyebrows, "So what you're saying is that you don't want her to go?"

I shake my head, "No it's not that , she should be going home , I know I definitely wouldn't want to stay in MY teacher's home if I were in her shoes."

"Rosie don't do yourself a disservice" Chris interrupts ; i finally look back up at her. "It's obvious that Kennedy values you more than as just one of her teachers..any ordinary teacher wouldn't do something like this for a student or care for them the way you do for her..she doesn't at all act like you're some distant , untouchable authority figure, she appreciates you being there for her as more than just a room in a house."

I swallow thickly , feeling my emotions becoming messy , tangled and confused again , a feeling that has become unintentionally familiar over the course of the last few of weeks.

"I'm worried about her." is all i finally manage to come out with.

Chris nods reassuringly and opens her car door , knowing full well that I hate when she dwells on me for too long.

"Keep supporting her , keep an eye on her at school..trust me she knows you're there for her." she states.

I take a deep breath , closing the car door after her and bending down to her window.

"Drive safe , I love you." I tell her , to which she reciprocates and then reverses out of my driveway.

Escaping the harsh chill in the air , I step back inside and make my way into the living room to put the fire on.

I enter the room and see Kennedy sat at the dining room table , her school notes all placed somewhat neatly in front of her. She was flicking through various sheets of paper, most likely trying to figure out what catching up she would need to do after missing her lessons today.

I smile , "Good news or bad news first?" I ask her.

"Bad news , I'm nothing if not a pessimist." she states , bluntly.

I laugh at her response , provoking a smile to tug fiercely at the corners of her lips.

"Bad news is that I have more paper from today to add to that lovely pile you've got going on there." I tell her.

She sighs , "That was expected , let me guess , psych gave me the most?"

I nod apologetically , "But the good news is that I have a really good hole punch and an excellent stapler to help sort it out."

Kennedy eyes meet my own and she raises her eyebrows as if to say "are you fucking kidding me?". I smile, sitting myself down across from her at another dining chair.

"I don't know about your other subjects, but for my lesson today all we did was plan that source analysis essay I was talking about last week?" I state , raising my pitch at the end of my sentence in the hope that she remembers what I'm talking about.

Kennedy flicks through her folder dedicated my lesson , which is immaculately presented and organised by the way , before finally landing on the correct pages of notes that she formulated last week in relation to this assignment.

"This stuff right?" she asks , scanning her eyes over the content.

I smile , "Does it make you want to burst into tears?"

"A little bit , I won't lie." she quips back, making me chuckle once again.

"Well how far did you get through it?"

She sighs , "I mean I finished it , but I don't like my third paragraph , the argument it puts forward is too weak for me to be able to write a couple hundred words on it."

I smile , standing up from my chair and then plonking myself back down on the one adjacent to hers , so that I could see what she's doing. I quickly skimmed over what she'd written , finding no issue with what she'd produced so far. I see a lot of myself in her , I'm never satisfied with my work if I feel like it could be better.

"Don't worry about the third paragraph, your argument is sufficient already but the quality of your earlier paragraphs will get you the marks." I tell her , this girl who always aims for the top grades in my class, and who never asks for help but somehow always puts everyone else to shame with her results.

"Thank you." she says , in a way that convinces me she's fully taken on-board what I just said.

I smile softly , "I have some marking to do , but after that I'm going to order pizza , that sound okay?"

Kennedy nods her head , "Can I pay? I feel like I owe it to you."

"Absolutely not." I reply, before heading out to the hallway to retrieve my bag of papers.

I hear Kennedy laugh from inside , I subconsciously smile at the sound of it.