Pulling into the school grounds, Chris is looking a little frantic. He parks the car, grabs his briefcase and speedwalks into school, quickly locking his car behind him. He flattens his hair a little, as he dashes through the corridor, heading towards the staff room. Just before he gets there, he bumps into Tom.
"Woah!" Tom exclaims, outstretching his hands to stop the two of them nearly colliding. "Rough night was it, mate?" he laughs.
"Don't even go there," Chris sighs, finally catching his breath. "I overslept."
Tom being his usual cheeky self comes to his own conclusions for this.
"I don't wanna know why!" he smirks at Chris.
But before Chris can protest Tom's sordid mind, Mr Clarkson dashes down the corridor, grinning to himself.
Chris shakes his head to himself, as he finally heads into the staff room. He is desperate to grab a mug of coffee before facing the fearsome Waterloo Road students.
As he mindlessly pushes himself through the door, he passes Karen, by the staff post boxes.
"Ah! Chris!" she smiles at him. "It's unlike you to arrive so close to 9 o'clock."
"Overslept," he half-smiles at her in return.
Striding past her, heading straight for the kettle, he is stopped in his tracks.
"Actually, Chris," Karen beckons him, "can I have a quick word?"
"Sure," he begrudgingly replies, turning to face her.
"In my office?"
She says it with a smile but Chris knows when the Headmaster asks you into their office, it's not really a question. It's an order.
He takes a deep breath and follows Karen out of the staff room, through the corridors teeming with hormonal teenagers, eventually arriving at the tranquility of the Head's office.
Chris places his briefcase on one of the chairs, and immediately turns the coffee machine on.
"I just wanted to congratulate you," Karen announces, as she strolls over to her desk.
"Oh?" Chris replies, puzzled for why he is being praised.
"On this thing you have with Katherine Evans," Karen flippantly responds.
His heart suddenly in his stomach, his breathing dangerously shallow, Chris can barely move to react.
But Karen is oblivious to this, as she flicks through the pile of post Janeece has left on her desk.
"Whatever you said, or did, it worked!" Karen grins, surprised and in awe of Mr Mead's handy work. "It's not temporary, she really has turned a corner- "
She finally looks up and sees Chris regulating his breathing back to normal.
"Are you alright, Chris?" she asks.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine," Chris laughs a little, nervously. "Like I said, I've barely been awake five minutes, not quite with it yet."
Karen places her post back on her desk, and walks over to meet Chris. He watches her approach, feeling his chest get tighter again. Mrs Fisher stands opposite him, at the other side of the table.
She just looks at him for a moment, inquisitively trying to read his body language. Of course, this only makes Chris internally panic more.
"I suggest you think very carefully when I ask you this, Chris," Karen finally instructs her colleague. "Is there something going on between you two that I need to know about?"
"Wh-no! Nothing!" Chris stutters. "There's nothing going on, Karen, I swear to you."
Despite having not admitted to anything, Chris still finds himself begging for Karen's forgiveness in his tone of voice.
"See, I know that's not true," Karen smirks, trying to keep her cool. "Katherine came and saw me after school yesterday, and begged me to change her Chemistry teacher. And unless I am mistaken Mr Mead, that Chemistry teacher, is you."
Karen walks around to Chris slowly as she speaks. Chris is still stuck where he is stood, terrified of every word that comes out of Karen's mouth. He is desperately trying to hide any kind of emotion in his face, but it's pointless by this point. Karen clearly knows something.
"Now, why would she want to change Chemistry teachers at such an important time in her A-Level studies?" Karen continues. "No other subject. Just Chemistry. And, according to Tom, you're the only person not seeing this 'new and improved' character of hers. Why is that, Mr Mead?"
"I-I, I, er," Chris clears his throat, as he desperately tries to scramble some words together. "I don't know what to tell you, Karen."
Karen squints at Chris, still curiously trying to figure out the expressions on his face. She takes a seat at the table they are both stood around.
"Katherine can't afford any more upheaval in her life right now," she points out, as she settles herself into her chair. "You said so yourself the other week."
Chris turns away from Karen, finally grabbing his coffee he has been longing to have for so long. He tentatively pulls out the seat opposite Karen, and joins her at the table.
"The two of you need to sort out your differences," Karen orders him.
For just a moment, a miniscule moment, Chris smiles to himself. He realises that Karen doesn't know what he feared. She is just assuming there is some bad blood between him and Katherine, but she has no idea why.
"But is it worth the risk?" Mr Mead points out, his confidence quickly coming back. "Do we really want to lose her new-found commitment to her school work? It's not going to do any harm to anyone if she stays away from me, if that's what she wants."
Chris smiles as he takes a sip of his coffee. But Karen shakes her head and sits back in her chair.
"Chris!" she replies, shocked. "I will not have disruptive students deciding how my school is run!"
She huffs to herself, as she gets up and walks back over to her desk, in disgust.
"Whatever this is, Chris, you need to sort it," Karen commands him.
Chris sighs into his coffee, not responding.
"Chris!" Karen raises her voice, astonished at his response.
"Alright! Alright," Chris finally replies. "I will have another word with Katherine."
He takes a big gulp of his coffee, before leaving the remains of it on the table, and heading out of the office.
"Get to the bottom of this," Chris mutters to himself, just loud enough for Karen to hear.
