THE TEACHER

Chapter nine

Thanksgiving eventually came around and it was the ideal moment for Abby to finally reveal her true self to her mother. At first she didn't know how to react to the news that her daughter, the one person she had known since birth, was someone different than she expected. Not necessarily in a bad way, but she had to process a little the fact that her little girl was bisexual.

"I'm glad you told them," smiled Alex, with her arms wrapped around Abigail's waist as they wandered in the hallways of the school.

"Me too. It'll be nice to not have to hide myself from my mom. I don't really care about Stephen's opinion, to be honest."

With the corner of her eye, Abigail spotted Ms. Bennett walking at the end of the corridor, books in hand but with a less tired and tense expression, thankfully.

"I'll see you after fourth period, okay?" the girl quickly excused herself, leaving a small peck on the other's lips.

She ran away to the teacher in question, then tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention and make her turn around, greeting her with a big, joyous smile.

"Hello, Abigail," she said professionally, as if two days before she hadn't talked to her openheartedly about her life like she was her best friend.

"Good morning. I was wondering if we could make a deal."

"What deal?"

"You give me math lessons after school, one hour a day, but you only get to work two more hours at home," explained the student, confidently, pulling out her hand sure that she would have agreed.

"Fine. We start this afternoon."

They shook hands, and in that exact moment the bell rang. They quickly said goodbye to each other, and walked in two opposite directions, although Ms. Bennett couldn't shake away Abigail from her thoughts the whole morning.

"I've got to admit, I'm starting to like math a bit too much," sighed Abigail, letting herself fall on the chair behind her.

Ms. Bennett had been tutoring Abigail for two weeks, and they both seemed very comfortable around each other. Some could even say they were even fond of one another, but they would have denied the allegations to everyone who asked. Even when Charlie had asked Abby about her unusual friendship with Ms. Bennett, she had expressed that theirs was just a school thing, and that they were merely helping each other, lying through her teeth.

"Is that a bad thing?" Ms. Bennett raised her eyebrow.

"Not at all. I didn't actually think it could be this fun. Thanks for teaching me."

"My pleasure. Wanna grab a cup of coffee after this?"

"I have plans, but maybe we could do tomorrow?"

"That's fine by me. Now, let's continue working on this."

"There you go," smiled Abigail, putting the cup of cappuccino in front of Ms. Bennett.

"Thank you, dear."

"Dear, uh?"

"Too much?"

"No, I like it. It's very cute, kinda old fashioned."

"So, what's the deal with you and that blonde?" she smirked jokingly, holding the cup with both of her hands.

"We're just getting to know each other," the young girl shrugged her shoulders, nonchalantly.

She'd lied, but it was for the best. She didn't want to admit anything, even though her and Alex were being pretty open about their relationship; everyone had an idea that something more than a friendship was going on, but as long as they didn't say anything about it none of the rumors mattered.