AN: I have been working on this story for a couple of days and already have three other chapters filed away. I am really hoping this story gets more attention and that you guys enjoy it! I have tried doing a story like this but I have really focused on detail and story line through this. I have worked with the relationships with the characters and not making it easy like I had before. I have been paying careful attention to the story line and not making mistakes or mixing up things. I hope you guys enjoy! And the disclaimer will be the only disclaimer I put throughout the story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf, it's characters, or it's story line. I take ownership of of Tessa and her family along with her story line.
I wished it were raining.
The brightly burning sun didn't match my mood very well and it was only making me even more aggravated. It was glistening through the windows covered by a thin rack of blinds and it cast shadows across the desks placed around me. I ignored it, tapping my fingers rapidly against the wooden surface and bouncing my legs like a spastic mess. I was thankful no one else was in the room with me at the moment. Andre had gone down with the principal to fill out some paperwork and ask a few personal questions about me. I knew what they were going to discuss. It was going to be about my mother running off into the sunset with a duffel bag and her bike while my father was packed tightly into the ground, sleeping and breathless. I had turned myself into an emotionless robot, caring only about little. Counselors and therapists told Andre that I was still just in shock from the disappearance of my mother and sudden death of my father but that wasn't the case.
In any other point of my life before now, I would have been self-conscious of the way I looked. I would have been slouched down, protecting my face from any other human being, and trying to do my best of reinventing my outfit that suited my conditions. I had plucked out a pair of jeans that were stopped at the bottom of my heel and an old sweatshirt from when I decided to join the swim team at my old high school. I'd managed to grab a pair of tennis-shoes from my tornado I called a suitcase and then threw my hair back into the messiest of messy buns. There was not a single speck of makeup to be traced on my face and it gave me the freedom to rub my face as my fatigue grew by the minutes I sat here waiting for my sister to finish her interrogation with the principal.
It was a waste of his time. I didn't tell Andre anything about how I felt or what had happened inside the hospital before she got there. I hadn't told anyone and I was hoping it was going to stay that way. I didn't need everyone to know the details about my personal experience and making me feel worthless and pathetic. I hated when people asked me if I was okay or if there was anything they could do for me. All of the answers were obvious. I wasn't okay and there was not a damn thing they could do for me unless they had magical witch powers that brought people back from the dead. I only cared about my father at this point. He was dead and I still had more respect for him than my mother. She had given up, dropped her responsibility as a mom and left Andre and I to fend for ourselves. I was lucky enough to have my sister as a senior in college. She wasn't completely clueless about how to run a life but she was inexperienced in the department of taking care of a sophomore in high school. She had turned twenty one last month which meant she was eligible to be my legal guardian.
I didn't have a tough relationship with my sister. I just wasn't willing to share all of my thoughts and feelings in a normal relationship between siblings. Sure we fought like everyone does, but we got along for the most part. She would make us dinner and breakfast if she was up early enough. She offered to take me to school since we couldn't afford another car and even offered to bring me to any school events if I ever got up to it which I wasn't so I told her she didn't have to worry. I wasn't looking to make many friends or try to fit in with the popular crowd. I was worried about finishing all of my classes and forcing my way through the year. I had considered dropping out but then I swiftly remembered that I would not end up like my mother. I would be like my father, grow up to be like Andre. She was successful just like my father had been. Her grades were above average and she'd been awarded with so many honors, it used to fill up an entire wall in my house. I'd been trying, working my ass off to get my own wall and some of it had paid off but not all like I wanted to. I was still working on becoming a better, more determined version of myself. This was just a bump in the road.
There was a click from the door and I stopped moving, snapping my head in the direction of the noise. Slowly, the door opened and Andre poked her head in. She didn't step all the way inside until she made eye contact with me and then gave me a weak smile. I could see her flushed cheeks and tangled hair from all the way on the other side of the room. She was flustered which meant the conversation with the principal might have gone a bit differently than I had expected. Maybe it was more of an interrogation than a discussion about my well-being.
