The Part-time NannyYou know when life gets in the way and messes with your plans? Tris surely knows something about that and now she's desperately looking for a back-up plan, a B-option. Who knew that looking through a newspaper advertising jobs she would found love?
*Divergent AU modern days* *A bit of a slow burn* *Characters may be OOC*
Disclaimer: I don't own the Divergent Trilogy
You're not what we are looking for, sorry
These words echoed in Tris' ears as she took the few steps that separated the now closed door and the street before she started walking along the street on the grey pavement towards her blue car. That was the fourth time in less than ten days she heard something similar to 'sorry but you're not what we need' or 'sorry but for this job we require more qualifications' or 'sorry you're not experienced enough' and honestly she couldn't help but feel a little defeated and discouraged. Wasn't that normal? Everything was going wrong in that period and finding a job was more difficult than she had thought. In the last two weeks she had done nothing but look though newspaper, sites online and fliers looking for a job as babysitter, part-time nanny or home teacher.
School was about to start, in just a little more than a week thousands of children between 5 and 18 years old would start school with everything linked with it: sports, homework, projects and so on and a ton of families and moms would struggle to find a babysitter or an au pair who could look after their children while they were busy at work… So, why hadn't she found a job yet? Was she that bad?
With a little of bitterness she thought she could have started school in about a week as well if life hadn't gotten in the way… not as a student of course - since she was 27 years old and had already graduated, completed her studies and all a few years before - but as a teacher… yeah she could have started her dreamy job, she had always wanted to become a teacher, a primary school teacher to be precise. Her dream had been just so close to come true but apparently life had other plans for her since it had messed with hers so much in the past months.
Just a year before everything was going amazing and her future used to look rosy and bright, Tris used to be so enthusiastic and confident she had even taken some relevant decisions and big steps: she had moved out the apartment she had been sharing with her best friend Christina for many years - almost since they both had started college - to rent a flat on her own, first of all because she wanted to be more independent but even because this way Chris and his at-that-time boyfriend and now fiancé Will would have been able to live together after almost 5 years of dating.
A call. That had been the reason of her happiness and enthusiasm, a call from the principal of the Portland Elementary School. After a couple years of being a substitute teacher for short periods he had offered her a permanent position and she had felt just so so ecstatic and thrilled, really on top of the world because that was what she had always wanted to become.
But unfortunately she soon had plummeted from the top of the world to a gray, sad and bitter reality of glitches, unexpected and negative events… like on a roller coaster: one minute you're up in the sky, on minute you're down on the ground. How fantastic!
First had come her 84-year-old granny's accident: the disastrous and ruinous fall on her home stairs that had gotten her four broken bones and had relegated her on a bed or on an armchair needing full assistance 24/7 for over two months… Of course Tris hadn't refused to help and assist her for most of the time and not only because off her selflessness, partly because of that - wanting to help people being in her DNA- but mainly because Rose -Tris' father's mom - had always been her favorite granny, the two of them had always been really close, sharing a strong and solid relationship. Then of course had come the practical reasons why Tris had decided to dedicate a good part of those two months looking after her grandma: Tris' parents - Andrew and Natalie - had done their best to help but their jobs hadn't allowed them a lot of free time and days off so they hadn't been able to assist her as they had wanted to but Rose had never blamed them and neither had Tris, it hadn't been their fault after all.
And then there was Caleb of course, Tris' brother, but he was not the most indicate person to take care of an old woman at all and once again, it was not him the one to blame… he just had never been cut out for that, too lost in his own world of molecules, cells, DNA, mitosis, meiosis and God knows what else. He had always been everything but a practical and pragmatic… And so it was Tris who had looked after Rose for almost two months straight, she hadn't done that because forced though, that hadn't been a burden for her even if it had stolen her time to dedicate to her teacher training and to courses she had planned to attend in order to get an higher qualification that were required to teach at the Portland Elementary School.
And then had come the other accident, much more painful than the previous one. The fire. Tris remembered it like it had happened the day before and not almost four longs months before. It was printed in her memory and dreams - well nightmares - and some of the effects were still there, on her body: her back was still sore and covered with red and brown big marks caused by the multiple burns that still had to heal. After four long months they were still there - on her back, shoulder and neck - and they still hurt, despite all the treatment she had been through and all the medications and creams she had been using.
