AUTHOR'S POV
When the woman's eyes met Kathrine's she smiled warmly and walked towards her.
"My dear you must be Katherine," the woman said with an almost affectionate look in her eyes," I have been so looking forward to meeting you since Mrs. Scott and I spoke on the phone last week. I hope you are settling into your new house well."
The woman took Katherine's hand in her own and led her to the chair in front of the antique desk. Katherine sat in it, while the women perched elegantly on the edge of the desk.
"I assume that you are Principal Kingsley?" Katherine asked with a slight raise of her eyebrows.
"Oh yes, do forgive me," the Principal said looking slightly embarrassed, " I have been remiss in my manners. Not only was I late but I did not even introduce myself properly. I am Giselle Kingsley, your principal. But I do hope that you will call me by my first name when we are alone, to be truthful being called by my surname makes me feel rather old."
"You don't look that old," Katherine said, eyeing 'Giselle' oddly. She didn't really know what to make of this woman. "Actually, to be truthful myself, you don't look a day older than 22, a bit young to be a principal."
Katherine's statement seemed to make Giselle a little uncomfortable, the older woman shifting a little in her seat. She covered it quickly though, forcing a wide smile.
"Well, I am older than I look, and besides that, I skipped several grades when I was in school," the principal said, her warmth not cooled in the slightest by Katherine's lack of enthusiasm.
"That explains everything," Katherine said with a touch of sarcasm.
To Katherine's surprise, Giselle laughed at her snarky comment. "You are quite the spitfire," the older woman said lightly.
Despite her reservations, Katherine returns the smile slightly, aware of a slight fondness of her for her unique principal growing in her. The woman may have been a bit over-friendly but she seemed to have a good heart or at least Katherine thought so. This Giselle Kingsley seemed already fond of her Katherine felt no reason not to return the favor. It was rather a rare thing for Katherine to genuinely like someone but she had a feeling that her principal would be one of the few.
"I think that you and I are going to get along just fine, Katherine," Giselle said through the warmth of feeling in her eyes. Giselle looked so affectionate, so motherly at Katherine that for one blissful moment she pretended that the woman in front of her was really her mother, and her life with the Scott's was just a bad dream. Katherine's heart reached out toward Giselle, and she almost felt that the older woman was doing the same thing, reaching out for her love and approval. The feeling was so intense, but so real, that Katherine's eyes began filling before she could manage to stop them. Giselle looked as though she was about to reach out to embrace her when the intercom made a slight static noise before the administrator's voice spoke through it.
"Tyler King is here, Ms Kingsley."
The spell was broken and Katherine was simply Katherine Anne Scott again, an ordinary nobody whose overactive imagination had just humiliated her in front of her new principal. She turned around to hide the action of hastily drawing her eyes with her sleeve.
The principal sent an apologetic look at Katherine's way before walking around her to flip a switch on the intercom.
"Thank you, Denise," she said, "You may send him right in."
"Of course, Right Away. Ms Kingsley," Denisia said with more respect than Katherine thought that tart of an administrator had in her.
Giselle turned toward Katherine again, a refreshed smile on her classically beautiful face, as though the previous...whatever it was had never happened. "Well," Giselle said with a pleased sigh. "It looks as though your guide is here."
"Guide?" Katherine asked with a frown as a young man the room - the same beautiful man that had evoked a myriad of painful emotions in her when she had been studying the pictures on the wall.
"What guide?" She asked knowing full well where this was going.
Tyler King, the beautiful creature she had ever laid eyes on, stared at her with the same looks she imagined he would give an insect that had the nerve to splatter on the windshield of his car.
In other words, he looked at her with absolute revulsion and disgust. He eyed her up and down, obviously trying to figure out how anyone in his presence had the nerve to be anything but beautiful and God-like in appearance. Katherine's gut clenched as she fought back the feeling of inferiority and the tears that came from that feeling. She felt so low, lower than she had ever felt before and because of that, she hated him. Seeing him as he was in that picture-beautiful and arrogant, never knowing what it feels like to be plain and ordinary- had been bad enough, but to be forced into the same room with him, to be guided by him throughout the school- especially since he seemed to feel so much disdain for her -was a humiliation that she couldn't bear.
Tyler's interest was short-lived, however, and he soon ignored her in favor of polishing his nails on the black satin dress shirt that showed through his open leather jacket. Katherine felt as though she had been slapped in the face at the obvious slight.
"Tyler is to be your guide around the school until you know your way around better," Giselle said, interrupting Katherine's thoughts. Giselle looked between the two students in a way that made her intentions for them more than obvious.
Giselle expected Tyler to date Katherine, as a personal favor. The conspiratorial look in her eyes made it blatant.
It was the last blow to Katherine's ego that she could take, and it took all her self control not to slap the older woman's face, and that had only to do with the fact that Giselle had been kind to her so far, not because she was the principal of the school. Had any other person put her in this degrading situation they would be lucky if they were not crippled by the time she was done with them. With the notable exception of her family, and that was only because she had no one else.
"The thoughts appreciated but I can handle myself," Katherine said firmly in a tone that she was sure would end the discussion.
Tyler raised his eyebrows at Giselle, almost as if he was asking if his part in this tedious task was done yet.
Giselle shot him a look that was a most definite 'no.'
"I am sure that you can, but nonetheless Tyler will be your student guide for the next few weeks," Giselle said to Katherine in a tone of authority.
So, she was throwing the weight of her position into this wild matchmaking scheme, was she? Well, Katherine Scott wasn't so easily defeated by anyone, even a principal.
"With all due respect, I really think that's a decision that should be left to me," Katherine said with every bit as much authority and a slight touch of venom. She wasn't going down without a fight.
"Maybe I don't want to be saddled with the Dorian Gray wanna be just because you had a whim to play matchmaker." She confidently said.
Both Tyler and Giselle looked shocked at not only Katherine's direct challenge of Giselle's authorities but her bold accusation.
"Katherine, what in the world gave you the idea-" Giselle began innocently.
"The way you were eyeing me and King a second ago gave me the idea," Katherine said hotly, placing her hands on her hips. "I know the type. Let me guess, I am the charity case of the week? You figured you get me a boyfriend and a makeover and just like that you can fix me? Well, maybe I don't want to be the new charity case. Maybe I don't want to be set up with the guy who looks at me like I am a splattered insect on his shiny new car. You know, I thought you were different for a second, however cliche that might sound. You were one of the few people who didn't make me feel like a freak of nature the first second I made them just because I don't wear low riding skinny jeans that show my butt crack and so much makeup that no one really knows what I look like. But instead, you cosy up to me just so you can play Emma woodhouse. Well, set your bait for another teenage misfit, ' 'cause I am not biting! Good day Principal Kingsley."