Chapter 2
AN: I'm almost at 10K words so that's exciting. Thank you for all that have stuck with me so far. We're getting close to Hogwarts now, I just want to flesh out their dynamic before we get into because once we're there, there is no turning back. I'd appreciate some reviews, hate, love, anything really, comments or critiques are welcome. Especially grammar/spelling wise as it's been a bit. I work at a call center so my skin is very thick, be ruthless!
The young desired to be free of the adults, and at the same time were prepared to resent any hint that the adults might desire to be free of them.
- A.S. Byatt, The Children's Book -
A little over a year had gone by since Mrs. Cole first observed Jenny and Tom interacting. Since that day they were attached at the hip. She never saw one without the other trailing behind. Yet, with this companionship came troubling news. Jenny now seemed to be just as feared as Tom was. Although there had been no other incident with Jenny, like the spiders, Mrs. Cole was having a hard time convincing the other children to room with the girl. After a week, without warning or explanation, all of her roommates would insist on moving out. What was truly troublesome was that she seemed to be just as baffled as Mrs. Cole about these chain of events. But, the caretaker supposed, it could be an act.
Jenny was now nine and felt content at the orphanage. She nearly always had her bedroom all to herself, save for Redan. Tom had quickly become her dearest and only friend. Shortly after their friendship blossomed the children who regularly picked on her didn't want to bug her anymore. She didn't think much of it, assuming that Tom's intimidating aura rubbed off on her and was keeping the rude children at bay. Things were coming together for the young girl. She was happily settled into her friendship with Tom.
Jenny had been combing her hair, just about to retire for the night when there came a knock on the door. She turned from the mirror she had been studying herself in and went to open the door. Her smile quickly dropped when the door revealed Mrs. Cole, rather than the person she had expected, Tom.
Mrs. Cole smiled softly at her and the girl suddenly felt ill. This was not normal. She would not be getting a new roommate at this time of night. "Mrs. Cole, what can I do for you this evening?" she inquired, trying to swallow her nerves.
The caretaker looked around the nearly barren room, fully expecting Tom to be prowling somewhere. When her search turned up empty she was surprised, but put it to the back of her mind, then spoke, "I have some good news!"
Jenny was taken aback, a razor thin smile was automatically pasted onto her face and she recklessly prodded, "What's the good news?"
"This is a little unprecedented, normally there's more warning, but you've been adopted!"
Her ears were ringing, she was sure she had misunderstood, "I'm sorry, I misheard you. What was that?"
"Jenny! You've been adopted!" Mrs. Cole said with a heavy amount of enthusiasm.
She shook her head, slightly pushing the door forward in an attempt to signal to the caretaker this conversation was no longer wanted, "You must have me confused with someone else. I haven't met with anyone interested in adopting me."
Mrs. Cole nodded understandably, "I know, it's a shock, but the man saw your picture today and said an introduction wasn't necessary. He wants to adopt you as soon as possible. You leave in the morning with him." Jenny stood in stunned silence and Mrs. Cole let out a small laugh, "Aren't you excited?! You're going home tomorrow!"
She stared blankly, then her face screwed up in rage, "Well you can tell him no. I'm not going anywhere," and with that she childishly slammed the door. She slid down the door, taking a seat the base. She caught a glimpse of Redan's tail disappearing into a crack in the wall. He was probably off to tell Tom what just happened, she thought dejectedly, bitter the snake didn't hang around and comfort her.
She listened for Mrs. Cole's shoes against the wooden floors, but she hadn't moved. Then came a soft knock and Mrs. Cole spoke from behind the door, empathically saying, "Jenny, I can't tell him no. You know that. He might be your only shot at getting adopted. You can't live at Wool's forever."
She stayed silent. Resenting the fact that the woman who had essentially raised her, was now trying to pawn her off. After a minute Mrs. Cole sighed and said, "You'll be thankful one day. Make sure your stuff is packed by nine tomorrow morning." Then she added, "He lives in town, you'll be able to visit." Finally Jenny heard the shift in weight and moaning of the stairs as Mrs. Cole left.
