So this idea came to me when I was sitting in class the other day. It's just some fluff to curve your appetite.
"Does anyone have any questions about the project? " Mr. Woodruff asked his fifth hour class. He sat down on top of the stool that was upfront, and crossed his legs.
"Do we have to present in front of the class." A girl named Anna asked.
Even though Teddy and her had been in all the advanced classes together, Teddy still hadn't gotten herself to taking a liking to her.
"Yes, everybody will be presenting in front of the class."
"That's dumb." Teddy scoffed under her breathe . Her arms were crossed over the Nike t-shirt she had on. She smoothed her hair that was in a bun.
"What was that, Teddy?" He asked.
He knew exactly what she said, but he wanted to give her a chance to change it.
"I was just wondering why we had to do such a stupid project?" She asked. His face dropped pail in awe as her words met his ears.
"I would watch it, Teddy. Why don't we talk about it after class?"
"I have another question." Teddy stated, raising her hand.
" Do you even think about your students when you decide to assign these assnine things?"
"Teddy." He growled. He fixed his silver tie trying to regain his composure.
"But seriously, why the hell do you love to humiliate your students so much? You love to see us suffer don't you? I mean you have nothing better to do with your life than to make us suffer."
"Ms. Sharkey, this is your last warning. I would take a few deep breathes before you say something you might regret."
"So your family trees are due Monday, everyone is presenting, and there are no exceptions. Now one more time before the bell rings, does anybody have any questions?"
"I'm sorry coach, I actually have a real question this time." Teddy smiled raising her hand.
Derrick exhaled in relief .
"Yes, Teddy?"
""Did you become a teacher because no other profession would accept you, or did you think that you had good ideas?"
"Ms. Sharkey, I would like it if you would please stay after class." His voice boomed. The whole class giggled.
"And what are you going to do if I don't. I mean it's an option, isn't it?"
"No it's not an option, and if you don't choose to stay willingly, I have my ways of making you."
"I'm so scared." Teddy mocked, wiggling her hands in the air.
"My office, now." He grabbed her arm and lead her into his office.
"Class is dismissed." He called.
" What the hell has gotten into you?" He asked, slamming the door.
"I don't want your special treatment, lay it on me, what detention? I can deal with that. In the mean time you should probably take my words to heart."
"You're sitting there until you tell me what the hell has gotten into you."
"Well maybe you should get some popcorn and start a movie because maybe I'm just a little fed up with these dumb assignments."
"You know what,I think I need to give you a call home. Maybe see what's been bothering you lately to make you act so out of character in my class." He pulled the phone over to his desk and picked up the receiver.
"Maybe if you thought with that big head of yours you could figure this whole damn thing out."
"Do I need to call home Teddy, this is your last chance, this isn't you, and I really don't like."
" Because you know me so well, right?" Who are you going to call Coach, my mom, or my dad? Take your pick. Oh that's right I don't have either of those so it looks like you won't be calling anybody. I guess your contact list for me kind of looks like my family tree huh?"
"Oh my gosh, Teddy." He finally realized what was going on." I'm so s..."
"Forget about it. I need some peace and quiet to decide if I want to fail the project, or if I want to humiliate myself."
"Teddy."
"I mean since everyone has to go in front of the class and present, I can be like 'Well I don't really know anybody except my moms name, and my dad well, I was kind of a mistake so...'"
"Teddy." He pleaded for her to stop.
"You know what I'm out of here. You can't keep me after if this isn't detention, so I'm gone."
"Teddy don't walk out of here, I want us to talk about this."
"I get it, I'm suspended from practice for a day or two for my behavior. I'm out of here."
"Theodore Sharkey!" He shouted after her, but she was too far down the hallway.
School was over with so she just started walking. She grabbed her stuff from her locker and walked out of the building. She was fuming, even worse than that, she was livid. How could someone who claimed to know her so well be so oblivious? She pushed the door of the front entrance open and walked outside.
It was a nice day out. HInts of summer were showing more each day. Teddy loved spring in Chicago, it was unpredictable and she loved that about it. One moment it could be sunny and the next minute it could be raining cats and dogs.
