GUEST SPEAKER

was finally the end of the week which made Cindy extremely happy. Her mother had enrolled her in one of Washington D.C.'s most prestigious private schools since she had moved from California. Since it was a prestigious school, known as the place where politicians and other rich parents sent their kids, the school tried its hardest to keep its untarnished image. For Cindy and the rest of the student body, that meant school uniforms. However, the school allowed the students to have dress down Fridays so they could wear whatever they wanted.

Grabbing her car keys off the kitchen counter, the seventeen year old swung her Gucci backpack over her shoulder. While most of the outfit she was wearing to school that day was thrifted, Cindy refused to settle when it came to designer bags. She had quite the eye for fashion and truly thought a good bag could make or break any outfit.

Exiting the house before Misty could get onto her for wearing a shirt that exposed a decent portion of her stomach, Cindy got into her Jeep, and left the comforts of her gated community for the early morning traffic of America's capital.

Nearly thirty minutes and a whole Ariana Grande album later, the teenager was finally pulling into her designated parking space. She parked in the junior parking lot next to Thomas' classic Mustang. Turning off the ignition, she grabbed her bag, and hopped out of her car. Transferring from one vehicle to another, she got into the passenger side of Thomas' car.

"Good morning, Cindy Lou. How are you?" Thomas chimed, practically singing the words as he handed his friend the Starbucks he got her. Cindy graciously accepted the drink, her body craving the caffeine.

"I'm exhausted and don't want to be here." She gave him the stereotypical student answer. Since the two of them were nearing the end of their junior year, they were both stressed about colleges and exams.

Thomas nodded his head, agreeing with her statement. "I feel that. I was up until two doing Ms. Goode's stupid ass packet." Cindy rolled her blue eyes, choosing to ignore Thomas' complaining and try to enjoy the last few minutes of freedom she had before the bell rang.

Unfortunately, her freedom diminished in what felt like seconds as the bell rang signaling that the high schoolers had five minutes to get to class. Signing in defeat, the two friends got out of Thomas' vehicle and headed towards their first period: political science.

By the time the final bell rang, the two were sliding into their seats, Thomas behind Cindy. The students talked amongst themselves while they waited on their teacher to start class. A few minutes later, the man finally took his position at the front of the classroom which made the students stop talking.

"Good morning and happy Friday!" He greeted them, a smile on his round face. The teenagers mumbled some responses, most not even bothering to. Ignoring the lack of responses, the man proceeded to hand out the stack of papers he had been holding.

Cindy figured it was the results of the test they had taken the previous week as students began to groan and lay their heads on their desks in defeat. The teacher soon gave Cindy her score: 100%. Thomas peaked over Cindy shoulder and snorted at her grade, "Fuck you." Showing his best friend his 65%, Cindy shook her head at him.

"The highest grade on this test was a 100 made by Miss Blaine. You all should really be begging her to tutor you." The teacher announced, looking at his class in disappointment. For some reason, the students usually never scored higher than a C. Cindy however continuously received A's.

"Moving on, today we are fortunate enough to have a guest speaker coming-" The male was cut off by a knocking on the classroom door. Walking over to it, the teacher smiled as he opened the door, "Speak of the devil. Were your ears ringing, Mr. Shepherd?"

Cindy immediately froze, nor believing the words she had just heard come out of her teachers mouth. Of all the people that could possibly speak about politics in Washington, it just had to be her stepdad.

"Ahh, I guess they were," Duncan's velvet voice replied. Cindy screwed her eyes shut, praying to the heavens that she was having a nightmare. Around her, she heard audible gasps from females and males alike as Duncan's expensive shoes made contact with the floor, signaling that he had entered the classroom.

"Now that's a man I would actually pay attention to if he taught the class," one of the school cheerleaders remarked. Cindy's eyes flew open, quickly locating the girl, and giving her a dirty glance. "What?" The fake blonde asked innocently.

"Okay everyone, this is Mr. Shepherd-" The teacher began to introduce the classes guest speaker but was cut off yet again.

"Duncan Shepherd, son of Annette Shepherd and nephew of Bill Shepherd. Not to mention the face of the Shepherd Foundation." Cindy wanted to turn around and scream bloody murder at her best friend. Thomas happened to be what Cindy would consider Duncan's biggest fan. Oh, and extremely gay for him.

Duncan laughed at Thomas, smirking at the fact that a teenager knew of him. "Yes, I am that Duncan Shepherd." His footsteps continued to the front of the classroom and stopped once he stood in front of Cindy's desk.

Slowly looking up from behind her test paper, she slightly shook her head no, signaling for him to pretend that he didn't know her. Duncan understood her actions and continued to walk past her, standing on the other side of the classroom. "So tell me, who knows the most about political science in this class?" He asked, removing his hands from his coat pockets and putting them behind his back.

