Summary ~ When a fatal accident occurs, many lives are forever shifted. Elizabeth must take on the challenge of a new role, and Tess must learn how to adapt to her new life.
Genre ~ Mark/Elizabeth/Tess/Kate
Disclaimer ~ Every person you have heard of before are not of my creation. The characters you have not heard of before are mine, although I borrowed their names from Centreville High School.
Need to Know ~ This story takes place in 2015. The last episode that applies to this story is April Showers.
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It was raining the day school started for the twins. Dark clouds loomed over head, and rain pelted the ground. The air was extremely chilly. If it had been ten degrees cooler it would have been snowing. According to Tess and Kate, it was freezing outside. But if you asked anyone else in that house, the whether was warm for January in Chicago.
The gloomy whether fitted Tess’ attitude about that day perfectly. She was not looking forward to going to school at all. Unlike Kate, who was rather relieved to be back in school. Tess was dreading have to emerge herself in her school work, knowing fairly well she wouldn’t be able to get back into the swing of things as easy as her sister. When Tess walked down the stairs she could smell French toast being cooked in the kitchen. She faintly heard Julia and Kate talking about topics that didn’t interest Tess in the least. Tess was dressed and ready for the day; wanting nothing more then to just get this whole day over with. She glanced at the clock on her way into the kitchen. It read 6:35. Tess knew she had to leave at seven. If she could she would have left right then and there. But she knew Elizabeth was expecting her in the kitchen.
"Morning Tess!" Kate smiled as her sister walked through the kitchen to the refrigerator where she began raiding its contents. Tess didn’t reply. She poured herself some orange juice and refused the French toast Elizabeth offered.
Julia left about five minutes after Tess came downstairs. After she left, Kate didn’t say much. Neither knew quite what to say to the other. When the grandfather clock in the den struck seven both girls put their jackets on and gathered up their stuff. They then walked the half a mile to their new high school.
Tess glanced over her schedule yet again. She was desperately trying to navigate this new school. It seemed so much larger then her school in Seattle and she wasn’t use to the large volume of people. She steered her way through the never-ending line of hallways. She finally found the room she would now call first period.
It was World Civilizations.
Tess groaned. She hated world history more then anything. Learning about people with weird names who had been dead for three thousand years did nothing for her. She never minded American history. At least she could relate some things to that. But world history seemed so pointless to her. She hated every moment she spent in that class while she was in Seattle. And it was just her luck that her new school had block scheduling.
Tess slid into a seat in the back of the room. The seat was right next to the window, which wasn’t a big surprise. Tess loved to sit by the window. Whenever the lectures got boring she would just stare out of the window and watch the cars drive by and the people go about their days. Sometime she would make up lives for the people. She would give them jobs and a family. Her mother always hated that Tess daydreamed so much. Tess remembered that her mother did almost everything in her power to get Tess to focus in class. But nothing ever worked. Tess was a daydreamer and nothing would stop that. If you wanted to see a person who was focused in class you would have to talk to her sister.
The bell chimed three times, signaling that start of what, undoubtedly, was going to be a long day. The class chatter quickly died down as the pledge was recited. Finally the morning announcements ended and the teacher walked to the front of the class. "Alright world civ, we have a new student! Tess Ross is joining us from Seattle! I hope you will all be nice to Tess and make her feel welcomed." The teacher smiled.
Almost everyone in the class turned around to face Tess. Her cheeks became bright red and she wanted to curl up into a ball and die. She hated being the center of attention. She wanted everyone to go away. Finally the teacher began to speak and everyone turned their attention back to the front of the room. Tess glanced at her schedule. Langmin was the teacher’s name. Mrs. Langmin. She was a tiny little woman. Probably no taller then 5’3. Tess rolled her eyes as she looked at her new teacher. She must have weighed 98 pounds! And from the looks of it she hadn’t eaten a real meal in probably a week. Tess figured the woman must live off of tic tacs and yogurt. And if she was feeling wild, two percent milk.
Tess sat back and sighed as Mrs. Langmin droned on about Confucian theories or something of that nature. Tess didn’t care. She wanted to go home.
**********
"Bonjour class!" Kate’s new French teacher smiled. The class responded with a not too enthusiastic hello. "We have a new student today! Mademoiselle Kate is joining us from Seattle." Madame smiled. The teacher went on to tell Kate about what to expect and what she needed and so forth. Kate smiled and answered all her questions politely. This new teacher seemed so much nicer then her old French teacher. If there was one good thing about moving to Chicago, it was not having to deal with her.