I swallowed thickly, licking my lips and then getting to my feet. It was my turn. Andre had the doom of going first but there wasn't any way out of my time. I knew they'd want to talk to me if they brought me here the day before school. They had notified my sister multiple times-sending her e-mails and pre-recorded calls. The principal had even put it in his best interest to send her a personal voicemail when my sister refused to answer any more calls from the school. I didn't blame her. They were acting as if we had committed a crime and they needed answers now. They were like toddlers pulling at our pant legs and calling our names redundantly until we kicked them off with a loud scream and flail of our arms. They were breaking us down and making us vulnerable so they could get all the answers they needed before I started school.
"Are you gonna be okay?" Andre asked as I made my way over to the door. I hesitated to answer, pausing beside her. I kept my eyes down to the floor before I shrugged my shoulders and looked up.
"It depends. Question is: will he be okay?" I countered her raising my eyebrows and making her eyes widen with terror. I snickered devilishly and smirked, shaking my head and walking out through the door. I heard her growl exasperatedly and she slammed the door behind me, the wood meeting the metal with a loud crash.
It echoed through the ghostly hallways and I slowly trudged my way down to the office which wasn't far away from the classroom I had been waiting it. It wouldn't have been hard to find anyways. There were lights coming from the office and a few voices emitted from the single secretary and the principal whose name I still had yet to learn. I wasn't sure if I was even interested in learning it. I wouldn't be seeing much of him anyways. I planned to keep a low profile, keep myself out of trouble, and not issue chaos upon the high school filled with kids just waiting for it to happen so they'd be able to crawl their way out of this hell hole.
Finally, I turned into the office and brushed passed the secretary, not sparing her a glance as I approached the open doorway of the principal's office. He was filing away some papers from the time he'd just spent with my sister and I quickly checked his name tag sitting on the front of his desk. Principal Thomas. He was younger looking, a nicely ironed suit fitting his thin form. His cheekbones were rough and there was stubble of red hair growing across his face. He wore a pair of square shaped glasses over his squinted eyes. He lifted his head up and realized I had entered his room.
"Tessandra, it's nice to see you again." Principal Thomas greeted, folding his hands over a vanilla envelope and sending me a smile that made me want to choke myself. He was going to be this kind of guy. I didn't like these types of guys.
"Call me Tessa. I'm not entirely fond of my full name." I replied more of in grumble than in a warning tone. He nodded his head silently and then ushered me in with one hand. I took a seat down in front of his desk and eased myself into the green cushions. I sat with my feet shoulder's length apart and crossed my hands over my stomach, glancing around his office.
He was a family man. There were pictures of his wife and two kids plastered around the room next to awards and diplomas he had earned in his career. He'd coached some sports teams-baseball, basketball, and even the track team somewhere that wasn't here. His kids were much younger than I was. His daughter looked only a few years old and his son looked like he'd just be starting the fifth grade. My stomach twisted into a thousand knots just looking at all the memories this father had made. It reminded me that I would never get to make any more memories. Those had come to a close last weekend.
"You swim?" He suddenly asked and it snapped me back to reality. I had been so out of it, I didn't understand what he meant. I furrowed my brow and frowned slightly, confused as to what he was asking. "Your sweatshirt." He clarified, pointing a finger briefly towards me and I looked down.
"I used to. That was before I moved." I answered, shrugging my shoulder and moving my hands only to read what it said. I had picked my words carefully and I wasn't lying. It had been before I moved and it also had been before my father died. I decided to reject that part for a reason that was most obvious.
"I see. Do you enjoy sports?" He was trying to get to know me-make small talk before he devoured me with the questions that would make me sweat and look at the clock as he drawled out his curiosity. "We have a track team in the spring and there have been some cases where we let ladies join the lacrosse team."