All fingers immediately pointed at Cindy and in that moment she had never wanted to disappear more before. "Interesting," Duncan replied, slightly intrigued by the idea that a girl who despised the topic of politics so much apparently knew so much about it. "What can you tell me about political science?" Duncan asked, returning to his initial position in front of her desk.

Cindy caught onto the glint in his eye and the lingering smirk on the corner of his lips; he was challenging her. "Political science is a type of social science that deals with the system of government, and the analysis of various political activity." This was a broad definition that she knew off the top of her had but she was hoping it would be enough to satisfy her stepfather and get him to leave her alone.

"Tell me about America's political scene right now." Duncan wanted to push her further, find out just how much Cindy actually payed attention to a subject she hated.

"Easy," the blonde began, feeling as if she was in debate class (which she easily excelled at as well). "The United States has a Democratic President named Francis J. Underwood. He started off in the South Carolina Senate. Soon after, he became the Majority Whip for the House."

"What political party am I affiliated with?"

"The Republicans." Cindy said, not missing a beat.

"And your mother?"

"Republican."

"And you?"

Cindy opened her mouth to speak but stopped herself short, catching onto Duncan's plan to either expose her to her classmates or get to know her better. "Mr. Shepherd, with all do respect, I don't think that concerns you." She clasped her hands together mater of factor, resting her arms flat on her desk.

"I'm sorry but do you to know each other?" The same cheerleader from before asked, just as bewildered as the rest of the class as to the interactions that had just occurred.

Before Duncan or Cindy could answer, Thomas answered for them, "No shit they know one another, Taylor! In case you haven't watched the news or anything lately, Misty Blaine got married to Duncan Shepherd. That makes Mr. Shepherd Cindy's stepfather."

Cindy turned around, hitting Thomas upside the head. "Will you shut up? It's really no one's business you twat!" Thomas flinched as her hand made contact with him, a yelp of pain leaning his lips. "Serves you right, dumb ass."

"Miss Blaine and Mr. Carter, that's enough! You both have detention after school today." Their teacher finally spoke, becoming embarrassed how ill behaved his class was in front of the Duncan Shepherd.

Cindy wanted to yell. She wanted to rip her hair out. She wanted to beat Thomas' face into his desk. Closing her eyes and calming her nerves to the best of her ability, she turned around and faced the front of the classroom. Duncan stood there with a smile on his face that he couldn't hide. He was absolutely amused.

"Mr. Stephen, I don't think it's necessary that the two get detention. I am partially to blame for the behavior that had just occurred." Duncan stepped in, his tone charming and extremely persuasive.

"You both are extremely lucky that Mr. Shepherd is here. Next time, both of you will have detention. Now I want the class to be quite and give our guest your utmost attention."

The twenty-three students in the classroom remained silent the rest of class and listened to Duncan talk about politics. Everything he said Cindy already knew so she decided to tune him out. It was a benefit of being the daughter of a Senator.

The rest of the day passed by with little incident. However, Cindy was the topic of gossip for the rest of the day. If she had a dollar for everyone she had heard someone say her and Duncan's name in the same sentence, she would have been richer than she currently was.

Sitting in fourth period, journalism, Cindy was diligently working on her piece for the school newspaper. It was about the cut of funding for the volleyball team. She was slightly biased in the issue as she was the captain of the team.

"Cindy, you're being checked out of school early." Her journalism teacher interrupted her concentration. Slightly confused as she never left early, the girl packed up her notebook and laptop, threw her bag over her shoulder, and walked to the front office.

Almost expecting to see her mother, she was surprised when she spotted Duncan through the glass windows. He was chatting away with the woman who was in charge of the front office. Of course, she was blushing like crazy. That was Shepherd for you, always the charmer.

Opening the door, she caught Duncan's attention, and he smiled at her. "Hello Cindy. I finished playing guest speaker for the day and decided to sign you out early." He explained.

The girl shrugged, not really caring why the man had signed her out. She just wanted to get home and focus on finishing her article that was due the following Monday. "Okay. Let's go then."

Duncan said his goodbyes to the woman he had been flirting with and joined Cindy who was already half way down the hallway. "Do you want to go get lunch?" He asked her, attempting to make conversation with her. He didn't particularly know why he wanted to but just pinned it as becoming friendly with his stepdaughter. "I do owe you for the last time you saw me and the incident in your class."

Cindy looked over at him suspiciously, wondering why Duncan was attempting to make amends after everything. "Why do you even care?" She questioned, extremely cautious of the situation.

"Cindy, will you please just cooperate with me? I'll explain everything over lunch?" He asked, really hoping not to upset her even more. The man had never been good at handling children. Well, his stepdaughter was almost an adult but the general idea was the same.

"Fine." She reluctantly agreed. Fishing her keys out of the side pocket of her bag, she started to head towards the student parking lot. "Text me the address."

A few minutes later she was starting the engine of her Jeep, actually kind of grateful for getting out of school early. She did despise the place. Her phone vibrated and she checked it, reading the text from Duncan.

Brick Lane.

2:07 PM