Topaz's POV

"Hey! Topaz! You look like an idiot smiling like that."

"Ya! I don't really like it when people calls me in my first name. You are the only one doing that," I said. Well, not only Joy but every person that I feel comfortable with. It's not that I don't like my name. As a matter of fact, I really like my birthstone except its color. I don't really know, but I don't like the color orange.  Since I was born in November, they named me Topaz. My second name is more of a combined name of my parents, Mark Alexander and Olivia Marie.

"Okay. Fine. Alex. Alex. Alex. There. So what's going on?"

"You'll find out."

We walked or should I say ran to the study room so we will be the first one to be there before the teacher. I am very excited and at the same time nervous.

"This way, ma'am,"I heard our maid said outside the study room.

The door of the study room opened and Joy looked at me in surprise.

"Is she what I think she is?" she whispered.

"I'm 100% sure," I answered, smiling from ear to ear, emphasizing 100%.

"Annyeonghaseyo," Joy and I said while doing a 90 degree bow.

The teacher seemed surprised by our actions. Joy and I have been learning Korean through the internet. We just know common words. No big deal.

"Good morning lovely ladies. I am Ms. Park, and I will be teaching you Korean starting this day and not just that. I will include dancing and voice lessons," she said while smiling.

Oh please. Tell me she's joking. I could just jump and run around this room whole day. I know I'm a bit overreacting, but I'm so happy. A Korean teacher! What else could I ask for? I know Joy is very happy too. She's a fan of 100%, but not as much as I am because the member she wants is no longer in 100%. Oh, how I wish Sanghoon oppa is still in 100%. She still supports 100%, but not as much as before. I know he's just on hiatus but oh well, I can't force Joy about this issue. Also, we know a lot of boy groups now.

"Good morning, Miss. I'm very grateful that you are here with us starting today. My name is To--,"

"Topaz Alexandria Hale. One and only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hale; one of the richest families in America. A pleasure to meet you," she said  while offering a handshake.

I'm quite embarrassed because I don't want other people to consider the fact that I'm rich. It's not that I don't want to be rich. Some people are just taking us for granted. They treat us very special to get something they want from us. People think that we are boastful, arrogant, and we just think about money. That's why I'm homeschooling at the first place. Actually, I am going to a real school during Grade 9 or should I say First Year of High School. When things got out of hand, my parents decided that I should just stay at home and I will be homeschooling.

"Oh please don't do that. I don't really want you to treat me special. You are our teacher so we respect you very much," I said while bowing slightly.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make this awkward. So, let's settle this. To lessen the awkwardness, I want you two, to call me eonnie," and she bowed too.

"But--"

"No buts. As a matter of fact, I'm not that old, so it would be very comfortable if you're just gonna call me eonnie," she explained.

I have no other reason to refuse so we just agreed to what she said. She looks really nice to me. She's very pretty too, maybe she's just in her twenties.

"Yes eonnie," I agreed.

"This is my best friend Joy. She's living with us along with her family."

"Hello ma'am. Uh, I mean eonnie," she said while bowing.

"Nice to meet you Joy. I bet you are full of happiness," Ms. Park said.

"So, shall we start this? We're wasting time. I want you to learn many things in one hour," she added.

One hour passed by and we learned a few sets of Korean words. We started with simple and common greetings. Oh, this is harder than I expected. We have no trouble pronouncing the words because I'm Asian-American. My mother is a Filipino and my father is an American. Joy is a pure Filipino but she was born here in America. We both know how to speak the Filipino language. I just think that it is a big advantage for us.

"I will be meeting you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We'll do dance lessons on Wednesdays and vocal lessons on Fridays. It's very nice meeting you two. I will be leaving now. I really had a great time with you two. I'll see you on Wednesday. Goodbye," Ms. Park said and left.

"Woah. Korean is harder than I thought," Joy said.

"I know. Don't you think eonnie is not speaking too much Korean? She's mostly speaking in English," I said. It's just rare for people to use their own language. But, it's fine, I guess.

"That's what she wants. What's important now is that we are learning many things from her. It's like a complete package," she said and laughed.

"She must be very talented. And she's pretty too."

"You know. We should rest. I think my mind is going to blow up any minute," Joy just said.

"Hey! Are you forgetting something? We still have classes. We will still be meeting with Mrs. Stewart," I reminded her.

"What?! I'm tired though."

I called our maid and told her to bring some snacks in the study room. We ate for a few minutes and started chatting again.

"It's a good thing we will still be seeing Mrs. Stewart. We've known her for quite a while now," I said. I've been homeschooling starting Grade 10 or the second year of high school. Mrs. Stewart has been our teacher for two years now and this is our last year of high school. Mrs. Stewart is like a family to us now. We go out every month with her to spend leisure time. She's been with Joy and I through ups and downs.

Mrs. Stewart's POV

I went straight to the study room to find my two lovely ladies sitting on the sofa.

"How's my daughters?"

"Miss!"

The two girls ran up to me and hugged me tight. Oh, how I missed these girls.

"We missed you very much Miss."

"I missed you too very much. I miss my two beautiful students."

"And we missed our very beautiful teacher/mommy," Topaz said. Joy and I are the only ones calling her by her first name. I don't know if there are other ones who are brave enough to call her that. Other persons that are not that close to her calls her Alex. I've been a mother to these two and I love them so much. I am thankful that their parents don't get jealous.

"So, how's your day so far?" I asked.

"We had a new teacher, Miss."

"How is she? Is she good?"

We spent half of an hour talking about their new teacher. They seemed happy about it. I've been waiting for this too, because I know how much they want to learn Korean.

This will be their last year of high school too. Honestly, I'm sad and happy at the same time because they will be taking different paths and they are going to pursue their dreams. I will not be here anymore because my job is done and they will be very busy. I'm sure that Topaz will be handling their business and companies as soon as she's done with high school. I don't know about Joy. She doesn't have any plans yet.

When I'm done teaching them today's lesson, we started talking about random things.

"Oh, Topaz. You're turning 17 soon. Any plans?" I asked.

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Published: September 2015 (IN WATTPAD)

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