A/N: This chapter is for Dawn and Nicole. Sometimes people don't know what the fuck to say out of their mouths. Keep your heads up ladies.
Loyola St. Ignatius Academy was a Jesuit middle school located in downtown Baltimore. Founded for the sole purposed of giving low income boys a chance at one of the best Catholic educations in the entire state of Maryland, the prestige of the school ranked among that of Boys Latin, St. Paul's, and Gilman. The only difference between St. Ignatius and those other schools was that the tuition was on a sliding scale, depending on the parent's income, and not set at between ten and nineteen thousand dollars like the others.
The work that the Fathers, Brothers, and Monks did at that school was amazing. It was no wonder that parents from economically depressed neighborhoods scrapped and scrounged to send their sons there. And it was no wonder that the faculty and staff of the school were grossly underpaid compared to their counterparts.
Parker Sutton's family was not rich; it could be argued they weren't even middle class. Upper lower class, or lower middle class…whichever, that's what they were. They never had money to throw around. Parker's family lived in a modest three bedroom, one bathroom row house in Highlandtown and were considered 'a family that had done good' in their neighborhood. For Highlandtown, having a family where both parents were married, still together, and both gainfully employed was something to write home about.
Highlandtown wasn't a snooty, upscale neighborhood like Roland Park, that's for damn sure. That was one of the reasons that Avery had such a hard time fitting in when she first moved there. It wasn't until Avery's father died and her mother couldn't afford the huge fancy house that she grew up in, that her family made the trek to the other side of town. She was considered snooty, because she went to a private school before. People around there all sent their kids to the local public schools. The area was extremely homogenous, only changing from what most of the city considered trailer trash, to upscale, during the gentrification that took place over the last five years. The people of Highlandtown, were blue collar workers; Bethlehem Steel, stevedores, and folks that used their bodies to make a living, were the norm. So imagine everyone's surprise, when a teacher and a secretary had a child that was going to become a doctor still called Highlandtown home.
Aaron Sutton, Parker's father, had been the Director of Music at St. Ignatius for over thirty years. No matter how much, or how little, he was paid…the severe cut backs to his department, or just the shear frustration of being the working poor with a family to support, Aaron Sutton never took a sick day, never complained, and did his job with passion. That was the reason for lavish reception for his retirement. Everyone who had been graced enough to know, work with, or be taught by Aaron Sutton, came back to thank him for his years of service and dedication.
And no matter how happy Parker was to be there to honor her father for the amazing job that he had done, she knew what this reception would entail. One of the downfalls of having her father work at the same school for thirty-five years, was everyone there knew her. Even if some of the teachers and or students no longer were affiliated with St. Ignatius, they all remembered Parker; the bubbly, smart, fat daughter of their beloved Aaron.
Parker use to hate going to school with her father, mostly because of the comments she would always get. Aaron Sutton was a tall man, with an average build. He had a little bit of a belly, but he was almost sixty years old, most men his age had a little pot. But with Aaron's skinny legs and thin fingers, anyone could tell that he had never been grossly overweight. Parker, however, took after her mother. Sylvia Sutton wouldn't have been considered portly, but more like pleasantly plump. From the time of Parker's birth until now, she remained between a size fourteen and sixteen…and even at five foot five, she didn't look like obese. Even though her parents were smaller than her, you couldn't tell the Suttons, that Parker wasn't the reason the sun shined every morning. They were so proud of their beautiful daughter and they let everyone know it, constantly.
And although most people would be polite to her on her father's day, if one woman in particular showed, it all would be shot to shit.
"You alright?" Randy looked over at Parker as he made his way to the sidewalk. He looked so good in his grey slacks and cream colored button down shirt. It was nothing fancy, but, those few buttons exposing the top of his chest everyone could tell how clearly defined he was. It still didn't register to her that he was really with her. With John Cena, being with him for the night never felt right, but with Randy it was different. With Randy, Parker never felt out of place…other people made her feel out of place. She felt like she belonged with him, but she couldn't help but to wonder, if he felt like he belonged with her.
Parker nodded and sighed. They only needed to stay for about an hour. Her parents knew how she felt about being there, but she was going to do it because she loved her dad that much.