"I did track my freshmen year and my 8th grade year in middle school. It wasn't entirely awful." I responded, shifting in my chair and studying a small piece of string hanging from the end of my chair cushion. I decided I wasn't going to give the short answers and act like I was completely uninterested in the conversation. That bored me even more than it was bore Principal Thomas.
"Lacrosse is the shining star of sports here in Beacon Hills. Most of the boys try out every year but Coach Finstock is very precise on who he wants on his team. It's an honor to make it on the team and play for the Cyclones." He explained, leaning back in his chair and resting his folded hands in his lap.
I weakly put a smile on my lips. "Sounds like Mr. Finstock is a force to be reckoned with." I mused, a small hint of amusement becoming prevalent in my tone. Thomas chuckled, nodding his head and glancing down at his shoes.
"He's also the economics teacher here." Thomas mentioned. "There are complaints almost every week about him. Finstock is a special kind of character." He chuckled, exhaling deeply after he did so. I sucked in a breath, holding it into my chest, and tightening my fingers around my hands. It wasn't hard to realize that the easy part was over. "I understand that things have been very…complicated for you and your sister lately."
"If complicated is the word to describe my life, then sure. It's been complicated." I emphasized heavily, stretching out my jaw and making all the veins stand out in my neck like the words were nails on a chalkboard. It was the equivalent.
"I would assume that you haven't heard any words from your mother?" He asked, raising an eyebrow and I barely noticed that his words wavered. He was nervous. He was nervous about asking me questions that revolved solely on my personal life. He was afraid I was a ticking time bomb and would explode if he pushed too far. He was wrong.
I had tried avoiding telling anyone about my dad's death and my mother's disappearance, but Principal Thomas already knew. I was sure he knew the entire story so there was no point in beating around the bush and brushing him off. I would save that for the other teachers and students. I wasn't going to waste it on someone who was already asking pointless questions and digging into a hole that he'd already dug deep enough.
"No. I'm not even sure she has a phone anymore." I answered, shaking my head and chewing on the inside of my cheek. There was a single atom in my body that wished my phone would ring and it would be my mother. She would be calling me, asking me how I was doing, and where I had ended up. She'd ask about Andre and then, she'd do the unthinkable. She'd apologize. She'd apologize for running away when we needed her the most and not even giving a single glance backwards in direction. She'd apologize for not loving her children like a mother should.
"Andre didn't write her name down in any of your forms." Thomas told me, leaning forward and opening up the vanilla folder. It wasn't just papers Andre filled out for school, it was everything. They had all my documents, some I thought were unnecessary but I ignored it, eyeing them weakly before looking back up at him. "If she happened to come back into town, is there a certain way you'd want us to handle things?"
"I wouldn't want you telling her where I was." I began tonelessly, deciding to not make eye contact with the man sitting in front of me. "I wouldn't want her to find me, not until I figured it out first. And, I wouldn't put her on my forms anyways. Andre was legalized as my guardian just last weekend." I explained, shrugging my shoulders carelessly and picking at piece of loose skin on my thumb. It was the truth but for some reason, I didn't like hearing it out loud.
"Andre's response was similar to yours. She didn't say much, mostly that it was up to you since it has seemed to affect you the most." He said, shuffling a few papers and putting them back down into the folder. When he closed the top, it was like the elephant had climbed off my chest and I could breathe regularly again. I hadn't even realized that I had been taking short breaths when he opened the folder.
"I think she just has a better way of handling things. She has more things to preoccupy her, keep her distracted from everything." I suggested, sitting up in my chair and moving my hands off my chest. "I kind of am stuck living in a world where it's stopped spinning and all I can think about is the funeral and the note on the fridge."
"She left you a note?"
I was surprised he didn't know this detail but nodded anyways. "It didn't say "goodbye" or "I love you" like every goodbye note should say. There weren't very many words and some of them weren't even coherent." I blinked softly, recalling the memory. "I read it once and then Andre kept it hidden from because I'd threatened to burn it so many times she was afraid I might do it."
