Like Mother Like Daughter

Chapter 15

"H-yeah, yeah I'm fine," I replied. 

"Anybody else?"

Tom

I wanted to speak up for Courtney in health class; I guess my tongue just wanted to stay rammed down my throat...not like that you disgusting people.

"You know it's a real shame, I would've said something," Jake said from behind me. I huffed and closed my locker.

"What do you want Welton?" I asked as we walked down the hall.

"That cousin of yours has a real mouth on her. Apparently Lucy heard from Dean that you and Courtney are an item. Isn't that sweet," he replied. I kept walking as he stopped behind me.

"You only feel sorry for her," he called after me. That made my feet stop.

"You're only going out with Courtney because you feel sorry for her. You know about her past, everybody does. It would be a real shame if it were to leak that Ms. Pond is Courtney's mother,” he said.

"Keep your voice down! And no one will believe you anyway. You're you. And how did you find out anyway?" I asked.

"I did a Google search of her. I want to know everything about our new students so-"

"So you can manipulate and take advantage of them?" I asked.

"I was thinking more along the lines of befriend them. Bring them over to the golden side so they won't have to go through my torment. That's all I'm offering Courtney," he replied.

"She'll never do it. Courtney's heart is too pure for your disgusting background. Drop the act Jake and come out," 

"Come out of what?" he asked.

"...The closet," with that I turned around and walked to my next class, leaving Jake standing there frozen like a statue.

Courtney

I knocked on the open door to Amelia's office. She looked up from her work to meet my gaze.

"Hey, what's going on?" she asked and stood up.

"Ms. Jareau told me you wanted to see me," I said. Amelia sighed and leaned against her desk.

"Your father called me. He and Tess want to come by this weekend for dinner. They want to catch up with you." she said. What the hell?

"Are you serious? The whole point of this was to let me be on my own. They can't just violate the stupid contract by wanting to 'have dinner'. They obviously want something else." I said.

"Courtney calm down. They're still your parents and they still love you. You shouldn't be so hard on them. Without them you wouldn't be here." Amelia said.

"No, without you I wouldn't be here. Because of you I'm here." I replied.

"So you're going to pin all this on me now? Because I think you're seventeen years too late to make a complaint." she asked.

"No, no I'm not blaming you. You're right, if my so called parents never went to you I wouldn't be here and you wouldn't have a teaching career." I replied.

"There you go, win-win." she said and bit into an apple.

"What do I get in return?" I asked.

"Oh...I was talking about your parents getting kid and me getting sober." she replied. Again...why do I even bother?

"Oh brother, well what day did they mean by this weekend?" I asked.

"Just Saturday, you're okay with that right?" she asked.

"I guess; sure. Sure let's-let's have them over for dinner on Saturday night. I'll even get dressed up in nice clothes and wear make-up." I said.

"Now you're being cocky, you get that from your father." Amelia said.

"Well we all know who I got my looks from." I replied.

"You're sweet but flattery won't get you out of this. I'll call Charlie back later and confirm the plan. It'll be nice; you know you can even have Tom over. I'm sure they'd love to meet him." she said.

"I'll ask him." I replied and started out the door.

"Courtney." Amelia called. I popped my head back in.

"Yes?"

"Are you really okay with this? Because I can say no if you're not. It's up to you." she asked.

"Yeah, yeah I'm perfectly fine with it. Yay for Saturday dinner." I replied.

"Alright then, now get going to your next class."