"Hey." Teddy said into her phone. She watched a mom take the hand of her wild kid.
"Hey kiddo, what's up?" Voight asked. He was having slow day and it was nice to get a call from his young companion.
"I've had a bad day, and I'm not going to practice, do you want me to head home, or do you want me to come to the station."
"What happened?" He asked. He adjusted the phone in between his shoulder and his ear so he could flip the paper over that he was reading.
"I don't really want to talk about it."
Voight enjoyed that fact that she even told him that she was having a bad day,
"Why don't you come to the station? I'll come pick you up."
"I'm actually on my way there already, I needed the walk to clear my mind. I'll just walk the rest of the way."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine,but I'll call you if I change my mind. Is that okay."
"Sounds good, kiddo. Be safe."
"Bye Hank."
"Bye, Teddy." He smiled hanging up the phone. Hank was pleased at how much their relationship was evolving. She was slowly opening up to him, and he loved it.
Teddy walked down the street whistling to her own tune, trying to blow off some steam. Her mind was reeling. She knew that she shouldn't of approached her coach the way she did, but she also she knew those things needed to happen. She was upset. She didn't want to humiliate herself in front of the class but she also didn't want to fail. She didn't share her home life even with the best of her friends. She always just avoided their questions. Her really good friends just knew not to ask because Teddy told them she didn't feel like talking about it. She didn't want her home life I define her. How would it look if people knew she had a dead druggie mother, an absent father, and an abusive stepfather. She wasn't that girl who grew up in that home, she had overcome that since as soon as she started school. It made her anxious thinking about it.
Teddy crossed the street, her boots clicking against the wet pavement as she walked. He had forgot how long the walk actually was. Putting her hair up into a ponytail she pulled out her phone to call Voight.
She tightened the strings on her backpack and sat down on a green bench.
"Hey..." She started.
"Where am I picking you up?" Voight laughed.
"By that CVS, do you know where I'm talking about."
"Is there a Starbucks kiddy corner from you? "
"Yeah, it was a longer walk than I thought."
"I figured you would call, I'm headed out right now." He smiled on his end of the phone. He picked up his keys, and walked out to his car with no explanation.
"What even made you think you were going to make it this far."
"It doesn't seem to long in the car." She answered innocently.
"You do realize that that in the car we're going fifty miles an hour right?" He teased.
"Yeah." She said sheepishly.
She kicked around a stone with her feet as she spoke to him.
"I guess I had a hot head when I made that decision. "
"Don't worry, I'm guilty of that too."
"Oh really?"
"What do you mean oh really?
"I just can't see you as a hot headed person."
Voight almost choked on his own spit.
"That's the first thing Erin would describe me as, hot headed."
"Really? " He guess that made sense. His temper never came out around the girl. He never needed it to.
"Really."
"Oh I see you up ahead," Teddy called. She stood up from the bench and walked over to Voight's SUV.
"Let me move some stuff real quick." He moved some papers and a water bottle he had from earlier off the passenger seat and pushed the door open.
Teddy pulled herself into the passenger seat and placed her backpack behind her.
"So what do want to do tonight?"
"What do you mean?" She asked, confused.
"I mean, that me and you are going to go out and do something fun tonight."
"What's the occasion?"
"There's no occasion, you had a bad day, I'm going to make it a good one."
"What do you like doing?"
"Teddy you moved in quite a while ago, you don't know what I like to do?"
"We're either eating, doing my homework together, at the station, or reading the morning paper. You don't really give me much to go off of."
"That's true," he chuckled. "I guess we haven't had much free time lately, have we?"
"No not really, and you're a hard person to figure out."
"You think that I'm hard to figure out?" Voight asked, turning towards her. His hand met his chest.
"Not all of us here are detectives."
"Yeah because I'm a sergeant." He joked.
Teddy met his arm with her fist. "You know what I meant."
"Well when we get back let's look at what's going on around the city and we can find out what we want to do. I mean it's a Friday night we should be able to find something that we enjoy."
"That sounds good." Teddy smiled.
