a/n Reworked 23rd February, 2009
Chapter 12 – Once I Was
Alan leaned against the armrest of the sofa, eyes glued to the TV screen.
"Brooke, no! You're marrying James!"
"I don't care, Angus! Take me! I'm yours!"
"God, Brooke is such a two-timing slut," the blond murmured, before catching himself.
He pulled a pained face.
"I'm getting into a soap opera," he murmured, "A bad soap opera,"
He sighed, switching off the TV and heading towards the stairs.
"I need air," he decided aloud, "I'm going for a run,"
.1.1.
"... So that is the situation. Each of you has been given a slip of paper, and you're to write the name of a student you wish to nominate for School Captain, and have another student second your nomination. The prefect body will count the votes and announce who will be presenting their speeches. The staff has no influence over the final decision of your prefect body, but we recommend you think carefully and pick someone trustworthy, responsible, intelligent and befitting the position..." the headmistress' eyes fell on the straight-backed Mary-Sue Pleasant, seated in the front row.
At the back of the hall, Tara glowered.
Nobody in the cohort missed how the headmistress glowered back.
The fact Tara held her own, and that it was Thickett who sniffed haughtily and left the room first, flippantly throwing a detention at the blonde was not missed either.
In the woman's wake, voting forms were handed out, and a low buzz of conversation passed through the seniors.
Tara scrunched up her voting sheet and pegged it at the back of Mary-Sue Pleasant's head, then looked away, feigning innocence.
"So I'm going to enjoy my free," she stood, "anyone coming?"
"We've got to vote," Jenny replied, withdrawing a pen from her bag, "You included,"
"Please," the blonde scoffed, "If I did what Thickett wanted, it would be going against my morals. It'd be betrayal of everything I believe. It'd be like becoming a—"
"We get it, drama queen," Ophelia kicked Tara's behind lightly with the side of her foot, "Sod off,"
She shot the girl a grin and left.
Amber and Charlotte watched her leave with twin devious grins.
Then, they both turned to their slips.
Candidate: Tara Creighton Ward
House: Draconis
Nominator: Amber Lam
Seconded: Charlotte Silva
The near-identical forms were exchanged and signed, Amber in her large, looping and curling handwriting, Charlotte in her chicken scratch scrawl, before they folded them and jammed them in the box.
"Tara will kill you," Jenny pointed out as they returned. The Asian girl snickered.
"No reason for her to find out,"
"Besides," Charlotte added seriously, "Tara's a good leader. Insane, yes, completely random, yes, often daft, hell yes, but she's trustworthy, responsible, fairly intelligent, and a hard worker. Even you've got to admit she's fairly perfect for the position, Jen,"
Jenny opened her mouth to protest, but closed it when she realised she couldn't retort.
She turned to Ophelia.
"Second my nomination for Tara?"
"Bitch, please," the curly haired ravenette responded, "Only if you second mine,"
.1.1.
That night, Jenny came sprinting down from the office, grabbing a hold of Amber and Charlotte in the atrium before Artemis Hall.
"They've just produced the final list of nominees for school captaincy," she murmured. Amber's eyebrows arched.
"And?" she pressed, "Obviously something big has happened, otherwise you wouldn't have run here like the hounds of hell themselves were chasing you,"
"I'm getting to that!" Jenny sniped, "It seems we aren't the only ones who nominated Tara," Charlotte had to smother a laugh.
"Dare we ask how high she was on the list?"
"First,"
"Somewhat makes sense, I guess," Amber shrugged, "The year isn't exactly fond of Thickett, and the promised entertainment value from Tara being head girl is just too good to pass up,"
"Yes, but it means Tara will now have to give a speech to be eligible for election. She'll never give a speech for this,"
"No, she won't," Charlotte responded matter-of-factly, "but we will,"
"What?"
"Think about it. Tara will skip out on the speeches, because it'd be too tempting to whip crap at Mary-Sue whilst she was a sitting duck on stage. We sent Ophelia out with her, and we'll give the speech in Tara's place,"
Jenny groaned.