"That's completely understandable. I mean, I wouldn't be too fond of something like that either." Thomas respected, nodding his head curtly and fixing his glasses on his eyes. I watched him carefully and tried to determine just how uncomfortable he was. It was something mean and he wasn't enjoying this at all. It was hilarious honestly. He was terrified, nervous around a sixteen year-old girl. He hadn't even been afraid of Andre.
"I see that you have a family." I quickly changed the topic but lingered only slightly on what we were talking about before. I leaned forward and focused my eyes on a picture of his two kids holding up fishing poles with two long trout hanging from the end. They were grinning wildly with comedic shirts on and muddy tennis shoes. Their were faces were tan and their eyes were covered by different colored sunglasses. I had only gone fishing once and I never really liked it. Andre liked it more than me. Behind the kids, was a tall thin woman. I assumed this was his wife. She was resilient and wore a pair of running shorts, a t-shirt, and also muddy tennis shoes. Her frizzy hair was braided down her shoulders and her eyes were also covered by a pair of aviators. Considering Principal Thomas wasn't in the picture, he was the one taking it.
Thomas turned around to look at the picture and chuckled lowly when he saw it. He sighed deeply and then leaned back in his chair, not taking his gaze away from the framed memory. I hadn't even looked away and I silently wished I was. It was making a large ball swell in the middle of my chest and I felt like I could barely breathe.
"That picture is old-Daniel and Chelsea are much bigger now." He told me, nodding his head and rubbing the scruff on his chin. "Daniel is starting fifth grade and Chelsea is starting second grade this year."
"That's nice." I choked out but I desperately fought to keep tears falling from my eyes. I was still working on the not feeling any emotions thing. Looking at all his pictures and hearing the way he talked about his children, it was like something entirely new. He was slowly opening me up to a world I had never really experienced. My parents didn't entirely disown us but they grew us up to be tough kids, not expect too much, and not show people your weaknesses. Of course my dad would occasionally take us out for ice cream and tell us jokes all the way home or comfort us when Andre or I started to cry. My mother, she had always been the one to keep the light in the house which still made it difficult for me to understand why she had actually left.
Thomas spun back around in his chair, catching me by surprise. I blinked quickly and sniffed, cheering that I hadn't shed a tear. I sunk down deeper in my chair and he didn't seem to notice. I exhaled through my nose and looked away from the picture. "So, I saw in your papers that at your old school you had some…issues with other students in your grade and the upperclassmen?"
Perfect. This was a perfect way to switch the subject over. I was hoping he wouldn't bring it up but obviously, I was an idiot. Of course the principal of my new high school would see that had been in trouble before. "Suspended twice, written up five times, broken up from a fight and ended up in the principal's office three times, and you've actually put a girl in the hospital with a broken arm?"
I rolled my eyes at each statement he claimed. He wasn't looking at me so I had the freedom to be sassy. I knew all of this-I was there. I hadn't forgotten about Samantha Alberts being put in a cast for a month because I'd thrown her down to the ground in seventh grade and thought I was John Cena or something because I yelled out some nonsense and jumped on top of her. I still remember the sickening crack of her bone and the redundant wail that came for her lips every time she breathed. That was where everything basically started-my "rebellious" record. People told me I should own it but I only saw it as a weight on my character, dragging me down and sinking me right to the bottom of the lake of society.
"That's correct." I told him, leaning forward and taking a noticeable glance at the papers. He lifted his eyes up and pursed his lips, his calloused thumbs closing the folder when he caught me looking. I looked back up with a forced smile. "I guess you can say I have a bit of a temper." I breathed out, puffing up my cheeks and sulking back into my chair. I honestly had to admit I didn't like the look he was giving to me.
"I hate to be the mature one here,"-His sarcasm was thick in his voice and I resisted giving him a glare-"but I must have you know that those actions aren't lightly taken here at Beacon Hills High School."
