Weak sunlight leaks through the blinds and hits Elsa in the face. She groans and cracks her eyes open, looking up at a ceiling she doesn't recognize. Her brows furrow and she sits up, gazing around the dim apartment she has spent the night in.
The place itself is a well-kept studio apartment, so the small bedroom is connected directly to the living room. A lone couch sits not too far away from the bed and Elsa can see a television against the far wall; to the right of the little living room is the front door. To the left is a counter space with two chairs, and she knows the kitchen is beyond that. She turns her head to her direct left and spies another door, seeing through the slightly ajar wood that there's a closet inside, leading into a bathroom to the left of that.
It's a cozy little apartment, and Elsa can appreciate the sandy color palette it exudes. Warm colors, neutral colors. It makes her feel welcome and reminds her vaguely of her parents' time-share in Hawaii. There's even a pair of framed photos of palm trees silhouetted against sunsets hanging over the television.
It slowly occurs to her that she's naked, and she freezes, trying to recall exactly where she is and why she's here. A snore captures her attention, and she looks to her left again, though this time she spots the sleeping figure of her one-night-lover all bundled up in the light brown blankets.
What's her name again? Elsa thinks, icy eyes sweeping over the freckle-smothered back of the girl. Oh, right. It's Anna. And she smiles, her memory flooding with the blissful evening she spent with her.
Her smile vanishes, however, when she realizes that it's Monday morning.
Fuck, what time is it?
She scrambles out of bed and hunts for her phone, finding her purse by the front door as she collects her clothes on the way. She searches through her bag and turns on her iPhone, breathing out a sigh of relief as the numbers 4:15 AM shine up at her.
She knows she has to go home and get things ready for Olaf. It's his first day of second grade and she has to look somewhat presentable for the teacher she's to meet in four hours.
So she dresses back into her wrinkled clothes and puts her hair up into a messy bun, yawning as she does so. She's just about to reach for the doorknob but catches herself, peering back at Anna with guilt.
Honestly, she's so grateful for the way the redhead handled her last night, giving her the most satisfying sex she had received in the longest time. She digs through her purse and pulls out a pad of paper and a pen that she carries with her for grocery lists and reminders and writes out a note for her.
Anna—
Thank you so much for the lovely evening. Sorry I left so early. . . but perhaps we'll run into one another sometime in the future. If so, I'd love to do this again.
Elsa
She tiptoes back over to the bed and leaves it on the bedside table on Anna's side. She then presses a lingering kiss to Anna's forehead before exiting the apartment and going down to the garage where her dark blue Lincoln is waiting.
After returning home, showering and applying concealer to any and all hickeys, preparing Olaf's lunch, and grabbing a Starbucks coffee to wake her up, she runs by her parents' house to pick up her son on time. She buckles him into his car seat as he prattles on and on about how he hopes he and Sven get the same teacher. She keeps sending him supportive smiles through the rearview mirror, watching him munch on some Cheerios he brought with him from his breakfast.
"You excited, buddy?" Elsa asks, the closer they get to Arendelle Charter Elementary.
"Yes!" he grins. "D'you think my new teacher will be nice?"
"I hope so. You didn't really like Mr. Frollo, did you?"
He pouts. "No. He was a meanie."
She chuckles and comes to a stop at a traffic light, waiting as the other cars zoom by in front of her. Her mind wanders to her night with Anna and feels her stomach clench pleasantly at the memory of Anna kissing her with burning desire. Each small groan echoes in her ear, and ghost of a touch sends a shiver up her spine. She gets lost in her head, remembering Anna's panting face and deep, passionate kisses.
"Mama!" Olaf calls from a distance.
"What?" Elsa snaps herself out of her thoughts, shaking her head.
"The light's green!"
Elsa hears the cars honking at her and she growls to herself, hitting the gas pedal and driving off, raising a hand in apology to those behind her.
Stop thinking about it, Elsa scolds herself. It was a one-night stand, and you really shouldn't be thinking about this sort of thing while your child is in the car with you.
"So, Mama," he chirps, "was the lady nice?"
"I'm sorry?" Elsa says, peering at him through the rearview mirror again.
