I do not own this song or the characters. This is Mean about Ace and her Mum.
…..
A teenager with dirty blonde hair runs with a large smile on her face. She knows something will happen between her and mum with what just happened. She sees a blue phone box. "That's weird, I thought they were gone."
"Do you want some tea Dear," Ace looks at the man wearing a question mark jumper.
"No," she takes off again, wishing Manisha was still around so she could hide with her. Knowing that she could use her height as an advantage she crawls into a small space. After a few hours she comes out of her hiding spot she hopes things have calmed down a little.
'You, with your words like knives
And swords and weapons that you use against me
You have knocked me off my feet again
Got me feeling like I'm nothing
You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard
Calling me out when I'm wounded
You, pickin' on the weaker man'
That night Ace dreams of what life would be like if she had a normal family. "Ace my Dear, can you please come down?" Her mum yells for her.
'Coming Mum." Ace, who is listening to her music replies.
"Your birthday is coming up," her father says as her younger brother comes up behind her.
"Is she going to be all smoochy smoochy with her boyfriend?"
"LIAM! You are so immature." Brother and sister start to argue as their parents share a look looking forward to the day they get along.
"No I'm not."
"Yes you are." Ace makes a face at her 11 year old brother who makes a face right back at her.
"No I'm not."
"Yes, you are."
"You two stop it." Ace turns in her sleep as she knows that won't happen. She has no brother or father.
'Well, you can take me down
With just one single blow
But you don't know what you don't know'
The next morning she slowly makes her way downstairs. "She is your daughter too." Her mum argues on the phone with someone.
"The moment you cheated on me she stopped being my daughter." Ace could barely make out the conversation as her mum hung up. Audrey looks up to see her daughter. She slides the classifieds over.
"I thought you said you wanted me to focus on school."
"You are no longer in school and I will not have a freeloader."
"I am your child."
"You may have come from me, but you are not my daughter anymore. If you want to keep living here; get a job."
"Mum, I will go to the school and apologize."
"You went too far this time. You are only good enough to be a waitress now." With that her mum walks away.
'Someday, I'll be livin' in a big old city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?'
The following Monday Ace starts out early in the morning to find a job. All she can hear in her head is the screaming match she had with her mum before she left about what she was wearing as she left the house.
"You are a good for nothing Dorothy McShane!"
"At least I don't sleep around and am ok with my boyfriends touching my teenage daughter."
"You are the reason they won't come back here after you told the whole town your lies."
"The only reason nothing else happens is because I know how to hide."
"Where's your hiding place little girl."
"If I was a little girl I wouldn't be forced to get a job."
"Get out of my house."
"Gladly." Ace storms off with her jacket on her shoulders.
'You, with your switching sides
And your wildfire lies and your humiliation
You have pointed out my flaws again
As if I don't already see them
I walk with my head down, trying to block you out
'Cause I'll never impress you
I just wanna feel okay again'
She finds a place with a 'now hiring' sign and enters it. "I see you are hiring," she tells the woman with curly hair.
"I am, and you are hired."
"No interview?" She is shocked that the woman with crazy curly dirty blonde hair wanted to hire her.
"I am a good judge of character; just ask my husband when you meet him. No one messes with me." Ace smiles at the woman. "Now go get an apron and start, you look like you need something now."
"Thank you, I need to get out of my house. My mum is being a terror."
"Mums can be. You should've seen mine when she found out I was in love with a man that wore a bow tie."
'I bet you got pushed around
Somebody made you cold
But the cycle ends right now
'Cause you can't lead me down that road
And you don't know what you don't know'
After a few months working at the café, the woman who has hired her leaves. Work slowly starts to get worse and it seems every chance possible she is arguing with her mum. 'Why can't someone take me where I belong.' She walks home every night wishing that she could be somewhere else would be someone else. She looks up at the stars, 'is there someone up there, someone who understands me. This isn't me, this can't be my family.' When she arrives back home there is a new car in the driveway.
"Hello Dorothy," her mum says to her as she comes in.
"It's Ace, Mum," she rolls her eyes.
"I would like you to meet someone."
"No thank you, I am tired."
"Young lady?"
"I have been working for 7 days straight, Mother." Ace ignores the protests and goes straight for her hiding place and falls asleep.
'Someday, I'll be livin' in a big old city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?'
6 months later Ace finally has a few days off. She sneaks into her old school and gathers materials for an equation she has thought of. After putting them safely in her room she digs around for old deodorant cans.
Two hours later after her mum has left she gets to work on her experiment which she names Nitro 9. A few hours later Ace makes a miscalculation and something happens as a large puff of smoke surrounds her.
'And I can see you years from now in a bar
Talking over a football game
With that same big, loud opinion but nobody's listening
Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things
Drunk and grumblin' on about how I can't sing
But all you are is mean'
She lands in a foreign place and is glad that she had her jacket on as it was cold. "Welcome to Iceworld. If you are looking for a job, the milkshake shop is looking for a waitress." Ace turns around to see a man in his 40s.
"Hello there sprog, you look lost."
"Well, I'm not."
"Are you about that, the name is Sabalom Glitz."
"The name is not interested, now get out of my sight." Ace tries to move away when he grabs her hand.
"Are you sure you don't want a drink?"
"I am sure, get away from me, male chauvinist belch bag." Ace tears her arm away from the man and heads in the opposite direction away from him.
'All you are is mean
And a liar, and pathetic
And alone in life, and mean
And mean, and mean, and mean'
"And the third we get to by the time we get to Perivale." She smiles as the Doctor finishes his sentence, "now do you want to see your room?"
"Yes Doctor." The two make their ways around corridors until they come to a door.
"Why is the ship humming?" Ace has her hand on the doorknob.
"My TARDIS is telling you that she likes you."
After she opens the door her mouth opens to find a boom box, a chemistry set with chemicals she doesn't recognize, "for the most part it is exactly like my room was like back on earth."
"What's missing, I am sure she can make it for you."
"A hiding place."
"Why did you need that?"
"To hide whenever my Mum and I would have one of our blow ups or she would bring her newest guy over." The Doctor looks at his new friend and brings her into a hug. She freezes at first before returning the hug that she thinks would feel like a hug from a father.
"You will never need to hide in my TARDIS. We may get into dicey situations, but you will be safe on my ship. Do you want to sleep, a tour or some tea?"
"Can I have some food before a tour?"
"Of course." The hug ends and she follows him into one of the kitchens, and for the next few years she has an adventure with a man who at times was like a father to her.
'But someday, I'll be livin' in a big old city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean, yeah
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?
Someday, I'll be livin' in a big old city
(Why you gotta be so mean?)
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
(Why you gotta be so mean?)
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
(Why you gotta be so mean?)
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?'
"Have you seen my daughter," are the last words of Audrey McShane as she falls into a drunken slumber. Ace has been missing for two years on this day. Audrey swears she heard that her daughter came to town with a strange man, but didn't come see her. "What did I ever do to you? Oh yeah I was a shite mother and said the worst things. You were my world. I just wanted you to do better than me." What Audrey doesn't know is that her daughter has done all of that and more. Outside her house there is a figure who is tired and wants to go to the one place she knows after leaving her home.