I pinch the bridge of my nose and take a gulp of water to hopefully ward off the headache I can feel forming in my skull.

'It's Friday, Tris. Tomorrow you can sleep in. Just one more day.'

The parent-teacher interviews are nearly over. I just have to sit through three more and then I can go home.

I pick up the list of names. Lottie, Kai and a new student, Summer.

I haven't met Summer or her parents yet, so today I'll have to make a good first impression. I only found out I was going to have a new student in my class last week.

According to the principal, Ms Reed, she was a 'gifted student' which means I'm going to have to find even more higher level content to teach her. A challenge.

I look up, and Kai is peering around the door.

"Ah, Kai. Come in!"

"Hi, Ms Prior!" He waves enthusiastically and pulls his parents into the room.

"Lovely to see you again, Mr and Mrs Tanaka. How are you?" I shake their hands enthusiastically.

"Hello, Ms Prior." Mr Tanaka says. He and his wife smile at me.

"Let's get started then, shall we?" I smile at Kai. "Kai is a joy to have in the class. He's very smart, and he's polite and kind to others."

His parents nod happily, and Kai goes bright red. Mrs Tanaka clears her throat.

"What is his best subject? He has told me that he enjoys computers and reading, but what is he best at?"

"He is very talented at mathematics and literacy in particular."

Kai giggles. "Thank you, Ms Prior!"

"Well, I really can't think of anything else!" I say. "Your son is a lovely child, and you must be proud."

They shake my hand one last time, and Kai waves as they walk out of the room.

"Bye!"

I cross his name of the list. Two left, and I can go home, drink wine and watch The Bachelorette, and wallow in my depressing singleness as I look at all the hot people.

There is a meek knock on the door. "Come in!"

Lottie walks in the room, holding her fathers hands. "Hi, Lottie!"

She smiles. "Hi, Ms Prior."

"Great to see you again, Dr and Mr Jansen. How are you?"

"Very good thank you Ms Prior, and you?" Mr Jansen smiles at me.

I smile. "I'm quite well myself."

"Lottie is a very gifted girl. She is above average in almost every subject."

Lottie beams and her dads smile at her proudly. "Her favourite subject is music, isn't it, sweetie?"

"Ya huh!"

"She is very polite, but she is rather quiet during classtime."

"She's pretty shy, yeah." Dr Jansen nodded.

"I think that if she raises her hand during classtime more, and asks more questions, she'll be top of the class!"

Lottie smiles. "Okay."

"Lottie, do you think you could try to ask more questions for me?" She nods. I high-five her.

"Excellent! Well, I think that's it. You are a very lovely girl, Lottie."

"Thanks, Ms Prior. Have a good day!"

The family stand up, push their chairs in and walk out the door.

One left. I cross Lottie's name off of the list.

Barely twenty seconds has gone by before the last child shows up.

"Summer?" The little girl grins. She's holding the hand of her mother.

"Come in!"

They sit down.

"It's great to meet you! I'm Beatrice Prior." I shake her mother's hand.

"Hello, I'm Christina Kravitz, and this is my daughter Summer."

Summer waves at me. "Hi!"

Both mother and daughter have dark, shoulder-length hair, dark skin and big brown eyes.

"Well, seeing as I've never met you guys before, I guess you'll have to do the teaching."

I mentally face-palm. That was the cheesiest way I could have introduced myself. They probably think I'm just a massive idiot now.

To my great surprise, Summer giggles and her mother smiles. "I guess so!" Christina says.

"Well, Summer is a little smartass." Christina says. I laugh. She grins. Summer smiles. "She just gobbles up knowledge like it's chocolate, and she really likes chocolate."

I nod. "My brother was like that when we were little."

"Well, she loves music and art and science, and at her old school she was moved up a grade. She's six."

"Wow."

"And I'll warn you now, once you get her talking you'll have a very hard time shutting her up!" Christina tickles her daughter, and Summer bats her hand away, laughing.

"That's true!" She giggles.

I laugh. "She'll fit in with my class fine, then."

Christina laughs. "I'm guessing you have a headache every day?"

I nod. "Yup."

She pats my hand sympathetically. "I used to be a teacher, before Summer came along, and wowie! Teaching those ten year olds was way harder than I thought it would be. I'm a painter now, and I'm glad that Summer is the only kid I have!"