"God, what if she gets elected? If she ever finds out we did it, she'll kill us,"
"Murder my friends?" came a drawl from behind them, "Does Tara Creighton-Ward have to choke-a-bitch?"
The small brunette that was Jenny froze, eyes almost comically wide. She turned slowly, hoping that she was just hearing voices.
No such luck
Sure enough, leaning lazily against the doorway of the dining hall was Tara.
No-one spoke.
"Well?" Tara pressed, "Who's going to murder you?"
"Ah... Mary-Sue," Charlotte invented, "We're going to screw with her captaincy campaign,"
"Yeah!" Amber jumped in, almost overly-animated, "We're going to try to rig it so she loses,"
Tara straightened and laughed.
"Yeah, she'll certainly slaughter you for that," she walked past them, "See you later,"
Slumping against each other in relief, the three girls wandered into Artemis Hall and slid into their seats by Ophelia on the Draconis table.
"Hey," the curly haired ravenette greeted, "You guys seen Tara?"
"Yeah," Amber replied, helping herself to the potatoes, "She was just outside. Why?"
"She hasn't come in yet for dinner. I wondered if something had happened to her. She coming in?"
"Didn't look like it," Charlotte responded between mouthfuls of pasta, "She headed outside after we spoke,"
Ophelia's brow furrowed.
"That's... um... odd," she scratched her nose, "Normally Tara eats like a horse,"
.1.1.
Tara heaved a sigh, hands slid up the sleeves of her jumper as she wandered the school grounds at twilight.
She eventually stopped by the school lake, sitting on the grassy slope that gently inclined towards the water body.
She couldn't stop the tear that slid down her cheek.
Drawing her knees to her chest, she pressed her face into them and shuddered in her weeping.
She felt hopeless. Useless. Worthless.
God, he was right.
.1.1.
"Okay, has everyone got what they're going to do?"
"She'll never suspect a thing!"
"Shh! Amber, do you want to wake Tara up?"
"No..."
"Too late," the blonde groaned, rolling over in her bed, "Why are you all whispering? What are you planning?"
"We didn't want to wake you," Jenny replied, somewhat resembling a deer in the headlights, "And we've got our plan to screw with Mary Sue today,"
"Oh yeah?" Tara yawned, brushing the blonde hair out of her cerulean eyes, "What am I doing?"
"Keeping watch with me," Ophelia bounced over, "We get to hang on the field, keeping an eye out for Thickett,"
"Okay," the teen sat up slowly and stretched, before sliding her feet into her slippers and turning to pull up her covers.
Amber watched incredulously.
"Okay? That's it? You're not going to ask what we're doing?"
"Nope," Tara gathered her toiletries and the uniform she had slung over the chair at the foot of her bed, "That way I'm not lying when I get inevitably hauled into detention for it. Moral high ground and all that,"
She slid into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.
Four girls watched, slack jawed, in her wake.
.1.1.
"... And so, in conclusion, you should vote for me, Mary Sue Pleasant, to be your head girl. I'm smart, reliable and fun, which is just what the headmistress ordered. Remember, if she could vote, Headmistress Thickett would vote for me!"
"The saddest part is," Charlotte murmured, leaning over to Amber, "she says that, genuinely thinking it's a good thing,"
Amber smothered a giggle and nodded.
"Alright," the outgoing Head Girl, Jade Kingsley, stood behind the lectern, scanning the lists before her, "Next up, we've got Tara Creighton-Ward,"
Taking their cue, Jenny, Charlotte and Amber rose and assembled themselves behind the microphone.
"Obviously, we're not Tara Creighton-Ward," Jenny opened, "I'm Jennifer James, this is Amber Lam and Charlotte DeSilva. We're Tara's closest friends, and in the interests of keeping this fair, we're now going to tell you all in the most non-biased fashion we can manage, why Tara would be a better choice for your votes," the brunette stepped aside, and let the Asian Amber take her place.
