Francesca "Cesca" Kirby (née Montoya) was a Spanish teacher at Waterloo Road who was eventually arrested for engaging into a relationship with one of her pupils. She made appearances throughout Series 6 and was portrayed by actress Karen David.
Personality
Cesca has always found teaching Spanish easy - her mother is a native Spanish speaker, having taught Cesca and her three sisters the language from the year dot, so she's a natural. Cesca teaches for the long holidays and a chance to travel the world. Highly attractive, she's sexually confident, and is flirty even with the students. Her classes are bold and fun. Cesca loves clubbing, but is bright and vivacious enough to run her classes the next day. She's young enough to burn the candle at both ends, and does her job well. She's compassionate and often finds herself drawn into other people's problems, a personality trait which often finds her in hot water.
Series 6
Episode 1
Cesca Montoya arrives at Waterloo Road and is instantly liked by other staff members for her excellent Spanish speaking skills, and by her students, most likely for her appearance.
Episode 2
Year 11 pupil Harry Fisher, son of headmistress Karen Fisher, suspects that his dad, Charlie Fisher is having an affair with Cesca after finding a suspicious message on his dad's phone. Harry and fellow Year 11 pupil Sambuca Kelly go to the location mentioned in the message, where they find Cesca and Charlie walking together, and Sambuca takes a picture of this on Harry's phone. Karen confronts Cesca about the situation after being shown the picture by Harry. Cesca insists that she is not having an affair with Charlie, but instead, Charlie is having an affair with someone else who is close friends with Cesca. Cesca directs Karen to the woman's apartment.
Episode 6
Cesca reluctantly runs a drug self-awareness programme for her Year 11 pupils. Her intentions backfire when Sambuca Kelly asks for money to purchase drugs from her close friends Amy Porter and Lauren Andrews so she can just throw them away afterwards in order to protect them from it. Amy doesn't trust Sambuca and gives her oregano disguised as the drugs, and when Amy sees Sambuca giving Cesca the oregano after purchasing it, Amy misinterprets this and assumes that Sambuca was ratting her and Lauren out. When Karen finds out, Cesca struggles to unravel the truth, but just manages to explain it to Karen's satisfaction and just manages to save her job, although Karen still suspends Sambuca when Amy's scheme to frame Sambuca by planting the real drugs on her succeeds, though Cesca later explains Sambuca's good intentions to Lauren, who had helped Amy frame Sambuca, and Lauren reveals the truth to Karen, who reverses Sambuca's suspension, but Sambuca leaves school anyway in disgust.
Episode 11
When new pupil Kyle Stack unleashes a dangerous dog on Year 13 pupil Bex Fisher during a Spanish lesson, the dog goes berserk and starts attacking Cesca as well, but Cesca is then saved by Year 12 pupil Jonah Kirby. Once the dog is locked in the classroom alone, Cesca is seen crying into Jonah's arms; the dog is then taken away by the police and put down. Cesca later thanks Jonah for saving her, this episode shows the first hints of Cesca's sexual attraction towards Jonah.
Episode 12
Cesca takes the decision that she will begin giving extra Spanish lessons during lunchtime, which only Jonah bothers to attend, and it seems that Jonah wants to come to the supplement classes because he intends to get an A in his Spanish A-level, as he struggles with his accent. Cesca explains that if he "wants to speak fluent Spanish" he just has to "work on it", and as she walks away, it becomes apparent that Jonah shows signs of attraction to her. Cesca later shelves the extra Spanish lessons during lunchtime because just having one pupil showing up is not enough to sustain the programme, though at the end of the day she tells Jonah she'll see him tomorrow as the lessons will run again after all. They are later seen texting each other.
Episode 13
Near the beginning of the day, Jonah attempts to kiss Cesca, but Cesca slaps him away. Jonah insists to Cesca that there is "something going on" between them, and Cesca continues to find it increasingly difficult to resist his seductive charm. After head of English Tom Clarkson is brutally beaten by Matthew Gurney, the father of his son's boyfriend, while on a date with Cesca, Cesca helps Tom home. In the aftermath, she calls Jonah to her house to comfort her, and the two then share their first kiss before Cesca sends Jonah away, knowing that what she is doing is wrong.
Episode 14
Cesca tries to distance herself from Jonah by trying to date Tom, who is now suffering from agoraphobia due to the beating. This causes Cesca's attempt to date him to fail. After school, Jonah shows up at Cesca's front door insisting that he can't stop thinking about her, then Cesca gives in and sleeps with Jonah. It is later revealed that this encounter was Jonah's first time.
Episode 15
Karen's son Harry's desperation for attention goes out of control when he steals her phone and starts sending offensive messages to Karen's colleagues, and the message Cesca receives causes her to suspect that Karen is aware of her affair with Jonah. Cesca is relieved when she finds out that the message was not from Karen and that everyone is still oblivious to her relationship with Jonah.
Episode 16
Jonah gets fed up of being Cesca's "dirty little secret" and gives her an ultimatum that unless she accepts that they are now in a serious relationship, they're over. Tom has now recovered from his agoraphobia and attempts to return Cesca's apparent affections, but Cesca turns him down when she tells him that she has started seeing someone else; Cesca accepts that herself and Jonah are now in a serious relationship, and they start seeing each other properly.
