Well I'm back, and it hasn't been absolutely ages since my last upload. I'll take that as a win. I hope y'all are doing well, it was great to see people still reading my stuff at the last upload - special thanks to RachelMasonFan39 for the review, it means a lot to me that you've taken time out of your day to even read, but reviewing is even more awesome.
It's probably worth mentioning that this chapter is kinda a self projection on my behalf and does contain some mentions of gender dysphoria if you squint hard enough so maybe, if that's something you'd rather not read about then maybe skip this chapter (or the few paragraphs after the office scene)
Anyway, this A/N is longer than the actual chapter lol so ima get to it. One last thing tho, my exams start in just over 2 weeks (aghhhhhh) so idk when the next update will be. I will probably be writing in my downtime but sometimes stress gives me total writers block, who knows.
Aight, I'll let y'all read now. Enjoy!
Waterloo Road, as Nat had learned over the past few months, never had nothing going on. There were always scandals and rumours ploughing through the student body each day or explosions and fires, or teenage pregnancy rumours - this list went on and on. However, Nat never expected to find out that she had an aunt, and cousin that she didn't know about!
The door flew open with a little more force than she'd meant to. Cringing as it slammed into a filing cabinet, she crossed her arms, facing her mother who was sitting at her desk.
"Have I got any more family members that I've spent 14 years not knowing about!?" She demanded, only then realising that Rachel wasn't alone.
"I'll leave you guys to talk."
Mr Lawson gave her a small sympathetic smile as he stood up from the small sofa.
"Don't think we're done here though, Rach."
"Come and sit down sweetheart," Rachel said, voice calm. Once her male counterpart had left.
Nat was a little surprised, expecting her mother to be a little more angry with her storming into her office when she should have been in class - she flopped down in one of the chairs in front of the desk looking a little dazed.
Once the door had shut behind Eddie, Rachel sighed and smiled a tired smile.
"You didn't know Melissa existed?" She clarified, wondering how on earth that could be possible.
"No, how could I? I've never met her, you've never spoken about her!"
Rachel's brows creased, "you have met her before sweetheart. Maybe not recently, but I'm sure you have. Maybe you were too young to remember-" she paused to think. Sam had definitely met her, in fact, she was sure she'd mentioned Melissa after the fire inquiring as to her whereabouts.
"-she hasn't been in town for a while and we haven't had the… the best relationship but she was around more when you were younger. That necklace you wear when we go out somewhere fancy?"
Nat nodded, it had a silver chain with a few blue gems hanging from it - modest but beautiful.
"Melissa bought you that for your birthday. Maybe.. probably… probably that was the last time you saw her."
Nat's eyebrows raised, she could feel the anger sinking back down inside of her, "oh. I never thought about where that came from I guess. So how come you never talk about her?"
"She doesn't contact me much, there's never much to say. I was going to talk to you tonight about her being back but you found out sooner than I was expecting. You better get going or you'll be late for your next class. We'll talk some more later, okay? How about I invite Melissa and Phil out for dinner on Friday and you can get to know them?"
Nat nodded slowly, "Yeah, okay. Sorry for erm… for barging in."
Her mum smiled, "I'll let this one slide, as long as you don't make a habit of it. This was slightly my fault after all, so I'm sorry too. Now get to class - I'm not writing you a note, so don't be late."
…
On Friday evening, Nat was standing in front of her mirror trying to decide on an outfit that made her feel like… well… like herself. Whatever that meant.
Image was something she'd been struggling with for a while, it wasn't that she was worried about her peers looking at her, or whatever it was other teenage girls worried about, but more that her body felt wrong and she spent her time trying to wear clothes that made her body feel more… well… like her.
In the end she settled on some jeans and converse with a T-shirt and plaid shirt over the top - both shirts a little too big. She adjusted her sports bra for the final time so her chest looked mostly flat and headed downstairs where her mum was yelling at her that they were going to be late if she didn't get downstairs soon.
"Sorry," she mumbled sheepishly. "Couldn't decide what to wear."
"You look beautiful sweetie."
Nat resisted the urge to wrinkle her nose, beautiful wasn't really the look she was going for.
The meal in itself wasn't bad, the food was good and it was nice to get to know her aunt and cousin. Melissa was nice, but spent most the meal quizzing her about boys even though she tried her hardest to argue that she really wasn't interested in a relationship, at least, not with one of the lads at Waterloo Road. Eughhh. Philip was nice too, he was a year older than her so they had some stuff in common. He wasn't much into sports which was a little disappointing. It seemed she was the only one in their family that liked football, maybe, she thought, that was something she got from her dad. Football and her curly, jet black hair, that she most definitely didn't get from her mum.
By the end of the evening, she'd forgotten about how angry she'd been at her mum earlier in the week, that was until Melissa handed her a piece of paper with her phone number on. Telling her to keep in touch, and that it'd be nice to have both Mason girls in her inbox. It was only then that she even thought about Sam. Her sister had been messaging their aunt this whole time whilst she had no idea she even existed?! Did they just manage to keep it from her, or was she just really oblivious? Only a few seconds of thought made her come to the conclusion that it was probably the latter. She was pretty dumb after all.
Her body image issues didn't haunt her consistently every morning but her brain was definitely reminding her more often that she was… wrong…
It was a feeling she couldn't really explain, and no one else seemed to understand. It wasn't that she wanted to be a boy, but she was starting to think maybe she wasn't a girl. She had always been a 'tomboy' so she'd never really understood some of the ways other girls had dressed and behaved, nor had she wanted to talk about the same stuff sometimes, but this felt deeper than that. It felt different to that.
