"My father?" I yelled back to the worker sitting across the table from me. "My father was just some loser that left my mom when I was four."
"He is the closest kin...He lives only about five minutes from your mother...I believe you know him..."
The worker slid a photograph across the table from me but I watched in disbelief.
"How? I mean....Why did he never visit me before? Why not send a single birthday card or present?"
"Only he can answer those questions...He will come pick you up in a few minutes. He should be on his way..."
Without saying another word, I took my new information and marched out of the office to find Nick reading a hunting magazine. He threw it on the table as I filled him in on the information.
"The teacher? He's your dad?"
"Supposedly..." I said rolling my eyes.
Since I could remember, mother always explained my father to be some bum she met one night and took pity on. She had me nine months later. I had seen a grainy picture of him one time in the paper but I soon realized she just chose a photograph since the documents before me were authenticated.
Nick placed his hand on my back as I recollected all the times i asked mother about him. The stories would change and I would always end up having just more questions.
"Savannah?" A low raspy voice asked.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw it to be him. The man whose classroom I entered every day for the last two years. The man whom I favored of all my teachers because he gave me good grades. If only I would have known....
"Why didn't you ever say anything?"
"Your mother asked me not to. She asked me to keep my identity a secret. But I did help her with things like bills..."
"You could have told me....I would have kept it a secret...." He just looked to the ground. "What do you want me to call you?"
"You can call me whatever you like; Peter, Mr. Tate, hopefully-eventually maybe even dad...." He said with a slight grin.
Nick was now standing beside me. "Nicholas Beck. I'm a friend of Savannah's." He said as if he were describing a trophy he had obtained surprisingly.
"Don't worry, nothing will change Vannah. You can still stay in your house and I won't make you change any aspect of your life. I promise."
"And what about Nick?" I interjected.
He looked at me with confusion.
"He was staying with me since mom died." I said coldly. "I didn't have anyone else. I would prefer to stay with him...in my house."
My father stood before me protective. A man I never knew aside from an academic perspective was judging me on my voice of friends. To be truthful, I was flattered he was protective, but scared I would not get to be with Nick anymore.
"Fine. But he stays in the room next to mine. That way nothing happens."
Nick blushed at the thought before we left the offices. So much had already changed...and this was just the beginning.