A/N this is the first chapter of SMITH AND OSWALD, an AU fanfic. Bear in mind that this will not be updated so regularly, as my focus is on finishing Vengeance and writing my biggest story yet, ONCE UPON A TARDIS-ARTIFACT EDITION. View this chapter as more of sneak peak for at least a week. I should have finished Vengeance by then, and I can focus on this AND my big story. :) Love you all.
It was the middle of summer when the Oswalds moved from Blackpool to London. They were a family of four, Dave Oswald, his new bride Linda, and his daughters, Clara and Oswin. The girls for once got their own rooms. No more aggressive 'the middle line is here-no, it's not, it's HERE' fights, and it solved their problem of never wanting to see each other.
For sisters that looked so much alike, and were born in the same year, they were incredibly different in so many wayys. Clara was a modest, sincere girl who was loyal to her friends and would do anything to help them. Oswin was more of a rogue, a suggestive and flirtatious woman who had no shame whatsoever. If they had anything in common, it was their love for heels and the color red.
Clara Oswald loved leaves. Especially leaves in the fall. It reminded her of how her parents met, how her mother had saved her father's life. That story was almost like a fairytale, and she treated it as such. Following her love of leaves and fall, she had her room painted with orange, gold, and brown tones on three of her four walls, and had a tree painted on the fourth. She often collected leaves and taped them onto the tree. Clara didn't like to have a lot of clutter in her room, as it distracted her from what really, truly mattered in the world. She had a tall bookcase with all her books on, all of which she regularly read. A wooden desk was in a corner, neatly covered with her studying essentials and schoolwork. Her bed was next to a low window, and she discovered on the first night how she could climb onto the roof and read her books in a quiet, peaceful enviroment.
Oswin Oswald, on the other hand, hated the fall and loved the summer because of school vacation, time she could spend with her friends instead of being stuck at school. She and her friends went off for hours at a time, and ignored all suggestions of a curfew, so Oswin had pretty much nothing in her room but her bed and clothes, also a desk for her schoolwork.
The Oswald family had moved into their new house for one reason only, one that Oswin and Clara both hated but never admitted to each other-their Dad's new wife. Their mother had died, and the two and their father had grieved, and then their dad met Linda.
Bad, evil Linda, who paid no attention to the girls and never made sure they ate or did their schoolwork. She could care less about them. Their Dad never really noticed, since he was at work a lot, from early hours to late at night. On weekends, Clara spent her days on the roof reading, and Oswin was never home, except for four hours on Saturday night to take a nap, then leave again. At the rate things were going, both girls were ignoring their own personal needs to survive. They showered, of course, and changed daily, but they often forgot to eat. They were alarmingly skinny, but Linda didn't care, and Dave wasn't around enough to notice. Their cheekbones and jaws stuck out quite far. At a healthy weight, it would look soft and pretty, but it was almost ugly.
After a month of not caring for themselves and reading and partying and barely seeing each other, it was time for school to begin. Their last year.
Clara woke up that morning and was surprised that she could barely find the strength to do anything until she had her morning tea. Oswin came down into the kitchen and shot her sister a glance, and stared.
"What are you staring at, Oswin?" Clara sighed, feeling grateful as she took a sip of tea and felt it rush down to her stomach. Oswin shook her head.
"Sorry, it's just…you look skinny, Clara. Really skinny."
"So are you," Clara replied, taking a good look at her sister and wincing as she looked down at herself and found that she was too skinny for words. Her clothes were baggy, and if it weren't for the zipper, her boots would fall off easily.
"We've been forgetting to eat." Oswin sighed, picking up her backpack. "We always do it, but at least mom made us eat."
Clara bit her cheek before replying. "Wow, look at that. Oswin Oswald actually does have feelings."
Oswin shook her head. "You're heartless."
"I know"
It took Clara longer than it should've for her to get her school stuff together and put on her makeup. She was walking out of the bathroom and heading to her room when Linda came out of the master bedroom. The woman took one look at Clara and laughed.
"What?" Clara snapped.
"You look stupid." Linda explained before heading downstairs. "You look ugly. Good look making friends, Clara."
Clara gritted her teeth, if she had enough strength, she would've snapped Linda's neck. Fuck her.
After standing at the metro stop, waiting for the train to show up, she heard footsteps and panting behind her. She turned to find Oswin racing over to her, fury in her eyes and dark blue bruise beginning to form on her cheek.
"Oswin, what's wrong?" Clara gasped, her stomach turning over when she saw her sister's face up close.
