'I used to think that school was easy and boring, but a special teacher changed that and taught me the joy of learning something new from everything.'

I tap the pen against my nose and stare at the two lines of black against white. What I've written so far works very well as a start, but I'm drawing a blank on what I should follow it up with.

After all, I was sure from the beginning that I wanted this last essay to be about Sensei, but she has come up so much in the other parts that I don't really know what else to say about her. I guess I'll start by writing that I couldn't be happier to have her as my teacher, and that everyone else in class thinks the same, too, girls and boys alike. The boys especially are always going out of their way to remind the other classes of just how awesome Makinami-sensei is, and they try five times as much whenever Sensei is within earshot.

I can't blame them, but they're crushing so hard on Sensei that it's almost sad to watch. They're fifteen years too young to even be worth her time, though, and then the idiots would need to grow their brains another fifty or sixty odd years to match Sensei's intelligence.

But I guess I should follow their example and make 'awesome' into one of Sensei's words. Pen to the paper!

...

'...and the Projects we work on with Sensei are almost as awesome as she is.' There, one down.

Speaking of that, I still don't understand why Makinami-sensei's single. She's very pretty and always happy, she's smart and a great teacher, and the restaurant always fills up when her band is performing so she's obviously also really popular as well. Logically thinking about the problem like Sensei has taught us tells me that there should be absolutely no way that people aren't lining up to ask her out, but that's… actually not happening. Or at least no one that I know of has come out victorious from that question.

And I'm pretty sure of that because, while there could be plenty of stuff going on in Sensei's private life, of course (I'm not around her 24-7, after all), if Sensei had gotten together with someone at some point, I'm certain that I would have heard something out of Mommy. Unlike me, Mommy's really bad at keeping secrets and, besides, the town is really not that big. If someone, somewhere, had seen Marie having fun with a 'friend', it would have made the rounds all through town quicker than Mommy can call Daddy a 'Baka'.

And since all the boys in class haven't fallen into the pits of despair yet, I guess it's safe to say that Makinami-sensei's still available, illogical as it may be.

When we asked her about that one day, the answer she gave us was that 'All her love was used up with her awesome students', and that she had nothing left to give to anyone else. It was obviously one of Makinami-sensei's usual jokes and we all laughed together at it, but her words reminded me about Auntie's comment on 'Having all the time in the world' and how lonely she had looked at the time.

Makinami-sensei didn't look lonely at all, but I still made her a good luck charm during our next Arts & Crafts period, anyway, a small necklace made of seashells that I hoped would help her find that special someone one day. When I offered it to her at the end of the lesson she gave me the biggest of smiles, and told me that she would treasure it and wear it to her next jazz performances for however long it lasted. And I remember nodding along to Sensei's words, thinking that with how pretty and perfect she always looked during her concerts there was simply no way she would break the image by wearing something an eleven year old had thrown together in little more than half an hour…

…but the awesome thing is that Marie did wear it.

And I wasn't the only one to notice, because that night the audience kept on murmuring during the pauses between songs about how strange it was to see Marie wearing something so unusual. But no one actually raised the question until the very last moment of the band's customary end of concert Q&A session, when a well-dressed man couldn't keep his curiosity any longer and straight out asked Marie about the hand-made necklace.

And just then, after catching my eye for a second and giving me a wink before she smiled at the man, Marie answered him by saying that it was 'a heartfelt gift from my special someone'.

Immediately, the hall ran abuzz with people whispering about what Marie had just said, but Sensei just grinned impishly and took it in stride, playing the game as some other parts of the audience followed suit and bombarded her with questions. Me, on the other hand...

...Well, let's just say that, until then, I'd never known you could feel embarrassed, happy and satisfied all at the same time.

…

The embarrassment then won by a landslide when word got out to Mum that I had been the 'special someone' Marie was talking about. Still, that's probably a memory I'm going to keep for a long time, so thank you, Sensei.