She got up, looking around her room, it would take less than 10 minutes to gather all her belongings. She let out a sigh of frustration and jumped when her door swung open.
Tom marched in, his face red with anger, "Tell her that you aren't going!"
"I did, Tom," she responded monotone.
"There must be something we can do. They can't make you go!"
"I think it already happened," she said back in a sarcastic tone.
"There must be something we aren't thinking of."
"Well, what do you proposed we do?" she huffed, irritated.
He thought for a moment, then hissed, "We scare him."
She shook her head, about to protest, but Tom cut her off, "Oh, come off your high horse. Don't you get it? What kind of person simply sees a picture and wants to adopt someone?" he paused dramatically, baiting her into considering his rhetorical question. He started in again, harshly, "A creep, that's who."
She considered this. It was odd that he hadn't even wanted to bother getting to know her. "Tom, are you sure you aren't being a bit, I don't know, dramatic? Mrs. Cole said that he lives in town."
He looked sharply at her, still on his tirade, "Oh, I see. You want to leave me here. Don't you?!"
Her eyes nearly rolled out of her head, "Don't be silly, I don't want to leave, you know that. I just don't think it's as big of a deal as your making it out to be."
He looked angrily at her, then turned on the spot and stormed out of the room as quickly as he appeared, slamming the door thunderously behind him.
She frowned and flopped gracelessly onto the bed. She watched as Redan appeared from the crack in the wall and slinked his way over to her. She sat up and with a small, choked sob, asked the snake, "What am I going to do?"
Jenny and Tom both had a sleepless night. Jenny laid awake wondering what the future would hold. Would he be a nice father? Would her new house be big? Was Tom going to ever speak to her again?
Dawn arrived too fast and she found herself sweeping what little belongings she had into a small bag for transporting. Bag in tow, she trotted down the stairs and found Mrs. Cole standing outside her office, expectantly waiting for her. A smile appeared on the woman's aging face, grateful she didn't have to beg the girl to be present this morning.
Jenny was ushered into the office and sat down in a chair next to a large middle aged man. He cracked a toothy grin at the child, revealing his yellow gob. She hesitantly returned the smile. The adoption process was completed in record time, which, Jenny noted, was lucky because the man's body odor was quickly making the room uninhabitable.
The man, who Jenny learned was named Terry Piper, shook hands with Mrs. Cole, who had been actively avoiding making eye contact with her now. Mr. Piper made quick business of whisking Jenny from the office and towards the door of the orphanage. Her stomach was doing backflips, urgently she looked around, silently begging for Tom to do something or at the very least say goodbye to her. Yet, he was nowhere in sight.
Abandoned, she allowed herself to be guided by Mr. Pipers calloused hand which was resting on the small of her back. The gravel of the driveway crunched under their feet as they approached his truck. It was an old rusted thing and she was surprised that it was able to drive at all. She opened the passenger door and slipped into the car, letting her feet rest among bottles and various discarded items.
Mr. Piper closed the driver side door, now locked in the car with Jenny, a sickly sweet smile smeared onto his face. He produced the key to the car with one hand and place his other hand on her upper thigh. She felt her stomach drop. He turned the ignition and the car coughed and sputtered, but didn't turn on. Her heart was pounding, staring had his hand, willing it off. He attempted to bring the car to life again. She looked up to the orphanage, hoping this was a bad dream, and willed herself to wake up. Then she saw him, Tom, staring down at her from a window. Cutting through this realization, she heard a yelp come from Mr. Piper, presumably out of shock, he squeezed her thigh painfully. She looked over at him and saw that he was staring at a snake that had slithered on to the steering wheel.
She smiled to herself, knowing this was Tom's doing. Embolden by him making the first move, she grabbed the wrist of man, peeling his hand off her thigh. Mr. Piper's looked towards her and she mustered the most hellish look she could and gritted out, "I don't like being touched." Her hand clenching tighter around his wrist.
