teacher's pet

Mr. Cavill was a heart throb. Every girl Ori knew in her class had some form of a crush on him, or at least would admit to him being attractive. He was everyone's favorite teacher, students loved to run to his classroom when they were playing hooky from others or even to just sit in there with him while they ate lunch. Except for Ori. She never knew what she had done to get on his bad side, but from the very first day of freshman year, it had been made very clear that Mr. Cavill wasn't very fond of her. And unfortunately for the both of them, they were stuck seeing each other for a whole four years.

Ori was currently a junior, so she was used to Mr. Cavill's negative attitude and cold demeanor towards her. Often times in his class, she would catch him staring at her. Just sitting at his desk, feet propped up, chewing on a pen, just staring at her. That's what really bothered her. Something seemed off about him. This year was a little different though. Everyone knew he was going through a nasty divorce and practically the only thing he hadn't lost was his truck. His savings had even been forfeit in the dispute. It was bad. Still, all of the kids in her class did their best to cheer him up. All of the dense headed boys saved their rowdiness and horseplay for other teachers, and some of the girls even brought him breakfast on most mornings. Students were always crowding his door, trying to make sure he was doing okay.

Leaning forward on her desk, Mr. Cavill was going up and down the rows of chairs, passing back tests from last week. It was the first major test of the semester and admittedly, Ori was a little nervous when he laid the paper face down on her desk. Flipping it over quietly, she certainly wasn't expecting to see the bold red F circled at the top. What!? Ori felt her heart sink her chest but she kept her mouth shut through the remainder of class. The second the bell rang, she followed one of her friends out into the hall and showed them her test.

"Can I see yours?" Ori asked, frantically taking the test from her friend who had received a low B. All of their answers were exactly the same, save two or three and Ori was almost sure hers were correct answers in the differences. This was new. Holding her test tightly in her hand, she ran her other hand through her dark hair before heading straight back into his classroom.

Her hands were shaking, wishing that she could afford to bite the bullet and just take the grade, if that meant she didn't have to confront him. "Mr. Cavill? Can I talk to you about this grade?" Ori stepped up to his desk, annoyed that he didn't even care enough to look up from his computer. "I know this grade isn't right." Ori frowned, dropping the paper back down on his desk and stepping back, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. Her heart was pounding so loudly she was afraid that might even be able to hear it.

Henry didn't think that he had ever healed from the heartbreak of losing Orion's mother. She had been his high school sweetheart and he had been convinced that he would marry her one day. When he had headed over to his best friend's house, only to catch them together, it had completely destroyed him. Henry had stormed out of the room, ignoring the girl who had just broken him as she rushed after him, pulling on her clothes as she raced after him.

Pretending like everything was normal, like nothing at all was wrong, Henry did his best to ignore the truth of the situation. He had focused all of his attention forward, intent on getting into college and making something of himself. Along the way, Henry had been lucky enough to meet another woman who had helped him start to heal. They had gone on to get married shortly after he graduated from college and they had moved to a small town where he got a History teacher position at the local high school.

Life had been going well for him and he thought there was nothing wrong, right up until he came home from a late night grading papers at the school, only to see his wife sitting at the coffee table, divorce papers sitting in front of her. Henry's life had crashed then and there, for the second time. Continuing on to school because he couldn't let his students down was the only thing that pushed him to keep going. His students had been helping him, the girls coming in with breakfast on more days than not.

And some part of Henry found a particular sense of joy when he tormented Orion. THe girl reminded him far too much his high school sweetheart and he had no reason not to mess with her. There was nothing she could do about it.

---

Leaning back in his chair, Henry was focused on grading the quizzes that had just been handed in by the class before Orion's. He looked up, taking a sip of his coffee as Orion stepped back into his classroom. He raised an eyebrow, tilting his head to the side. "The grade isn't right? I've no idea what you're talking about," he said, shrugging as he tilted his head to the side. "I went over every quiz that I wrote to make sure they were all graded properly, Orion. I guess you should study harder next time, don't you think?"

"Study harder-" Ori repeated, her brow pulling together in frustration. She stepped back up to his death, resting her hands on the edge of the desk. "You marked literally every single question wrong and I checked my answers with Lily ..." Ori didn't understand what he was trying to do. She couldn't see what he gained by failing her. Having her twice next year? He looked so smug, like he was proud of himself or something... Taking in a deep breath, she forced herself to look away from him.

What did she hope to gain from this? He wasn't going change the grade, that was clear. "Whatever," she muttered, leaving the bullshit paper on his desk. Ori wasn't about to waste her twenty minute break arguing with Mr. Cavill. Turning away from him, she tightened her grip on her bag, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her gut. What did this mean for the rest of the year? How many more grades would he falsify?

Ori kept telling herself that it didn't matter. All she wanted to focus on was the homecoming dance that evening.

---

After the football game, the majority of the student body arrived at one of the fancier hotels down town for the homecoming party. Ori had been asked by one of the senior football players. Her dress was short, sparkly and made mostly of black tulle. Her hair was sleek and curled, and with a few added inches thanks to her heels, she looked much older. More like her mom.

Holding onto her clutch, she entered into the ballroom with one of her friends, and couldn't help but groan when she spotted Mr. Cavill. "Of course he'd be one of the fucking chaperones..."

@ castle.