"Now, all of you would remember a few months ago the massive "Thorntree disaster", where our summer school blew up from planted explosives?" there was a murmur in the crowd, "Well, what a lot of you might not be aware of is that just before the explosion, Charlotte and I went into the school. Needless to say, we got trapped upstairs in the fire," Amber closed her eyes, remembering the roar of the fire and the fear she'd felt, "Tara risked her life to come in and save us, for no reason other than the fact she cared. She could have easily waited for International Rescue, but instead she ran in after us, and it's because of her that Charlotte and I can stand here before you today.
"That's the kind of person Tara is. Stubborn and determined; caring and self-sacrificing. And in tense and scary situations like that, she can keep a cool head and work through it to a solution,"
"Not to mention," Charlotte piped up, "Tara knows the school better than most of these other candidates. She's dealt with both the good and bad. Don't believe me? Well, everyone's heard of the detentions record set 20 years ago by the legendary delinquent who stole and hid the school's crest? Three days ago, Tara broke even with this record. Yesterday, she set a new one. Why? Because the headmistress doesn't like her. But isn't this a good thing? Consider it – the headmistress dislikes people with character!"
There were a few titters around the hall. Jenny took the lectern once more.
"Tara has every quality that you'd want in a Head Girl. She's intelligent, though sometimes you wouldn't believe it, hard working, stubborn as hell, incredibly loyal and ridiculously determined. So when it comes time to elect your Head Girl, think Tara Creighton-Ward. You won't be disappointed,"
"Besides," Amber threw in, "the promised entertainment value of Tara as our School Captain is just too good to pass up!"
They descended from the stage amidst applause and cheering. Laughing, the three girls left the hall and headed out to Ophelia and Tara on the field.
.1.1.
Tin-tin peered around her bedroom door, checking the path was clear, before creeping towards Gordon's room.
She was almost entirely fed up with this situation. She knew she had to tread lightly around Alan, but in all honesty, it didn't make sense as to why.
He had been fine with their split. He'd taken that incredibly maturely. And now he was treating her like a leper and acting as though she'd kicked his dog, or cheated on him.
She hadn't.
Nor had she betrayed him in the slightest.
So he had no right to act the way he was, and yet, here they were.
The girl grit her teeth and tapped lightly on Gordon's door.
"Gordon? It's me,"
"Tin-tin?" he murmured, opening the door wide enough to let her quickly slip inside. She leaned against it, closing it gently as soon as she was in.
"Where's Alan?" he asked.
"Out for a jog," Gordon heaved a sigh, and Tin-tin wrapped him in a warm hug.
"It's okay, Alan's going up to Thunderbird 5 in a few days. He's got a month alone to think things through,"
"Or stew endlessly on them," she tapped his nose gently.
"Optimism, Gordon,"
"Easier said than done," he deadpanned.
Tin-tin sat beside him on his bed and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Alan can't stay angry for too long, Gordon. He can be an immature drama queen, but even he'll get over it. You're his favourite brother – he'll move on,"
Gordon raked his fingers through his auburn hair and sighed again, nodding.
"You're right. I guess we just have to wait this out," Tin-tin smiled wryly.
"Easier said than done,"
.1.1.
"Voting day!" Jenny all but skipped into Artemis Hall, sinking down in her seat opposite Tara at the Draconis house table. She beamed at all her friends.
Amber and Charlotte smirked in return, whilst Ophelia poured herself another mug of coffee, cooing as she drank.
Tara shot her a weak smile and scrunched up the bulky napkin in her lap, shoving back her empty plate. She plucked an apple from the basket before her.
"I'm not really hungry, you guys. I'll see you later," she shakily stood and walked out of the hall.
Jenny watched her retreat with a furrowed brow.
Tara looked peakier than usual, and her normally bright eyes and bright hair had dulled, the blonde strands hanging limp against her pasty skin. Her face was more gaunt than usual, her eyes slightly sunken...
