✅ The Last New Start [NaNoWriMo2021]

109. Unexpected Confidante

This bonus chapter is for James, with thanks for your support on Patreon. Thank you for helping me to publish all these stories!

Nearly a week had passed since Ffrances agreed that Tess was mature enough to explore an unorthodox style of relationship; but she still hadn't found the courage to bring it up with Spike. Somehow it seemed an even bigger thing to talk about when she could be almost certain it would go well. She told herself that he had actually asked if he could be her Daddy; he'd said it was something she wanted, and she knew that she was already starting to get comfortable doing those kinds of things to satisfy Gabby's demands. She knew that Ffrances thought it was a safe way to explore her identity, and now she had a time to plan for when there was no chance of Gabby being in the house. So why was she still so nervous to bring it up?

She promised herself that after school today, she would find the courage to tell him. She had to say it sooner or later, and some time soon would be better so that there was an opportunity to plan before Gabby's days of intense work came around. The last class of the day was music, which was never hard, so she would have some time to calm down. After school might be a little more difficult; she would be stopping at the pharmacy to pick up some more diapers. And this time, she was planning to ask them if they had any other brands, because she had already found that her first batch of medical ones had a disturbing tendency to leak overnight. Maybe she'd just got a bad pack, but if it was possible she thought that she would have a little more confidence trying something different.

A little worry on the way home. She didn't expect it to be such a big deal. Now all she needed to do was relax, and enjoy Miss MacManus's unique style of tuition. However, she didn't even manage to get to the music department before something distracted her from her plans. This time, the interruption came from Mindy Ciertowczki. Not sneering insults, or marching down the corridor with a retinue of hangers-on competing for her attention. In fact, Tess thought it might have been the first time she'd actually seen Mindy on her own.

The girl was sitting in a little alcove; a place where the corridor had once branched, but subsequent renovations had turned this little corridor into a dead end. There were a couple of seats in the alcove, like there were in similar nooks outside the offices of senior staff. Some of those places might be where students would wait to receive discipline over some issue; but the offices here were only concerned with administrative trivia, and there was no reason for anyone to be there except the secretaries who had the keys. The chairs were probably old ones deemed too threadbare to remain opposite the principal's room, if Tess was any judge, and they were half hidden by the protruding end of a bank of lockers. Which made it even stranger to see Mindy sitting there. There was no space for anyone to sit comfortably, and kids had been walking past for years without sitting there. So why was there someone sitting there, staring in silence at the wall?

"Are you okay?" Tess felt like she had to ask. She didn't really like Mindy, they weren't friends, and she knew that she'd managed to upset the younger girl a few times recently. But in her mind, that just made her feel responsible. If Mindy's mental health had taken a turn for the worse when she finally admitted that the world didn't revolve around her, then Tess felt like she was at least partly responsible. Mindy wouldn't have cared; she would happily walk past someone in crisis, or stop to laugh at someone else's misfortune. She was typical of the bullies who had mocked Tess for her small size when she first moved to Raybridge; but that was irrelevant. Because Tess wasn't that kind of person, and she didn't want to walk past someone who looked upset regardless of who it was.

"Who cares?" Mindy snapped, and Tess wondered if she had been crying. Her head was turned away, and her bangs hung down over the side of her face to hide her from sight. But she certainly didn't sound like she was okay.