Chapter 2
Two Weeks Later
It was the morning of Senior Portraits day.
Cordelia critically looked at herself in the mirror for the tenth time in an half hour.
She was wearing one of her fancier white summer dresses and her hair was left down.
She quickly checked her watch.
Crap.
She had about twenty minutes left before she had to be in first period.
Cordelia sighed and quickly pulled her hair back into a simple ponytail.
That would have to do, she decided.
She grabbed her bag and quickly strutted down the stairs.
"Cordelia, is that what you're wearing to school today?"
Cordelia sighed as she heard the obvious disdain in her mother's voice and turned around to face her.
"Yes, it is." She answered briskly. "Why?"
Susan Chase looked her daughter over critically. "I thought today was the day for senior portraits."
"It is." Cordelia answered.
"That's what you're wearing?" Susan's voice was filled with disdain.
"I thought we covered this already, mother." Cordelia replied. "Yes, this is what I'm wearing, yes it's senior portrait day. I have to go or I'm going to be late. Wouldn't you just hate that?"
"Go." Susan nodded, put off for the moment.
"Glad to have your permission." Cordelia said with a roll of her eyes.
"Cordelia, why do you insist on rebelling against me every chance you get?" Susan demanded.
"Why do you insist on showing your disappointment in me every chance you get?" Cordelia shot back.
"I'll stop being disappointed in you when you stop giving me reasons to be disappointed." Her mother responded back harshly.
Cordelia could feel tears begin to sting her eyes and quickly pushed them back. She could show no weakness, that would only fuel her mother's disappointment in her.
"Thanks for the love, mom." Cordelia responded sarcastically before quickly fleeing out the door, slamming it behind her.
"What was that all about?" Richard Chase asked as he came from the kitchen, a cup of coffee in the hand.
"Oh, the usual." Susan replied. "I'm the bad guy as usual."
"But of course." Her husband smirked. "What would life be without the proper order of things?"
"Is it just too much to ask for our daughter show a little ambition? To take the proper steps into being the kind of daughter we raised?" Susan asked with a sigh.
The smirk fell from his face and it was replaced with disappointment. "I don't know, baby. Sometimes I think you didn't give birth to her at all."
Cordelia practically sped to school and the car squeaked as it came to a stop, nearly hitting someone in her rage.
"Geez, Cordy what the hell!" Auora yelled in shock.
Cordelia sighed, the state she was in she'd go off on Auora even when she was the one in the wrong.
"Sorry about that." Cordelia said briskly as she got out of her car.
"Sorry?" Aurora's eyes were still wide from the near death experience. "You nearly killed me!"
Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Auora stop being so over dramatic." She slung her bag over her shoulders. "If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead."
With that, Cordelia took off leaving Auora to gaze after her friend in shock.
Cordelia entered the school building and ran smack into Doyle.
"Mr Doyle." Cordelia muttered, feeling all of her senses just fade away at the mere sight of him.
Doyle steadied the girl who nearly crashed the both of them to the ground again. "Miss Chase," He said with a slight smirk. "I thought we talked about this."
Cordelia nodded. "We did and you're just messing with me again, right?"
Doyle smiled before shaking his head. "Actually not this time." The smile fell and it was replaced with slight worry. "I saw what happened in the parking lot."
The color drained from Cordeila's face. "No one was hurt!" She blurted out in defense.
Doyle shook his head and gave her a scolding look. "That's not the point, Cordelia. You were speeding and you nearly hit Auroa. It was reckless and you could've killed her."
Cordelia turned away from him and put her face in her hands as she struggled to not lose it in front of him. Her morning had already been terrible and she didn't think she could take anymore criticism.
"Cordelia," Doyle wasn't trying to be cruel, but he needed her to get what she'd almost done and so far it just looked like she was trying to ignore him. "Listen, ya really-"
Cordelia spun around, her emotions on full force. "What?!" She shrieked, causing Doyle's eyes to go wide. "What do you want from me, huh?! You wanna tell me how disappointed you are in me?! You wanna tell me what's wrong with my dress and how I just suck at everything I do?!" She ignored the scene she knew she must be causing. "Well, come on! Just come right at me!"
"Cordelia, please lower your voice." Doyle advised, noticing the other kids starting to stare. "What's going on?" He asked softly. "Why are ya getting so upset here? I'm just talking to ya. You're not in any trouble. But if ya keep this kind of thing and attitude up, I can promise ya...ya will be." He warned.
Cordelia covered her face with her hands to try and stop the tears. "I don't know what to do anymore," She cried brokenly. "I don't...nothing's ever good enough."
Doyle looked around and with all the students crawling around, he didn't see this as the best place to have a discussion that he clearly needed to have with her.
Something else was clearly going on with this girl or else she wouldn't have gotten so upset. He had this need to council a student whenever they were in any type of distress and it wasn't just that, he thought to himself. He liked this girl for reasons that went far beyond anything that they should have.
"Ok," Doyle spoke gently, placing his hand on her shoulder as if to calm her some. "C'mon, Cordelia. Come with me."
The second bell rang and Cordelia quickly wiped her tears, attempting to pull herself together. "I can't," She choked out. "I'm really sorry for going psycho on you but I have to get to class. I can't be late."