"D’accord, ouvrez vos livres a la page cinquante cinq!" Kate fumbled with her book and quickly opened it to page fifty-five. The teacher went over vocabulary, and lucky for Kate, it was a unit she had finished in Seattle. So she seized the opportunity to impress her new teacher. She raised her hand several times in class to offer to conjugate verbs and answered several questions. Kate always loved her French class because she loved learning a new language. She loved to be able to say things in French, which wouldn’t sound as pretty in English. And with this new nice teacher, Kate had a feeling she would like this new situation more then she had originally thought.
**********
Great, it was lunchtime. Just what Tess needed, a lunch all by herself, so she could miss her friends even more. She was not looking forward to lunch at all. She didn’t even care if she was hungry; she didn’t want to go to lunch.
She pulled out the brown paper bag that Elizabeth had packed for her. Tess had a feeling she would not like what she had packed. She wandered around the cafeteria searching for an empty table. When two girls came up to her she was shocked.
"Hey Kate! Come on, we saved you a seat!" a pretty little blond girl chirped as she made her way over to where Tess was standing.
"What?" Tess asked surprised.
"We told you that you could sit with us, now come on!" another girl smiled.
"I have no idea what you are talking about." Tess snapped. The two girls looked at her confused. The blond girl tilted her head to the side in confusion.
"Hey guys!" Kate smiled as she walked over to where the three girls were standing. When she saw Tess she said, "Oh, hey Tess."
"Whoa, you’re not Kate?" one girl asked Tess.
"No, I’m Tess, Kate’s twin sister." Tess declared.
"Oh cool! I have never been friends with twins before!" the blond girl squealed. Kate spoke up and said, "Yeah, guys this is my sister Tess. Tess this is Susan and this is Caitlin. They are in my Algebra Two class."
"Caitlin?" Tess said, her face falling.
"Yeah, I’m Caitlin Plunkett. Nice to meet you." the blond girl said extending her hand. Tess shook it quickly.
"You HAVE to come sit at our table." The girl Tess assumed was Susan demanded.
"No thanks, I’m fine." Tess said.
"Oh come on! It will be fun!" Susan smiled.
"Please Tess." Kate said softly.
"No, I’m okay." Tess replied.
"Okay, fine." Caitlin said. She turned around and walked over to the table. "Come on Kate!" Kate looked at Tess and Tess said nothing. Kate then turned around and walked over to the table of her new friends and sat down. She glanced at Tess one more time. Tess walked over to an empty table and began eating in silence.
**********
Both Tess and Kate entered the house at the same time. Tess flipped off her shoes and threw her backpack on the chair where her sister threw hers soon after. They both went into the kitchen and began raiding the refrigerator. Tess was starving; she hardly ate any of her lunch. She made herself a peanut butter sandwich and plopped down on the couch. She turned on the television in preparation to watch her favorite soap opera.
Just then Kate came in the room. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Tess watching TV. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" Kate asked.
"I’m watching Passions, why do you care?" Tess snapped.
"Because I am suppose to be watching General Hospital." Kate replied.
"So? Just watch it downstairs."
"I can’t watch it downstairs because the TV is broken!" Kate said, her voice rising.
"And that’s my fault?"
"YOU BROKE IT!!" Kate shouted.
"Too bad Kate, I got here first. Maybe tomorrow you will get to the remote first, and you can watch General Hospital."
"Look Tess, I can’t miss General Hospital! Bobbie is suppose to die in a massive explosion and Luke finds out that they aren’t brother and sister!" Kate wined.
"Well if you already know what is going to happen then you don’t have to watch it do you?" Tess retorted.
"Give me the remote Tess Ross!" Kate said trying to pull the remote out of her sister’s hands. Just when Kate was about to pull it out of Tess’ hands the telephone rang. Kate groaned and got up to answer it. "Hello." She said cheerfully while glaring at Tess. "Oh hey Elizabeth…no, we’re fine…yeah, just great…it was pretty good…okay…okay…bye" Kate said putting the phone down with a click. "Saved by the bell!"
"What did she want?" Tess asked annoyed.
"She was just checking up on us like people are known to do." Kate replied. She began walking towards the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Tess asked.
"I’m going to the mall with Caitlin and Susan"
"Why?" Tess asked annoyed.
"Because they invited me. Besides, it sounds like fun. I need to get out with different people." She said as sweetly as she could.
"Yeah, sure, fine, go ahead." Kate smiled and went up the stairs. Tess just rolled her eyes as she left. She pulled the pillow next to her close to her chest and buried her face in it. She cried. She hated this already.