"That date you had!"
"Oh… it didn't go well."
"Awh." Olaf frowns, sad that his Mama didn't have a good date like he wanted her to. "So will you try again with someone new?"
"Unlikely, sweetie. I've got more important things to worry about than having a girlfriend," she tells him.
"But Uncle Kristoff says that love is important, too!"
Elsa laughs lightly. "Don't believe everything that Kristoff tells you, kiddo."
He folds his arms across his chest defiantly. "But what if I think love is important all by myself!?"
She can't help but grin at him. Stubbornness definitely comes from her side of the gene pool. "If that's what you want to believe, then go right on ahead. I'm not stopping you."
"Good." He kicks his feet joyfully. "Are we there yet?"
"A couple more minutes. You have everything in your backpack?"
He proudly lifts up his orange, black, and white backpack with his name stitched on the front pocket.
"Yes!" he confirms. "I even have my pencil box with the crayons!"
"That's my boy." Elsa winks at him.
Elsa always makes sure to fill Olaf's school supplies with crayons and colored pencils and other things that she knows teachers usually buy themselves to store in their classrooms for their students. Although Elsa is glad this charter school has a lovely art teacher—her friend Rapunzel who is unafraid to confront and convince the school on her own to give her more funding for her art lessons—she prefers providing her kid with his own supplies so that his teacher has one less student to worry about. Particularly when the class does projects on their own time.
She guides the car into the parking lot of the charter school, and Olaf claps his hands with excitement, making his Mama thank her lucky stars that he is as enthusiastic about school as she was as a kid.
"Alright, Olaf!" she says, parking near the entrance. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah, yeah!" he cheers.
He unbuckles his seatbelt and car seat by himself and jumps out, meeting his Mama outside. He grabs her hand and walks with her to the front of the school, reminding her that they have to go to the auditorium so he can get his classroom assignment. Elsa waves to parents she knows as they move on, Olaf shouting greetings to his friends.
They enter the auditorium, and Elsa is reminded of how it was last year. The TAs assigned from the high school nearby for an extracurricular class stand by to take the kids and parents to their new classrooms once their names are called. All of the students sit in the rows upon rows of seats, and the parents patiently wait in the back.
Elsa lets Olaf skip over to Sven and Winifred, Rapunzel's daughter, and start to chat with them while Elsa finds Kristoff in the thicket of parents swarming and buzzing with activity.
"Hey, Els!" he greets with a wicked grin. "How was your date last night?"
"I got stood up," she deadpans.
His grin slides off his face. "Oh, well, I'm sorry about that!"
"Yeah," Elsa sighs.
"Are you… hung over?" he wonders, peering into her tired face and spotting the Starbucks clutched to her chest like her life depends on it.
"Only slightly," she admits. "I had a late night…"
"What did you do?"
"I hooked up with a girl I met at The Queen of Hearts." She keeps her voice low so that the parents around her won't hear her. She knows that if she speaks too loudly, she will become the next hot topic of gossip amongst the rather bitchy and privileged mothers.
"No way," Kristoff gasps, trying not to laugh, but Elsa sees the humor in his eyes. "You went to that bar after how many years? And how was it? Did you get her number?"
"Since I was twenty-six, it was great, and no I didn't."
"Why not?"
"Because it was a one-night stand."
"Wow. Who are you, and what have you done with Elsa?"
"Har har. Look, I just. . . I feel bad enough for just leaving her like that. She really was a nice girl."
"Well, maybe you'll see her again."
"Unlikely. I've never seen her before last night."
"Chin up, kid." Kristoff pats her shoulder. "At least you got something out of the night, right? I'm really sorry about that one date, though."
"Yeah, well, what can I do?"
Principal Merlin steps on the stage and taps the microphone to call the attention of the student body.
"Hello, everyone!" he says. "And good morning!"
"Good morning, Principal Merlin," the kids chant in unison.
"Welcome back to another year at Arendelle Charter, and I hope we can have a good, fun, and productive semester. Today you will all be assigned to your new teachers, as well as be given your extracurricular days for activities such as music or art or physical education when you get to your class." He smiles encouragingly at the students as they cheer loudly. "We'll start with the first graders. Teachers' Assistants, if you will please read off the names. . ."
