"So Tony isn't really your dad?" Cassidy Jones had asked her best friend, Emma.
"He's such a nice guy though…" Kayla Johnston said after.
"You don't know the half of it…" Emma shook her head.
It was 2:10pm on the second last Friday of January, 5 minutes before school let out for Emma. She was currently in math class, sitting right next to her friends, Cassidy Jones and Kayla Johnston. The three have been friends ever since they met in the 1st grade. The three were a talkative bunch, and since it's the last day of the First Semester, chances are they'd be moved away from each other on Monday. Right now their teacher, Mrs. Cates, was handing back the quizzes the class had taken a couple days earlier, so the girls were talking about Emma's recent discovery about who her dad was.
"So who is he again?" Cassidy asked Emma.
"Some guy named Phil Brooks, but he's apparently an athlete by the name CM…Punk? I don't know," Emma shrugged.
"Wait…HE'S your dad!" Kayla asked.
"That's what my mom said, you know him?" Emma asked.
"My brothers are both wrestling fans, I've seen him on TV before," Kayla explained. "He seems like a real Smartass."
"SHH," Cassidy said, pointing to the right, where Mrs. Cates was only about five feet away. Even though seventh graders all cussed regularly, they didn't dare do it in front of adults in fear they'd get in trouble. "But if he is one, then he must be your dad," Cassidy said, and then sticking her tongue out at Emma, who just rolled her eyes.
"Tony said that last night…ugh," Emma sighed, leaning back in her chair.
"Oh my god, look in the hallway!" Kayla said, pointing to the left. Both Cassidy and Emma turned their heads, and their mouths dropped.
Walking by was Blake Giroux, only the HOTTEST boy in the 7th grade. He had bright blue eyes and dirty blonde hair, which was styled just like Justin Bieber's hair, before he cut it, except better. He was sexy, athletic and a total class clown. Every seventh grader and even some eighth and sixth graders had a crush on him. He was all that. The girls all stared at him walk by, drool nearly coming out of their mouths, but were brought back into reality by their teacher slamming their quizzes onto their desks. She handed back Cassidy's first, then Kayla's, then Emma's, then she leaned over and whispered something to Emma.
"Your scores on homework, tests and quizzes NEED to improve, Emma, you're too smart to be failing this class…" Mrs. Cates had told her before walking away.
Emma looked down on her paper, and saw the score: 7/20. A big, fat F. Nothing new for her in this class, though. She just rolled her eyes, and then slipped it into her binder real quick, but not quick enough, Cassidy was able to see it.
"You got ANOTHER F?" Cassidy asked.
"It's no big deal…" Emma shrugged. Then the bell rang and everyone hauled out into the hallway to their lockers. Kayla went to hers, but Cassidy followed Emma to hers.
"You've gotten C's, D's and F's on ALL of your math assignments this year!" Cassidy said. "You KNOW if you make the Basketball team that you'll be ineligible if you can't keep your grades up!"
Earlier in the week, the girls found out Blake Giroux would be the team manager of the 7th Grade Girls Basketball Team, and the girls wanted to try out for the team as a way to get closer. None of them have experience, but it's worth a try, right? However, the school has a strict policy about Sports- You can only play if you have AT LEAST a 2.5 GPA in all your classes, and while Emma was GREAT in her other classes, she just couldn't get Math, not one bit.
"IF I make the team, I'll get them up!" Emma rolled her eyes. Her friends and other teachers have been giving her this 'You need to get your Math score up' Speech WAY Too often, it was getting on her nerves.
"What if you don't make the team?" Cassidy asked as Emma opened up her locker and started putting her stuff away.
"I Don't know," Emma shrugged as she took out her backpack and shut her locker.
"You NEED to try harder, Em," Cassidy said.
"I AM Trying!" Emma snapped. She'd been told that she hadn't been trying by so many people. What do they know?
"You know, hopefully your real dad is more serious about your grades then Tony and Charlotte are!" Cassidy rolled her eyes, then walked down the hall to her locker.
