Redamancy

Chapter 9

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Chapter 9

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TW///Blood, Mental///

Thea had been staying with the Watson family for three nights now. On Saturday she had confided in Astrid, telling her she was scared to return to her house. Astrid asked if there was anyone else she could stay with and Thea had a strange reaction. She had claimed that the only person who she could stay with probably wouldn't accept, that she had burned that bridge when her sister fell into a coma.

Kristen and Phil had treated Thea as their own and had only asked about her accent, to which she explained that she was French. Primrose and her trio, Anya, Star, and Sylveera, had spoken to Thea on Friday night when Astrid called for their weekly group rant session. Thea had been quickly adopted by the group of moderators and was coerced into downloading Discord where she now had her own little place in their group chat.

But now it was Monday and Astrid knew that Thea would either come home with her or face the wrath of her parents. As Astrid drove, Thea rambled about her beat-up old pickup truck that Phil found and brought home for her to fix about a year before. As soon as Thea saw it, she gasped and asked Astrid if she could see the engine.

Astrid had little to no idea what her truck even was until that morning when Thea told her it was a 1972 Chevy K-10, whatever that meant. All Astrid knew was that it was a two-seater, navy blue truck with a white leather interior with silver accents. They were about five minutes away when Astrid asked Thea about her car. That's when Astrid realised that Thea was extremely passionate about cars, especially when it's her own. Thea owned a mint green 1957 Cadillac Series 62 Coupe with a mint leather interior and white accents that had an iridescent finish and it was her child.

"Where'd you learn all this?" Astrid questioned, turning into the parking lot behind the Elm House, halfway between Thea's morning classes in the Huxley Building and Astrid's in the Mithras House.

"Oh, my sister worked part-time at a mechanic's shop and brought me with her on the weekends or breaks if her friend was too busy to stay with me."

Astrid blinked, the story reminding her of a tale she'd heard not long ago from Phil. Something about Tommy? Before the memory could fully set in, Thea had unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped out of the vehicle.

Astrid quickly followed to not lose her new tall friend in the crowd of college students, and their day began. They split off at Lewes Road with the promise to meet back at Astrid's truck for lunch. She'd never parked so far from her building before, normally parking on Dewe Road and cutting through the admissions building, but the change of scenery was nice.

Stepping into the lobby, she was immediately bombarded by a loud sound from the bottom of the stairs. A short female, dressed in layers of fishnets, ripped jeans, and a too-big cropped hoodie topped with too much jewellery, stormed in Astrid's direction, completely ignoring the textbooks she'd dropped. Her dyed cherry red hair was woven into an intricate braid that Astrid was sure was used by Vikings.

Her skin didn't match her eyes, bronze contrasting with heterochromatic grey blue and amber. Her freckles were prominent on red cheeks as she stomped her combat boots across the tile. She had gotten to Astrid before the German realised the anger was directed at her.