"I'm aware of that, sir. I'm not quite sure any high school tolerates that kind of stuff." I said matter-of-factly, cringing slightly as I finished my sentence. I was worried I would aggravate him but he smiled and moved back from the vanilla folder filled with things that could explain my entire life to a single person.
"I'm glad that we're on the same page. In result of that, I have confidence that events like that won't occur inside the walls of my high school. Correct, Ms. Bradley?" Thomas asked me slowly, taking off his glasses and giving me the most serious look he'd given me all afternoon. I hesitated but then nodded, a graceful smile gracing my lips.
"Of course, Principal Thomas."
"You are free to leave."
I shot up from the chair, a small squeak emitting from the legs as it was forcefully shoved backwards by my momentum. I mumbled a "thank you" and a "goodbye" before shooting out of his office and closing his door behind me. I didn't acknowledge the secretary and was relieved to see Andre waiting by the front doors of the school. She had her head down on her phone and barely noticed me race passed her and out to the parking lot. When the chill post-afternoon hit my heated skin, I sighed and let my eyes flutter shut, leaning against a post they had with a flag limply resting on the metal.
"I can't tell if it went well or as awful as it went for me." Andre called, sliding her gold sunglasses over her eyes and walking to join me. I opened my eyes and turned around, not tearing my body away from the pole.
"It was great until the end when I thought it was a good idea to bring up his family and then he thought that'd be a good time for my remarkable achievements at my last school." I replied, shrugging my shoulder and shaking my head.
"He brought up the Samantha Smack down, didn't he?" Andre asked with a cringe and I glared at her furiously.
"I told you not to call it that." I snapped. "I was twelve. It wasn't like I exactly knew what I was going. Besides, why can't people see that it was kind of badass?" I mumbled, scratching my arms and fixing my sleeves of my hoodie. Andre rolled her eyes and shifted her stance so that she was resting on both feet with her shoulders squared up to the post. I scratched some dirt off the metal and tried to ignore her gaze.
"Tess, I know that this hard for you. It's hard for me too." She murmured, digging her toe into the sidewalk. "Trust me, I've been trying to make it easier for you but there is just so much to do, it's hard to focus on some things."
I finally lifted up my eyes to look at her. Andre was not someone you'd bypass if you saw her on the streets. She was gorgeous. She was twenty years-old and had so much of her life to live. She had long, brown hair that curled slightly at the ends that she usually kept pulled back in a messy ponytail. Her eyes were a magnificent blue and they shimmered inside the sunset when she smiled. Her skin was pale but not sickly. It was the perfect contrast to the rest of her facial features. Her lips were thin and pink, a curve always placed at the corners. There were splashes of freckles brushed across her nose and more of them broke out if she spent time in the sun. I always looked at myself a different way. I had the same brown hair but it was darker and stopped just in the middle of my back. My eyes were a darker shade of blue and didn't sparkle in the sun or when I smiled. They stayed dull and emotionless, just like how I wanted to feel. I didn't have freckles and my skin always stayed a deep tan. Andre gushed at how jealous she was of my skin but I was jealous of her entire being. She was athletic, just like I was. We both enjoyed wearing jeans instead of skirts, sneakers instead of sandals, and t-shirts instead of crop tops. We liked watching sports and going to games around town. We got along, we were almost the same, but I was overly obsessed with her lack of imperfection that she barely even realized was there.
"I know. I just feel like I'm trapped, you know?" I told her honestly, scrunching up my nose and getting up from the pole. I rubbed my forehead and stared down at the cracked concrete beneath my feet. "You have so much more to focus on, right? I have nothing. I can't even watch T.V without stuff reminding me of our parents."
"And school is gonna change that." Andre told me calmly. "You'll have homework and lots of classes. You might even make some friends that can take you out to parties or lacrosse games." Andre explained, stepping closer to me and shaking her head in consideration.
"You know how I am, Andre. I don't make friends like you do." I muttered and Andre swallowed thickly, looking up and around me.
