Love That Never Left

Love that Never Left

Mady lived in Poway, California, the town she spent her senior year in high school at. She, however, grew up in Chicago, a place she loved. Growing up in Chicago wasn’t pleasant for her though she did love the city itself. Her childhood in Chicago gave her trust issues, especially guys. The only reason she didn’t totally lose her faith in guys is because she has three older brothers.

She now lived in a two story house, with her two kids Sean and Topaz, and her husband Zach Porter. Sean is a junior, with his twin sister Topaz at Poway high where their mother teaches. Her husband, Zach, after being a singer of a world famous band became a music producer. The bassist of Zach’s band, Cameron is an English teacher at Poway high, and is still friends with Mady and Zach, as is his lovely wife, Rebecca. Cameron and Rebecca have a son named Hunter who keeps managing to give them a lot of trouble, but the two families, regardless of it all, are more like one big family than anything.

Today is the first day of school for everyone. After being dropped off at school and getting her schedule Topaz goes and finds her friend Ember. They trade schedules and see they have a few classes together, Math, English, and lunch.

Ember squeals and tells her friend, “We are so lucky! We have Mr. Quiseng, and Mrs. Porter as teachers!”

Mr. Quiseng and Mrs. Porter were popular teachers at school. They were so popular to the point where everyone in grade school and junior high knew about them, and wished they taught them.
Topaz mentally sighs, her mom, and her mom’s best friend are her teachers. Topaz always tried to distance herself away from her family at school. She uses her mom’s maiden name as her last name, and no one has met her mom, or her brother as her mom and brother.

Topaz’s brother, Sean, was the opposite of her. He wanted everyone to know who his mom is because she is considered so cool, and everyone knew she is. Also because he was a mommy’s boy, and was proud of it.

Topaz and Ember proceed to their first period together, Math, with Mrs. Porter. As the girls approach the room Topaz hears an all too familiar song coming from her mother’s classroom, a song from her father’s former band. She walks in and her brother comes up and greets Ember making his crush on her obvious to everyone but her, and his sister.

Mrs. Porter waited for the bell to ring before she came to the front of the room to greet her class.
“Hello. Welcome to Advanced Algebra. I’m your teacher Porter, Mrs. P, or Mady, whatever floats your boat.”

“Hey can I call you mom?” Sean calls out.

“If you want to Sean. Probably best if you didn’t, but of course I will respond to mom coming from your voice by instinct.”

She goes to turn on the projector when a video turns on of Mrs. Porter as a teenager. In the video Mady is singing into a hairbrush and dancing around her room. Then in the video she sees someone is recording her, and she yells, “ZACH!” The person behind the camera laughs, and then puts the Camera down so it is facing the mirror, and you can see Mady and Zach still in the video through the mirror. Zach comes and starts to kiss Mady, and the video catches it all. Then the video stops running and both classes, Mr. Quiseng’s- who are outside the door- and Mrs. Porter’s are all laughing. Mr. Quiseng having accomplished his prank goes back to his class. Mrs. Porter gives everyone a seat making sure to give Sean and Ember a seat next to each other with Topaz on the other side of the room so she wouldn’t ruin their crushes on one another. After she takes care of the seating Mrs. Porter yells, “FEILDTRIP!”

“To where?” one boy asks.

“Mr. Quiseng’s class. You didn’t think I would leave him the first day, the first period without a prank did you?” Mady says leading everyone out of the classroom.

“What the hell are we doing? This is immature! How these two still has a job baffles me.” Topaz says as she walks out of the room ranting.

Everyone stops and stares at her in silence, ever her best friend Ember, to show their surprise and horrification. Sean however has a look of pure anger on his face. “WHAT THE HELL!” he starts to rant, “Who the hell do you think you are? MY” he says emphasizing the word my, “mom is amazing! The school even knows about the pranks, but they don’t care because the pranks don’t disrupt any classes, thy clean up the mess, their students do well, and they are great teachers. So you need to SHUT THE HELL UP!”

After the shock of the initial outburst everyone claps, happy someone set her straight; even Ember claps. Topaz sends her friend a glare and gets a shrug and a roll of the eyes as a response.

“Topaz back to class and stay after the bell rings we need to talk.” Mrs. Porter says with pure anger dripping from her voice.

