"You've got to open the door at sometime kid. You know I'm not leaving till you do" Jenny heard her dad say for the millionth time that day.
"Go away. I don't wanna talk"
"Well that is entirely up to you. I'll just sit here outside the door. I'm an old man not sure if my feet can take me standing out here for long" Jenny couldn't help but chuckle. Ever since her aunt Amy had called him Old man, he had been sulking about it.
She heard a grumble from outside after which she heard him say in his thick Scottish accent "Ok I'm now reclining against the door, so don't open the door, I'm gonna crash back"
"Don't worry I'm not opening because I don't wanna talk"
"Who says we're gonna talk ? You know I hate talking, it is such a tedious task. No talking."
She knew that man well enough to know immediately when he's lying. She knew the moment she'll open the door he'll barge in and then they'll have to 'talk'. Sometimes a girl just needed time to sit by herself. She was a teenager now and she couldn't talk about everything with him now, he was a wonderful man, a nice guy but there just were moments when she'd preferred staying by herself.
After 5 minutes which seemed almost like a lifetime he said "I'm feeling hungry you know, atleast come for dinner. I won't make you talk, I promise."
He won, Jenny knew it even before she admitted it. She couldn't stay away from her dad for long. He was her weakness, she might stay angry with the whole world for ages but never with him.
Getting up she yanked the door open causing him to fall back with a thud. She swears she didn't expect him to be actually sitting against the door.
"Oww! I told you not to open the door suddenly. What's wrong with that pudding brain of yours ?"
"Who told you to sit leaning by the door when you know this is exactly I'd open the door 'old man'" She grinned knowing that would get to him. It was just the way that they argued. Her dad grinned back in return.
"Wash your hands and come downstairs, I've got dinner ready"
Jenny complied. Washing her hands, she looked at herself in mirror. Her dad always said she looked like her birth parents. She was way too young when they died to remember anything about them but she did have a photograph. She got her eyes from her birth father while the rest pretty much looked like her birth mom. The scottishness in her attitude however came from the man who was downstairs making her dinner. Her dad. It never mattered to her that she was biologically his brother's and not his. He gave her all the love and affection a daughter needed from her father. Sure he was a bit old and extremely grumpy but that was only to the outside world, It's the eyebrows he said and she believed, however she knew well enough what a softie he was.
"Oh my god is that Lasagna ?" She took in the delicious smell as she got down the stairs.
"Does this look like Apple Pie to you ?" She couldn't help but giggle at his scowl. She wondered if people could hear him scowling because it definitely seemed audible.
"Nope. Definitely Lasagna, are you ok ? are you running a fever" She moved ahead to check his temperature with her palm but he swatted it off.
"Ha Ha, very funny, now can we eat please I am hungry"
"You hate Lasagna dad" Pointing her fork towards him, she gave him the expression as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"Well I do hate it but my darling wee little daughter happens to love it and being the nice, loving and caring father that I am, I decided to make it to cheer her up"
"Does sarcasm help ?" She asked raising an eyebrow.
"Wouldn't it be amazing if it did ?" She smiled at the smirk he sent her way.
"but seriously why ?" she wouldn't rest till he admitted it properly.
Huffing he dropped hid fork into the plate.
"You are getting really stubborn"
"Well I am you daughter" She gave him the wide grin she knew would be reciprocated with the full blown smile of his.
"That you are. It's nothing, you had a bad day and Amy said nothing works better than comfort food when your kid's sad and you like Lasagna so here it is"
"Aww daddy! you did this for me" She got up and walked behind his chair and gave him a tight hug wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Stop it, no hugging. I don't hug" She heard him say but could see his lips upturned.
She got back and they started eating. The comfortable silence was nice, dinner time was usually a silent affair in their house, no one spoke much but Jenny knew well enough today was not going to be one of those days.
"Ok, speak up what's bothering you ?" She decided to finally ask.
"Nothing"
"Dad, I can hear you thinking, go ahead ask, let's get this over with"
He got up to clear the table and got to his work.
Loading up the dishwasher he asked "I just, I don't know what's happening with you Jen. Why are you getting into trouble at school these days ? Are you angry with me for some reason ?"
Here's the thing. Her dad had this tad irritating habit of blaming himself if anything went wrong and she had to explain it to him everytime that it wasn't. Let's say this was sort of their 'thing'.
"Come here dad, leave the dishes, it's Friday night, I'll handle the dishes later, it's my day anyway." She patted the place on the couch beside her.
He settled in a few minutes later, the hand towel still in hands as he was wiped them.
She paused the movie they had planned on watching tonight just as it was about to start.
"Dad it is not your fault, I promise and it wasn't mine either" She started fidgeting with the hem of her T-shirt, a clear indication that he wasn't going to completely like what she was about to say.
"Go on .. "
"Well we didn't really get along since she joined the school, not that I don't like her but I don't know, Tony wanted to be her friend and I guess I didn't like it because Tony's just my best friend and I felt jealous, it's ridiculous when I think of it now but anyway that's not the case, today however I .. uh .. I might have .. and the word to be focused on in this is 'might' .. I might have decided to play a prank on Ms. Simmons and that new girl interrupted my plans and that might have made me slightly angry and we might have gotten ourselves into a little fight due to which we might have gotten ourselves into a little trouble with Principal Jones"
"That's a lot of 'might haves' for one confession Jen"
"Sorry"
"Hmm ... what was the prank ?"
She looked up, her eyes bright and the mischief creeping up on her face.
"Well it was the classic mug of paint on the tip of the door prank, Tony was supposed to bring the paint and he did and then that new girl pushed him from behind making the whole paint fall on my top!"