Elsa tunes out as the TAs step on stage with the principal and start naming students that they will escort to the classrooms. With each name they call, students get up and meet with the TA, parents in tow, and once the class is grouped together, they leave the auditorium. Second grade comes up, and Elsa lifts her gaze from the tile floors and fixes her attention on the TA, Peter, who she knows is a friend of Wendy, Olaf's usual baby-sitter.
"For Miss Eldr's class," he begins and starts to call off the names of students. He then asks for "Sven Bjorgman," and Sven jumps up, Kristoff waving at Elsa as he goes to meet with his kid. Then soon after, "Winifred Fitzherbert," and she's with her father, Eugene—Rapunzel setting up her art class on campus—waiting for the class to move on. And, to Elsa's great pleasure, "Olaf Fönn" is next.
The little boy beams and shoots to his feet, thrilled that he's going to be in the same class as his two best friends. Elsa is simply happy that she'll be among her own friends in the parent group for this class. It will make the school year a lot easier on her.
Peter finishes calling the students and beckons them to follow him to the class. The kids scurry to catch up with the high school junior, the parents walking behind the group and keeping eyes on their little ones.
"Hey, Elsa!" Eugene greets, tugging on her braid. "It's good to have you in this class!"
"It's great to have you, too. And I know Olaf is happy to be with his friends," Elsa smiles at him. "I wonder what this Miss Eldr is like."
"Oh, she's a doll," Eugene assures as they walk across campus to the collection of buildings that holds classes 1-19, the other classrooms in the bungalows on the other side of the yard. "Really sweet and smart. It's her second year teaching at this school; she transferred from this place called Andalasia Elementary last year."
"I heard that's a good school," Kristoff adds.
"It's a private school," Elsa recalls. "Why did she transfer?"
"Who knows?" Eugene shrugs. "Punz doesn't even know. But hey, if it's not something she wants to share, it's not something she needs to share."
They reach room 18, and Peter stops them before letting them inside.
"Alright, everyone, here we are!" he says. "Does everyone remember how to get here?"
Several kids nod, others say "yes", and some look confused.
"Well, just in case you don't, I'll be waiting in the yard thirty minutes before class starts so if you need to come with me again, you are welcome to meet me there with the rest of the TAs," he says kindly. "Kids, your desks have name tags on them so once you get inside, find your name and sit at that seat. No switching! Now, let's get to meeting Miss Eldr!"
He opens the classroom door and steps to the side. The kids run in to find their assigned seats, the parents filing in after them and standing at the back of the classroom.
Elsa gazes around the room, impressed with what she's presented with. It's brightly colored and the cork boards are blanketed in poster paper and waiting to be covered in student art work. The alphabet is pinned above the whiteboard and math equations are scattered on the left wall.
There's a carpet patterned with rainbow squares for a kid to have their own space in front of the board, a cushioned chair at the corner of the carpet for story time. Cubby holes and painted, wooden counters with tin foiled covered platters are behind Elsa and on the right wall is a sink, the TA's desk, and Miss Eldr's desk.
And Elsa freezes in horror.
Just finishing up some papers at her desk is a girl with copper hair braided into twin pigtails, freckled skin, and teal eyes. She's wearing a pink cardigan over a black sweater vest and a teal collared shirt—and that's all Elsa can see at the moment. But Elsa knows who that is.
It's Anna. . . her one-night-lover.
She fucked her son's teacher.
Elsa spies a thermos of coffee that Anna no doubt made to get herself to wake up from their late night, and she even sees the slightly mismatched shade of concealer on her neck to hide the many hickeys Elsa had left behind. Yet there is no satisfying twinge in her stomach with the knowledge that she left them there. No excitement to see Anna after only a number of hours since their last encounter. There is only humiliation and shame, and Elsa hates herself and curses her so-called lucky stars.
Anna finally stands—in a dark blue skirt and the same black flats she wore last night—and goes to the chair on the rug. Elsa doesn't know if Anna has noticed her yet, but she feels very much like she wants to sink into the ground and never come out again, hoping to at least be ignored by Anna for the rest of the morning.