Three weeks. She had been relegated in an hospital for three weeks that had seemed like three years to her, time had flown slow. Impossibly slow. And that was what had caused her to lose her job before even starting it. Not the pain, not the burns. Smoke inhalation, that was what had nearly killed her, that was what had gotten her jobless. Because of this inhalations that had relegated her for weeks she hadn't been able to attend some essential courses and teacher training meetings, it hadn't allowed her to take some vital exams for her job so she had lost her position for the year and now she had to wait other ten endless months, nearly 320 days to start her job. One year of school, one year or teaching, one year of her dreamy job… completely lost, that was what that accident had caused.
On the other had Tris knew she had to be thankful because she was still alive and hadn't died during the fire or shortly after in an ambulance or hospital bed and she also knew she had to feel proud she had saved a life, Ava - the two years old baby girl she had managed to save rushing into the building in fire risking her own life in order to save hers - was alive, she was okay. Sure she had been through some intensive weeks of hospital recovery, her small precious little body covers with burns as well but, just like Tris, she was okay, she was healing and she wasn't dead.
Tris was grateful for her life and Ava's, thanks to her that little baby still had all her life to live. She was thankful and she knew she had been lucky, her guardian angel had been there for her. But she had lost her job, before even working one day and that had been hard to metabolize, she had wanted that position so much, she had waited for it for so long and now she had to wait one year longer. One long year. It hadn't been her fault, not Ava's, no one was to blame or accuse. It had just happens. Life had planned a different future for her - Tris had assumed -, sure thing it had messed with her own plans but she couldn't do much about it, could she?
Don't put yourself down, don't put yourself down. Your job is out there waiting for you and only you, just don't give up now.
Tris repeated this words in her head a couple times to instill positive thinking. She wasn't one to give up easily, she was a fighter, she was positive, cheerful, optimistic and hopeful… she had always been and she wasn't ready to change her attitude or give up, no way!
Using her remote control she unlocked her car when there were still a few meters between her and her vehicle and - as she reached it - she opened the driver door before letting herself fall on the seat. Placing her bag on her knees Tris spent a few seconds ransacking it looking for her phone.
16.01 p.m.
She noticed she had a couple of texts but before opening them she put on some good vibrant music that gave her a charge and made her heart beat faster in her chest as the notes and rhythm of the rock song ran through her veins, she enjoyed herself for a few minutes - lost in another world.
Only when the song finished Tris remembered about the texts and opened them: one was for her mother asking her if she wanted to join them for lunch on Sunday and the other one was a vocal note from Christina, she wasn't a fan of vocal notes and that one was over a minute long and she could guess what she was about to hear but she patiently listened to it anyway.
'Hi Tris, since I haven't heard from you I guess you're either still busy which I doubt since your your job interview started almost an hour ago and this would be the longest job interview in history or you're upset because it hasn't gone as wished. Let me know as soon as possible.'
With a sigh Tris collapsed even more in her seat and took a deep breath before responding to her best friend's text, she would called her mother later.
'The second one' was her simple answer to Chris but she didn't even have time to put her phone back in her bag and start the car to go home because her best friend called her.
How is it possible? I sent the text three milliseconds ago!
A part of her didn't want to pick up the call since she was not really in the mood to chat but she knew her bestie too well: if she hadn't answered, Chris wouldn't have stopped and Tris would found her out of her apartment door, that was for sure. Chris was that type of friend.
'Hi' Tris greeted her before cleaning her throat since her voice had cracked a little bit but Chris gave her no time to add anything else.
'Where are you? ' she asked out of nowhere with a serious voice that was so not her.
'My car'
'OK but where?' Chris questioned her like it really did matter, and maybe it did but Tris didn't know why… at least not yet
Trying to remember the name of the street took Tris some time but she eventually decided to give her a simpler answer 'Near the University'
'Perfect. Come over at my workplace, my shift ends in half an hour. I have something for you. See you soon Tris' her best friend's text left no room to argue or ask any other detail or information and that was so in character with Chris.
So how was it? You liked it? Should I continue this story? Please let me know if you think so, otherwise (if the idea sucks or something) I'll just delete it.
~OceanicGirl