"Well, we're gonna try, okay? We'll go through this together because now I have to make friends too. I have to change my life so you aren't alone and you aren't trapped." Andre explained to me firmly but still carefully. She nodded her head strongly and then dripped her head down to look at me considering she was only a few inches taller. I looked up and imagined meeting her eyes behind the sunglasses. I nodded in response and she quickly pulled me into her embrace.
"Thank you, Andre." I whispered into her shoulder. "Thank you for not leaving me…"
Andre pulled back, her hands still on my shoulders and she flipped a loose hair out of her face and thinned out her lips. "I want you to listen to me. I will, never, ever leave you, not until you're old and wrinkly and barely able to hear. I will stay with you for as long as you need me, no matter what." She told me, her fingers squeezing my skin comfortingly. "We are sisters and that is what sisters do."
"Andre, you know I'd do the same exact thing for you. We've all we've got left, you know? We can't mess it up over some little argument." I replied, messing with the trashed cuffs of the swimming sweatshirt.
"Who cares about anything Principal Thomas said? He doesn't know our lives like we do. Who cares about your "remarkable achievements"? This is a fresh, new start to begin a new place in our life. You can meet new people with new expectations and new knowledge on who you are as a person." Andre explained, taking her hands off of me and throwing them in the air. She adjusted the purse that was slung over her shoulder and as she finished her sentence, a toothy grin broke out onto her face. "You are Tessandra freaking Bradley."
"I'm Tessandra freaking Bradley!" I cheered, throwing my hands up in the air and grinning along with my older sister. She laughed at my reaction, throwing her head back with her hands still in the air. I laughed loudly back at her and dropped my head forward, holding onto my stomach. "We're the freaking Bradley's!"
"Hell yeah!" Andre shouted back and we ran towards each other, locking arms and spinning around, laughter feeling the air. My eyes were beginning to swell from laughing so hard and I was sure I was going to have a six pack by the time we were finished with our moment.
Finally, we slipped our arms away from each other and stumbled backwards, slightly dizzy from spinning so much. We finished laughing and wiped our eyes, shaking our heads and breathing heavily. "Well…that happened." I mumbled, brushing a loose strand of brown hair behind my ear.
"And it happened…right in front of a Beacon County Sherriff." Andre suddenly gasped, her mouth hanging open. My eyes widened and I flung around to face the parking lot, almost falling backwards onto my ass.
There, in fact, was a green and white car parked up into one of the many vacant parking spaces. I was told that not a whole lot of people were coming in today but apparently, I was wrong. There were still a people who needed to get signed up for school and one of them just happened to be the kid of law enforcement. We had just screamed and acted like psychopaths in front of the high school while the sheriff sat in his driver's seat. I could feel embarrassment filling up my brain and making my head pound once. I cringed, slamming my hand against my forehead and I exhaled deeply.
"I would love to say that was worth it but honestly, right now?" I breathed out in a strangled voice. "It was so not worth it." I grumbled, shaking my head and shutting my eyes. I looked down to face the ground and heard a door slam, making me look back up. The officer was getting out of his car and he wasn't alone. There was a boy shuffling out of the car behind him but I ignored it, looking back to the officers. He looked like he was in his late forties. He was dressed in his uniform which meant he had taken a second to get off work to sign his son up for high school. Andre and I stepped off to the side once he hit the sidewalk.
"Ladies," He greeted nodding his head and stopping. I wanted to groan when he stopped and from the look on the younger boy's face, he didn't like this idea much either. I couldn't help but look over the officer's shoulder and look towards the boy. Turned out, he was looking in the same direction. We made eye contact briefly before I looked away.
He had to be my age. He wore a pair of jeans with a pair of black sneakers on his feet. He also wore a red fleece jacket zipped up halfway while a white t-shirt peeked out from beneath it. His hands were shoved in his pockets and his buzz-cut head snapped around the parking lot frantically. He was fidgety and probably had a severe case of ADHD. He was tapping his foot annoyingly on the sidewalk and I bit down on my tongue to avoid yelling at him to stop.
