Penny Turner sat at the kitchen table, grading papers from her students whilst her pot of tea steeped beside her. She hardly paid much notice to the long-haired brunette who shuffled her way into the kitchen, lingering by the pot and ladle on the stove. She looked up at Jade and smiled warmly.
"Care fer another cup, dear?" she asked.
Jade, with her bottom lip clenched between her teeth, looked back to the sitting room nervously where her friends continued to talk amongst each other. Penny could immediately pick off her discomfort.
"I was wondering if I could actually ask you a question. It's sort of peculiar," she said.
The older woman closed her file of graded papers and pulled out the chair next to her, prompting Jade over to come and sit. Jade brushed her hair behind her ears and took a deep breath, trying to think of how to go about urine-stained sheets.
"What's troubling yeh, Jade?" Penny asked, "Is everyfing okay at 'ome?"
"I don't know, really," Jade said, "Let's say that... okay," she stammered out, "What if one day you were doing the laundry, and you found Alex's bed sheet and saw that... he had... he'd soiled himself in the night. What would you think?"
Penny's face fell into dismay, "Wha' would I fink if my fifteen-year-old son 'ad soiled 'is bed?" she spoke as if the mere thought was ludicrous, "I would be concerned, of course," her face then twisted into chagrin, " -- Jade... 'ave yeh been wetting yehr bed?" she spoke quietly so the other kids wouldn't hear. Jade immediately shook her head.
"No! No, no," she exclaimed, "It's not me, you see. It's my cousin, Flora,"
At the mention of her name, Penny shook her head, "There was always summat up with tha' girl. I blame 'er mother," she stood up as she spoke, taking Jade's mug and going for the stove. Jade followed closely behind.
"Whatcha' mean by that?" she asked.
Penny took the top off the pot of cocoa and scooped in a fresh mug for Jade, "Well, I never told Alex this, but Flora was one of my students. About ten or eleven I fink she were," she said, "One day, she and another student, Landon was 'is name, hadn't come in from their lunch break, so naturally I went off to find them,"
Jade's stomach began to churn, "W-What happened?" she asked.
"I found 'em alreyht. In the gym change rooms. Flora was taking off Landon's trousers... on 'er knees," she seemed to shudder as she spoke, "Well, I was so shocked, I yelled at 'em both to get dressed and dragged 'em to the Dean,"
"Did you call Joy?" Jade asked.
"Of course. I called 'er reyht away. But tha' woman -- she seemed so bothered at the fact that I'd called 'er in fer such a matter. Like it were a waste of 'er time or summat," she huffed angrily, "Now, if that were my son in tha' change room, I'd like an explanation to why a ten-year-old girl fought it alreyht to take off 'is trousers; and why the mother jus' brushed it all off,"
Jade turned her head to the direction of the sitting room, just catching sight of Alex sucking the tip of his index finger, probably having cut it on the guitar string. She refrained from smiling, "Did you pursue it?" she asked.
"I tried my best. But they yanked Flora out of tha' school and threatened to file a suit against me fer defamation. Can you believe the nerve?" Penny replied.
"Actually, I can," making empty threats didn't seem out of place for Aunt Joy.
"So yeh see, when I found out yeh were related to tha' family, I prayed the fruit fell a bit farther from the tree. And I'm glad yeh're normal," she said.
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Suck It And See | A. Turner
Fanfiction(Arctic Monkeys AU) Her parents were separated, her mum was sick, her brother was in juvie, and her dad had just shacked up with his new girlfriend. Jade had to get away from it all before she found herself circling the drain. So, when she was give...