And what I just remembered is a good way of putting Sensei in a nutshell, now that I think about it. It might be a little flirtier when she's wearing her Marie persona, but that same exuberance and positive outlook towards everything is the same no matter where she is or what she's doing.

Some of the more traditional people in town might say that Sensei's nature borders on shameless, but I think it's more fitting to say that Sensei is 'energetic', or 'enthusiastic', and that she just likes being with people a lot. I mean, whenever she's showing off the next idea she's been working on to the class or we're actually working on it, Sensei's always the very first to be hyped about what she's talking about or what we're doing. I guess those same people who call Makinami-sensei's behaviour improper would probably say something even more idiotic if they saw Sensei constantly acting like she's our age, but Sensei's mountains of enthusiasm towards everything is just her way of motivating us towards doing our best. How she sells the class the latest project she's been working on, in short, and I'm living proof that her method works really well.

Hmm... I should probably write that down, too.

'...Sensei's endless energy and constant happiness make me glad that I get to work with her every day.' There, this essay is taking shape now!

But, again, and after everything she has done for us, I can't help but keep on thinking that it's such a shame that Makinami-sensei is single. All of that happy energy is meant to be shared with someone else, so it just doesn't feel right that...

…

…Then again, maybe I'm going about this the wrong way. I mean, what if I'm understanding the problem incorrectly? What if I'm wrong on my assumption that Makinami-sensei doesn't have a sweetheart?

What if Sensei's waiting on someone?

Mmm, that idea has a bit of merit… I mean, I know for a fact that Sensei's pretty good at bringing people together (it's completely possible that I wouldn't exist if it wasn't for her, after all) so chances are that she's not a stranger to love, and knows more than the basics of it. In fact, Sensei probably knows a lot more than that considering just how flirty her Marie persona is. I remember how Daddy complained that Marie wouldn't stop teasing him during his first practice sessions with the band, actually, so it just follows that such a person wouldn't be on their own for long.

Yeah! That must be it! Sensei already has a person she loves and they're just… away, doing... something! And Sensei has resolved to wait until they come back so they can get married and create a family and live happily ever after! Yeah! That sounds perfectly fitting for a romantic like Sensei!

'...So, who is it, Sensei? Is it one of the people from the government that come visit from time to time, or that friend of Daddy's that's doing the rounds around the world for some magazine, or someone else entirely?! Please tell me! I swear I won't tell anyone you don't want me to!

I mean, you can trust me, right?'

I can barely contain my excitement as I leave the pen on the desk, and I find myself wishing that the hours will hurry up and pass so that tomorrow can come. The answer to one of the biggest questions in my life is less than 86.400 seconds away, after all! Less than half that time, actually. I'm sure that Sensei will come clean to her favourite student after I've managed to come this far, right? Even if she has never spoken about it before, for whatever reason.

...But now I realise that I've just spent this entire essay gossiping. Damn. And I've still got one more word to give to Sensei, too! But at least that one's easy:

I pick up the pen and carefully write 'exemplary' on the next line, then ready myself for elaborating on that word.

'If Mommy is my role-model for never giving up no matter what the world throws my way, Sensei is the one that will always remind me to live my life to the fullest.

I love you, Makinami-sensei. I'm so glad that you're my teacher and that you taught me how to look at the world with different eyes. A town without you in it wouldn't be the same, and I don't need to ask Mommy, Daddy, Auntie and everyone else in town to know that they agree. You're the heart of our home for all of us, so make sure that you always remember to take good care of yourself!'

P.S: I swear I won't tell! So let me know who your sweetheart is after class, alright?! Don't wait too long and let them escape! ^_^

A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this one finished. I'd like to say that it was because I've been busy during the holiday season, but the honest truth is that this part has been ready to upload for about a week now and I've just been procrastinating on doing so for some reason. But with this fourth part we see the end of In Three Words, a story that won't set the world on fire, but one that I still believe came mostly alright for what it was.

I'll be going back to working on the main story I'm writing now, so see you again when that's ready. Or when I come up with some other short story idea, whatever comes sooner.

Have a nice 2019, dear reader. :)