New Beginnings

Chapter 1: Tessa

Disclaimer: I do not own Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. I would like to pretend that I do, but then I'd be arrested. Dx Stupid screwed up society! T.T

Tessa watched sadly out the window, as the black Toyota drove away. As she watched, it became a black streak, smearing into everything else, like a watercolor painting thrown into a tub of water. She swiped her eyes with the back of her fabric-like hand. Stop crying! Don't let them see… She looked back to the window, just in time to see the black pick-up pull away.

Tessa—name preference, Tess—was an imaginary friend. An unusual imaginary friend at that; she was a ragdoll. She had brown yarn hair, incredibly long arms and legs, and a tiny torso. She wore a purple child's jumper and a pink shirt, white knee socks, and purple Mary Jane's. Her eyes were big, and looked stitched on, but were also sad, almost haunting. Her mouth, which was probably supposed to be an ever-constant smile, was now stuck in a terribly sad frown. She, however lanky, wasn't much taller than the blue blobby-thingy that was suddenly standing next to her.

Tess jumped. She hadn't noticed the blue blobby-thingy before that moment.

"Hey, there! Who're you looking at? Is that your creator?" He tried to look over her shoulder out the window, but gave up and gave her big smile. He seemed overjoyed to see her, even though they'd never actually met before. Tess gave him a blank stare, not wanting to give away any emotions.

He waited for a response for a moment before continuing. "Oh, you don't say. Well, I'm Blooregaurd Q. Kazoo: bestest imaginary friend this house has ever seen, paddleball extraordinaire, and nicest person you'll ever meet! And, might I ask what your name is?

Tessa tried to take a step backwards, but her back was already up against the wall of the front foyer of the strange Victorian style house. She raised her eyebrow instead.

"Bloo…!" A woman's voice came from behind the blob. Blooregaurd turned to face the source.

"Wha-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-at?" He whined back.

A tall lanky red-head walked up on them, hand on her hips. "Stop traumatizing the new girl!" She said tersely. "Can't you see she's been through enough already?"

Traumatized? …Me? Do I look traumatized? She realized she must look terrified, considering her eyes were ever-huge, and she was backed up against the wall.



"I'm not traumatizing her! I'm introducing myself." The smug self-proclaimed bestest friend/paddleball/nice guy folded his arms, and stuck his not-so-nose in the air. "The way you sounded, you'd think it was a crime to greet people! Well, Frankie Foster, it is NO CRIME to be nice for once!

Tess has to swallow down a smile. Mr. Bestest Paddleball Guy was breaking down his own cover story right in front of her, and he didn't notice. She could have laughed.

The red-head—Tess found it safe to assume her name was Frankie—walked closer to Tess. "Is this Bloo-guy bothering you? I can get him to leave."

"Heyyyyyyy!!" Bloo interjected.

Tess didn't like having anyone she didn't trust too well close to her, especially if they were adults. She tried to discreetly shrink away, covering the action with a shrug.

"Bloo, go away, please!" Frankie said curtly to the blob.

"But, Frankiiiieee, Mac…"

"Won't be here for another 15 minutes; go wait for him upstairs." She raised her eyebrows on the last word.

"Fine…" folding his arms, the blob slouched off towards the grand staircase.

Frankie waited to make sure he was gone, then crouched down to be eye-level with Tess. She tried to give her a sympathetic look.

"How're you holding up? …R'you okay?"

Tess didn't make eye contact. She looked at her shoes and shrugged.

"Do you want anything?"

Shrug.

"Did you bring anything with you?"

Shake head, no.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Shrug.

"Do you want to talk about it?"



Tess shook her head hard. You saw what happened. She thought. You saw the whole thing.

The 'whole thing' had happened out on the front lawn of Foster's. In fact, Frankie had been right outside. Fico, Tess' creator's father, had grown tired of Tess, apparently. He was sick of taking care of Naomi, her creator, let alone Naomi's 'imaginary twin'. The two had been together ever since Naomi's mother had died of pneumonia when Naomi was four. Tess had been Naomi's only 'real friend since.

Anyway, on this day, Fico had grown completely tired of Tess, and threw her out—'threw' being used in the literal sense. Tess and Naomi had woken up as usual, done their chores as usual, and gone out back and played in the yard together as usual. Nothing had been unusual until Fico, drunk at an unusual time of day, had come out there, grabbed Tessa by her yarn-ish hair, dragged her to the black pick-up, and threw her out of it onto the lawn of Foster's. Then he yelled at her, saying she was horrible and a waste of time, money, and energy. He'd thrown more than just words at her, too. He'd thrown dirt, beer cans, and the occasional rock.

Frankie had been the one to come to her rescue. She'd rushed Tess inside, and then took up the 'conversation' with Fico. The conversation being them yelling at each other and fighting on the front lawn until he drove away in the black Toyota.

And, here they were…

"Are you sure you don't want anything?" Frankie pursued.

Shrug.

"Okay, then…" Frankie sighed. "Come with me, then, and we'll get you set up he…" She was cut off by shriek from the intercom.

"Miss Francis! Come to my office immediately!"

"What? I'm already on my way! Sheesh!" Frankie's mood took a sudden plummet from sweet to sour at the sound of the voice.

"Oh, very well, then; we have a few important matters that need discussing right now." The voice, a stern British accent, sounded angry. To Tess, it sounded pretty horrifying. The last thing she wanted to do was go the office he'd mentioned, even with Frankie.

"Boy, do we…" Frankie muttered, mostly to herself. Her hand was clenched, probably unnoticed by its owner. "C'mon, kid; we got to talk to big ol' fuzz-butt.

