Meet Teddy (Teardrop), a nonverbal girl starting high school. Despite her introverted nature, she's going to find herself connected to the centers of drama in the new high school. Between her two childhood friends (one of which has an evil twin), a...
Teddy scooped up Rain in her arms as Dora put all that had fallen out of her backpack back in.
I think that's enough for you now, Teddy thought, opening the door and lowering Rain onto the hallway floor.
Rain meowed at her, seemingly in protest, and Teddy soon realized that it was about time to feed Rain again. She turned back to Sawyer and Dora and typed into her AAC app. "I have to feed Rain now. And I guess afterwards, we should finish our homework before we forget."
"Hasta luego," Dora replied.
"Can I come with you?" Sawyer asked. "I can work on my homework when we come back, but Rain is so cute!"
Teddy thought about it, but couldn't see any harm so she nodded as she grabbed her tote bag and put her phone back into it, and Sawyer jumped up. "Thank you!" she exclaimed as she joined Teddy by the doorway. Sawyer looked back at Dora. "Dora, do you want to come?"
Dora shook her head, so Sawyer and Teddy waved goodbye before Teddy picked Rain up and the two girls with one cat walked downstairs to the dining room.
Teddy set Rain down near his gray food bowl and blue water bowl, before grabbing an unopened can of cat food on the kitchen counter. Using the can opener to open it, she then turned back to Rain. Sawyer was crouching down to look at Rain in awe. Teddy smiled and shook her head before putting the food into Rain's bowl, which Rain happily started gobbling up.
Teddy pulled out her phone and started typing on her AAC app, turning to Sawyer. "You probably shouldn't bother him while he's eating. He gets grumpy when he's interrupted while eating."
"Right," Sawyer said, standing back up and backing away.
Teddy noticed that Rain's water bowl was now empty, so she put her phone back into her tote bag and took the water bowl to refill it.
After this, Sawyer and Teddy went back upstairs after Sawyer waved goodbye at Rain, who obviously did not notice because he was busy eating.
When they entered Teddy's room again, they saw that Dora had finished her math homework already and was looking at a map. Since Rain had gotten off the bed already, Dora had repositioned herself to sit on the bed.
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Image: Dora, a girl with medium brown skin, brown eyes, and dark brown hair that reaches a bit past her chin, is sitting on a light blue surface in a room with dark blue walls. She is wearing a light gray shirt and is looking down at the list yellow map in her hands.
"Hey Dora, what are you looking at?" Sawyer asked curiously.
Dora just rolled up the map and put it back into her backpack. "Nada," she replied.
"Okay..." Sawyer replied hesitantly, sitting down next to Dora and starting on her math packet again.
Teddy found it curious that Dora rolled up the map as soon as Sawyer asked about it, but decided to respect Dora's privacy and not pry. She sat down beside them and pulled out her three ring binder from her backpack, flipping over to the folder where she put her math homework.
As she and Sawyer worked on their homework, Sawyer started discussing what happened that day at school. Teddy and Dora were content just to listen, but Sawyer would ask them questions every once in a while, to which they would answer.
"I'm kind of scared of Professor Four, to be honest," Sawyer admitted as they finished their math homework.
Teddy gave the gray eyed girl a sympathetic look before remembering what Announcer had told her about a solution to dealing with Four's screeches earlier. Moving over to her desk, she grabbed her noise canceling headphones and put them into her backpack.
Typing into her AAC app, she asked, "Professor Four's screeches bother you too?"
"I mean, they're loud, but it's more his temper that scares me," Sawyer explained. "Professor Four is really strict. And from what Gale, Lola, and Talia told me, today wasn't even the worst they can be." Sawyer paused, looking thoughtful. "Though speaking of them, I wonder how Lola and Talia managed to not get detention during lunch since they were running late to Professor Four's class earlier."
As if on cue, the three girls heard the characteristic ding of a text message. Teddy didn't have to check her phone, since she had it out this whole time and no notification popped up onto her screen. Sawyer opened the front pocket of her backpack to find that it was her phone that received the text message.
"Oh, it's the group chat," Sawyer explained, showing her phone screen to Teddy and Dora, "Talia and Lola just got out of detention. Huh, it seems like for the sophomores at least, detention is after school instead of lunch."
In the group chat was a picture of Talia taking a picture of her and Lollipop in front of the school. Lola looked annoyed while Talia just had a smug look on her face as she posed for the picture, which seemed to be taken by her.
More dings sounded as more messages popped up on the screen, but Teddy was more curious about the group name. "Why is it called Bleh?" her AAC app asked.
"Talia set it up and she didn't know what to name it, so she just named it Bleh because it sounded random," Sawyer explained. "Wait, so you two want to join? I could add you in. What's your phone numbers?"
"Are you sure that the others would be okay with this?" Teddy's AAC app asked, voicing her concerns.
"I'm sure they will be," Sawyer replied as she held out her phone, which had now been switched over to her contacts, "After all, it's just Talia, Lola, Gale, and I. We all sat together at lunch, so things should be fine."
Dora shrugged and took Sawyer's phone entering her number in. She passed it to Teddy.
Teddy finally relinquished and entered her number in as a new contact before handing it back to Sawyer.
"GREAT!" Sawyer yelled. Upon seeing Teddy wince and cover her ears, she apologized and added the two other girls to the group chat.
Teddy saw that she was now in the group chat and soon Lola, Talia, and Gale all greeted the two newcomers within the chat, which Teddy replied to, greeting them back.
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Teddy yawned, waking up. She had a good night's rest after all the excitement of yesterday. After her friends went home, she took did her chores, ate dinner, brushed her teeth, then went to sleep. Now it was time for her second day of school. But first, she had to shower and brush her teeth, then get dressed and eat breakfast. She also had to refill Rain's food and water bowls.
After taking a shower, she quickly blow dried her hair, combed it, and then put it into its usual bun. She continued her morning routine, but as she went downstairs, her parents looked at her worriedly. She quickly fed Rain and refilled his water bowl, then washed her hands so she could eat breakfast.
"Teddy," her mom said somberly as Teddy ate.
Teddy looked up, confused.
Her dad looked at her worriedly, but her mother just swallowed and continued. "Your friend Penelope got into an accident last night and now she's in the hospital."
A clang was heard as Teddy's spoon dropped from her hand onto the floor.
Author's Note: Yes, in case, you missed it when I updated the last chapters, there are now images! Sorry this chapter has been kind of slow. It's still early into the plot, so there's not much I can think of that happens in this time frame that's plot relevant. Instead, we get Rain the cat, which I am not going to draw because I can't draw cats.
