The bell rang out, signalling the start of afternoon classes. Rachel sighed in relief as she glanced at the clock.
The day was almost over. Only two hours to go.
Despite the commotion with the Kelly Family that morning, Rachel's first day back hadn't been too bad. The rest of the morning and early afternoon had been quiet, allowing her to get on with paperwork and catch up on her emails. She'd gotten through half of her workload, and planned to do the rest of it this afternoon, which would take her up to the end of the day.
She and Eddie had, had a brief lunch in her office before the bell rang. Eddie had promised he would come and see her properly in the first half of period four (which was starting now), once he had finished the last few bits of marking. Rachel was more than capable of not seeing Eddie all day. But she had to admit, she'd wanted to de-brief with him about the Kelly Family, since they hadn't had chance to talk about it all yet. She wanted to talk about it at school, rather than having the discussion at home. Even though she lived and worked with Eddie, she wanted to keep their personal and professional lives separate as much as possible.
As far as she knew, Marley, Earl, Sam and Denzil were settling in quite well. Other than Jasmine raising a concern about Denzil's reading, there had been no news. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but she wasn't dwelling on it too much.
She looked up as Bridget tapped gently on the open door of her office. Rachel smiled at her.
"I've just had a call from Reception. There's a visitor here to see you" she explained
Rachel frowned, reaching for her diary to check her schedule for the afternoon. As she expected, it was empty.
"I don't have anyone booked in, Bridget, are you sure?" Rachel questioned
"Quite sure" Bridget nodded
Rachel frowned again
"I can call back and say you're busy?" Bridget offered
Rachel shook her head
"No, it's fine. I'll go down now" she insisted
She stood up, leaving the office and heading down the stairs toward Reception. Even though she felt nervous about this mystery visitor, she wasn't panicking too much. There was a high chance it was a parent who had come in on the off chance, wanting to see her about their child's progress or behaviour. It didn't happen often, but it did happen. As Head Teacher, Rachel felt it was important to put the time aside for those parents.
As she approached the bottom of the stairs, she saw Eddie walking towards her. She couldn't help but smile as his face lit up when he saw her.
"I was just coming back up to see you" he said
"I'm afraid you'll have to wait, I've got a visitor waiting in Reception" she sighed
"Sounds mysterious, who is it?" Eddie asked curiously
"I have no idea. Probably a parent" she shrugged
"Do you want me to come with you?" He offered
"No, it's ok. Why don't you come up to the office in about half an hour? I should be done by then, yeah? We need to talk about the Kelly's" Rachel suggested
"I'll see you later" Eddie nodded
They headed off in opposite directions.
As Rachel approached Reception, her heart started to beat rapidly as she saw who was waiting for her.
It was her younger sister, Melissa. The sister that she hadn't seen or had any contact with for 19 years, the sister who she'd deliberately left in the past.
What was she doing here after 19 years?
Rachel wanted to turn around and run back to her office. But another part of her, somewhere deep within herself, wanted to talk to her. Regardless of what had happened, Melissa was her sister. Despite everything, she still cared for her.
Before she could decide what to do, it was too late. Melissa had spotted her and was walking over.
"God, they don't half make you wait here, don't they?" Melissa scoffed
Rachel couldn't wrap her head around this. The presence of her sister was causing her to feel all kinds of emotions all at once, anger being the dominant one. How could she just show up here unannounced after all this time?
"Melissa? What the hell are you doing here?" She hissed
"Woah, easy Mandy! Nice to see you too!" Melissa laughed
Rachel cringed at Melissa calling her 'Mandy', her old nickname. She hated it then, and she hated it even more now.
"It's Rachel now. And I won't ask you again, what are you doing here?" Rachel responded
"Changing your name doesn't erase your family you know, Rachel? Am I not allowed to visit my only sister?" Melissa pointed out
"Not when I'm at work!" Rachel shot back, rolling her eyes
Melissa looked genuinely hurt by her sister's words.
"I just want to talk, Rachel" Melissa shrugged
Rachel sighed.
"Fine, let's go to my office. You have 15 minutes, and then I want you gone, ok?"
"Alright, Rach, calm down! You're not my headmistress!" Melissa quipped
Rachel rolled her eyes as she walked back down the corridor, Melissa following smugly behind her. Rachel was regretting this already.
They finally reached the office. Melissa plonked herself down on the sofa, putting her feet up on the coffee table. Rachel scoffed, pushing Melissa's feet off the clean, wood surface.
"I see you haven't changed, Rach. You still love to kick my feet off the table like you did when we were kids!" Melissa smirked
"And I see you still have no respect for furniture" Rachel retorted
Melissa rolled her eyes
"What are you doing here Melissa?" Rachel added
Melissa sighed. She owed her sister an explanation.
