Chase the teacher

It felt like you could wait to check your phone and you moved back to catch up with Rebecca. She however made the first move when you joined her, interrupting your train of thought before you could say the first word.

“So how much have you been revising?” Rebecca asked, turning to look at you just as you had caught up.

“...Enough I think. But what did you…” you replied, the question seeming out of nowhere as you tried to go back to the previous topic, getting interrupted before you could.

“Hmm really? Grace said you were pretty busy over the weekend” Rebecca teased, slowly continuing her walk while you were about to be left behind.

“...Both me and Emma still did some studying. And how busy did she say I was?” you questioned, wondering what Grace had told her.

You knew that Grace would never mention Izzy or Jack without your permission but there was a lot that had happened over the weekend that she could have told her to get that sort of reaction out of Rebecca, making you put your guard up even more to avoid revealing anything accidentally.

“Oh very busy from what I hear. But you did seem to have time to message me though. Grace was very keen to hear about that” Rebecca added, continually throwing out lines that stopped your train of thought.

“Well yeah. I wanted to message you so I did. We did have a deal and I wanted to make sure you kept your end of it. You did, didn't you?” you asked back, trying to play a more aggressive role.

That seemed to be what finally pushed her off balance as she took a second longer to respond than she had been before, giving you a chance to get the edge.

“If you didn’t then there's gonna have to be some serious punishment for you” you added, seeing her face drop at the thought.

“No, No I did!” she hastily replied, speaking loud enough for others to hear.

She immediately got embarrassed and got close next to you as if trying to make herself look smaller behind you, giving you a chance to rest your hand on her back and continue with the tour.

You weren’t actually planning on showing her around and just wanted to give her a chance to feel better but she actually seemed genuinely interested in having a look around so you kept up the act and went over everything you remembered from when Jessica had taken you around earlier.

“You never did tell me about what you did before you were a teacher” you asked, a lull in the conversation letting you go back to this topic from a while ago.

Rebecca had been happy to look around the place but the mention of her past made the light in her eyes dim slightly and made you regret asking.

“You don’t have to answer of course. I was just curious” you said, trying to backtrack.

“No, it's fine. I did say I’d tell you at some point. I used to be a pretty good long distance runner. Good enough to compete in the state championship and then I was thinking of competing at a higher level than that” Rebecca explained, pausing to let you ask the obvious question.

“How come you stopped?” you asked, knowing there was more to the story and based on her reaction before, you knew it wasn’t going to be anything good.

“...I ended up getting injured before one of the tryouts and that set me back enough to reconsider. I haven’t really done anything like that since I started teaching either. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job but… you always wonder what could have been, you know?” Rebecca replied, giving you a deeper look into her life.

You felt oddly saddened by what she was telling you. Knowing that she was being open with you and telling you her story, but also seeing that she wasn’t able to tell people until they were close enough to her.

“I’m sorry that happened to you” you said, feeling like you couldn’t say anything else in this situation.

“Oh it’s not anything I’m too distraught about. It just makes me think.” she replied, a smile now on her face.

You could tell that there was still something about it that bothered her but it seemed like even Rebecca didn’t know that it was there, making you think it was best to go along with her for the time being.

Your phone in your pocket felt heavier than usual as you knew there was actually something you could do about it. If it was her injury that she was still worried about then it was possible to change Rebecca physically in the hopes of getting rid of whatever damage had been done.

Rebecca wouldn’t be able to witness the change either as she had basically given up on going down this career path so the only way you could see it working out for her would be if you told her about the KDK and then let her make the choice herself.

“Hey seriously, it’s fine” Rebecca added, putting a hand on your shoulder after seeing that your expression had stayed sour.

You tried to shake off the thoughts about the KDK but they lingered in the back of your mind, knowing you would have to make the grand reveal at some point but not feeling comfortable doing it yet. Not knowing how people would react was also a challenge and now that you had the ‘Forget me now’s’, it was even harder to rationalise not blurting out your secrets when you had a backup plan if it went wrong.

Even if that backup was risky, it was still an option that was a lot better than some of the other alternatives.

Still, you kept a smile on your face and even though Rebecca could see you weren’t back to 100%, she still continued the tour with you until you were getting close to making it back to the front desk. Just before you turned the corner to where Jessica would be able to see you, Rebecca took your hand and gave it a quick squeeze, shooting a smile your way.

“Sorry for reacting like this. I just wish there was more I could do for you” you revealed to Rebecca.

“It’s sweet that you want to help but seriously, I’m happy where I am now. Especially after I’ve got to know you” Rebecca replied, squeezing your hand one final time before letting go when you got in view of the desk.

You had expected to see Jessica still sitting there but the front desk was surprisingly empty, leaving you and Rebecca with some extra alone time that you hadn’t expected to have.

You closed in on the desk just to make sure Jessica wasn’t just out of sight but you couldn’t see her in the back room either, inviting Rebecca to sit in the other office chair so you could chat more comfortably.