Episode 17
Cesca discovers that she is pregnant with Jonah's child and Jonah has now decided that he wants to leave school and get a full time job so that it is legal for Cesca to be seeing him. When Jonah finds out about her pregnancy, he goes to a big party after school organised by Finn Sharkey and Jonah's best friend Ronan Burley, where Ronan and Vicki MacDonald are still curious as to who the "mystery girl" is who Jonah is dating. Jonah went to the party to celebrate his "new life", referring to him leaving his education to live with Cesca and the baby. Cesca arrives at the party when things get out of hand and she sees Jonah behaving drunkenly and irresponsibly, which leads her to question his maturity.
Episode 18
Cesca decides to have an abortion, but ultimately decides that she couldn't go through with it, while Jonah's sister Ruth Kirby becomes progressively more suspicious of her brother's behaviour. After school has ended, Cesca reveals to Jonah that she chose not to have the abortion, and as they talk, Jonah proposes to Cesca, which she accepts. When it then happens that Ronan walks in on them, making him the first person to find out about the relationship, Jonah makes Ronan swear not to tell anyone, which he reluctantly agrees to.
Episode 19
Ronan struggles to keep the secret in, and tells his girlfriend Vicki; Vicki then tells Cesca to try not to take advantage of Jonah, leading Cesca to mistrust Ronan. Deputy head Chris Mead becomes suspicious of Jonah and Cesca when Cesca falls off a ladder and Jonah appears unexpectedly worried and refers to Cesca by her first name. When Cesca is rushed to the hospital due to her injury, Jonah arrives and they kiss just as Chris walks in on them. Karen consults Cesca about the relationship, where Cesca reveals that they're engaged and that she's pregnant. Karen calls in Jonah's father Marcus Kirby, who becomes furious due to his son's actions. Jonah and Cesca are then separated by Marcus and Cesca is sacked and arrested.
Episode 20
Due to the seriousness of the dilemma, the story was on the front page of several local newspapers and several new rules were created for the school, with basically all of them preventing pupils from having one-on-one or private lessons with teachers or anything else that could lead to a similar problem to what happened with Jonah and Cesca. Cesca and Jonah decide to prove that Cesca was not just manipulating and taking advantage of Jonah by proving that they are genuinely in love by running away to get married. Cesca and Jonah escape to a service station where they are encountered by Chris Mead, who reluctantly allows them to escape to Gretna Green before he later alerts the school and the police of the situation. But the police do not arrive in time to prevent the couple from getting married. They arrive shortly after they are wed, and Cesca is arrested by the police while Jonah is sent back to school where he is reunited with his father and sister. This is the final appearance of Cesca, Jonah and his family, Marcus and Ruth, due to Cesca being arrested and Marcus having his children leave the school grounds. It is unknown what happened since her departure as she is not mentioned again.
Quotes
- "OK, so these ingredients just need to mingle, in this very hot pan." (first line)
- "I'm not having an affair with your husband. But someone else is. I'm so sorry, I...only just put the whole thing together myself. That's why I met up with him today, to tell him that I didn't want to be a part of it."
- Cesca: "God, why is it, every time something goes wrong, you go running to Fisher?"
- Chris: "Cos she's the head!"
- Cesca: "Yeah, and you're the deputy head. Must be some level of autonomy? Or maybe Grantly's right, maybe you are just her lapdog."
- Cesca: "OK, I messed up, I admit it, but do not punish Sam to get back at me."
- Karen: "I don't need to punish Sam to do that."
- Cesca: "I didn't sleep with Charlie!"
- Karen: "I beg your pardon?"
- Cesca: "It wasn't me. So I'd appreciate it if you would stop acting like it was."
- Karen: "Be very careful here, Francesca."
- Cesca: "Why? In case you get angry? Sorry, but I've been on the wrong end of your anger since this whole thing came out. And the worst part of it is, I tried to stop them. I was on your side."
- Karen: "Am I supposed to thank you?"
- Cesca: "I just don't think I should have to put up with your attitude."
- "What happened here?! Well come on, I want answers, now! Right, all of you, get changed, now! I'll be calling Mrs Fisher." (after Harry tried to drown himself)
- "Hello. What?! But it's all been arranged! I promised the school a sports personality, you can't pull out now, it's for charity! We've sold hundreds of tickets already!"
- "Don't get me wrong, I do like boys, but even I've got to admit, a classroomful sounds a bit much. All that...sex talk and juvenile chat."
- Kyle: "Can stay down there if you want."
- Cesca: "Oh, is that what happens when you've been deprived of female company for a couple of hours?"
- "He's just so aggressive, you can't even look at him and he takes offence." (about Kyle)
- Tom: "Well, give me fishing over sun, sand and sangria any time."
- Cesca: "That's not all Spain is about. There is more to it than fry-ups and karaoke."
- "What that man did to Tom...it was so awful, Jonah."
- Cesca: "Sorry, but I don't stand by any racists."
- Ruby: "Don't be ridiculous, Cesca!"
- Cesca: "Oh really? Well maybe I should go back to where I came from then!"
- "Can't you see? This is my job on the line here. My entire life."
- "People won't understand! They won't understand what you and I have together, they'll think I took advantage of you!"
- "I was in the waiting room, and I got your message, and...I guess we're having a baby!"
- Chris: "You do realise what would happen if a teacher was more than a teacher with a pupil, don't you?"
- Cesca: "Yes, I do, Chris. But thanks for the reminder."
- Karen: "And this...'relationship', as you call it. How serious is it?"
- Cesca: "We're getting married...and I'm pregnant."
- "I know I abused my position of trust with Jonah, but it's done, and I'm prepared to accept the consequences. But I'm not gonna walk away from him. We love each other and we wanna be together, is that so wrong?"
- "It doesn't matter, Jonah. You're my husband now. And we made it."
- "OK." (final line)