Part Thirty-Five: Karen

Karen Fisher stared out of the window, her chin resting on her hand, her eyes focusing on nothing in particular. She had a lot on her mind these days. First and foremost of course were Bex, Jess and the whole Hodge situation. Both the girls seemed fine now, but it was hard to tell if they were really fine or if they were just putting on a brave face.

Something else was bothering her too. Something which had been niggling at the back of her mind for a while now, something about Cesca. There were things about her pregnancy which just didn't quite add up. For one thing, the fact that she was so secretive about the father of her child was a little bizarre. Karen understood that Cesca might want to keep some of the details of her personal life private, but she hadn't even mentioned a first name to anyone.

Karen was pulled out of her reverie by a knock on the door of her office. 'Come in,' she called.

The door opened and Karen was surprised to see a rather sheepish looking Finn Sharkey standing outside. Finn was one of the more frequent visitors to her office, but he's never come voluntarily before. 'What can I do for you, Finn?'

The boy came into the room fully and pulled the door closed behind him. He took a deep breath, opened his mouth as if to speak and then closed it again, a blush creeping into his cheeks.

'Finn?' Now Karen was worried. Finn looked genuinely upset, almost as if he was ashamed at having come to see her.

He took another deep breath. 'It's about my GCSE options, Miss. I really want to drop Spanish and take French instead.' He said it all in a rush and Karen couldn't help but wonder if he'd just made it up on the spot because, for whatever reason, he'd decided at the last second not to tell her the thing he'd originally wanted to talk about and which had been worrying him as he'd walked in.

Karen wasn't sure if se was just being paranoid though, so she simply said 'That's fine, Finn. Just tell Ms. Bryant and she'll change your timetable for you.'

There was a pause which quickly became awkward.

'Was there anything else you wanted to tell me, Finn?'

'No, Miss, nothing else.' He said hastily and then turned and practically ran towards the door.

In his haste to leave, he half-tripped over a book which was lying on the office floor and, as he stumbled, various books and folders came tumbling out of his bag. Finn started to pick them up and Karen cam around the desk to help him. She handed him a couple of books and then picked up his phone which had landed by the sofa.

As soon as she touched it, Finn froze, an emotion which she wasn't sure how to interpret, on his face. It was closer to shame than anything else. Remembering the incident the previous term with Wayne, Bex and a certain internet video, Karen looked more closely at the phone in her hand. Seeing the picture on the screen, she too froze.

It was of two people, lovers, standing on a street corner near the school. The man wore a fake leather jacket with the collar of what looked like a school shirt protruding over the top of it. His face was half-hidden because he was in the act of kissing the woman, one hand in her ebony hair, the other on the small of her back and she was clad in an all-too-familiar pink Karen Millen dress… Karen stared at the photo, refusing to believe what she was seeing. Perhaps the shirt wasn't actually a school shirt and there must be other women in Rochdale who owned that dress.

She glanced up at Finn and one look at his face told her all she needed to know, yet she still had to ask. 'Is that…?'

Finn nodded. 'yeah.'

She needed to hear him say it. 'Tell me who's in the photo, Finn.'

Finn's voice was so quiet she could hardly hear him. 'It's Jonah, Miss, Jonah Kirby and…' he hesitated 'Miss Montoya.'

Karen stood up and moved to her desk, unable to drag her eyes from the photo. 'Is that why you came here today? To show me this?'

'Yeah…only once I got here I couldn't do it.'

'Why not?'

'I don't know, Miss. It didn't seem fair somehow.'

'Fair?' Her tone was like ice.

'It didn't seem fair on them.'

'Finn, Miss Montoya has been abusing a pupil…'

'No,' he interrupted 'No, she hasn't been abusing him. It's not like that.'

'I'll be the judge of that, Finn. All I need to know from you is how far this has gone.'

Finn hesitated. 'Well, she's pregnant, Miss…'

'You mean the baby's Jonah'S?' Karen could keep the shock out of her voice. She'd assumed the kiss Finn had photographed had been a one-off thing.

'Yes, Miss.'

Without another word, Karen brushed past Finn and into the outer office where she found Adanna photocopying some worksheets. 'I need to speak to Cesca,' she snapped at the other woman. 'Now.'