Chapter Text
Tessa is confused as she enters her house and hears a high pitched voice, as if someone is on the verge of crying. Jordan. Oh dear, what crisis has exploded now?
“Dad? Jordan? Is everything alright?” She approaches the living room slowly, after leaving her shoes in the hallway, as if a bomb is really about to be dropped at any minute.
“No, Tess, nothing is alright! Dad doesn’t want me go to prom with Paul.” Right. The Paul Miller issue once again. “He thinks I’m gonna rot alone inside this house until I’m 80 and my back pains can’t take me anywhere else” She protests while frowning her forehead. Jordan could be such a drama queen sometimes.
She really should’ve known this was about to blow up anytime soon. Ever since dad caught her texting Paul about a movies date on the weekend (mental note taken on how to never smile goofily at her phone screeen while around her father), he and Jordan had been sneaking around behind his back. At school, mostly, but sometimes also during the weekends, when she would come up with group studies or movie nights at her friends houses as an excuse. They were bounded to be discovered anytime soon.
The thing was, her dad really didn’t know when to stop being so uptight and controlling about these things.
Ever since her mother died when they were 5 and 7 years old, he had raised the two of them all by himself. That turned him more and more protective of his daughters as they grew up.
Even with Tessa, who would be turning 18 soon, it was as if sometimes he still saw her as his small vulnerable child that needed protection from this ugly world.
For her, his overprotectiveness hadn’t been this big of a problem, mostly because Tessa was pretty much a home animal. She couldn’t stand those high school parties everybody seemed to love so much, just because they could get wasted until sunrise and prove that they were oh so adults now.
She had been to one of those parties in the past and it was enough to realize that it wasn’t her place. As cliché as it sounds, Tessa would much rather stay at home reading a book or doing a TV show marathon or then getting loads of chocolate and junk food when she was out with Kaitlyn.
Now about his dating concerns… Well, let’s say there wasn’t much too worry about in that area either. She knew her reserved and introspective nature made it hard for people to even approach her. And it sure made it a hell of a lot worse for her to be able to open up to just anyone.
It wasn’t as if many people were trying, anyway.
So Jordan ended up being the one with the short end of the stick. She was the younger sister and the one out the two who would kill to go to every party high school could provide.
Sometimes it surprised her, how different they were. She actually admired her sister’s ability to put herself out there and interact with as many people as she could. Jordan had such an open and overly social nature that it was easy for her to make friends and captivate people everywhere she went.
Something Tessa would never be able to relate to.
“Did you know about this? That she was sneaking behind my back?” Her father asks, diverting his exasperated look from her sister to fix it on her.
“I don’t wish to take part in high school drama today, so I’m just gonna sit around here and pretend you two are talking about the upcoming collector’s edition of ‘the bell jar’, okay?” She says, slumping on the couch and already grabbing a book that sitted on the coffee table.
Yep, she definitely did know. Nope, she was definitely not going to engage in that discussion.
“Tess, can you please talk to him? I just wanna go to a ball, it’s not like we’re having a big orgy party.” Her sister looks at her with those big begging eyes, making use of the look she knew was specifically designed to get her the things she wanted.
Uh Oh. Wrong use of words. Don’t ever mention the terms “orgy” and “party” in the same sentence anywhere near one of your parents. Another mental note taken. Even through her peripheral vision, she can see her father’s eyes widening twice its size.
“Well, if you’re going out with one of those hockey guys, then I’m sorry J, but I’m not doing much to help.” Okay, so maybe she is going to engage in the discussion. Just a little bit.
When all of this started, she had a talk with her sister about how these type of guys could be. She had especifically warned her about how Paul Miller wasn’t the fairytale prince in the white horse she was expecting him to be.
If she didn’t want to listen to her, fine, it was Jordan’s decision to make. But she wouldn’t be the one encouraging her to continue this thing when she pretty much knew her sister could end up with a heart broken.
The two of them had a pretty great relationship most of the time, but her little sis could be so stubborn sometimes. Although she probably had to admit, Tessa also wasn’t the easiest person in the world to deal with.
“See? Your sister is absolutely right! You know what? We’re changing our rules here.” Her father states, seeming pretty proud of himself for coming to that conclusion. “You will be allowed to date, Jordan, but only when Tessa dates.”
