Chapter 13: Life Goes on

Cathy and I had a long discussion concerning our situation. She didn't have a dad anymore and was hinting that maybe she could call me daddy. We tossed around the pro's and con's and decided to let well enough alone. She would continue to call me Greg except when we were making love. Actually it added a certain degree of spice to our sessions when she would whisper to me "Let's fuck daddy." I think we both got a charge out of that. It was kind of like a role play game with a hint of realism.

Cathy also asked me why I could not adopt her to become her real daddy. I told her that if I did we couldn't be engaged any more and we would not be able to legally marry. Even though we were not blood relations there would be several legal obstacles to overcome and it would be very difficult and expensive. It seemed to satisfy her curiosity so the subject was dropped.

Controversy was nothing new to Cathy and me so we learned to roll with the punches every time we hit a bump in the road. We did, however, run into a sticky situation when an old busy body in town decided that we should not be living together since she was not legally my daughter. She tried her damnedest to create a scandal but was shot down in flames when the original DSS caseworker confronted her and told her that everything was fine with our arrangement. She told the old bat to bug off and keep her nose out of other peoples business. Being aware of the goings on in our town, the caseworker threatened the old bat that she would make public some of the old bat's indiscretions of the past. The busy body backed down and cooped herself up in her house from then on.

The guidance counselor at school helped Cathy apply to several colleges and with her straight A average she was accepted at every one. Her choice was a local school which offered her a scholarship to cover tuition. With a sizeable nest egg in her account she really didn't need it but, why look a gift-horse in the mouth. Plus her college level courses meant she had a head start so she could get busy pursuing her goal of a degree in computer science. Yeah, I think there was a bit of hero worship in her choice since she would be doing the same thing I was doing. Who knows, we just might make a formidable team in my business.

I got a call from the school guidance counselor telling me that Cathy had been requested to report to the college admissions office for some advanced placement testing. Since she was already taking college level classes, they needed to set up her class assignments for the next year. We agreed that the next day would work out just fine so we set the time at 1:00 and got directions to the school. I told the counselor that I was familiar with the school since I attended there a few years ago. Cathy would be excused from her afternoon classes so we could go. I was to pick her up from school at 12:00 to grab a bite to eat and get right to the college office.

When Cathy got home she could hardly contain herself. Her excitement was at an all time high and it was contagious. We decided to go out to eat so, lookout Pizza Hut here we come. When we got there we joined a group of Cathy's friends at their table. They had all heard about Cathy going to college in the fall and were curious about this mysterious meeting tomorrow. She explained that it was no big deal since the college wanted to run her through some tests to figure out her placement in classes. Cathy was acting pretty nonchalant about it but I could tell it was all a put on. She was excited down deep but had to maintain an air of serene normalcy. It finally got to her and an animated discussion erupted around the table.

The next day I picked Cathy up at school and we made a bee line for a burger place for lunch. She was wiggling around in her seat showing her excitement. She was definitely on the path to college and looking foreword to it with glee. We arrived at the college office and were met by the dean of admissions. He explained to us that Cathy had scored so high on her college aptitude tests that she would not need a lot of the foundation classes that the rest of the freshmen would need.

We spent the rest of the afternoon with her taking a battery of tests where she aced all but one test. On that test she missed one question which puzzled her. It was a math test and she looked at the question with the listed correct answer. She told the test administrator that their answer was wrong. The dean of the math department was called in and he agreed with her that they indeed did have the wrong answer on their key sheet. He congratulated her on finding the mistake and her grade was changed to show a perfect 4.0 on all of the tests. That threw the dean of admissions a curve since he had not had a student ace all the tests before. The school psychologist tested her by way of an interview and declared her ready for advanced placement. That meant that she would be able to complete all the requirements for her bachelor's degree in only two years. To say that she was ecstatic would be a gross understatement in the least.