Emma ignored that comment, mostly because she knew it was true but didn't want to admit it. Ever since Aiden was born Eight years ago, all of Tony and Her mom's attention was to him, not her. He has behavior issues so their always keeping track of him and basically giving Emma all this responsibility and freedom that an adult has. It's too much for a 12 year old to have, but it's been this way for a while, she's getting used to it.
Phil Brooks was in his loft in Wicker Park, cleaning up one last time, even though he's done it nearly a million times already. It was 2:20 now, and pretty soon, a women he hasn't seen since he was 20 will be walking up his front steps to show him his daughter that he never knew existed until yesterday afternoon. He was totally nervous- something he barely ever is. He looked around the living room one last time, it's the cleanest it's ever been.
"Alright, any minute now…." Phil said to himself, sitting down on the couch to try and calm down. Then, his cell phone started ringing and he immediately recognized the number. He sighed, then picked up.
"COLT! I told you not to call me until 7 when Charlotte's picking Emma back up!" Phil yelled over the phone to his friend.
"I know, so I'll make this short and sweet," Colt said. "Open your front door."
"What?"
"You heard me, open your front door!"
"You're crazy."
"Just open your front door!"
Phil shook his head, then put his phone down real quick and opened his front door, and when he did, his eyes popped wide open.
"Oh. My. God," Phil said, picking up a basket FULL of candy.
Milkyways, Butterfingers, Snickers, Hershey bars, Jolly Ranchers,
Bubble Gum, and all of these different types of candies were in there.
"Dammit Colt…." Phil mumbled, going back over to the couch, putting this basket down and picking up his phone again. "Colt, did you leave this candy basket outside my door?"
"It's for Emma," Colt said, with this tone in his voice, you could tell he was smiling.
"Why?" Phil asked.
"I just want to show her how happy we are to meet her!" Colt said.
"WE?" Phil asked.
"Alright, yeah, I get it," Colt said. "I'm just really excited."
"Clearly…" Phil rolled his eyes
Emma was in her mom's SUV, driving over to Wicker Park where Phil lived. So many emotions controlled her now. She didn't know if she was happy or nervous. Happy to meet him or nervous he would despise her and treat her exactly like her mom and Tony did- Like she was nothing. Her mom didn't even dare say a word. Last night, that conversation with Tony didn't end well, and Tony's not fond of Emma meeting Phil, not one bit, and Charlotte feels the same way, but they've never said no to Emma before, never, and they won't start saying no now. Emma broke the silence by turning the radio on to B96, but Charlotte quickly turned it off. It was a weird car ride to say the least. Then, Charlotte got into Wicker Park and pulled into CM Punk's loft, which surprisingly looked rather amazing.
"This is it…" Emma said to herself, taking a deep breath.
"Yeah whatever," Her mom rolled her eyes, getting out of the car.
Emma quickly got out of the car as well as Charlotte, then slowly walked up the front steps, butterflies in her stomach. She couldn't help but wonder if Phil was as nervous.
He was.
Phil heard the car pull up, then gulped. He was a nervous wreck, what if his daughter HATED him? Most kids do. He had no idea what to expect. Then, he heard a knock at the door. He took a deep breath, then walked over to the door and opened it.
"Phil Brooks, right?" A Beautiful, thin brunette women asked at the front door.
"Yeah, Charlotte Gonzalez?" Phil asked.
"Yep," The women said.
"So uh, then that means…." He said, before looking down, "You're Emma."
"And you're my dad…." Emma said, all choked up.
Both Phil and Emma looked at each other. It was like looking in a mirror. Despite being the opposite gender, they really did look alike, a LOT. They both just couldn't believe it.
"Well….I'll let you two be!" Charlotte said. "I'll be back around 7, have fun!" She said, then shoving Emma into the house and shutting the door.
Now, it was Just Phil and Emma, staring at each other. Both of them could already feel their nightmares coming true- Emma thought Phil already hated her because he wasn't doing anything, and Phil thought Emma hated him because she wasn't doing anything. They both were regretting wanting to meet each other.