Making their way to the courtyard, hand in hand, Parker and Randy smiled as soon as they heard Sylvia's voice bubble through the crowd. "There they are. Parker, Randy…come here, there's some people I want you to meet."
Parker mumbled under her breath and rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry. I tried to warn you."
"You're late. Your father already gave his speech and everything."
Pointing over her shoulder at Randy, Parker easily passed the blame along. It was true actually; it was his fault they were late. When she told him "no" she wasn't taking a shower with him, she meant it. She just didn't think that he would come out of the shower hell bent on getting her to aid him in subsiding his morning wood.
"Sylvia… are you gonna believe that?" Accepting a warm hug from Parker's mother, Randy turned on the charm and his best boyish smile. "And might I add that you are hot. You better be careful, I just may decide that I like older women."
With a deep blush on her cheeks, she looked down at herself. "Randy…are you flirting with me?"
"Is it working? Cause if not, I can try harder." Randy raised his brow and smiled. Not that he was into Parker's mother or anything, but she was an attractive woman and Parker had inherited her chest from her. Besides, that's who Randy was. He was a man that flirted non stop. No matter who he was talking to, if she had ovaries, Randy let her know that he would gladly try to tap them.
"Parker, you just missed Avery. She stopped by for a few minutes, but she told me to tell you that they would meet you two at six." Sylvia chuckled and turned toward the crowd. "Your father's other there. He's so excited that you could come."
As they made their way to where her father stood, surround by his colleagues, Parker and Randy were approached by some of the younger students. The boys had heard rumors that Mr. Sutton's daughter was dating a WWE Superstar and they were prepared with paper, magazines and markers in hand. Damn near pushing Parker out of the way to get to Randy, a small crowd formed around the man, complete with arms raised waving paper in his face.
With a sympathetic look, Randy raised his brow. Parker nodded, it was his job, she understood that. But she still couldn't help but to wish that he would be by her side when she faced the firing squad.
"There she is. What took you so long? I was starting to think you weren't gonna make it." Aaron put his arm around his daughter and kissed her cheek. "Everyone, you remember Parker."
"Sorry, I'm late. It's Randy's fault. He wanted to sleep all day." Hugging her father back, she turned toward his friends and smiled.
For about an hour, she stayed with her father and his friends remembering old times. Every once in awhile she would lock eyes with Randy who had been commandeered by her mother and introduced to every single one of her friends and Parker's family as "Parker's boyfriend, Randy." Parker almost felt sorry for him. Almost. But as soon as she happened to look to the left and noticed Ms. Lyles approaching her, she felt her heart drop and all of her pity was strictly reserved for herself.
"Dad…"
Aaron happened to look in the direction that Parker's head was turned and he completely understood. "If you leave, you gotta take me with you." He eyes got wider as the blue haired terrorist closed in on them. "Let's act like we don't see her."
Ms. Lyles was the math teacher that had worked with her father for years. She retired six years ago, and no one was sad to see her leave. She was one of those outspoken old people that said whatever was on her mind. She was opinionated and could be rude, but she said everything in a sing-song manner, as to sugar coat how cruel she could actually be. And she had never been easy on Parker, that's for damn sure.
"Margret." Aaron had a fake ass smile on his face, when he accepted her hug.
"Congratulations Aaron. It's nice to see that everyone turned out, even though music isn't a real subject." She looked around at the crowd and shrugged. "I saw Sylvia; you know that shade of lipstick is what those young girls wear. I can't believe you let her out of the house, with that on."
Parker tried to her best to scoot around her father and make a run for it, but before she had the chance, Ms. Lyles grabbed her hand. "Is this Parker? I haven't seen you since you were thirteen." Ms. Lyles stepped toward Parker and gave her a hug. "I see you still can't keep from eating everything that's put in front of you. You've gained so much weight." Her comment was directed at the tray of bacon scallops that floated past the group, to which Parker took a sample. She didn't say it in a facetious manner, more like an old woman that didn't know what the fuck to say out of her mouth.
"So did you." Parker replied with a smile, trying to fight the urge to spit the appetizer in her napkin to keep from being reprimanded. She always hated Ms. Lyles. When Parker was younger, that woman always reminded her that she was overweight. Even if she was only at her father's school to help out or to do things with the youth ministry, Ms. Lyles was right there, monitoring what Parker ate, criticizing her clothing, and constantly reminding her that she was too young to be that big. And somehow, ten years later, it didn't look like she had changed a bit.
