the Fragment Chronicles: Katherine [Rewriting] ⊸

Chapter Seven : Damon Whitmore

Walter had trouble sleeping that night. He was tossing and turning, staring at the swirls on his ceiling until they morphed together and he bored himself until he dozed off. Listening to his clock tick as the seconds went by up until his alarm rang for him to get ready for his day.

He could barely eat, only having a tangerine for breakfast and a half cup of coffee. The drive to school was quiet as well, Sean was catching up on some reading for Walter's class, he enjoyed the music that was playing.

"Who is this?"

"Aaradhna," he answered, trying to stay awake by taking a sip of his coffee from his mug, managing to not let it slip over as he turned into the school's lot.

"It's kinda got a sixties vibe, I like it," he noted.

"Me too," he agreed, trying to make as little conversation as possible. All night all that kept replaying in his mind was Belle's voice talking about how Katherine wasn't Katherine. Her sister wasn't Katherine. All he wanted to know was if the first time he met her, was she Katherine or not.

Through his classes, Walter prepped his students for the poetry assignment coming up and how the best performed will go on to read there's in front of others selected and a board and could possibly be selected to perform and represent the state.

Walter didn't mention it but he could tell that Sean was subtly excited about the whole thing, actually completing his assignments, participating in class, raising his hand. Walter felt like a proud father even though he was doing just the simplest of things. Sean was young but a very bright young man, Walter's best friend.

After his first couple class periods, Walter finally was able to take a break and catch up on Once Upon a Time. He never watched the Office without Sean, he wanted to wait until his lunch break.

Just as he was about to click on the next episode and turn on the projector screen, his student, Emmaline McCloud, strolled in and waved before sitting on a desk in the front center of the room.

"Hello ... " Walter drew out.

"I need to rant and I have no friends on A days," she protested, placing her wavy, blonde hair up in a ponytail.

He shrugged, leaning back in his chair, "Okay."

"Wow, really?" Her brows shot up.

"Yeah, where's your lunch?" He asked, seeing she only had a book bag on her back.

"I never bring one. I leave right after fourth period." She told him.

Placing his hands on his knees he walked past her and over to the cabinets where he retrieved packets pretzels and tossed them at her.

"Thanks," she grinned after catching them.

"Yup," he said, grabbing one for himself before taking a seat over by the podium, on the stool. "So ... what's this rant about?"

She groaned, taking off her backpack while munching on some pretzels. "You gotta move me to the back, Mr. K."

"Why?"

"Because I'm this close to throwing a brick at Beauchamp's car," she looked at him intently. "I'm exaggerating but I mean, have you heard the conversations him and Tsige have?"

"Not really — "

"Well, it's disgusting. I'm surprised Woodall hasn't choked him out already," Emmaline noted as she shoved several pretzels in her mouth.

"Why do you say that?" Walter asked, completely intrigued.

"'Cause he constantly talks about Randy Vega — she used to go by Mia — we were in your tutoring seminar last semester," she reminded him.