✅ The Last New Start [NaNoWriMo2021]

89. A New Toy

She was still thinking about her thinking; and she knew she would learn a lot, when she grew up enough to understand what she was learning. And that made it a whole lot more exciting for her. But the thoughts at the front of her mind were all about the presents, and what might be in them, and what she had to do to look after her little sister.

She said no to Gabby. She said she was going to make sure Ffrances had the best Christmas ever, and that was her job. She said she would do everything she had to do so it wasn't any more work for Gabby; and she knew as she said it that all the work would be fun as well. It wasn't something she had to do; it was something she wanted to do. Something that she would really enjoy, even if most people would call it work. She was determined to do this now, for herself as well as for Ffrances, and she wasn't going to let anyone persuade her different.

When they came through into the lounge, the first thing Tess did was hug her little sister, and help her to open the parcel she had been shaking. Inside that one she found a tiny doll, and Ffrances hugged it eagerly even though it was a plastic doll that was a lot harder than a real baby. Tess stroked the baby's hair as she looked at her doll, and giggled at the irony. Gabby was treating Tess like a baby, Tess was looking after Ffrances, and now Ffrances had a little baby of her own, small enough to clumsily hold in her arms.

Then it was Tess's turn to open something. She had a lot of presents, and she didn't know which ones were hers. It was tempting to pick the biggest one first, but she could already see the name on the big blue box that took up half of the space under the tree. She decided to go for a little one instead, reasoning that it was about the size of box that a ring or a necklace might come in. It could be super cute, or it might even be a magic ring! She thought that she was being a little silly there, but she couldn't stop thinking about what a magic ring might do. Sure, it might have been not magic at all, but that was such a boring possibility that it seemed to slip out of her mind right away. And she knew that when she was more grown up she was really going to enjoy thinking about stuff more; like how she kept on thinking silly things like that.

"Do you want that one?" Gabby asked. "Do you need any help?" Tess just shook her head, and turned the gift over and over until she could find the edge of the paper and start tearing it apart.

"It might be a magic ring!" she said, and she knew right away that she had got Ffrances's attention, and Gabby's too. She blushed when she realised she was the centre of attention, but she was having so much fun that it didn't really matter. "What do you think it does?"

"I don't know," Gabby said. "But I know that when you're so little, it doesn't matter if it's magic or not. You'll be so excited when you open it – or when you get any new jewellery – that you want me to help you put it on right away, and it makes you feel even more like a sweet little baby girl."

"Yep," Tess blushed. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew now that it was something Gabby had packed for her. This was some kind of trick, something to make her feel more like a baby. But she wanted to know what the magic ring was, and she wanted to keep on playing. Deep in the back of her mind she was aware of Gabby's attempts to manipulate her, but she was enjoying this too much to just stop. She wanted to have fun, and she wanted Gabby to feel good too. So just this once, she thought, she could go along with it and see what happened. It would be nice to look back on later however it turned out; she could learn more about what kind of things magic could do.

"Yep," Tess repeated. "We are that little." And she knew as soon as she said it that she didn't have a choice now. The idea of opening a magic ring was too exciting, it filled up all her thoughts so that she couldn't think of anything else. And she knew that whatever was in this box, it was exciting enough that she would have to try it on. Even if it was an evil magic ring, she would have to try it. That was its own kind of excitement, and she knew that she would have so much to think about later.

She tore away the wrapping paper, and found a little plastic box inside. It wasn't like a ring box, it didn't look so fancy. But there were pink hearts all over the outside, and she couldn't wait to find out what was inside. She fumbled with it in her haste to get inside, and dropped it on the floor. But she grabbed it up as quickly as she could, and started tugging at the edges again, so eager to find out what her present was. If this was how excited a little kid could be for presents, she already knew that she wanted to be littler next Christmas as well.

Eventually Tess found the right space to pull on the little box and it clicked open. It wasn't a ring inside, and she was really surprised by that. She had been so sure, but that just went to show that she didn't know as much as a grown-up. Still, she had spent so long opening this present, and she couldn't wait another second to try it on. She kind of knew that was what she'd agreed to feel, but it was still an irresistible urge. Just knowing where those feelings came from didn't make it any easier to resist them. And finding that she was helpless just made Tess more excited.

She pulled the pacifier out of its box, and put it in her mouth right away. There were ribbons attached to it, or some kind of strape that looked like it might go around the back of her head. It wasn't like the one currently clipped on the front of her onesie, but she wanted to know how this new kind of one felt.

"What's this for?" she asked, and then laughed. She was doing exactly what she was supposed to; she knew that now. And that in itself was funny. "Can you help me with..."

"I didn't expect you to get one of these," Gabby said, and she was laughing. But Tess didn't care, she just wanted to try the new pacifier. "It's like a strap so it doesn't fall out of your mouth when you get distracted. Would you like to try that? You'll have to wave at me if you want to take it off."

Tess waved eagerly, and laughed as her cousin clipped the thing onto her head. She was right; Tess couldn't just spit the pacifier out now, she had to keep on sucking. And that just made her feel even more giggly than before. Then she turned back to her baby sister, who was already grabbing clumsily at the presents in front of her. She couldn't tell which ones had her name on, that much was clear. But Tess just hoped that Ffrances would be able to find something as much fun as this new paci.

They had only opened one present each, but this was already the best Christmas ever.