Shooing Parker with her hand Ms. Lyles laughed. "Oh, but I'm old, honey. Worrying about my figure, I gave up on that a long time ago. But you're young. You need to do something about it now, before it's gets to hard to get it off."
Parker could feel her father squeeze her shoulder tighter. This wasn't the time or place to tell Ms. Lyles exactly how she felt about her or her rude comments. "Parker's a doctor now. She's in her first year rotation at Johns Hopkins." The unmistakable pride of a father came through in Aaron's words.
"Really? They let you be a doctor with that all that weight? Isn't it hard?" Ms. Lyles, God love her, at seventy-five, one would think she would know when to back off.
Parker kept smiling, while this woman continued to comment about her. Being polite was bullshit, but it was what was expected of her. "Being a doctor is hard. It's long hours, dealing with crabby, opinionated, old people all day…But it's what I wanna do."
"Well you better be careful, honey. You're a young girl; you can't keep up with a doctor's lifestyle being that big." She reached for Parker's hand and held it affectionately. "Besides, it's gonna be hard to find a man to marry you. You could be a really cute girl if you just lost some weight. You really let yourself go."
Parker looked at her father for permission to be excused, before she said something really inappropriate to Ms. Lyles. "I appreciate your concern. But I'm very happy with myself and my weight."
"You can't be. Honey, you're as big as a house. Boys don't like fat girls."
And just like out of a romance novel, over walked Randy Orton. "Mr. Sutton. Congratulations." He shook Aaron's hand and glanced over at Parker. There was something wrong with her; he could see it in her eyes. He walked over to her and stood beside her. "You okay?"
"I'm fine." Parker looked at Ms. Lyles with a satisfied smirk on her face. "Ms. Lyles, this is Randy. Randy this is one of my dad's former colleagues, Ms. Lyles."
"Are you a friend of Parker's? Tell her that she could be so cute if she just exercised. I was just telling her that fine young men like yourself don't like girls that let themselves go like she's done. What is it those young folks say? 'Boys don't make passes at girls with fat asses…'" Turning her attention back to Parker she looked at the girl with sympathy.
Randy smirked and shook his head, for no other reason than this old lady with blue hair said the word, ass. "I do. I happen to like the way she looks."
Taking the liberty to lift Parker's shirt in the front, Ms. Lyles shook her head. "You only say that because you're her friend. Look at her stomach. You can see the way it hangs over through her skirt. That's not attractive honey."
If Parker could have crawled away and died at that very moment, she would have. Not only was she being berated by this woman, whose sole mission in life was to make Parker feel like shit with a smile on her face. But she was also being accosted in front of a crowd of her father's friends and Randy, no less. There was nothing else she could do, but grab the hem of her shirt and pull it back down over her stomach and try like hell not to let her reddening cheeks show.
With a devilish smirk, Randy lowered his head toward Ms. Lyles and spoke so that only she and Parker could hear him. "You should see how she looks naked. She keeps me at attention…if you know what I mean." Winking at Ms. Lyles, Randy turned around and grabbed Parker around the waist pulling her to him.
Parker could feel his breath on her lips as she tried to fight the urge to break out in hysterical laughter. He always did that. No matter how shitty things seemed, just some crass comment made everything seem like it wasn't that bad. He just knew what she needed. How in the hell did he do that? "Stop," she whispered.
"It's the truth, so fuck her." He replied before kissing her.
"Ms. Lyles, we're gonna be going now. But it was great to see you again." Accepting another hug from this crotchety old woman, Parker cringed. Getting the hell out of that reception was all she wanted to do.
"You too, honey. And remember what I said. You should do something about all that weight. It may be fun to play around in all that fat now, but he's not gonna wanna make a wife out of that." Ms. Lyles smiled and turned toward a group of people that she was sure to find someone else to pick on.
Parker took Randy's hand as they said their goodbyes. She had been dealing with shit like that all of her life. And though she never took it to heart before, she couldn't help but to wonder if there was some truth in Ms. Lyles' words.