It was nice to have a day off from practice for once. She decided to not think about the whole family tree thing and just have fun with Voight for once. School had been running her life lately and she was sick of it. A free weekend with nothing on her mind was just what she needed.
"Looks like we're here." Voight grinned.
She jumped out of the car and followed him up to Intelligence.
"No practice and no backpack today." Antonio commented watching his usual five o'clock date walk by.
"No homework." Teddy answered.
She followed Voight into his office and she sat down in chair across from his.
"It's nice in here." Teddy looked around at some of the pictures on Voight's desk and at the plaques hanging on the wall.
"You've never been in here before?"
For as many times as she had come to the station with him, he couldn't imagine she hadn't been in his office.
"No, I guess not." He smiled as she looked around her eyes getting big in aw.
"Why don't you get on your phone and start looking up what's going on tonight, and I'll get online and start looking."
"Okay." She pulled her phone out of her pocket and started searching the city's itinerary.
"What about this?" He turned his laptop around and showed her a picture of millennium park.
"They're having a bunch of bands performing and they'll be vendors and things tonight, we might even catch some fireworks."
"That sounds good." She smiled. It was different and it sounded like fun.
"Okay so when I'm about done here, we'll head home and you and I can change out of our school and work clothes, and we'll grab a blanket to sit on, and then we'll go. "
"Sweet, that actually sounds like a lot of fun."
"I thought so."
An hour and a half later Voight and Teddy were back at the house getting ready to go. Teddy walked out of her room in a pair of high rise jean shorts and a little lacey white top. Voight couldn't help but to notice how nice she looked. She always look nice, but tonight she look spectacularly beautiful.
"Do you think, I should bring a cardigan?" She asked as she walking out of her room. She was basically glowing with joy. Voight had never seen her like that before.
"You might need it later tonight." He answered. He wore a black v-neck and a pair of
khaki shorts.
She disappeared into her room and came back out with a grey cardigan in her hands.
"Why are you so happy?" He asked taking her cardigan from her and putting it with his sweatshirt.
"I don't know, I've just never done something like this before."
"What do you mean?" He opened the garage door for her and she waited until they were both in the car to answer him.
"I've never gone somewhere other than out to eat with someone other than my friends. It's nice going out like as I don't know how to describe it… like "
"Like a family." He finished her sentence for her. She looked over at him and they met eyes.
"Yeah, like a family."
"Well I'm happy we get to share this."
The rest of the ride was filled with conversation about what kind of bands Voight listened to as a kid.
They found a parking spot, and decided to walk around to all the different vendors before they sat down. The sun was shining in a way that it caught both of their eyes as they walked.
"Do you want to grab something to eat first, or do you want to look around first?" He looked around at the crowd of people as he spoke.
"Um, I'm not that hungry now, do you want to look around first?"
"That sounds perfect."
As they walked around to the different vendors, Teddy looked at jewelry and clothes, while Voight was more interested in the small weapons they had, and nicknacks they had.
"Whats that?" Teddy asked walking over to Voight.
"It's an arrowhead. The Native Americans used them to kill game." He flipped it over in his hand, running his thumb over it's smooth surface. Teddy squinted to keep the sun out of her eyes and took it out of his hand.
"Really?" It was so small she couldn't imagine it to be used for killing something.
"Really." The sides of his mouth couldn't help but turn up as he witnessed her curiosity. Voight really enjoyed the little things, especially when it came to his family. When Teddy was happy, he was happy. He loved to see how far she was coming from the little girl who stole a sandwich in the deli that day.
"Why don't we go get some food and find a place to sit down?" He asked. "The suns starting to set and I think the concerts are going to start soon."
"Okay." Teddy chirped. He wrapped an arm around Teddy and led her towards the food vendors.
"Hey Teddy." He called stopping at a vendor.
"Do you like these?" He pulled a pair of gold sunglasses of a rack and held them up to her. They were a classic pair of aviators but the shades were gold instead of black. He thought they would look pretty on the girl.
"Those are really cute." Teddy cooed.
"Try them on." He unfolded them and positioned them on her face. He was right they complimented her tan skin and defined cheekbones very well.