…

"There you are, Miss Francis!" An overgrown rabbit with a top hat and a monocle stood up fiercely from the desk when they entered. He was more foreboding in person than he was 

over the intercom. "I am appalled by your performance outside with that gentleman! I cannot believe you would to that to a potential adopter, and…"

Frankie cut him off. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! A potential adopter? …Gentleman? Wha…? What are you talking about? He was drunk, threw an imaginary friend out of his car, and threw dirt at her! And, think he was looking to adopt?! Jeez, rabbit, what is your mental issue? And, if you were so 'appalled'" she made quotation marks with her fingers, "by my performance, why didn't you do something about it before, huh?"

The rabbit sputtered. "That is none of your business, Miss Francis, and I'll have you know…"

Frankie smiled wickedly and cut him off again. "You got locked in your bathroom again, didn't you?"

There was a three second pause, then, "…Yes, but that is beside the point! The point is…"

The point is you need to register a new friend!" She looked back, saw Tess, and moved aside so she would be in full view of Mr. Herriman.

The rabbit looked completely mortified for a second before regaining his composure. He cleared his throat. "Right-o, then," He said a little too cheerily. He went a little red around the cheeks. "I suppose we do in fact need to register you." He was speaking a little too loudly, obviously still embarrassed by his bathroom plight. "Com, come; sit here, and we shall get started." He pointed to one of the chairs in front of the desk.

Suddenly, Tess knew that that chair was the last place she wanted to be. She wanted to be home, playing with Naomi in the backyard of the rundown house. She thought about what Naomi was doing right now. Tess knew that Fico would be laughing at her stupidly, while Naomi cried helplessly on the rug in her room. Tess tried not to cry with her.

The rabbit's clearing his throat again broke her from her silent thoughts. "Sit, please." He said, this time a little more insistently. Tess cringed back a little, ready to run for the door. She looked to Frankie.

"It's okay, kid; c'mon, and we can get you settled." Frankie smiled warmly at her, and patted the back of the chair the rabbit had indicated.

Tess cautiously walked up to it, looked at both of them, and hoisted herself in to the winged chair, scrunching down into it, as to make herself as small and as far away from them as possible. Frankie sat down in the chair on Tess' right.

Well, first off," said the rabbit, "Welcome to Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. I am Mr. Herriman, head of business affairs here." He held out his hand for Tess to shake; Tess 

avoided the gloved appendage, like it had an infectious disease, by shrinking even further into the chair. This caused Mr. Herriman to blink, but go on, only a little disturbed.

"Here at Foster's, our objective is to take in as many abandoned and unneeded friends as possible. We bring them here where children in need of an imaginary friend can come adopt one, and take them home with them.

Tess felt a pit open up in her stomach. Adoption? I'm being put out for adoption? What kind of madhouse is this?

Mr. Herriman continued, undeterred by her distress. "All this is done by the proper paperwork, of course. Now, with your help, we shall fill out your paperwork, so you can join this marvelous cycle." He semi-smile, reached into his desk, and came out with a stack of slightly yellow papers, placing them on the desk in front of him.

Tessa wanted to scream. She wanted to tell them she had a perfectly good child back at home; that there was no reason she should be put up for adoption. She wanted to tell him there was no way on earth or in hell that she was going to help him with this stupid paperwork. She desperately wanted to tell him, but she knew she wouldn't. She knew she couldn't.

She stole a glance up at Mr. Herriman and Frankie, but they had their gaze trained on her, somewhat expectantly. Frankie raised her eyebrows when Tess made eye contact with her, again, as if she was expecting something.

"Are you hard of hearing, child? I asked you a question!" Mr. Herriman was definitely annoyed with her now. Tess was oblivious. Oh, no, what did he ask now? Crud, what did I miss?

She looked sheepishly down, bringing her shoulders level with her ears; she gave an apologetic look.

"Are you hard of hearing, then?" asked an irritated Mr. Herriman.

Tess shook her head.

"Then answer the question, child! What is your full name?"

A moment of silence passed between them. Tess was in full panic mode trying to find a response to the question that didn't involve talking. It wasn't that she didn't know how, oh, no, she knew how, all right. She was, in fact, very good at talking. The problem was, she didn't trust either of them much, and she hated—no, despised—talking to someone she didn't trust. Meaning, she had hardly ever talked to anyone but Naomi. Tess squirmed under the eye of Mr. Herriman.



"We can't fill out the proper paperwork if you don't tell us your name!" Mr. Herriman said, raising his voice a little. It sounded almost a whine. Tess couldn't help but cringe backwards a little again.

"Chill, rabbit!" Frankie snapped, noticing Tessa's discomfort. To Tess, she said a little nicer, "Would you please tell us your name? We would really like to know..."Frankie smiled another wide, warm smile.

Tess looked at her hands folded in her lap, took a deep breath and whispered "Tessa Marie Lea."

"Speak up, child" snapped Mr. Herriman.

Tess rolled her eyes, grabbed the form and pen from the uptight rabbit's hand, and wrote Tessa Marie Lea in a scrawling, slanting hand. She smiled down at her work. It was her first smile in a long time.

A/n: Okay, guys. I'm back with another story! (No, this didn't take too much time away from Instant Mac, because I wrote this in only an hour. I hope you like this one. It's only going to be about 4 chapters, I've decided; NOT a major undertaking like Instant Mac is. I think this is more of a story of healing for me than anything else. It WILL, in fact, be slow in production like Instant Mac, because I'm moving next week, but I'm gonna keep on this as best I can. Hope you like, and please review! xP

Imp