Midnight Rain; Cordell Walker

i. celisa

     "Cordell." Celisa tries to hide her irritation upon seeing the ranger, but unfortunately for her, she can't really help it nowadays. "To what do I owe the displeasure?" She asks the man as he walks further into her classroom. Like her, it was probably the last place he wanted to be at right that second. She sits back in her chair expectantly. She may have had an idea as to why he was here, but she was praying that she was wrong.

     "I'm here for Stella," Cordell replies shortly, removing the cowboy hat from his head. Celisa has to push aside the butterflies in her stomach as she looks at him.

     She gives him a spiteful smile. "I was expecting Abeline. You know, 'cause she's the one who made the appointment."

     "She couldn't make it," Cordell replies dryly. "She's caught up at the ranch and I had my break and everything lined up so I figured I'd spare her the time." Celisa wants to bite back a retort, but she knows better than to do that in a public setting. "And you? How's your mom?"

     Celisa glares at the smug grin on Cordell's face and feels her nails dig into her palm. Don't do it, Celisa. You're at work. "Cordell," she says coolly, letting out a long breath. "We are currently in a public setting that just so happens to be my work. I understand that it's a difficult concept for you to grasp, but I'd greatly appreciate it if you could please keep up the professionalism until tonight."

     Cordell sits in the seat, holding up his hands in mock defense. "Sorry, Ms. Martinez. I'd appreciate it if detention wasn't involved."

     Celisa groans quietly, rolling her eyes and turning towards her file cabinet for Stella's files.

     As she does, she gets lost in thought about the last time they'd talked and tried to ignore the emotions that started to bubble in her chest— the same ones she got that day. She hated how heated it got, but she thinks that since then, they'd gotten past it. Never getting past the enemies part, of course. That was always going to be there. Which was part of the reason she'd preferred to drown herself in work instead.

     Her job was stressful sometimes. She taught six classes with one free period in between. Three English classes (one of them AP) and three AVID classes (a nationwide program that helps students achieve their academic goals regarding colleges and just overall career success. Look it up.)

     Stella Walker is, without a doubt, one of her best students. She has her twice a day, and each time, she manages to surprise Celisa more and more. She always knew she had potential. She was able to see it since day one of the school year and even now, she still exceeds all of her expectations.

     "Miss Stella," she trails off, mostly to herself, as she set two files down on the desk in front of her. "I can proudly start off by saying that I have absolutely no complaints about her or her performance. She's an incredibly bright girl, Cordell."

     She can see a small smile as his lips twitch at the corners. "That's good to hear," he says. Though he tries to hide it, Celisa can see the evident pride he must have for her.

     "We'll start with English first, seeing as that's when I have her first," she explains, mostly to herself, as she opens the cream folder with Stella's name. "As conferences approached, I asked the students to fill these folders with five assignments they're most proud of. A lot mostly put in a few reading assignments and-"

     "Mhm," Cordell interrupts, shooting her a subtle glare.

     Celisa hides her offense and clears her throat again and avoids his gaze. "Stella chose to put in her latest writing assignment," she says. "The prompt was to write about the students' greatest influence in life. Your daughter wrote a beautiful essay on you and Emily." She sees how he instantly perks up and sits straighter in his chair. Celisa hands him the paper and she observes quietly as Cordell's eyes scan over Stella's writing.

     Throughout the many years of knowing Cordell Walker and the many years of him hating her, her crush on the ranger never disappeared. Not even when she left Texas for school, it remained through her college years and throughout her relationship. She hated how he made her feel like utter crap, yet she would never think of the possibility of leaving Texas permanently to go back home if it meant leaving him behind.

     Cordell's soft gaze on the paper makes her stomach erupt in butterflies, but she makes her mind trail off elsewhere so she wouldn't think about it. "Stella did this?" Cordell asks. Celisa nods, remaining quiet. "This is... why me? I'm hardly her greatest influence." Celisa ignores how vulnerable he was being. He'd kill her if she brought it up.

     "Well she seems to think otherwise," Celisa says, smiling gently at the memory of reading the paper in the middle of the night in a rush to get grades in before they were due. "You have a very talented daughter, Cordell. Which brings me to my next point," she takes out a form she picked up from the counselor earlier and set it in front of him. "As her teacher, I would like to recommend for Stella to join my AP class."

     "AP?"

     Celisa nods enthusiastically. "I know it may seem, er... scary. But I don't think Stella's challenged enough in regular 12th grade English. She does absolutely incredible and I feel she can do amazing in this class." Her heart pounds as Cordell furrows his eyebrows and takes the paper from underneath her hands.

     "Advanced placement," he mumbles to himself skeptically. "Are you sure?" He asks, glancing up at her.

     She scratches her head awkwardly, already cursing herself.

     Mierda.

     "Well... er, yes?" She cringes at herself. It wasn't supposed to be a question. "With her grade average in my class alone, she wouldn't even have to test into the class. All you'd have to do is sign the paper and I'd hand it into her counselor."

     "So you think she'll be fine? She could handle something like that? What about the work?" Cordell questions, setting the paper down.

     "She hardly struggles with the work she's currently given," she says quickly. "There's no doubt in my mind that she'd be perfectly fine." When Cordell doesn't respond, she clears her throat for the third or fourth time in the 10 minutes Cordell was sitting in front of her.

     Is it hot in here or is it just me?

     All the questions made her nervous, but she tried her best to answer them. It was right for him to have as many questions as he had and it was an understandable situation to have as many questions. Still, all of them made her squirm nervously.

     "And the work load isn't going to be overwhelming?" Cordell asks. "She won't be up all night getting stuff done for your class alone?"

     Celisa shakes her head immediately. "No, I don't assign nowhere near half as much as AP teachers should. I think three hours a night is absolutely ridiculous."

     "If it's any consolation, Stella seemed very keen to the idea," she continues. "I spoke to her about it earlier today and I promised I'd speak to you—well, Abeline, about it." He stays quiet again, still staring at the paper. "Take that home," she tells him. "Talk it over with her, sign or don't sign. If you do, however, just send it back with Stella and I'll turn it in to her counselor."

     Cordell Walker's silence was bothering her, but she says nothing and continues on.

     "What if she does too much work or it becomes too hard for her to manage? You don't think she'll burn out?"

     It was like the Cordell she was talking to wasn't the one she grew up with. The one who hated her with every fiber of his being and was set on making her life her own personal Hell as if it wasn't already. It was clear that when it came to his kids, he set aside his bias and put the focus solely on Augie and Stella. "If anyone can do it, it's Stella." She closes the folder for English and opens AVID's. "Shall we move on to AVID?"

     Cordell clears his throat and readjusts himself in his seat. "Fine."