Mr. Terry's face paled as he tried to wrestle his arm from the unusually powerful nine year old's grip. After a few yanks, he successfully broke free. To his horror, his wrist looked as if it received a rather severe burn, it was already stinging, red, and blistering. The man thoroughly shaken, went to jump out of the car, but the doors wouldn't unlock. More snakes began worming their way out of the cracks and trash, slithering unforgivingly towards the man.
After what must have only been a minute, but what felt like a year for Mr. Piper, the doors popped open, the snakes slithered out, and the car's engine roared to life. The man propelled himself out of the car, almost comically spring like. Jenny, delicately removed herself from the passenger's seat and walked promptly back towards the orphanage. Standing at the doorstep, waiting patiently for the man to collect himself. Once he joined her on the stairs, he began pounding on the door.
Mrs. Cole, swung the door open and to her alarm found Mr. Piper, nearly hyperventilating, more messy and unkempt than he had been merely five minutes ago when she had seen them off. She looked to Jenny and saw the girl's face was blank and impartial, as if the man next to her didn't appear to be grasping on to the last bits of his sanity.
"What's -" Mrs. Cole started, but Mr. Piper cut across.
"I changed my mind. Adoption isn't for me. Keep her."
"Wait, now we can talk this out," Mrs. Cole tried, but he was already crawling back into his truck, "Sir!"
With a thump the truck door slammed shut and he tore away, leaving a faint smell of rubber in the air.
Mrs. Cole, looked at Jenny, arms on her hips, eye brows raised, "What did you do?" She questioned in an accusing tone.
"Some people can't handle parenthood," she deadpanned in a serious tone. Then walked past Mrs. Cole's stunned expression and straight up the stairs to Tom's room.
She tugged his door open and he immediately pulled her by the arm deeper into his room, allowing the door to swing shut on its own. She watched him, who had a feral look in his eyes as he raked over her, looking for any damage.
"I knew it, I knew he was a creep. That filthy animal. He laid his hands on you," he snarled. His hand suddenly went to Jenny skirt, lifting it slightly to revealing the pale skin on her thigh, where the man had grabbed her. His knuckles whitened as his clenched grip on the fabric of the skirt tightened even more. Jenny looked from his hand to the spot on her thigh where a large red and purple bruise was blossoming under her skin.
She watched his expression as she gently rested her hand on his clenched fist, pushing it lightly down, lowering the skirt and covering the bruise. "You were right all along," she agreed. Then nearly whispered, "I should have listened to you."
He scoffed, "You couldn't have changed what happened, that Mrs. Cole," he spat her name. "She should have looked into him more. The hag doesn't even care about our safety." He was pacing now, like a leopard trying to release its energy in a small cage. "It's ridiculous, why don't we have a choice on who adopts us?"
She watched him, as she sat comfortably on his bed. He went on small rants like this from time to time, but on this occasion something seemed to click. He wasn't losing steam during the rant, it was just building up. She watched as he moved his hands along with his words. His thoughts rolling off his tongue angrily.
Snapping her from her thoughts, Tom interrupted himself, mid-rant, rounding on her, "You handled it impressively."
She blinked, "What?"
"You didn't cry. You didn't panic. Hell, you even scared him," he paused replaying the scene in his head, "What did you even do? I can't imagine what you could have said that scared him so much."
She laughed darkly, "I only grabbed his wrist and told him not to touch me - but his wrist looked burned after that." He nodded lost in thought. She tacked on, "The snakes were a nice touch," allowing a small smile to grace her face as she complimented him.
He rolled his eyes, "Don't be too impressed, it took me almost all night to convince all of them."
She laughed at his lackluster response, "Well if our roles were reversed, I'd still be trying to get the first snake on board with me."
He looked darkly at her, "Don't you understand?! Our roles could never be reversed. That creep chose you and now all the other creeps know it's easy to target you."
"If you think getting attacked by snakes and burned is easy, I'd hate to see hard," she quipped back without a second thought.
He frowned at her and crossed his arms, "Easy or not that was too close."