Summer laughs. "I help you with your art sometimes, right Chrissy?"

"That's right, darling."

I smile at the pair of them. "Is there anything else I need to know? Any allergies or anything?"

"No, I don't think so, except, well… she gets a bit sad sometimes. Her father and I split up last year and he works a lot. She misses him."

I nod, hoping my expression is sympathetic. "Ah. Well, Summer, if you ever need anyone to talk to, or if you feel like you need to get some fresh air, you just tell me, alright, sweetie?"

"Alright, thank you!"

"You're welcome."

Christina shakes my hand one more time. "Awesome to meet you! We'd best be off then. We're running low on food at home!"

Summer laughs. "I ate it all!"

Summer shakes my hand as well. "Bye Ms Prior!"

"Bye Summer, bye Ms Kravitz."

"Ah, call me Christina."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"So what do you think of Ms Prior, flower?" I ask my daughter, who grins.

"She seems very nice!" She grabs my hand as we walk to our car.

"She does, doesn't she?"

Summer nods. "Can we buy chips at the shop, Chrissy? Please?"

"Okay, Summer. What do you feel like for dinner?"

"Hmmm. Can we have McDonald's?" She asks, looking at me with her big, innocent eyes.

"Anything but McDonalds. That stuff is about as healthy as eating plastic!"

Summer laughs. "Okay then, can we have tacos? Or butter chicken? Or spaghetti?"

"Well, pick one!"

"Okay… um… tacos!"

"Tacos it is!"

I turn on the radio. "What do you want to listen to?" I ask her.

"Can we listen to, um, erm… You pick, Chrissy."

I switch to a random song. "Is this one alright?"

"Sure!"

When we get to the store, Summer grabs my hand and drags me to the junk food isle.

"Oi! We need dinner food, NOT dessert!"

"I know, but dessert is a NESSECITY." I roll my eyes.

"Fine. Ice cream or a chocolate bar. Your choice."

Summer whirls around. "How am I meant to choose between them?"

I tickle her and she giggles. "I'm not sure. But you'd better pick soon, or you can have fruit salad for dessert!"

"No! Not fruit salad! Okay then… um… ice-cream!" She opens the freezer a snatches a tub of mint choc chip ice-cream. She chucks it in the basket.

"Let's go get taco stuff!" She cries, yanking on my arm.

"Do you want beef tacos or veggie tacos?"

"Can we have both? With guacamole!"

I shrug. "Sounds good to me!" She grabs salsa and guac off of the shelf and walks further down the isle to the taco shells.

"Hard tacos or soft tacos?" I ask.

"Both!"

When we finally have everything we need (dessert, dinner AND snacks) we line up at the register to pay.

Summer sees the magazine the same time I do. She stares at it and then me.

"Daddy?" I nod.

Summer's father is an athlete. Tobias Eaton. He was given the nickname four because her is infamous for being the most successful Quadrathlon athlete in the world.

He's also a hunk, and he travels all over the world.

Without us.

When I found out he was having an affair last year at the Olympics, I ended it with him. It wasn't the first time he cheated. I knew that if I gave him another chance, it wouldn't be the last time.

And that's the story of why my baby daughter is so sad.

A distant father and a single mother.

Summer peers at the title on the magazine.

"Famous athlete Four Eaton goes to beach with girlfriend…" She reads aloud. I look at the title myself.

"Daddy has a girlfriend?" She peers at me with wide eyes.

"It's okay, Summer. We aren't married anymore. He can do whatever he wants." I shrug it off, refusing to get mad.

'I won't let that ruin my day. We will go home, eat tacos, watch a movie and I will not let him ruin my day.'

I chant that in my mind over and over until it's finally our turn to purchase our food.

"Come on, Summer! Let's go home and watch a movie."

"Can we watch, um, Frozen?"

"Again?" She nods eagerly.

"Yeah! My friend said that it's funny I like Frozen so much because in Froze it's cold like winter but my name's Summer."

I force laugh and hope it sounds genuine. "Come on, or the ice-cream will melt!"

Let's go home and eat food so I can forget about your arsehole father and the blonde haired teacher, sweetie.

Of course I don't say that aloud.

I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW TOO MANY STORIES THAT I NEVER UPDATE I KNOW BUT THIS SEEMED LIKE A GREAT IDEA WHEN I STARTED WRITING IT!

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