the Fragment Chronicles: Katherine [Rewriting] ⊸

Chapter Five : Jonah Emerson

Walter sat across from Faith in a booth at the diner, both flipping through their menus. Walter could've sworn there was something different about her. Was is her hair? Did she dye it? It was still curled like it always was. "Did you do something different with your hair?"

Faith looked up to meet his eyes, blushing. "Yeah, I got highlights."

Walter sat back, "You did your makeup too."

"Yeah, a little bit," she mentioned. "Y'know this is our first date in the last couple weeks."

"Yeah, I've been really swamped with work; I'm starting this new unit from scratch. Last year the students didn't have enough freedom with the poetry and I wanna make sure they're comfortable with it. That's why we have so many class discussions."

"How's Sean doing?" She asked, genuinely curious.

"Good, I think." Walter chewed on the inside of his mouth, "Porter showed me some of his prints; they are just amazing, Faith. There's this one of Mia I wanna get framed for him."

"Yeah, I think he'd really like that, Walt," she beamed, looking at him from across the booth like he was a greek Adonis. He was everything she wanted in a man; caring, attractive, kind, good with kids, ambitious, talented. He was someone she thought she could possibly spend the rest of her life with.

"Evening, kids," Sandy approached their booth, with her cheat sheet in hand, a sullen look on her face and unbrushed hair tied back in a ponytail. "Usual order?"

"Actually instead of the burger and fries, can I just get a side salad?" Faith decided, setting her menu aside.

Sandy's eyes trailed down from Faith's hair to her eye makeup to her very revealing chest, "What does this look like? The Panera Bread to you?"

Faith parted her lips, not knowing how to respond. "Um — burger and fries are fine, actually," she mumbled.

"Mhm," Sandy shook her head, walking towards to back kitchen where the entire diner could hear her yelling at the cook.

"What do you think that was about?" Faith asked, with wide curious eyes.

"She and Jim are planning on getting a second location in the next town over but the bank won't give them another loan," Walter informed her.

"Weren't you thinking about signing on as a partner?"

Walter acknowledged, "Yeah, but I wanna wait until the semester is over. I've got too much going on at the moment."

"Right," Faith drew out, trying to get her mind off a certain person who magically popped back into her boyfriend's life. "So, I was thinking about what you said."

Walter took a sip of his water, "What I say?"

Her face was flustered and she took a deep breath, "I think I'm ready to move in — "

"WALTER!" Walter looked over his shoulder, following Faith's gaze as Katherine begin hurrying down the aisle, with her doe eyes, wide as ever. Taking a seat next to Walter, she brushed her straight hair over her shoulder. Walter had never seen her without pristine curls every since the night they met. "I'm such an idiot."

"Got that right," Faith muttered and yet Katherine didn't seem to notice.

"I completely forgot about a vital piece of information and then I meant to drop by your place this morning, but I remembered you're a teacher — which I don't really understand why because teaching kids is one of the hardest things to do. I mean, teaching JT to walk was probably the greatest achievement I've personally ever accomplished — "