She was going to ask him what was too close, but before she got a chance there was a knock at the door. Tom glanced at Jenny, who had stiffened on his bed, watching the door nervously. He shot her a meaningful look as he approached the door.
With a smooth movement he opened the door, only enough for it too look casual, blocking the guest from seeing the room in full; hiding Jenny from sight.
Mrs. Cole was revealed, looking quite harassed. "Tom, is Jenny with you?"
He look politely up at Mrs. Cole, "Why do you ask?"
Jenny was panic stricken, she was in so much trouble, she just knew it. Mr. Piper had come back with the police, she was going to go to jail. Her feverish thoughts were clouded over as the conversation leaped back into the forefront of her mind.
Mrs. Cole seemed to not be having time for Tom's elusiveness and she pushed the door wider, revealing the room and Jenny, who's face had taken on a rather ill look.
"Jenny, no more games. What happened?"
She was nearly in tears and she looked helplessly from Mrs. Cole to Tom. Tom's mouth was drawn in a thin line and appeared to be holding his tongue from saying something rude. His eyes were coldly staring up at Mrs. Cole who had her full attention on Jenny.
"I'm not sure what happened," the girl whispered, finally catching Tom's eye, silently begging for help.
Catching on, he smoothed things over, "Mrs. Cole, she just lost a chance at having a home. Can't we wait on interrogating her? She's already upset as it is," he quickly slipped a polite smile on top of his firm tone.
Mrs. Cole hesitated, looking from the confrontational boy to the fragile look on the girl's face. With a tsk and a deep sigh, she resigned, "Alright, but if I see a stunt like that again, you better believe you won't get off this easy a second time."
Jenny was laying in Tom's bed, head in his lap, toying with Redan. He had been reading his book aloud to her, although the plot was escaping her mind at the moment. With a content hum she reached up, pushing his book aside so instead he was looking down at her face.
"I was wondering something."
His eye brows unfurled as his irritation from being interrupted melted into curiosity, "What is that?" Sliding a finger into his place in the book as a bookmark, allowing the novel to rest next to him on the bed, his other hand twisting its way into her hair.
"Why is it that you can talk to snakes and I can't?"
"I guess I'm just special."
She frowned and peered up at him, "Do you think I'm not special at all?"
He considered this then after some thought said, "I don't think we're special in the same way."
She frowned deepened beginning to get frustrated, "We can both make things happen though," clearly not pleased with his reply.
He considered this and said, "Yes, but I can also talk to snakes, making us different," watching her reaction he added, "but the same."
She nodded, seeming satisfied with that conclusion and rose from his lap, sitting on the edge of the bed. Carefully, she placed Redan on the bed and watched for a moment as he moved silkily across the sheets to Tom. Then she moved her hand deliberately towards the skirt she was wearing, hitching it up enough to expose her thigh. Her fingers lightly brushed over the ghost of the bruise that served as a reminder of her daring escape only a week ago.
She poked it, causing a white oval to appear where her finger was, then it faded back to match the rest of the yellow shadow of a hand. "At least it's nearly healed." She noted when she looked up at Tom and saw a dark look in his eyes.
He hummed, seemingly displeased, "If I had it my way he wouldn't have walked away with just a burn," he scooped up Redan with a smooth move of his hand moving the snake into his pocket, then rising from the bed, back to Jenny, he continued, softer, with an edge of malice in his voice, "In fact, he wouldn't have been able to walk away."
Jenny jumped from the bed, following his lead and huffed, "Always with the melodramatics," throwing her hair behind her shoulder.
He moved towards the door ignoring, her teasing, "Are you ready to go?"
She crossed her arms, "I don't see why we have to. I hate these trips."
He rolled his eyes choosing again to ignore the sulking girls comments he persuaded, "It won't be too bad this time. I've thought up a game we can play." She looked at him, feeling uneasy about the way he said 'game'. He smiled wolfishly, "No worries, we both will come out winners in this game."
She sighed and simply said, "I don't want to know."
He nodded tartly and replied, "Just follow my lead."
