✅ The Last New Start [NaNoWriMo2021]

3. A New Place

This chapter is dedicated to twilight, with thanks for all your support on Patreon. Thank you for  making this story possible, and I'm sorry the rewards are running a little late this month!

"I'm not a baby!"

They weren't the words Tess had expected to say when meeting her new housemate, but the possibility of being underestimated had always been at the back of her mind.

The last couple of weeks had flown past impossibly fast. From being a looming possibility, the big move to San Lorenzo was now only two days away. Gabby had quickly agreed to let her stay, saying it would be great to have a house that didn't feel so empty, and she never once said anything negative about Tess's age. The adults sorted out the paperwork with a minimum of fuss, and the toughest thing Tess had to deal with was her mum saying over and over that they would miss her, and asking if she was sure about this.

She knew that it was going to be hard. She might still be in the right district to go to Raybridge High, but Palmerston was still miles away, and the school busses didn't cover that area, so she would have to walk fifteen minutes every morning to get to the bus stop. She had to pack up all her belongings ready to move, and communication with her new housemate over this period had been by email, with infrequent responses. Apparently Gabby was out of town right now, so couldn't share any pictures of the house other than what she happened to have on her phone, and there was no opportunity to get to know each other properly before she moved in.

Now she was at her new home. Meeting Cousin Gabby in person for the first time in a decade, and seeing the place she was going to be living. Her parents had dropped her off, and offered to help her unpack, but Tess insisted that she would be able to do it herself. When she made such a show of independence, they weren't going to argue with her. It was one of their best qualities, almost enough to make up for jetting off around the world to further their careers every year.

They had stayed long enough to have a quick look around; to see that the house was tidy, the kitchen well-stocked and the bathroom immaculate even when Gabby had only returned from her vacation a day before. Tess hadn't even thought about that, but her dad said it showed that she wasn't the type to leave chores to the last minute. In the circumstances, he said there was no way she could have rushed to tidy up before they came to visit, so he was sure that Gabby's housekeeping skills could be taken at face value.

Now, Tess was seeing her own room for the first time, and it wasn't what she might have expected. She hadn't been quite sure what she expected – Gabby had said it was a spare room, so she thought it might have been a guest room of some kind. Simple furniture, no personality, used occasionally when a stranger came to visit. Or filled with boxes of unwanted junk, like the collection of old exercise machines Liz's brother kept in his family's garage. There would be a bad in there, she was sure, because her dad had made sure to ask Gabby about that, and she'd said it was fine. Tess hadn't been sure if she would be helping to move boxes from her new room to some other part of the house; if she would need to do a thorough spring-clean before she could actually move in. And if so, she had wondered how much Gabby would try to take charge, or would leave her to her own devices.

What she certainly hadn't imagined was that the room would be an immaculate temple to the colour pink. Pink walls, pink carpet, and pink sheets on the bed. Pink lacy sheets, as well. There was a rocking chair in the corner, and that was also pink, with frilly pink antimacassars draped over it, and a pink-painted desk with a matching chair that looked like it would be a good few inches too small for Tess to use comfortably. It looked like the whole room had been furnished out of a Barbie accessory catalogue, or some kind of knock-off Disney Princess merch. She had never seen a room that screamed "baby girl" quite so loud, even when visiting friends who actually had babies in the house.

"I'm not a baby!" she yelled, and turned around to face Gabby, who just had a smug grin on her face. She couldn't believe she was being asked to live in a room like that; there was even what was unmistakably a changing table in the corner, and the only boxes in sight were pink stackable crates, decorated with stickers of cartoon stars and crowns, and filled with what could only be little kids' toys. "Why is there all this..."

"I'm sorry," Gabby answered, but Tess was sure she was laughing a little under her breath. "I didn't have time to redecorate. The house was sold furnished, you know?" She kept on explaining, but Tess wasn't fully listening. She was taking another couple of steps into the childish room, trying to see past the decor and decide if she would be okay living here.

The room wasn't too small, she realised. There was more furniture in here than in her old room, especially counting all the toy boxes, but when she paced between them it took her eight steps to reach the far wall. If she could get rid of the clutter, and move in some clutter of her own, it would probably be a pretty big space. She was still angry, of course she was. She didn't want a room that looked like it had been decorated in a candyfloss factory, but she was starting to realise that there hadn't been time for Gabby to do anything about it. She had only known Tess was coming a couple of weeks ago, and she'd been back home for less than a day of that. There was nobody to blame for Tess's current situation; it was just bad luck. So she would put up with it, and deal with it as quickly as possible. Like an adult.

"I can put up with this," she said. "For a while. Can I at least change the sheets?"

"We'll get you some the next time we go shopping, dear. And I've got a friend who's a decorator, Malcolm. I'll give him a call and you can look into picking some colours you like."

"Thanks," Tess sighed happily. A problem easily dealt with was almost as good as no problem at all. And more importantly, it meant that Cousin Gabby would try to make things easy for her. That was a good sign for the next few months, she was sure. Because even if she'd been upset when she first saw the room, she knew there was no choice about staying now. Her parents were leaving the country the day after tomorrow. They'd already made arrangements to sell their house; half their furniture had been carted away by a wholesale auction firm, and their visas had been confirmed. It was too late to change her mind now, so she had to stay here whether Gabby had turned out to be helpful or not.

Tess was really glad that it had turned out so well.