"Julia!!" Tess yelled, pounding on the bathroom door.
"Go away Tess." Julia replied. "Come on, you have been in there for like, an hour! Some of us have to get in there too you know!" Tess snapped.
"Yeah, well maybe you should go use the other shower!" Julia yelled over the noise of the sink.
"I can’t, Michael’s in there."
"Well then you are going to have to wait!"
"Ugh!! Come on, I’m tired and I want to go to bed!" Tess yelled, banging against the door again. Julia popped her head out of the bathroom and said in a snotty manner, "Well, then maybe you should go to bed."
Tess became enraged with that comment. "Don’t get snippy with me!" Tess demanded.
"Don’t tell me what to do!" Julia fired back. "I don’t have to listen to you."
"Yeah, and I don’t have to listen to you! So maybe you should just cooperate and get your ass out of the bathroom so other people can use it!"
"Hey, this is my house!"
"Well, right now it is my house too!" Tess said annoyed.
"Well, I don’t want you here!"
"Oh, you think I want to be here? Oh believe me, this is the last place on earth I want to be! Maybe if your parents had raised you right you wouldn’t be so damn selfish and you would think of others!"
"Well, maybe if your parents had raised you right you wouldn’t be such a bitch!" Julia screamed. Tess didn’t say anything next. She just looked at Julia, her eyes full of hurt. Julia didn’t know what to say. She honestly never meant to say that. She would never try and hurt someone like that. "Tess, I…" she started to say.
"Don’t bother." Tess said softly. She then swung around only to come face to face with Elizabeth, who was looking at both of them with a very angrily. No one said anything at first. Elizabeth looked from Tess to Julia, then back to Tess. She finally looked at Julia and said,
"Julia?" Julia looked up from the ground and looked at her mother who beckoned her to continue with what she knew she had to say. "I’m sorry Tess. I really am." She said sincerely.
Tess didn’t respond. She didn’t feel the need to respond. She looked from Julia to Elizabeth. Elizabeth glared at Tess, and Tess finally surrendered. "It’s okay." She sighed.
Elizabeth silently thanked God that Tess had cooperated. She didn’t think she could take another scene. Tess had been cross with everyone in the past week, and Elizabeth was just about at her wits end. "Thank you Tess." Elizabeth said. Tess didn’t say anything back.
"Julia, get out of the bathroom." Elizabeth commanded.
"But mom!" she wined.
"No buts! Tess needs to use it and you have had plenty of time. Now get out!"
Julia stomped off to her room, mumbling the whole way. When she closed her door neither Tess nor Elizabeth said anything. Tess then turned and walked towards the bathroom, but before she got the chance to enter Elizabeth said, "Tess, before you go in there, can we talk?"
Tess just shrugged and said, "Sure" without an ounce of enthusiasm in her voice. Elizabeth began walking towards Tess’ room and after they both entered Elizabeth closed the door. Tess plopped down on the bed and Elizabeth sat on Kate’s bed. Elizabeth asked, "Tess, are you alright?"
"Of course I am alright." Tess answered without hesitation.
"Really?" Elizabeth questioned, not fully believing her.
"Yeah, why wouldn’t I be fine?"
"Well, you seem to be getting better, not worse." Elizabeth stated.
"Well you really don’t have anything to go off of. I mean, how do you know I don’t just act like this all the time." Tess replied with annoyance.
"Because I knew your mother, and I knew your father. And I heard how they talked about you and I saw you a few months before the accident. And how they described you and how I saw you act is nothing like you are acting now."
"Look, I’m fine, really. I am not suicidal; I am not doing drugs, so you don’t have to worry. I’ll be fine, really." Tess assured her.
Elizabeth was quiet, desperately wanting to believe Tess. She nodded her head, finally giving up. She got off the bed and left the room. She then stepped into her and Mark’s bedroom, where he was lying on the bed reading.
"How’d it go?" he asked.
"She’s not fine." Elizabeth stated. "She says she is, but she isn't. I can tell."
"She will be fine. She seems to be getting better."
"Yeah, she seems to be getting better. It’s always when things seem to get better that they take a turn for the worse." Elizabeth said.
"Look, why don’t you just ask Kate to talk to her if you really don’t feel good about this. See if Kate can get her to open up." Elizabeth nodded, understanding what Mark was saying. Kate could be the key to getting Tess to open up. Chances were that if Tess was going to reveal what was going on to anybody, it would be Kate.
Elizabeth tried to reassure herself that maybe Tess was getting better. Maybe, just maybe, Tess would be fine.