Behind Her Demeanour

Chapter 4

"My Parents? No, what could they do?" Andrea shrugged.

"Well, I always tell my children to discuss their problems with me, it's one less burden of their own to carry."

"Well, then you must be a good dad," Andrea said sourly. She didn't mean for it to come out that way, it just, did.

Mr Hollow searched her face for what her statement meant. He saw a pang of sadness in the girls' eyes for a second, the sadness she tried so hard to hide from him.

"Why'd you say it like that?" Mr Hollow asked worriedly.

"No reason."

"You know Andy. I am here if you need to talk," He spoke softly, his eyes meeting her dark brown eyes as hers met his blue orbs.

Andy stared longer than she would have, her eyes spoke to the man in front of her. They tried to speak as loud as they possibly could. Her eyes begged Mr Hollow for help; they begged for help because her mouth couldn't, she wasn't sure that she could trust him, after all, she had only known him a day.

"Yeah, well, I'll let you know if there's anything," Andy sighed. She fiddled with her books for a moment as she pulled her eyes away from Mr Hollows'.

"Can we move on now?" Andy said harshly, her eyes rolling backwards.

"Very well," he said, reaching into his desk for a pen. "Got any homework?"

Andrea chuckled, she hadn't been asked that question in years, but when she glanced up to her personal tutor, she realised that he wasn't joking. "Oh, you're serious," She smirked. "Well yeah, I've got a little. But everyone knows that Andy Mikalson doesn't do homework."

"Well, now you can tell everyone that Andy Mikalson does," He smiled, handing Andy the pen he had pulled out of his desk.

Andy grabbed the pen off him roughly and slammed it down on her desk, she refused to do something she had stopped doing so long ago. She wasn't even sure if she remembered how to do it. "You can't make me do that," She exclaimed, crossing her arms.

Mr Hollow was aware of the task he had set for her. He was given a warning about Andrea's rage, but, especially when it came to doing her homework. Andrea didn't know it yet, but her parents seemed very eager for someone else to be keeping an eye on their daughter, so eager that they practically jumped at an opportunity to allow him to deal with her behaviour however he saw fit, no questions asked.

Mr Hollow rested his eyes on the stroppy girl calmly. "It's either you do this homework now or do it at home."

"How about... neither." She replied cheekily.

"Listen, Andrea–"

Before he could finish his sentence the door creaked open. Behind it popped his daughters head, her curly blonde locks revealing to Mr Hollow that it was his youngest teen.

"Oh sorry Dad, I didn't know you were busy, I can come back," Victoria said, ready to quickly back away from the door.

Mr Hollow glared at his teen for a second, he remembered specifically telling his children not to call him Dad in school, it wasn't that big of a deal, but it was the rules and Mr Hollow always followed the rules.

"No, Victoria what is it?" Mr Hollow spoke stiffly, glancing at his watch. It was half an hour past school time, so there was no need to reprimand his child.

"I just came to ask you if I could stay at an after-school club, it finishes in about an hour?" She asked cautiously, knowing her father would probably want to know more about the club. Victoria awkwardly placed her eyes on the annoyed girl sat in front of her father for a split second before looking back at him.

"What club would this be Victoria?"

Victoria discretely rolled her eyes at her father as she mumbled, "Judo."

Andy glanced up and down at his daughter, she smirked a little at the fragile looking girl. Her knobbly knees were distinct even through the black tights she wore, and her arms seemed to be quite thin, though it wasn't as clear underneath the covering of her school blazer. "I think it'd be a good idea," Andy stated, with a fake enthusiastic tone.

Victoria didn't look at the girl, but a small smile grew on her face. She knew that Andy wasn't exactly standing up for her, but she found it funny anyway because she knew her father thought that Andy agreed.

"I don't know, Vic, can't you try something else?" Her Dad spoke worriedly, now placing his full attention on his daughter.

Andy saw this and she began to grow sad again. She wished that she had a father like Victoria did; A father that would worry about her, how Mr Hollow did for his daughter. She saw from the stress lines in between his eyebrows and the worry mark on his temple that he didn't want her to be involved in the club.

"Please, Dad, it's just to see if I like it," Victoria begged.

He sighed, placing his eyes back to Andy, who glared at him the second he did so. "Well it looks like I'll be here for a while now, so I guess you can give it a go."

"Really!? Thanks, Dad". She grinned, running all the way into the room to give him a huge hug, before scurrying back out of the room.

Mr Hollow smirked at the reaction that his daughter had left him with, before returning to Andy's unhappy face.

"So you're keeping me here?"

"Nope. You're keeping yourself here because you're not leaving till you start that homework," He grinned.

"Since when was this detention?!" The girl groaned.

"Since you refused to do your homework," He stated, his voice was so tranquil, that it almost annoyed Andy, she wanted him to be as irritated as she was, was this man really about to make her do homework?

"You can't keep me here, I can leave right now."

"Then what's stopping you?" Her teacher pried. He didn't know why he knew, but he was almost certain that Andy wouldn't leave the room.

When she didn't reply he reached into his second draw and pulled out some homework sheets. "Here," He said, passing her the sheets.

"What are these?"

"Well, these are just in case the 'tiny' amount of homework you have isn't the same as what I collected from your teachers. They were so happy to hear that you would finally be getting it done," Andy's face was filled with disgust, as she looked at the load he gave her, she thought he must've given her at least a few months worth of missing homework.

"I never had this much homework," She said flicking through the work in disbelief.

"Actually that's only two weeks worth of homework, your teachers said these will help you on the upcoming tests," Mr Hollow explained quirkily.

"Nope, I'm not doing it. You can't expect me to finish all of this in an hour."

"Who said anything about an hour? " He replied smugly. "It's either you do that, or I sign you up for the cleaning committee; I've heard that they clean the whole school".

Andy growled irritatedly, "No–"

"Andy, I don't think you understand the severity here, you are quite literally on the verge of being expelled from this school, and I know you don't want that, otherwise you would have already made that happen, so you need to do as I say, Andy," He spoke meaningfully, this time there was no need for smirking or grinning, this time he was serious. "I can help you Andy, but only if you let me."

Andy knew that he wasn't just talking about help with the homework. He meant anything, he could help her out with anything. And for the first time in a very long time, she sensed a feeling of trust. She never thought she'd have that feeling again.