"Why did she do that ?" He asked curious.
"Well she claimed she was trying to save me from being caught. Apparently Principal Jones was coming from the other side of the corridor and she would've spotted Tony so Aurora pushed him aside before she could see him"
"So that means she was trying to save you from trouble ?" Jenny could see the confusion clear on his face.
"Well when you say it like that ... but ... she indirectly did get us into trouble because we did get caught at the end and my favourite top got spoilt"
"But .. she didn't mean to do that did she ?"
Jenna shook her head, guilt clear on her face.
In a low tone as if she was mumbling, he heard her say "that was my favourite top dad, grandma gave it to me" She rested her head on his shoulder.
"Hmm and I'll make sure to have it just like it was before, however I think someone out there might be getting a scolding from her mother because of something she didn't do intentionally"
"Why would she get scolded ?"
"Did you see her mom ? She seems like such a furious woman and that space hair ! Did you even look at that ? The way she glares at me! ME! have you ever seen anyone glare at me ? Like she blames me for whatever causes her to have a bad mood .. as if it's all MY fault! Every time we meet her it feels as if she'd kill me there and then, like all she needed was a blaster or something and she does look like an assassin!" He grumbled but looked up to see his daughter grinning at him widely.
"What ?"
"You are blushing" She replied cheekily and he suddenly touched his cheeks and immediately scratched them when he realised Jenna was noticing him.
"I'm not blushing. I don't blush. It's for earthlings not for time lords like me"
Jenna laughed out at that. It was a thing they did when she was a kid. He would act as if he was a time lord with a spaceship while telling her stories. Fascinating stories of made up planets and species, her favourite however was of the Daleks. The most dangerous enemies of the time lord whose main weapons were a whisk and a plunger. He did have the best ideas.
"Yes yes Mr. Time Lord, I know but you are actually blushing.. Wait a minute! looks like you have a crush old man!" Jenny's grin grew wider.
He coughed out saying "No I don't. Why would I have a crush and that too on HER! You heard what I said, she looks dangerous, an assassin!"
"Well you did call her kid a monster child dad! Obviously she wanted to kill you here and then but what matters here is that you should have seen your face when you described her daddy dearest! Remember that book you were crazy about ? umm .. Melody Malone! yeah.. when Amy asked you about your obsession with that woman and you described her .. that is the face you had on when you spoke about Aurora's mom" She winked.
He groaned, having a teenage daughter was not easy. At all. Okay, he might've have called the kid a monster child but it wasn't his fault, he was always grumpy, half the time he didn't even know why he said what he said.
"How did you even know about that book ? You're not supposed to know that! you are spending way too much of time with Amy!"
"You're not denying dad" she winked.
"Of course I'm denying it, this is me denying it. I DENY IT. There, happy ? I don't have any sort of ridiculous crush on anyone and especially not on that woman and anyway she's someone's mom! I'm not supposed to have crush on anyone's mother! that's horrible."
"Well if it helps you she's single" before he could ask she added "Donna, she knows everything about everyone here and she's their neighbour, she told Amy and Tony heard and he told me .. so yeah you get the idea" she shrugged.
"Oh my god! What is it with you all ? Does anyone have any privacy left ? You're spoiling Tony too! That poor guy used to be so innocent! Until he became your friend!"
"Ha ha dad, very nice. He's my sidekick, so it's basically his duty to keep me updated with the happenings around here, the bottom line is, she is single and you have a crush old man"
"I do not have a crush and you need to stop spending too much time with those people and concentrate on your studies"
"yeah yeah, I'm 16 dad and a genius kid here dad, don't worry, anyway I know we had movie plans but I am feeling sleepy so I'm off to bed, we still on for tomorrow's outing right ? I need to go to the library for my experiment research"
"What are you working on ?" he asked, grateful that she changed the topic.
"Time Travel" she winked and grinned before getting up to go upstairs back to her room.
Halfway upstairs she halted and said "dad, I uh .. I was wondering if you could take me to Aurora's place in the morning once, it falls on our way to the library, I .. uh .. I'd like to apologise to her for today"
He smiled and nodded. The last thing he wanted was to go to that woman's house but his daughter felt she needed to right something she did wrong and he was no one to refuse.
"and you can meet her again" she winked before running back upstairs.
"I do not want to meet her" he shouted back. He didn't want to meet her, he really didn't but he didn't know why the prospect of meeting her again made his heart flutter for a millisecond but he shook his head. That woman was dangerous and he did not have a crush.
As he walked over to the fridge and took out a box from it the lines describing Melody Malone came to his mind ' she's got ice in her heart and a kiss on he lips and a vulnerable side she keeps well hidden' He knew the 'ice in her heart' was spot on but the rest, well looks like he'd find out with time. Wait! why would he find out ? he didn't want to find out. Nope. Tomorrow he'll take Jenny to her place and let her talk with the kid. He won't even get out of his car.
"The movie is named Alien! I'm sure any extra terrestrial species would take offence on that someday and attack us !" he said to himself eating the donuts he bought himself today while trying to rid his mind of the thoughts of Melody Malone or the space haired woman he had met today, again and he might or might not have purposefully bought the last of the donuts he had realised she liked to buy, it's not like he was stalking her but she carried this box on both the times she had come to the Principal's office and she blamed him and he was angry so he might have decided to take revenge from her. He might just leave a bragging note for her the next time he bought the donuts before she could. "That's a lot of might haves for a confession" he grumbled to himself. It's not like anyone really recognised him in the cafe, he never really visited it before he found out the 'space haired woman' liked it. He wasn't really a fan of meeting people. Amy and Donna complained about that, but he was happy here, he had friends and he had Jenny, that was more than enough.