A/N: Hello all! This is going to be a Lip/OC story because quite frankly, I'm disappointed by the lack of Lip/OC stories floating around! I'm making this up as I go along, but I'm sure once I get back into my groove things will come to me a lot easier.
Tessa glanced over at the small boy next to her, excitement evident on his face. She knew it wasn't smart to groom his love of dangerous things, but this was semi-safe and it brought a smile to his face; that's all she cared about.
"You know," she began. "If you do well in your science classes, you'll be able to do things like this every day in class. And you won't even get in trouble." Tessa shot him a pointed look with a grin upon her face.
Carl's face lit up at the idea. Maybe she had created a monster. "Really?" He asked, excitement in his voice.
She nodded her head. "And I'll do this with you until you reach that point, but you have to listen to Fiona. She has a hard enough time as it is. Okay?" Tessa knew getting Carl to behave was far from likely, but it didn't hurt to try. And if she could bribe him with explosions then she would.
A defeated sigh escaped his lips. "Fine," he sighed.
They walked into the middle of the field and Tessa sat down on the ground, pulling a few things from her bag. He sat down next to her, watching her intently as if he was trying to memorize her every move.
As she was putting the materials together Tessa glanced up at Carl every so often to see his face. "So I'm like, 75% sure this won't blow up in our faces," Tessa told him.
Most children would elicit fear at such a sentence, but not Carl. If at all possible, his eyes grew with excitement.
Tessa had put most of the ingredients in the bottle before coming to the field with Carl, but she pulled out the last ingredient to put inside the bottle. She screwed off the top of the bottle and handed it to Carl to help. "Okay now once I put this stuff in here, I want you to put the cap on and shake it really fast."
Once that was done Carl began shaking it like it was the only thing he was good at. Tessa stood up quickly. "Okay Carl place it down, cap up."
He did that and looked up at her. "Now what?"
"Run!" She yelled, laughing and running away from the bottle. It wasn't dangerous but it wasn't necessarily safe to be that close to the bottle either.
They got far enough away and Carl turned, standing next to her with a grin on his face. A moment later the bottle exploded, sending bubble foam and smoke into the air. It wasn't fire like most explosions Carl liked to set, but it had still made him excited.
"That was awesome," he said. "But next time we should make it explode fire."
She rolled her eyes and ruffled his hair. "Alright little pyromaniac, let's get going."
They didn't bother to pick up their mess and neither of them really cared. They walked back to her car and got inside. Tessa handed Carl the big can of pringles she had bought them and he continued to finish off the can.
They drove in silence while Carl finished off the can of chips, but once he was done he began to talk about a kid he had shut inside a locker during gym class. She tried not to laugh, but she couldn't help it. She knew it was only encouraging his behavior and she knew his behavior had caused a big mess at school not too long ago.
"Carl, I thought you promised Fiona you would behave so that you could stay with your family?" Tessa had heard all about the parent-teacher conference that hadn't gone so well. Fiona had been furious when Frank had shown up for Karen Jackson but not his own son. She couldn't blame her and was just glad her father was out of the picture completely.
He rolled his eyes. "They just make it too easy sometimes," he complained. In his mind, this was a valid excuse. Instead of continuing the conversation Tessa kept driving and it wasn't long until she pulled up in front of the Gallagher house.
Before their little experiment, she had worked with Carl on his homework at her place. She had promised him the science experiment as a reward for finishing his homework. She was sure this was the first time all of his homework had actually been completed.
"Thanks Tessa!" Carl yelled as he got out of the car and slammed the door shut, running up the front steps and going into his house.
Tessa had met Fiona through one of their oddball day jobs not too long ago. They had instantly clicked which was nice to say, considering Tessa hardly got along with girls around the same age as her. Fiona was a few years older and Tessa had only just gotten her GED.
Tessa's main job was working at a shitty diner that should have been shut down by the state by now. She was one of five waitresses there and her boss was a fat Chinese dude who was unbelievably annoying. The only waitress she got along with there was Sam; the others Tessa just tolerated.
Tessa texted Fiona letting her know that Carl's homework was done and that she owed her a beer.
She drove towards the diner to pick up the second half of one of the other waitress' shifts. It was her day off and while she would normally ignore any phone calls from the diner, she needed the extra cash.
"Bitch, what are you doing here?"
Tessa looked over at Sam as she walked into the diner. She glanced around to see that there was only one table filled and they were a couple of old ladies; not that Sam would have cared either way.
She rolled her eyes and walked out back, knowing that Sam would follow her. "Picking up the rest of Rachel's shift," Tessa explained. "Because you know, she left about ten minutes ago."
Sam leaned against one of the counters out back and crossed her arms over her chest. "No, I wouldn't know. She doesn't work so it's like she's never here anyways."
