Chapter 2

Two Weeks Later

It was the morning of Senior Portraits day.

Athena 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 she was finishing applying her makeup.

She quickly checked her watch.

Crap.

She had about twenty minutes left before she had to be in her first class.

That would have to do, she decided.

She grabbed her bag and quickly strutted down the stairs.

"Athena, is that what you're wearing today?"

Athena 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?"

Beatrice Carter looked her daughter over critically. "I thought today was the day for the portraits."

"It is." Athena answered. God, couldn't her mother leave her alone for once in her life?

"That's what you're wearing?" Beatrice's voice was filled with disdain.

"I thought we covered this already, mama." Athena replied annoyed. "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." Beatrice nodded, put off for the moment.

"Glad to have your permission." Athena said with a roll of her eyes. God, she needed to move out. She longed to live somewhere else, but her parents were paying for her tuition so she felt stuck and trapped in their never ending demands of her.

"Athena, why do you insist on rebelling against me every chance you get?" Beatrice demanded.

"Why do you insist on showing your disappointment in me every chance you get?" Athena shot back roughly.

"I'll stop being disappointed in you when you stop giving me reasons to be disappointed." Her mother responded back harshly.

Athena 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, mama." Athena responded sarcastically before quickly fleeing out the door, slamming it behind her.

"What was that all about?" Samuel Carter asked as he came from the kitchen, a cup of coffee in the hand.

"Oh, the usual." Beatrice 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?" Beatrice 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."

Athena practically sped to campus and the car squeaked as it came to a stop, nearly hitting someone in her rage.

"Geez, Thena what the hell!" Aurora yelled in shock.

Athena sighed, the state she was in she'd go off on Aurora even when she was the one in the wrong.

"Sorry about that." Athena 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!"

Athena rolled her eyes. Although she did feel bad inwardly. While the girl was known for being pretty dramatic, she actually wasn't too far off in this instance. She had been driving recklessly and it could've ended badly.

"I'm sorry, Aurora. It wasn't my intention, however..." She slung her bag over her shoulders. "If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead."

With that, Athena took off leaving Aurora to gaze after her friend in shock.

Athena entered the main campus and ran smack into Bobby Nash.

"Professer Nash." Athena muttered, feeling all of her senses just fade away at the mere sight of him.

Bobby steadied the girl who nearly crashed the both of them to the ground again. "Miss Carter." He said with a slight smirk. "I thought we talked about this."

Athena nodded. His mere presence made her feel so nervous, so off balance. "We did and you're just messing with me again, right?"

Bobby 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 Athena's face. "That was an accident, and Aurora is fine!" She blurted out in defense.

Bobby shook his head and gave her a scolding look. "That's not the point, Athena. You were speeding and you nearly hit Aurora. It was reckless and you could've killed her. Now, I don't know what is going on with you but..."

Athena 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. Even though she knew she definetely deserved this criticism.

"Athena," Bobby 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. "you need to understand that you can't just-"

Athena spun around, her emotions on full force. "What?!" She shrieked, causing Bobby'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!" She breathed heavily before slightly calming. "Everyone else does."

"Athena, please lower your voice." Bobby advised, noticing the other students starting to stare. "What's going on?" He asked softly. "Why are you getting so upset here? I'm just talking to you. You're not in any trouble. But if you keep this kind of thing and attitude up, I can promise you...you will be." He warned. If not by him, than by someone way up his paygrade.

Athena 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."

Bobby 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," Bobby spoke gently, placing his hand on her shoulder as if to calm her some. "C'mon, Athena. Come with me."

Athena 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."

Bobby 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.

"Athena, please." Bobby insisted softly. "C'mon, come with me for a few minutes."

Athena sighed and finally nodded. "Ok, I'll come with you."

"So," Bobby said leading Athena into his empty classroom and shutting the door behind him. "have a seat."

Athena walked over to one of the desks in the front row and sat down.

Bobby walked around and sat next to her. "Do you want to tell me why you got so upset back there?"

Athena sighed a little embarrassed. "It's been a bad morning, Professor Nash." 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." Bobby nodded. "I'm sorry too. I needed you to get what you had done, but I wasn't trying to make you feel bad about yourself. I meant what I said though, you can't be doing things like that. If any other teacher had seen you, I can promise you'd be dealing with a suspension right now."

In all honesty, turning her over to the dean 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.

Athena nodded. "I know. I really didn't mean to hurt anyone. It was an accident." She sighed. "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."

Bobby raised his eye brow in concern. "You're having problems at home?"

Athena laughed bitterly. "I'm always having problems at home, Professor Nash." She quickly rushed to explain on when she noticed the frown and deep concern on his face. "It's nothing like that, I assure you. They don't put their hands on me, I'm not in any danger or anything."

Bobby 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 you to be afraid to tell so-"

"It won't and it never has!" Athena 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."

Bobby nodded, seeming to be convinced. "Ok." He softly accepted. He'd have to take her word for now.

"Not that they need to. Why beat me, when their words can do it for them?" Athena continued bitterly.

Bobby looked concerned again. "They verbally abuse you?" That was a whole nother issue all together and in his book verbal abuse was just as bad if not worse than physical abuse.

Athena sighed as she stood up. This was snowballing fast. "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 Bobby'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 Bobby, although he was still hesitant. "Ok, but I have to tell ya if I ever see a bruise on you or if I suspect that they are hurting you, 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."

Athena stood still, seeming to be in shock at that last statement. "We're friends?"

Bobby smiled warmly. "I'd like to think so."

"Professor Nash, isn't there like some kind of rule on professors and students being in a relationship? Even a friendship one?" Athena asked curiously.

Bobby got up and walked over to her. She felt her heart flutter in her throat.

"Well to a technical stand point there is. It is rather frowned upon, but there are some rules I don't follow. Besides, you can never have too many friends. And since we're friends now you can just call me Bobby, atleast when we're not in class." He said with a softness and Athena could've sworn there was some kind of huskiness to it as well.

Athena smiled as she felt something wonderful shift in what was becoming such a bad day for her. "Ok, Bobby."

Bobby smiled in return, holding her gaze for a moment. He than took a step back from her. "I'll go get that slip."

"Don't you want to know the whole story?" Athena asked somewhat confused.

Bobby was thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head gently. "I don't need it. Don't get me wrong. If you ever wanna talk more I'm here, and I'd like to hear it sometime, but that's not why I insisted on bringing you back here for a few minutes."

"Then why did you?" Athena asked curiously.

"I didn't want you to go until I was sure you were ok, and I..." Bobby 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?" Athena asked, her curiosity peaking.

Bobby seemed to contemplate telling her this. "Can you keep a secret?"

Athena smiled as she nodded. "Of course. I've been known to keep at least a few in my life."

Bobby grinned. "Ok, I..." His face turned slightly serious. "I wanted to make you smile."

Athena looked stunned and Bobby softly smiled and turned around to get the slip.

Athena 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.