"Linda's a nightmare." Oswin hissed, her eyes dark and fury quite apparent. When Oswin was like this, it not only scared Clara because of the intensity, but worried her that Oswin was going to do something quite bad.
"Linda did this?" Clara whispered. Oswin nodded, and the metro arrived. Clara lost her sister in the swirl of people trying to get on, and ended up not finding her again until they were almost to school, and by the time she caught up, the bell rang in the distance. Oswin was swearing as she ran, and Clara just focused all her attention on reaching her class in time.
She did, and ended up being the fifth person to show up. Many others arrived a minute or two after the class started, and one boy showed up halfway into the class.
"Mr. Smith, you are late, again. If this keeps up, you're going to have to do makeup work, no matter how much of a genius you are." the teacher snapped at the boy, who nodded. Clara couldn't help but smile at his awkwardness as he ran to his desk and tripped twice. On his own laces. He had floppy hair in the front, and he was tall and gangly. He had a bit of a chin, and he met Clara's eyes as he slipped into his desk across the room. Clara looked away at once, something churning in her stomach.
By lunchtime, Clara had already become friends with two people, Rose Tyler and Melanie Bush. Melanie was a curly-haired ginger that was bright and bubbly, and definitely a romantic. Rose was a short-haired blonde who was a teeny bit stuck up but also generous and always fawning over her boyfriend Ten.
"Ten?" Clara echoed, choking on her water.
"Yeah. The dad was named Eight, and his brother was Seven, and Seven had a son who he named Nine, and Eight then had a son, who he named Ten, and then another son who he named-" and at that exact moment the tall, gangly boy with floppy hair and a chin accidentally tripped over his shoelaces and actually fell down, dropping his…whatever it was.
"…John." Rose finished, pointing at the boy. "That's John. Eight wanted to stop the whole numbers as names thing, which was started by One's father, who was an incredible scientist and inventor, and apparently a good mathematician. He named his kids One, Two, Three, and Four. Well, after their real names, but they just called themselves the numbers. The scientist named them that in the hopes that they would become as great as him. None of them were, apparently, choosing different careers. Seven's an incredibly successful umbrella designer, I know," Rose laughed at Clara's confused face. "Eight was an artist before he became a musician. Nine's becoming a lawyer like Six, and Ten's becoming a historian like Four. And then the kid who broke the numbers as names curse, turned out to be the sciency, genius, mathy guy that One's dad originally wanted." Rose finished, pointing again at John, who had picked himself up by now and was sitting under a tree outside doing something to that device he was holding when he fell.
"Does he have any friends?" Clara asked thoughtfully.
"No." Melanie chipped in. "He's the school freak. He's too much of a genius for the bullies to mess with though. He had friends, Amy and Rory, but they eloped and escaped to new york before their parents found them. They're eighteen now."
"Ten told me that John's going to go live with them as soon as he turns eighteen, which is in about five months. He and Ten are seniors, twins. Fraternal twins, that is. They look nothing alike." Rose added. Clara nodded, registering the information.
"He looks lonely." she remarked.
"He is." Rose replied, her voice soft. "He prefers it that way though, ever since Amy and Rory moved, and River Song died." at Clara's questioning glance, Rose glanced at Melanie and continued. "River Song was an extremely flirtatious woman who flirted heavily with John and was also best friends with him and Amy and Rory. Together, they were the school freaks. When Amy and Rory eloped and ran away, River died a month later in an airplane trip overseas to go see them. John was devastated, and he just reserved himself into quiet corners and involved himself in his mess of science and geniusness."
"Talking about my brother?" a sudden voice made Clara jump, and she looked up to find a rather tall, buff teenager who was wearing a clean, neat pinstripe suit. He was holding a banana. Clara furrowed her brows.
"Yeah," Rose replied, grinning up at him. Clara realized this must be the Ten Rose had been fawning over all morning. She looked away when Ten leaned down and began snogging Rose's face off.
Melanie cleared her throat, and the two broke apart sheepishly. Melanie moved across the table to sit by Clara so Ten could sit with Rose.
"So why are you talking about my brother?" Ten asked.
"Clara's new in the town, and she was wondering about the tall gangly kid who trips over himself and stays in quiet corners with sciency devices." Rose explained, and Clara smiled at the explanation.
"You don't want to mess with me, blondie." an outraged voice sounded across the cafeteria, and Clara groaned when she heard the familiar edge to it. Everyone at the table turned to find the blonde facing off a tall blonde buff teenager with a couple of dark-haired guys behind him who looked happy at a chance to watch their leader completely destroy a girl.
