✏️ Under One Roof

5. Two Mistakes

This bonus chapter is dedicated to James P, with thanks for all your support!

Tegan woke up, reached for her alarm clock, and her hand met empty space. She stretched a little farther, grunted, and then found herself tumbling over the side of the bed. A moment's panic flashed through her mind, only replaced by a wave of disorientation as she fell, grasping for anything to support herself. She hit the carpet with a thud, thankfully still tangled in a thick duvet. That was enough to absorb most of the impact. And then she could look around her, slightly more awake. Finally, she remembered that she was in a new house now. The house from her childhood memories was impossibly far away, and the people who featured in those memories even farther.

Once she'd picked herself up and dragged a brush through her hair, Tegan started thinking about her new house. About whether it would be worth rearranging things a little to put her alarm back on the side she was used to. She limped around the bed to slap it into silence, anyway. And then she started to wonder about how Ness would be reacting to his wakeup call. She could give herself a little smile when she thought that even if her backside was a little bruised, she wasn't waking up to a wet bed and questioning her life choices.

She would need to speak to Ness, she knew. She couldn't just leave him to his own devices now, as much as she might want to. Because she knew nothing about his personality; and until she could get a better measure of him, she couldn't be sure that this little prank was enough to dissuade him from picking on her further. She needed to see how he was reacting, and maybe turn the screw a little to make it clear that she wouldn't tolerate any funny business. With that in mind she dressed for the day ahead, pulling on clothes that were more casual than scruffy. The kind of outfit she might have considered for a date, once she had time to settle in to her new home and get to know people again.

As soon as she stepped outside her room, she knew that nobody suspected she had done anything. Ness's door was open, and she could hear concerned voices coming from inside.

"It's nothing to worry about," Logan was saying. "First night in a new home, after everything you've been through... Yeah, unexpected. But not the end of the world. I'm sure that once you get used to a new room, it won't happen again. And I'm sorry, champ. I know how hard this is for you, but I just hope... I thought this would be what's best for you. You know? A chance to make a new start. You don't have to dwell on..."

Then there was silence. The kind of choked-up silence that made Tegan feel guilty for eavesdropping. She told herself that it wasn't a problem, and that it was only natural to be aware of what her bully was thinking and feeling. But that only worked for the boy; and she could hear that this was somehow upsetting his father as well. She barely knew Logan, but she knew that her dad loved him. Logan had been the rock who kept her dad from falling apart after her mum took off with Jorgen, so she had to respect him at least a little. And she shouldn't be eavesdropping on whatever trauma he was hiding. Only Ness was her enemy, and she needed to remember that or she could become as bad as him.

She started humming when she got to the kitchen. She needed breakfast, but didn't want to find herself straining to hear the faintest hint of someone else's conversation drifting down the stairs. So she hummed to fill the air with sound, and to give herself a little more optimism about the day ahead. She started out amusing herself with a pop song that she'd heard a lot lately without ever picking up the name of, but quickly segued into the familiar lively progressions of Prelude and Fugue in D Major. It didn't sound quite right as a vocal performance, especially when she didn't have perfect pitch control, but the melody was familiar enough to cheer her up each time she heard it.

As she looked forward to the day ahead, she decided to prepare breakfast for her father as well. It was something he'd done for her so many times, and she wanted to show him that she was helping. But then she wondered if she should make something for Logan; it would be kind of weird to exclude him. But how would she know what he wanted?