"Look, I've been abroad for the last 6 months. I got back last week and there was a message on my answering machine from the Hospital. The Nurse who left the message said you'd been attacked. They called me because you'd put me down as your next of kin on your medical record" she explained
Rachel didn't say anything as she carefully processed Melissa's words. She'd completely forgotten that she'd put Melissa down as her next of kin all those years ago when she was 19 and had been kicked out of her home by her Dad. She hadn't wanted to put anyone down initially, but she didn't want the doctors to think she was on her own. So she'd scribbled Melissa's name down, hoping she'd never have to be contacted.
"They shouldn't have contacted you. I already had someone with me." She mumbled
"Well they did, Rachel" Melissa shrugged
"Well, it doesn't matter now. It happened a while ago so I don't know why you're fretting about it now" Rachel sighed
"What happened, Rachel?" Melissa asked
"It doesn't matter" Rachel insisted, blocking the memories of the evening of the last day of term from her mind
"It does, Rachel. Tell me" Melissa argued
"It's none of your business! You lost the right to play a part in my life years ago. I don't want anything to do with you!" Rachel snapped, turning away from Melissa to sit down at her desk
"Then why did you put me as your next of kin?" Melissa questioned
"I didn't! I put your name down decades ago when I registered with a new GP, because I had no choice! Don't flatter yourself, they obviously looked at my notes and got your information from there! If I'd had it my way, they wouldn't have contacted you at all!" Rachel cried
There was a brief silence before Melissa spoke again.
"Well, I'm here now, you may as well tell me what happened" she shrugged
Rachel scoffed
"Like you care, Melissa"
"I do!" Melissa exclaimed
Rachel rolled her eyes
"Ok. If you won't tell me what happened, at least tell me how you are?" Melissa added, determined to get some kind of conversation out of her sister
"I'm fine" she mumbled
"Just 'fine'? I'd say you were doing great! You've got a good job, you're successful. Sure, you look like crap, but who needs to look good when you have such a great life?!" Melissa rambled
Rachel bit her lip to stop her from saying something she'd regret. Her sister had always been narrow minded and naive. Everything came down to success and money with her. Nothing else mattered.
"So, how much money do you make doing this Head Teacher stuff?" Melissa asked
Rachel rolled her eyes again. She just wanted Melissa to leave.
"I'm not discussing this with you" Rachel huffed
"I take it not much then? God, if I was you I'd have scrapped education and gone back to prostitution! At least the pay was good! And besides, sex is great therapy!" Melissa continued
Rachel slammed her fist on the table angrily.
"Get out, Melissa. Now" she growled
"Ok, ok! I'm sorry I ruffled your feathers! I actually did come to talk to you about something" Melissa sighed
Rachel groaned. Why couldn't she just leave?
"What? Make it quick, I don't have all day!" Rachel snapped impatiently
"Alright... I'm uhm- getting married in a few months to my fiancé. I wanted to ask, would you be my maid of honour?"
Rachel stared at her in disbelief. Any outsider would have expected her to be overjoyed. But Rachel was angry.
"Absolutely not" she said firmly
"What? Come on, Rach, you're my sister! This is going to be the happiest day of my life, why can't you be happy for me?"
Rachel's blood was boiling now.
"A sister doesn't watch as their father beats up their sister before throwing them out of the house when she had nowhere to go!"
Melissa rolled her eyes.
"Oh my god, Rachel! Are you still hung up on that?! Don't play the victim! You were SO selfish back then! We had nothing after Mum died; you were the only one who could put food on the table for us. And then suddenly you just leave me and Dad in the lurch to go and get your stupid degree!" Melissa spat angrily
"Oh please, Melissa! All Dad had to do was give up the drink, get off his backside and go to work! There was nothing wrong with him!! I was forced into prostitution; I had to do it for the money so we could eat and to keep a roof over our heads! Who else was going to do it? Do you know how demeaning it was? Selling myself to men who were at least 30 years older than me! I came home scared every day, I was 17! I stopped because my future was bleak and non- existent. I had to get myself out, and I don't feel guilty for leaving that life behind me. It was Dad's job to protect and look after you, not mine!"
"Dad didn't force you to do anything! He told me it was your choice! You promised him you'd take care of us, and you let us down! You were selfish! Dad had every right to throw you out!"
"Yes, take his side as usual! He always had you wrapped round his little finger, Melissa!"
"He cared about me a lot more than you ever did!"
Rachel scoffed
"If you think I didn't care about you back then, then why are you here now, hmm?"
"Because Rachel, I have no one else! Dad's dead, you know that. Mum is too. You are my only family"
"I don't care, Melissa. I wish you happiness with your new fiancé. But I won't be at your wedding"