And the pale wrists that occasionally showed as her baggy uniform slid up were almost skeletal...
Something was going on, and she was going to find out what.
.1.1.
Tara headed out to the lake and took a seat by the edge of the water, her knees tucked up to her chest. Her azure eyes flickered up to the overcast sky, covered in thick white clouds that were dulling to various shades of grey. The darkened light that shone through seemed almost foreboding.
A cool breeze danced through the air, rustling the leaves of the tall trees on the grounds, blowing strands of blonde hair across the girl's face, and raising bumps on her otherwise smooth pale skin.
"You alright?"
Tara jumped at the question, her head snapping in the direction of the voice.
Jenny sat beside her, her face full of curiosity.
"I'm fine, Jen," Tara replied, resting her chin on her knees, "What's up?"
"You didn't eat much at breakfast,"
"I'm not really hungry,"
"You haven't been eating much lately,"
"I haven't felt well," Jenny's features softened.
"Oh. That... explains a lot. Know what might be wrong?"
Tara considered this for a few moments, then nodded.
"I think it's the pill.(1) Nausea's supposed to be a side effect, so..."
Jenny hugged the girl, trying not to wince at how bony she felt.
"If you're not feeling well, want me to vote for you?"
"Yeah, okay. You'd probably know who'd be best for the job anyway," she paused, "Though even if it's Mary-Sue, vote for the most entertaining candidate. I'd rather have a laugh than have Mary-Sue at the helm,"
Jenny stood, brushing the grass off her skirt.
"Gotcha. See you in TOK later?"
"Yep," the petite brunette strolled off, leaving the emaciated blonde to continue to stare over the glassy surface of the lake.
Above her, the sky rumbled.
Her blank stare didn't waver.
.1.1.
Charlotte's lips pursed as she scanned the voting sheet.
(2) Draconis:
Tara Creighton-Ward
Aquila:
Mary-Sue Pleasant
Allie Nguyen
Billie Henderson
Panthera:
Amelia Stackhouse
Katie Stockholm
Sophie Lithgow
Ruby Bellefleur
Delphinus:
Adie Lee
Evie Matthews
Katrina Evans
Judy Everett-Peters
The future prefect body was assured to be a good one, but the question remained who would lead them, and who would vice.
With a frown, she began numbering her preferences.
.1.1.
Alan panted heavily, coming to a stop at the stairs leading up to the Tracy house in an attempt to catch his breath.
When he had managed to slow his gasps to a more manageable level, he heard one of his brothers splashing around in the pool. From the steadiness of the sound, whichever sibling it was would be swimming laps.
And so, that narrowed it right down to Virgil.
Taking the stairs two at a time, Alan fell heavily into a chair by the poolside. Virgil finished a lap and looked up.
"How was the run?" he asked, leaning on the edge of the pool. Alan replied with hand gestures, his voice tired and his throat hoarse from the jog.
Virgil laughed, managing to still understand Alan's meaning. After having lived on the big and particularly rocky island, they'd all learned to interpret the sign language of the exhausted, most commonly used by the younger two Tracy brothers.
And on that note...
"And how are things with you and Gordon?"
That got Alan seated straight.
"Gordon?" he asked coldly, "Who's that? I don't know a Gordon," he rose, stomping up to his room.
The moment he'd left, Virgil groaned, falling backwards into the water.
Real mature, Alan.
REAL mature.
(1) Before I get any comments about Tara being on the pill, I just want to express that people can be on the pill and not be using it as a contraceptive. I've got friends on it who use it to try and minimise their cramps, to have control over when the monthly plea for death starts, and also because the oestrogen is great for skin and boobs.
I put Tara on it because it would excuse her lack of appetite (to her friends) if it's making her nauseous, as well as account for several other "symptoms" of what's really going on with her.
(2) Just in case this doesn't make sense, or I haven't made it clear – Draconis, Panthera, Aquila and Delphinus are the four houses at Thorntree Academy. Whilst they haven't played a big role, I'll still reference them on occasion.