"Don't," Ten warned her when she tensed to run toward her sister. Clara shot him a worried glance. "That's Harold Saxon, the school bully. Except he's more than a bully. He's more of a guy who scares everyone, including the police. If it turns out bad I can go in and save her."
"He isn't scaring the girl though," Melanie pointed out.
"That's my sister, Oswin, that he's scaring," Clara explained, "She's fearless, and practically indestructible."
"Get out of my way!" Oswin snapped.
"You don't want to go against me, pretty. You won't win," Harold sneered.
Oswin made a show of laughing before setting down her lunch and turning to face him, crossing her arms. "You're a wuss who pretends to be tough. I've met lots of you."
Harold looked shocked, but quickly overcame it and handed his lunch to his friend before punching Oswin in the jaw. The whole cafeteria winced, they'd all heard the impact. Clara tried to run to her sister, but Melanie held her back. Oswin stood up straight and touched her fingers to her jaw gently before shooting Harold a sweet smile before lunging and returning a hard punch of her own. The sound was even louder than before, and Harold yelped.
It became an all-out fistfight, and both parties were bloodying up quick. After a minute or so, most of the cafeteria burst into fights too, and Clara followed Ten, Rose, and Melanie out the door. Clara furrowed her brows as they ran over to John, who was sitting under a tree, doing something to his device.
"John," Ten said, making his brother look up. John furrowed his brows. Well, the skin that would hold brows if he had any.
"What are you here for? Is Harold Saxon beating up on somebody again? Have you saved the victim again? How wonderful. Leave me alone." John turned his gaze back to his device, and Ten shared a glance with Rose before kneeling down next to his brother, which caught John's attention.
"Listen. There's an allout fight going on in there, and it's too big for me to break up. We need you to do it."
"What started it?"
"Harold started picking on a girl, but the girl turned out to be an equal fighter, so they're going at eahcother in there. Please, break it up."
John looked at Ten for a long moment, during which Clara allowed her confusion to overwhelm her. What power did this loner, gangly guy have that Ten, the buff guy in a suit didn't?
The gangly kid gave Ten a nod before standing up and straightening his bowtie and pulling on his purple waistcoat. Clara cocked an eyebrow. The Smith brothers had a strange taste in clothing.
The five of them walked into the school, and Clara watched as John darted around fights and jumped up onto the table next to where Harold and Oswin were tumbling around on the floor.
"What do you think you're doing?" John's voice sounded throughout the room, clearly heard above all the ruckus. Clara furrowed her brows, wincing at the harshness of his words. He sounded truly enraged, a darkness there that she could never imagine existed in such a boy.
Everyone stopped and stared at him, except for the original pair of fighters. Harold glared at the floor, avoiding John's gaze at all cost, and Oswin glared up at John defiantly, scramling to her feet and brushing dust off her dress. The gangly boy ignored Oswin, but smoothly stepped down from the table to the bench and them to the floor. He pulled Harold to his feet and leaned in to hiss something into Harold's ear. The way that Harold's eyes widened with panic let her know that it wasn't something nice, whatever it had been. Harold nodded once and walked away, motioning for his followers to follow him. Oswin glared at John.
"Oi, gangly boy. I would've beaten him to a pulp, I didn't need you to step in," Oswin snapped, folding her arms.
"I'm sure you would've, but I don't like fights happening in this school," John replied coldly before furrowing his nonexistent brows and narrowing his eyes at a certain bruise on Oswin's cheek. Oswin noticed and grabbed her lunch before walking away quietly.
Clara pushed through Ten and Rose and shoved John around so he was facing her. "How did you do that?" she wasn't sure why she was angry, but she was. It was filling her from head to toes.
John didn't reply, just started to walk past. Clara gripped his arm and turned him around again. "Hey! I asked you a question."
"Reasons that you wouldn't understand," John ripped his arm from Clara's grip. "And call the police. Your sister might need it."
That was enough.
Clara punched him in the arm, hard, making him wince. She felt the shocked stares of her newfound friends on her back. John narrowed his eyes at her before turning and walking away. She let him go that time, turning around to face her friends.
Melanie had a look of approval on her face, and both Ten and Rose looked absolutely shocked.
"Nobody's ever messed with Harold Saxon and John Smith until the Oswalds came to town," Ten explained, and Clara sighed.
"We tend to be the impossible ones."