Kristoff gives her a strange glance, a questioning look in his eyes.
"You okay?" he whispers.
"No…" she replies softly.
"Why?"
"It's her."
"What?"
"It's her."
"Els, I don't understa—?"
"Good morning, everyone!" Anna chimes cheerfully, the chatter of the class dying down. "Welcome to my class. My name is Anna Eldr, and I'm going to be your second grade teacher this year. I can't wait to meet you all and see what you have in store for me and in store for yourselves. I make it my number one priority to see that the members of my classroom family are… taken care of." Her voice wavers as her eyes finally land on Elsa. Elsa gives her a nervous wave and a cross between a very apologetic smile and a grimace. Nobody takes notice, patiently waiting for Anna to continue. "Ah…" Anna flushes and clears her throat. "A-Anyhow, my grading is pretty basic…"
Anna spends the beginning of class explaining her syllabus and has Peter pass out two separate copies to the parents and to the students, the parents' copy containing her email and phone extension to reach her conveniently. Elsa is looking at everything but Anna, only focusing on her words and wanting this day to end now. As if she already isn't guilty enough just from leaving the poor ginger alone this morning, now she's being forced to stand in her classroom and listen to her melodic voice discuss her plans for the school year.
The bell for recess rings and, Anna excuses the kids, Peter heading out to help supervise in the yard with other TAs and the yard coaches. In order to get to know the parents, Anna had prepared quite the spread of treats for them to snack on before they leave after recess ends. Elsa can't eat any of Anna's delightful-looking cookies shaped like flowers and suns. She just can't take her kindness with ease after totally ditching her earlier this morning.
So she sits awkwardly in Olaf's seat with Kristoff—who had been briefed quickly on the situation—in the seat next to her trying to console her.
"So what, she's the girl you hooked up with?" he says. "It wasn't like you knew. What are the odds she'd be Olaf's teacher?"
"She mentioned she taught kids," Elsa moans. "I should have at least made a tiny connection."
"There are other schools in Arendelle," he reminds her. "It's an honest mistake."
"A stupid mistake…"
He rubs a large hand between her shoulder blades and sighs. "What are you gonna do?"
"I don't know."
A throat is cleared above them, and the two look up at Anna who is standing there expectantly. Kristoff excuses himself and dashes off to meet up with Eugene to talk with him while the girls have a moment alone. Anna takes Kristoff's seat and crosses her legs.
"So," she starts.
"So," Elsa echoes.
"Which one is yours?"
"Olaf Fönn."
"Ah…"
Silence.
Elsa tries to break the tension. "I bet it's nice to—"
"You know," Anna interrupts tartly, not interested in stalling the elephant in the room, "I was actually looking forward to this morning. I was gonna wake you up with some coffee and my famous scrambled eggs, but instead I wake up to a note on my beside table and an empty bed."
Elsa feels the hurt in Anna's words, and her guilt expands tenfold. "I'm sorry," she says, fiddling with her coffee cup. "I would have stayed behind, but I had to get Olaf to school. If it were any other situation, believe me, I would have woken up with you before I left."
Anna isn't sure if she can believe Elsa, but she sees the remorse in the blonde's eyes. She sighs and leans back in the small chair, folding her arms over her chest, pondering over Elsa's words.
"Well, Miss Fönn, what do you propose we do about this? We can't take back the fact that we had sex—great sex regardless of the morning result." She sits up straighter and tires to hide a smirk as Elsa winces in shame. "But I'm your son's teacher. This isn't exactly the manner in which I meet the parents of my students."
"Anna—"
"Call me Miss Eldr while we're here, please."
Elsa swallows. "M-Miss Eldr, listen, I am sincerely sorry for what I did. Please believe me when I say I feel bad for leaving you like that. If this is going to be an issue, I'll try to pull Olaf out of your class so you won't have to see me again."
"Whoa, let's not resort to that," Anna says, shaking her head. "Look… I don't have much of a right to be angry with you since it was truly intended to be a one-night stand. I like what we did because it was simple, no strings attached. . . And anyway it's sort of my fault for drinking and hooking up with someone before the first day of school."