He held up a mirror for her to see.
"Do you like them?"
She smiled and shook her head.
"Sir, how much for these?" Hank called pulling his wallet out.
"Twenty five dollars." The dark skinned man replied.
"Here you go." Voight handed over the money and put his hands back around Teddy's shoulders.
"Hank... You didn't have to."
"It's nonsense Teddy, you looked nice in them, you like them, I bought them."
"But they were so expensive."
"Teddy twenty five dollars isn't going to break me. Anyways I liked buying them for you."
She looked down at the ground. Her new sunglasses still on her face.
"Thank you so much."
"You're welcome Teddy. Now what kind of food do you want, they have everything fried that you can imagine."
They went to a few different food stands picking up a plethora of fried foods. When Voight heard that she'd never had fried pickles or a fried Oreo he knew he had to show her the art of fried foods. With both of their arms full of cartons they found a place in the grass to lay their blanket down.
"You've seriously never had a fried pickle before?" Voight laughed, sitting down and taking the rest of the food out of Teddy's hands.
"I didn't know that you could fry them." She shrugged. She tucked her hair behind her ears and sat down next to him.
"They can fry anything." He grinned.
"Apparently." They both laughed as they began eating there food. The music started playing and they were soon mesmerized with the sound of guitar and the taste of heart failure.
"Are you enjoying our night out." Voight smiled, looking over at Teddy.
The sun had set and the band on the stage was playing a jazzy tune. Hank was sprawled out on the blanket, his arms rested behind himself and Teddy holding his body up, with his legs suspended into the grass.
" Yeah, this is great." She answered meeting his eyes with her. The twinkle in her blue eyes was dominant tonight. She reached over to the pile of things next to Voight and grabbed her cardigan.
"So do you want to talk about why you had a bad day today?" He asked softly. He didn't want to push, he just wanted to help.
Teddy looked at the ground, not sure if she wanted to answer or not. They were having such a great night, she didn't want to put a damper on things.
"Teddy?" He urged, lifting her chin up with his pointer finger. His hand was rough against her smooth skin.
"It's dumb."
"You skipped practice, the thing you love most. It obviously wasn't dumb. "
"There's this project at school, and I got mad about it, and I kind of went off on my coach. We got into a fight."
"What kind of a project could he have you doing that you got so mad about? It doesn't make any sense. You're always doing homework."
She took a deep breath before answering.
"It's something I can't do, and he knew I couldn't do it but he assigned it anyways, and he's making everyone, and I mean everyone, present in front of the class. So I'm going to have to present a blank project in front of the class, or fail."
"Kiddo, I don't understand why you can't do the project. What do you have to do that's so hard you can't do it?"
She sat there for a minute not wanting to answer. She hated even thinking about it.
"I have to present my family tree. " She paused for a moment. "I don't have a family tree."
Voight knew what she meant. She knew her mothers name, that was it. He never found any records of any other family she had, and she had told him before that her dad was never around. He bit his lip and shook his head to show that he understood.
"I can either fail, or reveal all of the things I've kept hidden to the whole class. My best friends don't even know the real truth."
He felt her pain. He knew how hard highschool could be. She was a good kind of popular, not overly popular, but really well liked by everyone she met. She was most likely afraid that her friends would think of her differently than before and he knew she didn't want that.
"Why don't we look through my family history and use that. No one would ever know, Teddy. It could be fun." He suggested.
"You would let me do that?"
"Tomorrow we can look through some old photo albums, and I can tell you some stories, and you can tell me about what you know about your family."
"Seriously, you'd do that for me?"
"Of course I would."
"That really means a lot to me, Hank." Her face showed her gratitude for him.
"Anytime, kid." He ruffled her hair, and they went back to their night.
So that was basically a filler chapter. I thought it would be cute for those two to have a cute little family outing. I made a New Years resolution to update my fanfictions more frequently (I also gave up soda), so here you go! I've gotten a lot of great ideas for this fic, which are making me just want to write and write. Thank you guys so much for reading, I'd love to hear some feedback:)