The Girl Hidden Within

Chapter 16: Little Talks Part 2

Chapter 16: Little Talks Part 2

Recap:

Slowly her laughter completely fades away, along with her hiccups, and her face gets solemn. "Come on Derek let's go over to the bench over there. I promised I would tell you my story, and so I will."

So still dripping wet they walked together in silence to the bench on the other side of the lake. Each one was trying to figure out what the other was going to say.

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Derek was thinking of why Tessa's parents sent her to this farm, "What had happened? I can't think of anything that would be so bad that would warrant you to send your child away."

Tessa interrupted his thoughts, "I guess to start I'm going to tell you why my parents sent me here. Then I will explain what caused the reason to send me, if that makes sense." She stopped to allow him to answer.

"Well that doesn't make total sense but I think I will get it more once you start explaining." Derek sat interested as Tessa stumbled over her words. "Its ok Tessa, take your time, trust me I'm not going to judge you."

Tessa grimaced at this, "I wouldn't be so sure, even I judge and blame myself." He gestured for her to go on and gave her a confident smile.

"Ok, my parents sent me here so I could find myself, per say. Though they never said it I knew what they were all thinking."

Derek disrupted her, "What who were all thinking?"

She continued, "My parents, my family, old friends, and even teachers. The year I started BrookStone, my private boarding school, they claimed my personality "changed". I heard their whispers and conversations when they thought I wasn't listening. My aunts would say,'Poor Tracey and James..." Those are my parents,"... Tessa used to be such a sweet and caring little girl, a brilliant as well. Since she has started at that boarding school I hear she is terrible. She acts so spoiled, although she is, before she didn't act like that. Her poor parents, they didn't deserve this rude young lady."

Tessa laughed with her breath, "You would be surprised how many conversations I heard similar to this. But do you know what at that point I didn't care, I didn't care about anything, or anyone."

"But why didn't you care, why did you change it couldn't really have been because of your new school?" Derek questioned her.

"Well of course they thought that, I mean I was staring a new school, and I was only twelve. We didn't know who we were at that age we were trying to find ourselves. But no your right that wasn't the case. I'll tell you what really caused if after I finish explaining why my parents sent me here."

Tessa took a minute to compose herself again. This was the first person that she was telling this to, it was a lot to organize and for him to understand. She was trying to explain it as simple as possible.

"Ok I'm ready. So you see at first although they didn't like "the change" my parents did nothing about it. They figured it was a stage I was going through. Four years later they realized it wasn't a stage. So behind my back my mother contacted Mrs. Cassie to arrange for me to stay here over the summer. My parents thought that if I was away from all my bad influence, BrookStone friends and was able to live a simpler life, that the old me might come back."

She paused to think, "In away coming out here did make part of me come back. Just not in the way that they expected."

Tessa was finally coming to terms with what had happened. As she looked across the lake she felt a weight being lifted off her shoulders. She smiled, not a smirk or a fake smile, but a real one, something she hadn't done since she was twelve. This thought brought her back to reality, she still had to tell Derek the rest of the truth. Tessa wasn't sure if he would accept her any longer, the smile fell off her face.