Elsa remains silent.
"Now I have a job to do, and that's to teach your son and to get to know you as his parent. And since he's in my class, I'll be seeing a lot more of you than either of us had planned."
Again, the blonde refuses to speak.
"We have a responsibility as adults to be mature about this. Focus on the more important things and get back to reality."
Elsa nods numbly.
"Can you please just say something?" Anna demands gently.
"Yes, I'm sorry. I'm just a bit thrown off." Elsa rubs her temple with her fingers. "You're absolutely right. We need to be professionals about this and just start over. Olaf's education is most important above all of this."
"I can agree to that," Anna says, offering her a thankful smile. She wishes that they had more time to discuss this but recess is almost over, cutting their time short. This is all they can do for now. "So, Miss Fönn, welcome to room 18's family." She extends a hand and Elsa shakes it.
"It's a pleasure to be here, Miss Eldr."
Recess ends, and the class returns with Peter in the lead, the kids caroling a song called "Following the Leader" as they enter behind the red-haired boy. They already seem to be quite taken with their TA, whom Elsa knows is a child at heart from all the stories Wendy has told her over the years that she has babysat Olaf. Anna asks them all to take their seats as she stands at the front of the class.
"Alright, parents, it's time for you all to go so I can start getting to know your munchkins," Anna says. "But don't worry, you'll see them all at 3 o'clock. Say goodbye, kids!"
There is a chorus of goodbyes, and some children even get up to hug their parents, one of them being Olaf. He bounds up to Elsa and hugs her after she gets on her knees to hug him back.
"Bye, Mama," he says.
"See you soon, Olaf," she says, kissing him on the forehead. "Have a good day."
Elsa leaves the class, ignoring furtive look that Anna sends her, and she walks with Kristoff, bringing him up to speed about what she and Anna decided upon. At first, he seems understanding, nodding and listening intently. But as soon as they reach the parking lot, far away from the campus and far, far away from Anna's classroom, he doubles over with unceasing, unapologetic laughter.
"It isn't funny!" she snaps at him, her face a deep red.
"Oh my god, yes it is!" he howls. "It's just your luck, Elsa!"
Elsa shoves him and curses his large figure preventing her from moving him any further than he already is. Instead she crosses her arms and pouts at him, trying to look as intimidating as possible so he will shut his mouth.
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," he chortles, noting the odd looks other parents are giving them. "I'm glad you managed to patch things up with her."
"You and me both," Elsa says as they reach her car. She sighs and runs a hand through her hair. "I'll talk to you later. I have to get to work and finish piecing together next month's issue."
He's still grinning. "Have a nice day, Els."
She raises a hand in farewell and gets in her car, turning on the ignition and driving away from Arendelle Charter. She reaches a stoplight and then hits her steering wheel hard, cursing at herself. Kristoff is right; it's just her luck to have hooked up with Olaf's teacher and to have left her in the morning. Just her fucking luck.
"Fuck!" she wails loudly, her voice scratching against the inside of her throat.
Sometimes she misses swearing freely when she's at home, and it's so nice to let all her aggression out with a simple word. She doesn't curse often, but for times like these, she's glad to have such horrid words to spice up her otherwise sophisticated vocabulary.
She drives bitterly to the building where Crowns and Gowns magazine is headquartered. She parks into her executive parking space in the garage below and sulks over to the elevators. She presses the up button, an elevator clangs into place, and she steps inside, her thumb mashing the top floor's button.
"Hold it!" a voice shouts, and Elsa thrusts a hand out to stop the doors from closing. Her colleague, Jane Porter, comes puffing over and stumbles into the spot beside Elsa, the doors sliding shut behind her. "Thank you," she gasps.
"Where have you been all morning?" asks Elsa, staring at Jane with a bewildered expression.
"Running errands," replies Jane, standing and cracking her back rather loudly, Elsa grimacing at the sound. "I mean, I must have lost five pounds rushing from place to place for Aurora."
"Has she been briefed on the fact that you're not a personal assistant?" Elsa jokes slightly.