"Sherriff,"-Andre narrowed her eyes to read his name tag-"Stilinski."
"I don't mean to be straight forward, but I wasn't aware we had new comers here in Beacon County." He said with a hearty chuckle that sent goose bumps down my spine. It was the close relatability to my father that made me shiver when there wasn't any wind and a cough come out of mouth when there wasn't anything in my throat.
"We just got in a night ago. I'm Andrea but call me Andre." My sister introduced herself, leaning forward on her toes and holding out her hand. Mr. Stilinski shook her hand with a warm smile. "This is my sister, Tessandra but she likes to be called Tessa."
I held out my hand and shook his hand firmly with the same warm smile he had given to the both of us. I felt like the air was growing heavier and weighing down on my shoulders like metal boxes. My knees were shaking and my breathing was becoming short. My heart thudded in my chest, making me grit my teeth and stab the toes of my sneakers into the ground roughly. I resisted the urge to cry out and curled my toes inside my sneaker, sucking in my bottom lip.
"Tessa, what grade will you be going in this year?" Mr. Stilinski asked and I almost wasn't paying attention to him. My focus snapped in his direction and I blinked a few times before answering.
"I'm gonna be a sophomore." I answered, my voice making its first appearance in the conversation. I was hoping I wouldn't have to talk but I wasn't getting away with anything this afternoon and it was seriously killing me.
"That's great!" Mr. Stilinski exclaimed, a grin flashing from his mouth. "My son, Stiles, here will also be attending as sophomore this year."
He pulled the boy, Stiles, around whose entire face turned a dark red. It caught me by surprise, a small gust of wind hitting me in the face as I stepped out of the way of Stiles. He had his hands still shoved in his pockets and was making no effort to shake either of our hands. I wasn't complaining. I wasn't really a person who enjoyed meeting new people and touching them when we haven't even really met each other. It was awkward and you didn't know when to stop shaking or they hold onto your hand while you try to pull back away.
"Perfect." Andre said, raising her eyebrows and shooting me a hopeful smile. "You won't be completely oblivious." She tried to comfort me and I sent her an unnoticeable death glare. She slowly looked away and back at the two people standing in front of us. There was definitely a similarity, no doubt that they were father and son. Mr. Stilinski seemed oddly proud of his son, like not all of it was real.
"Not to brag, but I am the head sheriff here in Beacon County and I love to meet the new guests coming into town. If you don't mind me asking, what brought you to Beacon Hills?" Mr. Stilinski asked, Stiles shrinking away as soon as the topic wasn't focused on him anymore. I was able to shift and square my shoulders to the older man. He was polite and that made talking him to him easier.
I felt eyes on me and I looked over to see that Andre had settled her's on the side of my head. She had taken her sunglasses off and when I looked into her crystal orbs, I saw that they were filled with an emotion-an emotion I hadn't seen on her. It was fear. She was afraid of answering and she was slowly beginning to panic. My eyes widened when I realized that she was silently asking me for help. She couldn't answer this herself.
"We needed a change of scenery." I blurted out, blinking rapidly and not only catching the attention of Mr. Stilinski, but Stiles whose face had gone down in color back to his pale complexion. His golden eyes squinted slightly towards me and I licked my lips, looking away from him. "We're originally from Nevada. There are more palm trees and beaches here, you know? Andre loves the ocean."
I could almost physically feel her stiffen beside me and I held in a loud burst of laughter. That was a lie. I wasn't even sure if Andre had ever been in the ocean. Everything I was saying was a lie but it wasn't like Mr. Stilinski wasn't going to find out soon. He was the head Sherriff. They had bios on everyone.
"The ocean is a bit far from here."
