❝You, yourself as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.❞

- Sharon Salzberg

[ H U N T E R   W I L L I A M S ]

Before I knew it, the bell rung hysterically and with it, the fifth period ended. Everyone packed their stuff up in a hasty fashion and dipped right out of the classroom, I, however, took my sweet time with it, knowing what was waiting for me in my advanced English literature classroom.

I slung my backpack over one shoulder, not bothering to wear it properly and slowly made my way to the dreaded classroom, my stomach churning every step of the way there.  I couldn't quite understand why my body behaved in such an anxious manner when it came to my new English literature teacher. This wasn't the first meeting I've had with teachers about my lack of great school performance, but this time had surely been special.

I let out a shaky breath when I finally reached the classroom labeled with the number 'three' and warily knocked on the door, sort of hoping that Mr. Carter wasn't present and just forgot about our scheduled meeting. Unfortunately, I heard a manly voice behind the door say 'come in'.

I slowly opened the door and peeked my head in with a sheepish smile, taking in the scenery. Mr. Carter was focused on the papers on his desk, seemingly working hard. "Hi, I-uh... I'm here for the meeting?" I tried to get my teacher's attention and succeeded.

Mr. Carter looked up at me with an expression I couldn't quite read, his face showed barely any emotion and seemed very intimidating for a second. "Right, Hunter, come take a seat in the first row, we have a lot to discuss." He invited me in and I complied, despite wanting to dash right out the door never to be seen again. "I'll be finished with this paper in a minute." The teacher muttered.

We sat in awkward silence while I was waiting for him to finish the work he had started. I took a good minute to look at Mr. Carter again, he dressed professionally every time he'd seen him, a suit, a tie, hair always messily styled into a quiff. He was really handsome and it really surprised me that someone only twenty-six years old could be teaching advanced English literature to high school students.

Unfortunately, my train of thoughts halted when I realized that Mr. Carter was staring right back at me with an amused expression. "You know, staring at people that intently is quite awkward for them right?" He smirked at me, clearly pushing my buttons. Embarrassment rushed over my features and I broke the eye contact, my cheeks fiery red for no reason.

"Uh... Sorry, sir, I was just wondering." I managed to cough out, still refusing to look at him.

The teacher raised an eyebrow at me. "Wondering about what?"

"How someone as young as you could be teaching high school seniors advanced English literature, don't you need to study intensively for years to be able to do that?" I muttered, finally mustering up the courage to start an actual conversation with the man.

"It does take years of intensive studying, indeed, I decided to pursue this teaching dream ever since I got out of high school, I managed to get into Oxford University and finish my studies there, so don't worry about it, I am more than qualified to be teaching at this level." He smiled reassuringly while playing with a pen in his hand.

"I see, sorry if it came off as rude, I was just curious about it," I replied with a sincere smile of my own.

Mr. Carter let out a chuckle and wave his hand nonchalantly. "Don't worry about it. Now, enough about whether or not I'm qualified to be here, let's focus on the reason you're here, alright?" He asked rhetorically as I waited for him to elaborate. "As I mentioned previously, it is my duty as a teacher to help you through any mishaps in your studies as long as you're willing. Typically you'd find yourself a tutor and go on doing your thing, however, I don't want to force anyone to help you while they're likely struggling with their own issues." He continued sincerely, for a moment there I thought that he meant I was too much of a burden for someone and I got slightly offended.

"I see..." I muttered with a low tone, not sure what to respond with.

"So, instead of getting someone to help you with the trainwreck that is the advanced English literature course, I'll do it myself." He chuckled and I smiled at the trainwreck comment, half-knowing that it's likely going to be an actual trainwreck.

My mind took its sweet time processing what my teacher had been saying and I realized that these meetings will be happening quite more often than I had previously thought. I sighed and rubbed my forehead. "I've mentioned that I have soccer practice after school most days, sir, I'm not sure I'll be able to make it all the time," I answered, sounding unsure.

"That has already been taking care of, I've talked to the coach and he's more than willing to sacrifice a few hours for your self-improvement, he said that you're too valuable to the team to lose because of a bad grade in English. If our meetings turn out to be a huge interference, we'll meet at either later hours or off school grounds to continue with the studying." He reassured me with a serious tone, and I just had to raise an eyebrow, I'd be potentially meeting with Mr. Carter off of school grounds? That thought alone made me sort of excited, would he still appear as professional as he was when he was working? Would he be more laid back? I had to admit, at first I didn't like the idea of studying individually with the teacher, but now I was sort of intrigued, for reasons unknown to me.

I smiled and nodded understandingly. "Alright, I suppose help wouldn't hurt, I still want to graduate after all."

"That's true, just know if you have any questions or if you are unsure about something, do not hesitate to ask for help, I will always be there to help you with whatever is on your mind, that's my job after all." Mr. Carter said in a firm tone, sort of reassuring me that everything was going to be alright, any anxiety that had been present in the pit of my stomach evaporated and relief washed over my body.

I pulled out my phone to check the time and realized that we'd only been talking for about twenty minutes, I could still make it to practice. "I'm sorry to cut this short but are we done discussing this? I still have plenty of time to get back to practice and I really don't want to miss the opportunity." I asked with a hopeful tone, looking right into my teacher's striking eyes.

I saw the man nod at me with a soft smile. "Tuesday, the seventh period, be there."

I nodded dismissingly as I rushed out of the classroom after muttering a quick goodbye. To say I felt more relieved about the entire situation would have been a major understatement, maybe Blake Carter wasn't as bad as I had previously thought."

I quickly rushed through the hall in an effort to make it to the locker room. As I was dashing trying not to make too much noise in order not to disturb the ongoing lessons, I spotted Evelyn sitting on a windowsill, listening to music through her earphones and chewing gum. Our eyes met and she smirked at me, gesturing for me to come over.

Eve pulled the earphones out of her ears with a smug look on her face. "So how was your little date with the hot English teacher, huh?" 

"W-wha... It was not a date and you know it, Evelyn." I stuttered but looked at her accusingly.

"I'm just pushing your buttons, you loser." Her expression turned a tad bit more sincere. "So what did he say, is everything okay?" This is exactly why I loved Evelyn and exactly why she was one of my best friends. She may have been a total wreck, causing chaos wherever she walked, but she sure as hell never stopped caring about your well being.

I smiled in response. "Yeah, we figured it out, I'll be meeting Mr. Carter after school a few times a week to improve."

My response caused Evelyn to turn smug again and I knew I was in for it. "Ooh, alone time with the hunk teacher, eh? Could I join perhaps? I suddenly can not spoken London." She uttered nonsense at the end, causing me to chuckle. 

"I don't even want to know why you're obsessed with the teacher, but keep me out of it." I laughed briefly at her in response. "Anyway, why were you just sitting here, shouldn't you be in Psych right now?"

"I should be, but I'd rather just wait for you. Mr. Lennington is being a total cunt to me again, I'm seriously thinking about just dropping the subject as a whole, not like I need it anyway." She rolled her eyes. "You headin' to practice?" Eve continued hopefully.

I nodded. "Yeah, can't just straight-up skip it cause I had a twenty-minute chat with a teacher. You coming along? Maybe we could all go out for food after it, it's Friday after all." I suggested with a smile and she nodded eagerly. Suddenly my girlfriend, Bailey, crossed my mind, I had been worrying about her the entire day. "By the way, have you heard from Bailey today?"

Evelyn shooked her head. "Not a word, it's very unlike of her not to show up, she's normally preaching about staying in school and attending."

Where were you, Bails?