Doyle knew he should probably let her go, but for reasons that were selfish he couldn't. He needed to know what was wrong with her.
"I'll write ya a pass, ok?" Doyle assured her. "C'mon, come with me for a few minutes."
Cordelia sighed and finally nodded. "Ok, I'll come with you."
"So," Doyle said leading Cordelia into his empty classroom and shutting the door behind him. "have a seat."
Cordelia walked over to one of the desks in the front row and sat down.
Doyle walked around and sat on his desk in front of her. "Wanna tell me why ya got so upset back there?"
Cordelia sighed a little embarrassed. "It's been a bad morning, Mr Doyle." She began softly. "That's not an excuse for me to endanger other people with my driving, nor was it an excuse to completely lose it on you back there." She looked up at him with a tiny smile. "I'm sorry."
"Apology accepted." Doyle nodded. "I'm sorry too. I needed you to get what you had done, but I wasn't trying to make ya feel bad about yourself. I meant what I said though, ya can't be doing things like that. If any other teacher had seen ya, I can promise ya you'd be dealing with a suspension right now."
In all honesty, turning her over to the principle is probably what he should've done but he felt protective of her and he always had this need to not rush to judgement and find out what was actually going on first.
Cordelia nodded. "I know. You have to know that my outburst back there had nothing to do with you, ok? It's been an awful morning and what you saw and heard was the direct result of a bad fight with my mother."
Doyle raised his eye brow in concern. "You're having problems at home?"
Cordelia laughed bitterly. "I'm always having problems at home, Mr Doyle." She quickly rushed to explain on when she noticed the frown and deep concern on her teacher's face. "No, no! It's nothing like that, I assure you. They don't put their hands on me, I'm not in any danger."
Doyle didn't appear to be convinced. Students lied to protect their abusers all the time, especially when it was their parents. "Listen, if something like that ever does happen, I don't want ya to be afraid to tell so-"
"It won't and it never has!" Cordelia said loudly, before calming down. "Listen, sadly there is no great bond between my parents and I but they have never laid a hand on me."
Doyle nodded, seeming to be convinced.
"Not that they need to. Why beat me, when their words can do it for them?" Cordelia continued bitterly.
Doyle looked concerned again. "They verbally abuse ya?" That was a whole nother issue all together and in his book verbal abuse was just as bad if not worse than physical abuse.
Cordelia sighed as she stood up. "Listen, there is nothing going on at home that I cannot handle, ok? Can this just be considered as like a teacher/student confidentiality thing?"
She saw Doyle's hesitancy. "Please," She begged. "I am not in danger and they do not hurt me. If you were to tell someone, you'd be the one that was hurting me."
That seemed to convince Doyle, although he was still hesitant. "Ok, but I have to tell ya if I ever see a mark on ya or if I suspect that they are hurting ya, I will have no choice but to tell someone. That's not just my job as your teacher, that's my job as your friend."
Cordelia stood still, seeming to be in shock at that last statement. "We're friends?"
Doyle smiled warmly. "I'd like to think so."
"Mr Doyle, isn't there like some kind of rule on teachers and students being in a relationship? Even a friendship one?" Cordelia asked curiously.
Doyle got up and walked over to her. She felt her heart flutter in her throat.
"Well to a technical stand point there is, but there are some rules I don't follow. Besides, ya can never have too many friends. And since we're friends now you can just call me Doyle or Allen if ya prefer, atleast when we're not in class." He said with a softness and Cordelia could've sworn there was some kind of huskiness to it as well.
Cordelia smiled as she felt something wonderful shift in what was becoming such a bad day for her. "Ok, Doyle. Your secret is safe with me. And you don't have to keep calling me Miss Chase. You can just call me Cordelia or Cordy, that's usually what my friends call me."
Doyle smiled in return, but couldn't help but think about the biggest secret he held that he wasn't sure if he would ever be able to share with her. "As are yours, Cordelia." He than took a step back from her. "I'll go get that slip."
"But I didn't even tell you the whole story." Cordelia said somewhat confused.
"I didn't need the whole story." Doyle responded.
"You didn't?" Cordelia asked.
Doyle shook his head. "Don't get me wrong, ya ever wanna talk I'm here, and I'd like to hear it sometime, but that's not why I insisted on bringing ya back here for a few minutes."
"Than why did you?" Cordelia asked curiously.
"I didn't want ya to go to class until I was sure ya were ok, and I..." Doyle trailed off. He was fairly certain he probably shouldn't tell her this next part. He was already treading on dangerous territory with her as it was.
"You what?" Cordelia asked, her curiosity peaking.
Doyle seemed to contemplate telling her this. "Can ya keep another secret?"
Cordelia smiled as she nodded. "Of course. I can keep lots of secrets."
Doyle grinned. "Ok, I..." His face turned slightly serious. "I wanted to make ya smile."
Cordelia looked stunned and Doyle winked at her and turned around to get the slip.
Cordelia felt herself almost slump into the seat of the desk.
This was definitely new and terrifying territory.
She was on the fast paced road of really falling for her teacher, and from the way he was looking at her, she had a feeling that maybe just maybe he was on that road with her too.