This was a new voice and it took us all by surprise. Even Mr. Stilinski looked over his shoulder at his son who had now spoken up. I craned my neck to look of the man's shoulder at the boy who rolled his shoulders and stood up straighter. "I would have picked like Los Angeles or San Francisco." Stiles continued. When he looked at his father, his eyes widened and he swallowed thickly. "But here is great. Beacon Hills is a fantastic town." He frantically explained and I knew that Mr. Stilinski did not enjoy his previous words. Unfortunately, I had to cover my mouth with my hand, acting as if I was being normal. The smile I had been trying to hide appeared on my face and no one seemed to notice…except for Stiles. He blushed and surprisingly, narrowed his eyes. This only sparked my amusement even more and I bit down on my lip, looking away.
"Well, I think we'd better get inside. I still have to sign up Stiles's here for his year." Mr. Stilinski told us, pointing towards the boy who'd quickly stopped looking at me. I was finally able to collect myself and dropped my arms to my sides. "I will see you ladies around. I will hopefully see you often, Tessa." Mr. Stilinski nodded his head in my direction and I smiled briefly.
"I will make it a habit, sir." I replied and he chuckled, winking. He then waved a curt hand and then walked off, Stiles shuffling beside him. I watched them go until the disappeared inside the doors and Andre sighed.
"That didn't go as badly as I thought it would." She thought aloud, nodding her head and hiking up her purse on her shoulder. She turned to me, shoving her sunglasses back onto her face. "I see that your social skills haven't improved."
"He barely even talked to me, okay? Don't make me feel bad." I grumbled, rolling my eyes and crossing my arms over my chest and turning away from her.
"His son seemed the exact same way so don't feel singled out." She teased, shaking her head at me as she began to walk towards her Range Rover in the parking lot. I shook my head as well, following behind her quickly.
We climbed inside the cool car, the sun beginning to fade away behind the mountains in the distance. The temperature was dropping and it was somewhat surprising. I figured living in California would be hotter than Nevada but I was wrong. I'd checked the weather for tomorrow and it would be nearly below freezing. Andre decided to stop out for dinner and that fell out into the later hours of night considering she also wanted to take a drive around town. She tapped into her GPS so we wouldn't get lost and ended up on a road that led all the way back into town passed the forest and away from civilization. Just to make everything better, it started to rain.
"We should have just gone home earlier." I exhaled in the passenger seat, knocking my head against the window and staring out the fogged glass. "We're gonna be stranded out here."
"We are not going to be stranded. I know exactly where we're going." Andre argued a small amount of annoyance in her tone. I shifted in my seat and ran my fingers of the pristine leather of the Range Rover. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Andre flip out her phone and the little voice was telling her where to go. Suddenly, the voice made a clicking noise and her phone went dark. "What the hell?"
"Did you forget to charge your phone?" I asked, turning my head and sitting up to lean over the median and look to her phone.
"It never gave me any warnings." She replied, knocking it against the dash. Obviously, we weren't paying attention to the road. We hadn't realized that there was another vehicle in front of us and I looked up just in time to see it swerve,
"Andre!" I shrieked, my seatbelt unclicking itself as I leaned over and grabbed hold of the wheel, pinning her to her seat. I spun the wheel to the right, jerking us out of the way of the other car and Andre helped me pull it back to straight. I flipped my head over my shoulder, infuriated at the car behind us and didn't just see a car, but saw a person in a red hoodie standing in the middle of the road. "No way…" I breathed out and slumped in my seat. That was Stiles?
AN: I know that this didn't start out like my usual stories. I decided to give a bit of an introduction chapter into Tessa's life. I also wanted to have some more time to spend on how she feels and how she is dealing with everything. And, just a heads up, I understand during the story she is all over the place with how she feels and how she handles things and it's meant to be that way. Also, I wasn't planning in Mr. Stilinski, or John as I have learned his name is, or Stiles into this chapter but I think it worked out well.
Please leave reviews because they make me happier than when Jeff Davis makes a Stydia scene :)
P.S: I know Tessandra is a real name but I don't really care :)