Topaz does what she is told, though she is mad that she looked like an ass because of her brother and her mom’s popularity.

On the way to Mr. Quiseng’s classroom different students are assuring Mrs. Porter about how cool she is, and Mady appreciates it.

When they arrive to his room Mady takes a digital mouse that is unknowingly hooked up to Cam’s computer and gets on to his favorites on the internet and clicks a link that he didn’t know was there.
Then a video pops up featuring a young Cameron, their best friend Michael, acting like idiots pretending that they were amazing at singing while screeching- which is putting it nicely- their heads off.

Everyone, including Mr. Quiseng was laughing by the end of the video.

Mrs. Porter walks in and says, “You didn’t think the first day, first period I had no pranks for you, did you?” Then she gives him a friendly hug before leaving the classroom.

As she is leaving Cameron calls out, “I was expecting something, but it had to be that video really?”

“You know it. Bye Cameron go teach your class some English.”

“Bye Mady, go do some Math.”

All the students walk into the classroom excited to see what will happen in this class. They are loving Mrs. Porter, and she is exceeding their expectations.

Once everyone is inside they finish up their first day talk about everything and how it works in her classroom. Soon enough she is done talking, even talked to them about the prank wars, and how they may be involved in some if they chose to be. “Class will be over soon, and I have said everything I needed and wanted to say. One last thing, and then you can talk amongst yourselves. If you need help I am always here to help you, whether it comes to Math or not. Even twenty years from now you can come and ask me for help and I will be there, I won’t judge, and I will be there. You can always find me, email me, call me, text me. You all have my number. Just remember that. You can talk amongst yourselves now, but no getting out of your seat; get to know the people around you.” Mrs. Porter didn’t want people moving because she wants Ember and Sean to talk, and if people can move around Topaz will go and talk to her, and then she can’t talk to Sean.

Mrs. Porter sees Topaz approaching Sean and Embers desk so she calls out, “Topaz what are you doing? Back to your seat NOW! You are on thin ice with me, and the last thing you want to do is fall through.”

A few minutes pass and the bell rings. Everyone leaves the classroom except Topaz.

“What you said was disrespectful. I am your teacher and your mother; you better have some respect for me. I plan on treating you like a normal student, so one more outburst and I am sending you to the dean’s office. Have done nothing bad to you? You are even using MY maiden name, so watch it. When you get home you are in so much trouble.”

“What’s my punishment?” Topaz asks hoping her mom will pick her punishment because when it comes to doing something bad to mom her dad gives out harder punishments. And vice versa.

“I am leaving that to your father, now get to your next class.”

Her father was pissed at her. Topaz got scolded so much her ears hurt from just listening to her father talk to her in a stern voice. One thing she knows it that she will never have to worry about her parents getting a divorce. Her parents are so in love she found it sickening. Her punishment was she is grounded for two weeks, and she has to empty and fill the dishwasher.

The next day during her first period Mrs. Porter says, “Alright as you know each month a class gets randomly chosen to pick one person to hang around our school for a week, and then students are encouraged to talk to the person, to get to know them, and their job. Well our class got picked to decide who comes this month. Of course it has to be someone we can get, but anyone have any ideas?”

“Why not dad?” Sean says.

“What does your father do?” Ember asks Sean politely.

“My dad is a music producer. You guys know the band Purple Problem?” Everyone mumble a yes or gives a nod considering the band is very popular, more popular than the Jonas Brothers and Justin Bieber were at the peak of their fame, and almost anyone and everyone loves their music, “Well my dad has produced most of their songs.”

After he says that all of the class is trying to convince her to call her husband to ask him to come, everyone, minus Topaz of course.

Mrs. Porter puts her hand up signaling them to stop talking, and they all do because she is their favorite teacher, she respects them, and they know they need to respect her. “So you are sure you want him to come? If you want him to come raise your hand.”

All the hands in the room expect Topaz’s are raised. “Alright I will call him.” She says as she digs through her purse to find her phone. She dials his number and puts her phone on speaker.

Zach answers on the second ring and says, “Hi MJ. What do you need Angel?”

The entire class awes after they hear Zach, except for Topaz and Sean because it is their parents.

“Baby, am I on speaker? Where are you?”

