Jake X Jane Homestuck Fanfiction

Behind Through Everything

Chapter Two : Behind Through Everything

Whenever my dad and I moved to another town, the first thing we always did was go directly to the restaurant he'd been brought in to take over, and order a meal. We got the same appetizers each time: guacamole if it was a Mexican place, calamari for Italian joints, and a simple green salad, regardless. My dad believed these to be the most basic of dishes, what anyplace worth its salt should do and do well, and as such they provided the baseline, the jumping-off point for whatever came next. Over time, they'd also become a gauge of how long I should expect us to be in the place we'd landed. Decent guac and somewhat crisp lettuce, I knew not to get too attached. Super rubbery squid, though, or greens edged with slimy black, and it was worth going out for a sport in school, or maybe even joinong a club or two, as we'd be staying awhile.

After we ate, we'd pay our bill-tipping as well, but not extravagantly-before we went to find our rental place. Once, we'd unhitched the U-hall, my dad would go back to the restaurant to officially introduce himself, and I'd get to work making us at home.

EAT INC, the restaurant conglomerate company my dad worked for a consultant, always found our homes for us. In Skaia, the strip of a beach town, we'd just left, they'd rented us a sweet bungalow a block from the water, all decprated in yellow and gold. There were plastic flamingoes everywhere : on the lawn, in the bathroom, strung up in tiny lights across the mantel. Cheesy but in an endearing way.

Before that, in Derse, a suburb just outside mostly by bachelors and businessmen. Everything was teak and dark, the furniture was modern with sharp edges, and it was always quiet and very cold. Maybe this had been so noticeable to me because of our first place, a split-level on a cul-de-sac populated entirely by families. There were bikes on every lawn and little decorative flags flying from most porches : fat Santas for Christmas, ruby hearts for Valentine's, raindrops and and rainbows in spring. The cabal of moms-all in yoga pants, pushing strollers as they power walked to meet the school bus in the mornings and afternoons-studied us unbashiedly from the moment we'd arrived. They watched my dad come and go at his weird hours and cast me sympathetic looks as I brought in our groceries and mail. I'd known already, very well, that I was no longer part of what was considered a traditional family unit. But their stares confirms it, just in case I forgot the memo.

Everything was so different, that first move, that I didn't feel I had to be different as well. So the only thing I'd change was my name, gently but firmly correcting my homeroom teacher on my first day of school. "Hana," I told him. He glanced down from his roll sheet, then crossed out what was there and wrote this in. It was so easy. Just like that, in the hurried moments between announcements, I wrapped up and put away sixteen years of my life and was born again, all before first period began.

I wasn't sure exactly what my dad thought of this. The first time someone called for Hana, a few days later, he looked confused, even as I reached for the phone and he handed it over. But he never said anything. I knew he understood, in his own way. We'd both left the same town and same circumstances. He had to stay who he was, but I didn't doubt for a second that he would have changed if it had been an option.

As Hana I wasn't that different from who I'd been before. I'd inherited what my mother called her "corn-fed" looks-tall, strawberry blonde, and blue-eyed-so I looked like the other popular girls at school. Add in the fact that I had nothing to lose, which gave me confidence, and I fell in easily with the jocks and rah-rahs, collecting friends quickly. It helped that everyone in Skaia had known each other forever : being new blood, even if you looked familiar, made you exotic, different. I kicked this feeling so much that, when we moved to Derse, our next place, it took further, calling myself Thea and taking up with the drama mamas and dancers. I wore cut-off tights, black turtlenecks, and bright red lipstick, my hair dyed black and pulled back into the tightest bun possible as I counted calories, took up cigarettes, and made everything Into A Production. It was so different, for sure, but also exhausting.