It was the morning of Senior Portraits day.
Melanie 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.
Melanie sighed and quickly pulled her hair back into a simple ponytail.
That would have to do, she decided.
Melanie grabbed her bag and quickly strutted down the stairs.
"Melanie, is that what you're wearing to school today?"
Melanie sighed as she heard the obvious disdain in her mother's voice and turned around to face her.
"Yes, it is." Melanie answered briskly. "Why?"
Kate Chasez looked her daughter over critically. "I thought today was the day for senior portraits."
"It is." Melanie answered.
"That's what you're wearing?" Kate's voice was filled with disdain.
"I thought we covered this already, mother." Melanie 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," Kate nodded, put off for the moment.
"Glad to have your permission," Melanie said with a roll of her eyes.
"Melanie, why do you insist on rebelling against me every chance you get?" Kate demanded.
"Why do you insist on showing your disappointment in me every chance you get?" Melanie shot back.
"I'll stop being disappointed in you when you stop giving me reasons to be disappointed." Kate responded back harshly.
Melanie 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. It was times like these that she desperately wished that JC were home, but he was off away in collage.
"Thanks for the love, mom." Melanie responded sarcastically before quickly fleeing out the door, slamming it behind her.
"What was that all about?" Sonny Chasez asked as he came from the kitchen, a cup of coffee in the hand.
"Oh, the usual." Kate replied. "I'm the bad guy as usual."
"But of course." Sonny smirked.
"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?" Kate asked with a sigh.
The smirk fell from Sonny's face and it was replaced with disappointment. "I don't know, baby. Sometimes I think you didn't give birth to her at all."
***
Melanie practically sped to school and the car squeaked as it came to a stop, nearly hitting someone in her rage.
"Geez, Melanie what the hell!" Rebecca Webber yelled in shock.
Melanie sighed, the state she was in she'd go off on Rebecca even when she was the one in the wrong.
"Sorry about that," Melanie said briskly as she got out of her car.
"Sorry?" Rebecca's eyes were still wide from the near death experience. "You nearly killed me!"
Melanie rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Becca stop being so over dramatic." She slung her bag over her shoulders. "If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead."
With that, Melanie took off leaving Rebecca to gaze after her friend in shock.
***
Melanie entered the school building and ran smack into Chris.
"Mr K," Melanie muttered, feeling all of her senses just fade away at the mere sight of him.
Chris steadied the girl who nearly crashed the both of them to the ground again. "Melanie," He said with a slight smirk. "I thought we talked about this."
Melanie nodded. "We did and you're just messing with me again, right?"
Chris 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 Melanie's face. "No one was hurt!" She blurted out in defense.
Chris shook his head and gave her a scolding look. "That's not the point, Melanie. You were speeding and you nearly hit Rebecca. It was reckless and you could've killed her."
Melanie 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.
"Melanie," Chris 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, yo--"
Melanie spun around, her emotions on full force. "What?!" She shrieked, causing Chris'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?!"
"Melanie, please lower your voice.“ Chris advised, noticing the other kids 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."
Melanie covered her face with her hands to try and stop the tears. "I don't know what to do anymore," She cried brokenly.
Chris 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.
"Okay," Chris spoke gently, placing his hand on her shoulder as if to calm her some. "C'mon, Melanie. Come with me."
The second bell rang and Melanie quickly wiped her tears. "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."
Chris 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 you a pass, okay?" Chris assured her. "C'mon, come with me for a few minutes."
Melanie nodded. "Okay, I'll come with you."
***
"So," Chris said leading Melanie into his empty classroom and shutting the door behind him. "have a seat."
Melanie walked over to one of the desks in the front row and sat down.
Chris walked around and sat on his desk in front of her. "Wanna tell me why you got upset back there?"
Melanie sighed a little embarrassed. "It's been a bad morning, Mr K." 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." Chris nodded. "I'm sorry for whatever I said that upset you. I wasn't trying to make you feel bad about yourself."
Melanie nodded. "I know. You have to know that my outburst back there had nothing to do with you, okay? It's been an awful morning and what you saw and heard was the direct result of a bad fight with my mother."
Chris raised his eye brow in concern. "You're having problems at home?"
Melanie laughed. "I'm always having problems at home, Mr K." 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 beat me, I'm not in any danger."
Chris didn't appear to be convinced. "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!" Melanie 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." Chris nodded, seeming to be convinced. "Not that they need to. Why beat me, when their words can do it for them?"
Chris 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.
Melanie sighed as she stood up. "Listen, there is nothing going on at home that I cannot handle, okay? Can this just be considered as like a teacher/student confidentiality thing?" She saw Chris'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 Chris, although he was still hesitant. "Okay, but I have to tell you if I ever see a mark 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."
Melanie stood still, seeming to be in shock at that last statement. "We're friends?"
Chris smiled warmly. "I'd like to think so."
"Isn't there like some kind of rule on teachers and students being in a relationship? Even a friendship one?" Melanie asked curiously.
Chris got up and walked over to her. She felt her heart flutter in her throat.
"Don't tell anyone, but there are some rules I don't follow. And since we're friends now you can call me Chris, atleast when we're not in class." Chris said with a softness and Melanie could've sworn there was some kind of huskiness to it as well.
Melanie smiled as she felt something wonderful shift in what was becoming such a bad day for her. "Okay, Chris. Your secret is safe with me."
Chris smiled in return. "As are yours, Melanie." He than took a step back from her. "I'll go get that slip."
"But I didn't even tell you the whole story." Melanie said somewhat confused.
"I didn't need the whole story." Chris responded.
"You didn't?" Melanie asked.
Chris shook his head. "Don't get me wrong, you ever wanna talk 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."
"Than why did you?" Melanie asked curiously.
"I didn't want you to go to class until I was sure you were okay, and I...." Chris trailed off.
"You what?" Melanie asked, her curiosity peaking.
Chris seemed to contemplate telling her this. "Can you keep another secret?"
Melanie smiled as she nodded. "Of course. I can keep lots of secrets."
Chris grinned. "Okay, I..." His face turned slightly serious. "I wanted to make you smile."
Melanie looked stunned and Chris winked at her and turned around to get the slip.
Melanie 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 falling in love with 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.
Story Tags: school jc justin chris