"Oh, of course she has. She thinks that just because she interviews all the hot guys for their fashion tips and delivers them to Kuzco it means she's a superior over me and my itty-bitty animal news and current events column in the back." She sends a scornful look at her editor. "But that isn't entirely my fault."
Elsa grins sheepishly. "Well, we had to make room for Megara's food and diet section. She works very hard on each article. Your stuff is great, but it doesn't seem to be getting much attention lately—"
Jane holds up a hand. "I know, I know, I've heard it all before."
They slip into silence as the elevator chugs upwards, the pair swaying slightly on the spot. Jane spares Elsa a side-glance and notices the bags under her eyes and the slight dishevelment in both clothes and character. Any other day, the sassy editor would make smart remarks that cause Jane to giggle as they went along. Jane knows her friend very well, having roomed with her in college where she picked up her quirks and habits with ease.
Something is up with Elsa Fönn, oh yes indeed.
"You alright?" Jane says.
"Hm?" Elsa raises a brow and looks at the British girl. "I'm fine."
"You don't seem fine," counters Jane skeptically. "What's happened?"
"Nothing."
"Oh, don't lie."
"It's nothing, Jane. Put it to bed."
Jane purses her lips as the elevator stops on their floor. Elsa sniffs distractedly and hurries off to her office, Jane slowly coming out of the elevator and catching the eye of Sally the receptionist, who raises her fine brows at the writer in question. All Jane can do is shrug with uncertainty, heading to her cubicle that she shares with Mulan.
"Sally," Elsa speaks into her phone as she gets settled into her office, "I don't want any disturbances as I look over the layout, please."
"Yes, Miss Fönn," says Sally politely before letting her boss be.
The blonde sinks into her chair and runs her hands over her face and through her hair, sighing. She turns on her computer and gets out the document holding the layout for their next issue but finds herself unable to concentrate.
With a growl, she stands up and paces around her office, trying to think, trying to get her head on straight. She pauses in front of the full-length mirror by her lounge area and cranes her neck, pulling down the collar of her white dress shirt. Some of the concealer has rubbed off on her shirt since this morning, and she can see the hint of a hickey beneath what is left.
She's thankful that Kristoff and Jane didn't catch sight of it. Kristoff would have never let her hear the end of, it and Jane would have demanded an explanation.
Elsa sighs again—too many times this day she notes—and returns to her seat, half focusing on the layout. Her mind is too muddled to really do anything else, and it keeps flashing back to the previous evening.
Her gut twists with more and more guilt as she imagines the look on Anna's face when she woke up. How disappointed she must have been, how disappointed she was when Elsa spoke with her.
And her words still sting. The tartness in them throbs in Elsa's memory and burns her. In spite of settling to start over, Elsa wants to do something to make amends.
"Maybe, y'know, just a basic suggestion: drop it?" Meg says snidely during lunch.
"Great advice," Jasmine remarks sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
Elsa has decided to call in her most trusted girlfriends to her office for lunch and finally divulge what has been bugging her all day. They're sitting in her lounge area as they discuss her predicament over their lunches from the market down the street.
"Well, if you have any better ideas," says Meg, casting her lidded eyes over at Jasmine, "then please, Miss Romance Advice Column, pray tell us."
"Does this count as romance?" Aurora asks, picking at her grilled chicken. "Are one-night stands really considered to be romantic?"
"It's the idea of them that sounds romantic," Jane offers.
"It's just, well, erotic," Jasmine muses. "It's not so much as romantic as it is erotic. People romanticize the idea because of the stuff Hollywood shoves down our throats."
"Then again," interjects Meg, "that's usually when it's a man and a woman. The dude gets hard, does his business, and leaves when it's a one-night stand. Usually, there's no emotional attachment from him. But when it's two emotional women—as much as I hate to admit it, we are more emotional creatures—"
"There's no shame in that," Aurora says, raising her fork at Meg, as if to scold her.