“Sorry about that Z. I’m in class and our class got picked for the have a person come in for a week and hang around so people can get a good look into different jobs. Also the person will talk at an assembly. They would have to be around for about a week. Well my class got picked and everyone, minus one student, wants you to come. Will you come?”

“Yeah please dad.” Sean calls out.

“MJ I’m recording with Purple Problem this week—“

“And I know those boys will totally insist you come and they will be ok without you for a bit. They will be there all month. Please Z.”

“Alright… only for you. Why can you make me do anything you want?” Zach sighs into the phone.

“Thanks Z. I love you!”

“I love you too MJ. Now get back to class.” He says before he hangs up.

Everyone in school is talking about Mr. Porter coming next week because they all know that he is best friends with Mr. Quiseng, and Mrs. P is his wife so there should, and will be many pranks. Monday rolls around and all three have two pranks ready for that one day. Cameron and Zach have teamed up for a prank against Mady, Mady and Cameron have teamed up to prank Zach, and Mady and Zach have a prank ready for Cameron.

Before any pranks take place Ember comes to Mrs. Porter’s desk in the morning to interview her husband for the school newspaper instead of her normal tutoring she has in the morning with Mrs. Porter that no one, not even Topaz knows about. Ember was struggling in math since freshman year and Mrs. Porter heard about it she had Ember come in for daily tutoring because she realized she needed extra help, but not too much extra help. Ember had been coming in since freshman year when Mrs. Porter was not even her teacher and just heard she was struggling. Her being tutored every morning made Ember treat Mady like a friend instead of a teacher, which made Mady happy because she was never a very formal women.

Ember being the romantic she is decided to ask Mr. Porter about when him and his wife first met and
got together. Her question takes them both back to senior year in high school at Poway High.

*SUPER DUPER LONG flashback*

The first time Zach saw Mady was when she was telling off his current girlfriend Nancy the first day of school before classes started. It was love at first sight.

“Who the hell are you to tell me my outfit is lame? Cause at least I match and have some style! The only thing you match is your friends, which FYI looks lame. You look like you belong in a Disney tv show where the mean girls match and look like idiots. You seem like aren’t your own person, which you aren’t, but at least fake it. Girls like you are all talk and no bite. Girls like me are some talk and lots of bite, so don’t make me bite.” Mady says before she gives her a look daring her to say something in response. When Nancy doesn’t reply Mady smiles and walks away to join her friend Rebecca. She had met the girls a few weeks before class started and the five instantly clicked.
At that moment Zach fell for her. He was only dating Nancy because he felt he had to because of peer pressure and people’s expectations, not because he wanted to. Soon later he knew Mady from his history class, math class, and lunch instead of only from her confrontation. Because they’re best friends were dating they became acquaintances on the verge of being friends. He, however, wanted to be at least friends if not something more. The day Mady told Nancy off is also the day he dumped her. He dumped her mainly because he didn’t want her, but also because he wanted someone else.
A few weeks after Mady’s first day in school she was walking home like she always did when she hears someone honk at her. She is startled, but turns around only to see Zach in his car on his way home.

“Where are you going?” Zach asks her having rolled down his window.

“Home of course.”

“Where do you live?”

“9829 Foster drive”

“I only live a few houses down, let me drive you.”

“No really it’s fine, I don’t mine walking. It’s nice out, and I’m used to Chicago so a day like today is a rarity.”

“Well clearly you are trying to ruin my sneaking way to get to know you better.”

“Ah I see. Well if that is the case you can give me a ride, thanks.” She proceeds to get in his car before asking, “So Cali boy what would you like to know?”

“What is your favorite place in Chicago?” Zach asks her purposely driving slowly.

“Navy Pier because you can walk by the lake or shop if you’d like. Also because it has many fun shops and I love the way the mall is set up for some reason.”

“Well we are at your house…”

“Thanks for the ride Zach. It was very nice of you.”

“Can I drive you to school tomorrow? I would like to get to know you better.”

“Alright, pick me up at 7:30?”

“Perfect.”

“Thanks again Zach. See you tomorrow.” Mady says before getting out of the car, waving to Zach and heading inside of her house with Zach watching her every move because well he had a crush on her and it was getting bigger and bigger each day he saw her.