Tessa grabbed her uniform from her bag and walked into the walk-in-freezer so that she could quickly change. Tessa could hear Sam talking but it was all muffled from the large door separating them.
"What?" She asked, walking back out, tying the apron behind her waist.
"I said," Sam exaggerated. "What are you doing after this?"
Tessa shrugged and put her hair up into a pony-tale. "I might go see Fiona. I haven't seen her in a while."
Sam rolled her eyes. "Oh right. Your new girlfriend."
Tessa scoffed. "Don't be jealous that I found another person to hang out with. I can't stand to see your face all the time."
"Let's go pretend to work so John doesn't yell at us. Or…try to yell at us." Sam laughed and Tessa mirrored her expression.
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Tessa walked up the back steps of the Gallagher household after receiving a text from Fiona telling her to use the back.
She tried to open the door and balance the four pizzas in her hands at the same time, hoping that she didn't drop them. The diner sure as hell didn't serve pizza but Sam and Tessa had gotten bored and made the pizzas themselves since there was no one in the diner. Of course, their homemade pizza boxes were more than questionable.
Pushing the door open with her back Tessa walked into the kitchen only to be met by the confused expression of two boys, probably not far from her age.
"Who the fuck are you?" One of them asked.
Tessa opened my mouth to speak but someone interrupted her. "Tessa!"
She grinned as she saw Debbie run through the living room to meet her in the kitchen. "Fiona here yet?" Tessa asked her as she placed the pizza boxes on the kitchen table.
"Yeah she's just changing," Debbie said as she began to open one of the boxes.
Tessa looked up at the two boys who were still giving her odd looks. "I'm the chick who brought pizza," Tessa said before turning and running up the stairs to find Fiona.
"Fi?" She called out. She had only been to her house once and had never been upstairs. Tessa knew that she lived with all of her siblings so she didn't want to go barging into someone else's room.
Tessa saw her poke her head out of her room and smiled when she saw her. "Hey Tessa. What's up?" She asked.
Tessa shrugged and followed her back into her room, sitting down on her bed as she rummaged through her drawer to find a shirt.
"Nothing. Work sucked. I brought pizza. Two of your siblings were giving me the hairy eyeball."
Fiona slipped a shirt over her head. "Oh sorry. That's probably Ian and Lip."
She made a weird face as she tried to understand the name Lip. That was strange.
She followed her back downstairs and they saw four of her siblings digging into the pizza Sam and Tessa had made.
"What's up with these boxes?" Carl asked.
She laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "Homemade. Once we eliminated the boxes without rat turds in it, it was quite the interesting process."
Fiona reached over and grabbed a slice. "Right so Lip and Ian, this is my friend Tessa from one of the jobs I worked a few weeks ago."
"Yeah, she let me blow something up today," Carl said with a mouth full of pizza.
"Wait, you were serious?" Fiona asked with a concerned look on her face.
Tessa leaned against the wall and shrugged her shoulders. "Got his homework done, didn't I?" She challenged her, raising a brow.
Fiona rolled her eyes at her and took a bite of her pizza.
The two older boys grabbed a second slice before leaving the kitchen. "Thanks for the pizza," the one with the red hair said. She was pretty sure that was Ian.
Once they were upstairs Tessa looked to Fiona with a grin on her face. "I think they like me," she said sarcastically.
Fiona shook her head. "Lip's just going through some shit – not that I would know what it is. Don't pay him any attention."
Tessa shrugged, not actually bothered by the brush off. She wasn't hungry so she didn't bother eating any pizza. Sam and Tessa had gotten a little carried away with the pizza, but at least they would have leftovers for a while.
"I think Veronica and I are going out tomorrow night. You in?" She asked. Tessa hadn't met her friend Veronica but with how things had just gone with her two brothers, she wasn't too excited about the idea.
"Sure," she said slowly.
Debbie and Carl grabbed another slice and went into the living room so they could watch TV and Tessa saw her youngest brother sitting on the couch with a bottle.
"You weren't kidding when you said you had a lot of siblings," Tessa noted with a chuckle.
Fiona nodded and sat down at the table. "Yeah. You're telling me. I'm just glad that I've only got one left in diapers."
Yikes. Tessa didn't even want to think about how expensive that must have been. Then again, everything was probably expensive with six people living in one house. Well, maybe even seven since Fiona said sometimes her alcoholic father showed up but he'd been staying elsewhere recently.
"So," Tessa said, a grin slowly appearing on her face. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a joint. "Want to get high?" She asked.
Fiona grinned. "I thought you'd never ask."
A:N/ So I know that nothing really happened, but I'm trying to get some foundation down for the story. This will probably be a slow burn with Lip and Tessa, since it will take a bit to have him get over Karen once that whole fiasco happens. I would really appreciate any reviews or even favorite this story so I know people are interested. Thank you!