Oh shit. So much for not engaging.
“WHAT?! But Tessa never dates, this is not fair!” Ouch. Hearing that from your still-soon-to-be-16 sister was absolutely not on the catalogue of her proudest moments.
“Hey! That’s not true, I do have dates!” Tessa defends herself, helplessly trying to hide how her voice went pitchy. It’s a lie. Obviously.
“Oh yeah? With who? Casper, the friendly ghost?” Her sister is already standing up at this point and shaking her hands exaggeratedly, a tell for when she was nervous.
“No, but maybe he could make you company in your room during prom, since…”
“ENOUGH!” Their little quarrel is interrupted by their father, who apparently isn’t in the mood for Jordan’s teenage problems anymore. “This is the last word, Jordan. You can go to prom with this Paul guy if, and only if, your sister goes too. And I don’t want to hear anything more about this.”
As he leaves the room, her sister fixes her death glare on Tessa, the new source of her issues.
“Well, thanks for nothing, sister.”
---
She breathes deeply and exhales the air slowly, reveling in the quiet peace while sitting in a secluded spot most people usually don't go to. School is always so crowded all the time, with all these people rushing through the corridors and speaking way too loudly during every small break they had.
Still during freshman year, she found this spot, a bench mildly hidden between the trees that surrounded the outdoor court. It was her go-to place sometimes, when things got a bit overwhelming.
People used to say that high school would be the best years of your life. She just wondered for whom that could be real.
The only people who truly appreciate high school are those who end up fitting in one of the power positions in the social food chain. The ones who get to walk among the popularity stereotypes.
For the rest of the human race, it’s only something you pretend to like so it could turn up a bit better. Or then, something you straight up just tolerate until it’s over. One or two reservations made, Tessa definitely belongs in that second group.
It had been a few days since the whole dating-slash-prom crisis, but Jordan was still giving her the cold shoulder and some occasional hard stares.
Apparently, Tessa was now the source of the world problems and disruptor of global peace because she didn’t have a boyfriend. Not that she minded, anyway. Her sister would just have to get used to it.
She adjusts her earphones while “she’s gone”, from Hall & Oates, is playing and opens her book where it was bookmarked. It was a study case on psychology’s theory of cognitive dissonance.
Always the prepared one, Tessa wanted to get a headstart on the subject she would, hopefully, be studying for the next four years. It’s true the application processes weren’t over yet, but if everything went according to her plans, she would soon be enrolling in an undergradute psychology program.
Optimistically, in the Toronto University or then McGill. But really, just anywhere they would take her.
If you told little Tessa Jane, this would be her life plan some years later, she would’ve stuck her tongue out and announced that “no way, she would grow up to be an olympian.”
Ever since she was just a small child, Tessa loved learning how to skate and the ice dance classes were her favorite part of the day. In her childish innocence, she would’ve sworn that was exactly what she was going to be doing for the next fifty years of her life.
But then her mother died when she was seven and, all of a sudden, her whole will to do anything other than lying in the bed, watching cartoons and crying the entire day was lost.
Also, with her dad’s depression righ after the death, it was hard for him to commit to taking her to the rink every day.
Eventually, she tried to go back to it three years later, this time going into the singles. She was always better off alone anyway. But Tessa immediately realized that her heart just wasn’t in it anymore. Skating didn’t have the same magic for her as it once had.
So she gave up for good on the prospect of taking figure skating seriously, and kept it as nothing more than a cherished hobby. Still to this day, she would sometimes spend a few hours in a nearby rink and just lose herself in it.
Gradually, during high school, the idea of following a career in psychology took over her heart. She already feels her mind buzzing with the possibilities of what she could do after graduating.
Tessa is so lost in the music and deep within her thoughts that she doesn’t even notice someone approaching and slowly waving his hands in front of her.
“Oh, sorry… Hi” She says, closing the book and taking her phones off. But when she realizes who’s the person talking to her, she couldn’t be more surprised.
Scott Moir. Captain of the Red Falcons, their school’s own hockey team.
“Hi Tessa! How are you?” He says, already slumping in the other side of the bench, as if they were childhood friends who chatted casually every day.
