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"So, Rose, how was it? Did you make any new friends?" Jackie asked from the living room where she had been watching television, waiting for her daughter to get home.
"Not a single one, mum. I told you a new school was a bad idea." It was Rose’s first day at Gallifrey Prep, a prestigious school that she had always hated. She would have never gone there, if her dad hadn't actually made money off of his newest invention. She would have been happy living on the Estate, but no. A new house, a new school, and no friends didn't seem that great to her, even if it came with all the money in the world.
"Everyone there kept looking at me - they knew I was new money - oh mum, if you’d have seen the looks!" Rose groaned, throwing her backpack onto a chair and sinking into the sofa next to Jackie.
"How about I make you a cuppa?" Jackie asked, patting Rose’s arm. "It’ll get better, don’t you worry. Now relax; your favorite soap is about to start."
- - - - -
"Well, how was it today? Any better?" Jackie asked as soon as she heard the door close. She must have been in some other room - the living room was empty.
"It was… good." Rose replied, kicking off her shoes and dropping her bag. Jackie appeared in the hallway, leaning out of the kitchen.
"Oh, well now! And what happened to make you change your mind? You've been moaning and groaning about that school for almost two weeks."
"I - made a friend, I suppose. If you can call him that."
"Him!?" Jackie cried, disappearing back into the kitchen (Rose assumed to take something off the stove based on the banging) and dashing back to sit next to her on the sofa. "Oh, Jimmy has some competition!"
"Mum! It’s not like that! His name’s the Doctor. Don’t ask, let me finish. He’s just some bloke who sits next to me in my Physics class. He understands it better than I do, and he’s been teaching me so I don’t fail out of fancy Gallifrey Prep. That’s all." Rose tried to quickly put a stop to her mother's scheming.
"If that’s what you say," said Jackie, smiling, with a familiar look in her eye. "Have him over for a study date soon, okay?"
- - - - -
"Rose! You forgot your sweater!" Jackie yelled from the doorway. Pulling her own coat a bit tighter, she stepped out onto the front steps and saw Rose already halfway down the street. Knowing where she was going, but still curious, Jackie stayed out a few moments longer, just to see Rose find her friend at the street corner.
The Doctor had turned out to be a good influence on Rose, since he started tutoring her in most subjects and helped her get her grades up. Rose had even had him over for dinner a few times, and though Jackie would complain a bit, she and Pete both liked the Doctor. He got along with Rose fantastically, and they were always off to go see the stars or whatever those two did. It made Jackie happy to see Rose with a goal in life (unlike with that no-good Jimmy Stone), yet every time she hinted at something more Rose insisted they were just friends. As if.
- - - - -
"Doctor, is that you?" Jackie asked, not even glancing over to look at the young man entering the house. The skinny figure closed the door and stepped into the light of the living room, revealing his brown pinstriped suit and tousled hair.
"Hello Jackie! Nothing slips by you, does it?" He waved at Jackie when she looked over, nearly dropping his house key.
"Stop trying to flatter me, Doctor. But thanks for coming. Rose is upstairs in her room, upset over that no good bloke. She went straight upstairs as soon as she got home. All over that rotten, cheating-"
"Jackie!" Pete warned from another room, giving the Doctor a chance to inch a little closer to the staircase.
Using Jackie's discussion with the still unseen Pete to get away, the Doctor began to take the stairs two at a time, pressing something closer to his side. Something that crinkled in plastic and dropped a few petals. Pete entered the room with drinks for Jackie and himself, and, noticing the Doctor, leaned over to Jackie and asked something.
"Doctor! Put the flowers in a vase!" Pete whispered dramatically after Jackie confirmed his thoughts. The Doctor turned and meekly went back down the stairs and into the kitchen, grabbing the vase he always used from under the sink.
- - - - -
"Rose, are you alright?" the Doctor whispered, knocking once and slowly opening her door. Rose sat on her bed with teary eyes and her knees to her chest, surrounded by tissues.
"Better, I 'spose," she mumbled, giving a shaky smile upon seeing her visitor.
"Oh, I know that’s not your smile. A Rose Tyler smile would make someone think they’d looked at the sun too long, it’s that dazzling," he joked, earning the privilege of watching her smile grow a little brighter.
"There isn't much you could do to get a smile like that right now," she murmured, sitting up against the wall.
"Well….would these make you feel a little better?" he asked, pulling a vase of flowers out from behind his back. Rose let out a laugh, wiping her eyes.
"Come here, you," she managed, holding out her arms. The Doctor put the flowers on her dresser and enveloped her in a hug. The Doctor kept hugging her as long as he could, until he felt her draw a shaky breath. He drew away and looked at her as a few tears fell on his sleeve.
"Did you not like the flowers? I picked roses because I knew Jimmy always got you daises since he thought it was cliche to get you your flower. It is cliche, but he should have gotten you some anyways, the idiot-"
"Doctor, it’s not about the flowers. It’s just, 19 years and no one besides my parents ever thought to get me roses. It seems like nothing, but it means a lot. Thank you Doctor." When she hugged him again, she lay her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, and he felt like his heart would burst. Her eyes suddenly snapped open when he picked her up.
"Doctor!" she shrieked, laughing as he spun her in a circle until they were dizzy. When they collapsed in a heap on her floor, they had a good long laugh, until Rose finally stood up and offered the Doctor a hand. With a smile, she tugged him to his feet. "Now you can say you got your Rose Tyler smile," she said. "Also, how would you feel if tonight, we paid a visit to Jimmy Stone’s house?"
- - - - -
All bundled up against the cold, the pair rushed down the stairs hand-in-hand, with Rose leading the way with several rolls of toilet paper in her free arm. They kept laughing and then shushing each other, as though they were trying (and failing) to be quiet. Once they were both out the door, Jackie and Pete walked back to the sofa from the shadows of the hallway, and allowed themselves a few laughs as they picked up their glasses once more. Pete glanced at Jackie, who seemed to be glowing with happiness.
“Just friends?” he quipped, looking at her grin.
“Best friends, apparently,” she responded.
“I’ll drink to that.”
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