Like Teacher, Like Son (Chapter 5)

The next day, Madeline arrived at school, nervous to face her homeroom teacher. But she walked down the hallway with her head high and her shoulders back. She got closer and closer to the classroom until she walked right inside. The first thing she did was stand in front of her teacher's desk. She stood there until she made eye contact with Mr. Kendrick, who was sitting down.
"Hello," she said confidently.
"Hello," he said back.
She swiftly snatched a clean green apple from her bag. "Apple?" she offered while showing it to him.
"No, thanks. I don't want one."
"That's fine." Madeline reached into her bag and pulled out a plastic bag of apples from it. She dropped it down on the desk, surely capturing the attention of her teacher.
"What is this?"
"You said you don't want just one apple so feel free to pick out as many as you like."
"Ms. King--"
"No, let me say something. I am sorry for breaking up with your son. This might be hard to believe but I'm not perfect. I have flaws. I don't have physical flaws but I have mental flaws. One of my flaws is that I date boys for their face. And when I get to know them and I don't like what I know, I dump them. That's just what I do. Why do I do it? Because I'm picky. I've been that way since I was three years old and I didn't like most foods. Now I won't eat foods if they make me break out, gain weight or pass gas. Nonetheless, I wasn't the perfect girl for your son to begin with anyway. I would like to spend more time with him because I really liked him. I just let my mental flaws get in the way. And mentally, he was pissing me off. Therefore, I apologize to you."
Mr. Kendrick sighed. "Madeline, is one of the reasons for why you ended it with my son was because I'm your teacher?"
"Uh, no. Yeah."
"Mm-hmm. So I guess that adds itself to one of your 'mental flaws'."
"I guess so."
"Madeline, I don't hate you. If you respect me, I will respect you. You are not the type of person I want to spend time with. But you're not a bad person. I can see the potential in you. I know you're a good student and I won't treat you any different because you broke up with my son. Zeke will move on. He's a big boy. I raised him better than that. Ms. King, you may act confident when you walk through doors but when you let your facade get in the way, you hit other walls. You admit you're imperfect but it sounds like something you don't normally say. Maybe you should work on what's on the inside instead of what's on the outside. Got that?"
"Yes. It's going to be hard to do but I'll work on it."
"Good. I know there's good in you. You just have to use it more than you usually do. I accept your apology."
"Thank you, Mr. Kendrick." Madeline picked up her bag of apples and turned around to walk away.
"Wait!" the teacher stopped Madeline. "I thought you said I can have one."
"But they're my apples."
Mr. Kendrick made a face.
Madeline put her apples back down on the desk. "Sorry. I forgot that I had good in me."
"That's more like it." Mr. Kendrick opened up the bag and gradually picked up the apples he wanted.
As an impulse, Madeline swiped the bag from him. "You don't got to take all my apples, though."