“I’m… fine?” Tessa can’t avoid staring at him in confusion. In nearly four years studying together, she could count in one hand the amount of times they had talked to each other… and there would be some fingers left. What the hell is going on?
“This is a nice place, huh? I’m not used to coming around here.” Oh God, she really hopes he won’t decide to start visiting this spot from now on.
“I’m sorry, what is happening here? Are there any cameras around? Is one of your friends hidden behind the trees?” She starts turning around to check if there was, indeed, someone behind them, but stops midway through when he starts laughing loudly. It had a nice sound to it.
“No, there’s no one hidden anywhere, don’t worry.” He still has a playful tone in his voice. “I know we don’t usually talk, but this is not a prank.”
“What happened, then? Did you come to intervene on Paul’s behalf? About Jordan?” They are both on the hockey team, so they’re probably friends, right?
“No, it’s nothing like that. Paul can take care of himself. I actually wanted to talk about the book club.” He says, rubbing the back of his head.
“What? The book club? What about it?” Color her confused. Scott came all the way back here to talk to her about the book club? What? How does he even know how to find her here?
London’s Collegiate Institute has, indeed, a permanent book club that she is very proud to be a part of. Every month they choose a new book for everyone to read, and then usually gather once a week to discuss it. Genres and topics could vary from autobiographies to historical dramas then to horror stories and everything in between.
She never expected Scott to be interested in it, though. Jocks were a rare sight to be seen in their meetings. And when one of them did make an appearance, it was usually because they got lost and confused the rooms.
“Yeah, I want to know more about it. Like, when do you guys meet? What do you usually read?” He has his body fully turned on her direction as he speaks and gesticulates “I thought maybe I could join the club? If you guys are still accepting people, of course.”
“O-kay” That comes out almost as a singsong, because she's still quite in disbelief. “Of course, we are always open for everybody.”
Tessa is about to start explaining to him how exactly the club works when she remembers something.
“Wait, aren’t you friends with Andrew? Andrew Poje?”
“Yep, I am, why?” Okay, this is getting weirder by the minute.
“Andrew is also a part of the book club. Why didn’t you talk to him about this?” She asks, narrowing her eyes at him. Tessa realizes this probably comes out a bit rash, but she can’t avoid cutting straight to the point.
“Uh… I- I did- Andrew is… he’s very busy right now. He- His grandmother has contracted gonorrhea recently. I didn’t want to disturb him with these things.” He stutters at that, and the volume of his voice has dropped so that she could barely hear the end of the sentence.
“What?! Really?” She has no idea why the concept of Andrew’s grandmother having gonorrhea is so disturbing to her, but it is. “Wow, I’m sorry about that”.
“Yeah, it was a really unfortunate incident.” Scott probably realizes too late the implications of that sentence, because he shuts his eyes closed and runs a hand through his hair. She has to force herself not to laugh at that.
“So, the book club!” A quick change in subject was very much needed, thank you. “Uh, we usually get together on wednesdays at 3 P.M. In the beginning of every month we choose a new book, any genres allowed, and then we discuss it on these weekly meetings.”
“Oh, it sounds great! Maybe I could take a hockey book, huh? Bet it would make a huge success.” He says, with a smirk on his face.
Maybe, just maybe, it’s the fact that this whole interaction is already absolutely weird and her warning alarms have been ringing this entire time. Or then it was just that damn smirk on his face. One way or another, Tessa snaps at that.
“What? Why would you do that?” Her voice is already higher when she answers him. Why do these athletes have to bring up their sports all the time, by the way?
“Well, you said you were open to any readings…” Scott bits his lips, suddenly sounding unsure.
“Yeah, but that’s oddly specific given who you are… Are you trying to mock on this book club, Scott?” She narrows her eyes at him, but can still see how his face falls for half a second before answering.
“N-No, it was a joke?” He says slowly, maybe not knowing if that was the right answer.
“Well, you know what, Scott? We happen to take the club very seriously around here. Think about it before joining in.”
At that, she grabbed her stuff and got up quickly to leave, missing the complete dumbfounded expression left on Scott’s face.
Oh, these damn hockey players.