She'd also been thinking about what Melissa had said when they went for a meal, she couldn't remember a time when she'd really been attracted to a boy, not properly. Sure, she had daydreamed about having a boyfriend but not really. Not properly anyway. That said, she hadn't thought about having a girlfriend though either. Maybe she just hadn't found 'the person' yet, that was a thing right? Either that or she was just a late bloomer - which was a phrase she really didn't want to think about ever again.
After their discussion at the end of the previous year, Nat and her mum tried their best to keep school life and home life separate, mostly successfully. Notable exceptions of course being the fire, Denzil's gun and Nat's outburst in the office the previous week. Some days after school when Nat had a lot of homework, she stayed late rather than walking home straight away. Working in either in her mum's office, or the library if she had a meeting. Sometimes she'd do her homework in Miss Koreshi's classroom if she felt like mixing it up a bit. It was all an effort to maintain the promise she'd made to her mum to work hard so she could continue to play football - it was, even though she hated to say it, working quite well. Her grades were… pretty good and the school football team had restarted practice for the academic year the previous week. Nat was very, very glad to be back, and fully fit.
That was, of course, until she managed to leave her maths homework in her mum's office, only realising once Mr Lawson was making the rounds to collect it.
"I think I left it in my erm… my locker Sir, may I go and grab it?"
"Quickly Nat," Mr Lawson lightly chided, "I expect you to come prepared to my class."
"Sorry Sir, won't happen again," she said hurriedly as she sidestepped around the chairs of her classmates and out of the door.
Her mum was annoyingly in her office - Nat having hoped for her not to find out, but luckily she was alone and only laughed at her daughter's predicament. Helping her find the missing sheet under a pile of files she'd pulled off the coffee table.
On her way back to lesson, Nat was momentarily distracted by a loud Australian, or was it New Zealand accent that seemed to be yelling at Miss Shackleton and a brunette that Nat recognised from the year above.
Seeing that the blonde was obviously struggling to explain something to the increasingly loud man, Nat found herself stopping at the doorway. She felt like saying something, but was unsure as to whether it would help. This guy was pretty angry, and she was only a 14 year old student after all.
In the end, she bit the bullet and knocked on the doorframe, "sorry to interrupt," she said loud enough for both adults to hear her and momentarily stop talking to turn towards her. "But I don't believe the way you-" she gestured towards the man, who she now realised towered over her, making her feel just a little uncomfortable, "-are speaking to a member of staff would be deemed unacceptable. Miss Shackleton may not be a teacher but she does well at her job, which you are now questioning. So, if you want to work here again, may I suggest you tone it down just a little and apologise."
"Nat," Miss Shackleton began, "I really don't think-"
"I told you to be quiet," the man said harshly. "And you kid, who do you think you are? Where I'm from we don't appreciate busybodies, but perhaps you don't care about that. None of you seem to appreciate my culture. How about you teach the class eh Kid?" He was now pointing at the year 11student, "you seem to be smart enough, or do you only learn things on your special little syllabus?!"
Nat watched as the girl grew visibly distressed at being yelled at and stepped forward into the man's view. "The government and exam boards decide what goes on our syllabus so don't take it out on her. So you should probably take it up with them instead if you want more Mauri representation and stop being so rude-"
"Rude!" the man bellowed, taking a step forward towards her. Nat tried to stand tall despite her instincts telling her to cower as he moved even closer to her, jabbing his finger in her direction. "I'm being rude!? You-"
As he got close enough to jab his finger into her chest as he spoke he was interrupted by Ms Mason's calm but firm voice.
"May I suggest you step away from my student, calm down and can someone explain to me what on earth is going on here?!"
The supply teacher was quick to jump to a response, taking a small step away from Nat, but not far enough that she felt able to breathe. "These two-" he gestured to Miss Shackleton and her student, "-were telling me how to do my job. Miss Shackleton here was blatantly racist and this insolent child-" he suddenly grabbed Nat's arm, hard enough that it would leave bruises in the shape of finger marks, "-decided to stick their nose in for no apparent reason other that to-"
"Get your hands off my daughter," Rachel's voice was cool as ice as she cut him off mid rant. "Let go of her."
The man's arm snapped back to his side in surprise as he looked between Nat and Ms Mason. "I'm sorry, your-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence as she cut him off again, "Yes my daughter, now I'd appreciate it if both of you made your way to my office where we can finish this chat without 30 prying eyes." She then looked at Nat, an unreadable expression on her face. "Get back to class."
Nat was quick to escape and hurried back to maths, homework in hand.
She realised as she neared her classroom door that tears were threatening to spill from her eyes, not only did she hate to be the centre of attention, but she'd felt so small and vulnerable for those few minutes even though she knew really that he'd never actually do anything. She rubbed her sore bicep in the hope to get the pain now stemming from it to subside. She wiped away the few tears and sat back down in her seat. Mr Lawson didn't comment on her state, or how long she'd been gone - which was a relief. Feeling the residual panic building back up inside her, she took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves, which were sending her thoughts spiralling. She'd only ever felt anxious about her mum before, but this time it was all about her - which in many ways was worse because she couldn't seem to get it to shut up.
Thanks for reading! (:
