Inside School Walls

Chapter 3

End of Lunch

Stephanie McMahon looked around the lunch room for her friends, and smiled when she found them. The brunette quickly hurried over to them. Their group was pretty large. In a way, they were popular, but it never really hit any of them. Victoria, her boyfriend Billy Kidman, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guererro, Rob Van Dam, and Shane Helms were a few of the people that came and went. The root of their 'posse', as they jokingly referred to it as, consisted of Lita, Molly Holly, Stacy Keibler, John Cena, Torrie Wilson, Lilian Garcia, Chris Jericho, Edge, Kurt Angle, Ivory, Jaqueline, Jeff Hardy, Jackie Gayda, and herself. Stephanie flashed her friends a smile as she sat between Kurt and Edge. She noticed the tension immediately at the table, and frowned, turning to Edge. He seemed lost in thought, so she followed his stare down the row a few seats and saw what she had skipped over earlier: Matt Hardy with his arm wrapped around Lita. Stephanie frowned. All of them knew that Matt didn't deserve Lita, and they thought that they had gotten the point across to Lita.

Apparently not.

Knowing that there was nothing they could really do without angering the redhead, Stephanie busied herself with pouring dressing on her salad. A few minutes later, she frowned, sensing the lack of conversation. "I think we should take a vote," she announced out of no where.

Everyone turned to her, confused. "For what?" Lilian asked from her seat next to Chris.

"Who thinks my dad is an asshole?" Stephanie told them, and Jericho laughed.

"Princess, you'll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't think Principal McMahon is not an asshole," he told her.

"He's giving a bad mark to the McMahon name," she grumbled.

Kurt looked over at her, raising his eyebrow. "I think you're the good mark on a bad family name," he told her.

She smiled. "Thank you, Kurt."

"Suck up," Jericho coughed, and Stephanie threw the wrapper from her straw at him. "Ow!" he turned to Lilian. "She hit my eye!"

"Oh, poor baby," she cooed sarcastically, unable to keep the smile off of her face for long.

"Some girlfriend you are," he said darkly, struggling to keep a straight face.

"Some boyfriend you are, getting beat up by the principal's daughter who, by the way, is wearing a denim dress. Dresses are hard enough to move in, but denim? If she can hurt you in one of those, I suppose I'm going to need a new Prince Charming," she fluttered her eyelashes and turned her eyes across the table at Randy Orton. "You could be my knight in shining armor," she told him.

He scratched his chin in thought. "Hmm..." Randy pretended to consider it for a moment before all of them broke out in laughter. In her seat, Stephanie grinned. As the lunch progressed, the mood significantly uplifted, her mood took a spiral downward. Her thoughts returned to what had happened earlier that morning between she and her father.

Vince McMahon looked over his daughter with a strict eye. "That dress is cut too low," he said firmly. Stephanie, who had just come down the stairs, looked at her father, who was sitting in a chair in the kitchen, not far away at all, the newspaper across his lap. She gritted her teeth in frustration. They did this every morning.

"Its fine, Daddy," she said relatively calmly. "It's not like my boobs aren't hanging out, like some girls in the school," Stephanie added sourly.

Frowning at her use of language, he preceded to demeanor her outfit. "It's too short in the bottom too. Jesus, Stephanie, can't you buy clothes that actually fit? You go to school looking like a hooker."

Stephanie set her jaw, defiantly glaring at him. "What I wear is none of your business."

"When you go to school looking like a slut, it makes it my business, because people expect my daughter to follow the rules!" Vince responded.

"You know what, Daddy dearest?"

"What?"

"Go to hell!" she spat, and whirled on the heel of her black shoe, walking toward the door angrily. As she yanked the heavy wood door open, she could sense her father's presence behind her.

"You know what would straighten you out?"

"What?" she asked, her tone scathing, wishing that the door would just open already.

"A boyfriend. Mind you, not the idiotic, classless boys you are friends with, but someone like...like Hunter Hemsley. Now he would set you straight," Vince announced.

Stephanie whirled around to face him, her face contorting. "You have no idea what you're talking about," she told him. "Hunter is a pure-bred asshole, but now I realize why you want me to date him. You know why? Because he's just like you. Controlling, verbally abusive, egotistical, dickless, and a jerk, to say the least," the door opened and she stepped through it. "And as for my friends? Don't ever, ever insult them again."

The door slammed.

Stephanie gave a little victorious smile at the memory. She and her father were always fighting over things like that, and it felt nice to have said the last word this time.

Her thoughts were distracted as Shawn Michaels sat down across from her. Shawn was a nice guy, and he hung out with them every once in a while. He was intelligent, but slacked in school. Shawn loved to be a pain-in-the-ass.

He was just the guy her father would hate to have her date.

"Hey, Steph," Shawn greeted, tapping his fingers against the table in some rhythm only he could hear. Stephanie had never admitted it to anyone, but she had always found Shawn sexy and admirable. The crush on him that she'd obtained when she was a freshman and still couldn't seem to shake didn't help either. So why don't you take advantage? Stephanie asked herself, you can get Dad off his rocker by dating Shawn...and you get all that you want.

"Hey Shawn," she said, giving him a special smile. The smile on his face changed, and Stephanie felt a shiver go down her spine as she leaned forward, immediately making conversation between them.

Vince McMahon always got what he wanted, and he wanted her to date Hunter Hemsley.

But she was Stephanie, Daddy's little girl.

And she always got what she wanted, too.

And she wanted Shawn Michaels.