"I suppose not. But really, think about it. Elsa slept over." Meg looks at the editor as Elsa sinks low in her seat, covering her face in her hands. "Of course this Anna girl probably expected to have some sort of. . . something with Elsa after everything that had happened. But Elsa left in the morning, like most people often do in the one-night stand situation if they were to sleep over. It's all very disgruntling, isn't it?"
Elsa makes a humming noise.
"Didn't you say you like her?" Jane asks, trying to stay on the path of optimism.
"Yeah, she's a nice girl and everything," Elsa confirms, "but I don't know if I was really searching for a relationship."
"You just wanted to get some," Meg snickers.
Elsa sneers at her. "No. I am attracted to her. And if I were to be in any sort of relationship, she would be at the top of the list." Elsa pokes her sushi with her chopsticks. "But I really hurt her so even if I were to ask her out, I wouldn't blame her for rejecting me."
"Are you considering it?" Jasmine wonders, her brows raising.
"It's a hypothetical," Elsa says.
"Doesn't sound like it," Jasmine hums skeptically.
Elsa suddenly loses her appetite and puts her lunch on the little coffee table. So many conflicting thoughts are running through her head. The detachment she's supposed to have and did have at the start of the day. Yet she had left that note with the promise of wanting to do it again with Anna if they were to ever meet again—at the time unbeknownst to her that they would meet sooner than they both imagined. The guilt from leaving Anna behind and hearing the bitter words come from the redhead. The harsh reminder that Anna is teaching her son as they speak and the scandal it would become if they were to venture into a relationship. There's doubt that Anna truly likes her, the fact that she doesn't know Anna very well, and how they parted ways.
Nothing about this situation is good, and a vicious circle is trapping her within the darkness of her mind. And a night full of passion has evolved and gruesomely transformed into a day of living hell and mortification.
There's a knock at the door, and all five women turn their heads to look at it. Elsa allows entry and in walks intern Honey Lemon.
"Uh, Miss Fönn, I'm supposed to remind you that you're supposed to pick up your son in an hour," she says.
"Thank you, sweetie," Elsa says, giving her an appreciative smile.
Honey Lemon leaves, and the other four direct their attention back to Elsa.
"So that means you're gonna see the hot teacher again," giggles Aurora, unable to help herself.
"Not necessarily," Elsa says, shaking her head. "Olaf likes to play on the grass field after school and I pick him up from there. Unless Anna is hovering over the yard just to find me, then I have nothing to worry about."
"Well, I'm still gonna wish you luck," Jane says, getting to her feet. "Now, if you'll excuse me, ladies, I have to pick up where I left off in my column. Have a good rest of your day, Elsa."
She packs up her lunch and leaves, followed soon by Aurora who has to finish her article in time for publication. Meg pats Elsa on the shoulder before she and Jasmine head out, winking cheekily down at the still anxious blonde.
"Don't you worry, sweet-cheeks," she says, "you'll figure this out. You always do."
Elsa sends her a small smile in thanks, and watches them close the door shortly afterwards.
She finds Olaf playing with Sven in the grass field, just as he did every day after school last year. The yard is small but still manages to have plenty of room for its occupants. A few parents are milling about and chatting with one another as their kids wrap up a game of handball or something of the sort.
Olaf spies her making her way across the yard and runs up to her, his backpack jingling with each step he takes.
"Mama!" he shouts, rushing into her embrace.
"Hey, sweetie," Elsa coos, taking his hand shortly after and leading him back to her car. "How was your first day?"
"Awesome!" he shouts. "Miss Eldr is a really cool and smart teacher."
"Is she now?" she responds, trying not to sound bitter.
"Uh-huh. She told us about all the fun projects we're gonna do," Olaf continues.
"Like what?"
They reach the parking lot and Elsa's car, Olaf buckling himself in his car seat as he gushes to his mother about all the superhero project, the class country, and the big end of the year potluck. He goes on to tell her, the blue Lincoln idling at a stoplight on the way home, that Anna is really funny and encouraging.
"She's my favorite-est teacher ever," Olaf declares with a firm nod.
"That's great, Olaf!" she says with a grin. Just fucking great, she groans in her head.
If Olaf likes Anna that much, it only ensures Elsa that the two of them will be clashing a lot more than they had hoped.
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