English Classes Result in Marriage

A schoolboy falls in love with his teacher

When they announced their wedding, everyone was shocked. The difference in 17 years is not a joke. He is a former schoolboy and she is his former teacher.

Nikita Maslov, husband :

When I was born, Anna was a teenage girl, she was a student, her biggest dream at that time of her life was to travel abroad. When I went to school, Anna married my family's best friend, he was 20 years her senior. When I was in the ninth grade, she divorced and came to work to our school. Our class was not tough, but we would always arrange a course of survival to our new teachers and then we would bring down our verdict. Everybody in the class liked Anna from the very start. She did not yell at us, she did not insult anyone, she was very polite with senior students. Even dumb students were feeling that they were personalities at her classes.

However, other teachers did not like her much. She was wearing good clothes, she looked very young. Years later, I was trying to find out, why she had come to work at school. As it turned out, she simply wanted to change something in her life. Anna was our headmaster, she was taking us to theatres, she was camping with us, she tried to understand and help us with our problems, she was giving us advice and defending us against other teachers' attacks. All girls were worshipping her, boys were in love with her.

Anna, wife:

When one has had an unsuccessful marriage, the perception of life becomes different - it's like seeing things through spotted glasses. I was fired from a well-paid job, I was forced to move out of my apartment, my ex-husband married another woman. I had to leave St.Petersburg and return to my parents in Vladimir.

It was hard for me to find a good job without anyone's help. A friend of mine offered me a work at school until I could find something better. She told me that working at school will become a new interesting experience for me because I would not have time to give way to despair. I used to work at school before so I was not afraid of the chance to go there again. My professor at the university used to teach me: "Children are children everywhere, just do not show them that you are being afraid of them."

It took me long to understand what Nikita wanted. He was following me all the time, he was trying to catch my look. After new year celebrations he told me that he would like to improve his knowledge of English. He asked me if I could help him with it. I was choosing books for him, helping him with pronunciation. When I fell ill, he was bringing me newspapers, flowers and fruit to the hospital. I did not know what to do, I liked that boy. At first I was treating him like my younger brother, love came later.

Sister Varya:

Nikita changed a lot after the tenth grade at school. He started wearing suits to school, she was doing his best to study English and information science. He did not go to night clubs, he did not hang out with his friends, his mother was so happy about Nikita. I knew that Nikita was in love with his headmaster. He was waiting for her near her house in the morning, he was calling her in the evening, whispering sweet words to her. I was covering him up in front of parents, he was helping me with my homework.

The scandal broke out very unexpectedly, shortly before the finals. Someone of our teachers dropped a hint to our mother about Nikita's passion. Instead of denying that, he told everyone that he loved Anna. Our mother was shocked: she was crying and screaming, cursing those English lessons. It was hard for her to accept the fact of her son loving the woman 17 years his senior. She even went to Anna's, she went to the school principal, but she could not do anything: Nikita passed his finals, Anna quit her school work and they started living together.

After the prom, Nikita appeared in the doorway of Anna's apartment with a silver ring (he did not have enough money for a gold one) and a bouquet of flowers. Anna did not tell him to get out - she had to leave with him because her parents were strongly against the relationship with a young man. Anna and Nikita moved over to the town of Energetik, they rent an apartment there. They are husband and wife. They have been living together for three years. Nikita works and studies by correspondence in Moscow. Anna became a private tutor. The couple has been through a lot of misunderstanding and rejection. Anna started having a feeling of shame because of such a large age difference. She feared lest Nikita should meet and fall with a younger girl. Then she just stopped caring about it: "Let everyone be jealous. I am happy, one just have to live in love."

Elena Nikolayeva