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?
When she opened the fridge, she saw something that made up her mind for her. There was a small brown paper bag, with a sticky note on the front saying "Family: for breakfast. Help yourselves." It must have been something that Logan picked up last night on his quick run to the supermarket. And when she opened it up, she saw a small package of bacon, sausages, and a separate package of mushrooms. Perfect.
Tegan knew she wasn't the best cook in the words, but now she knew that her new family thought bacon was an appropriate breakfast, she could make some for everyone. Of course, that would mean cooking for Ness as well. But she was happy to do that, knowing that it would help to insulate her against any attempts at character assassination. She needed to take the high road, and show that she was more mature than her new brother.
It wasn't long before she heard footsteps on the stairs, and she wondered who it could have been. But she also knew that she could so easily get in trouble today. She had heard plenty of stories about the person who fought back against a bully getting the more severe punishment, and she didn't want that to happen to her. She didn't say anything that could attract suspicion; so long as she had the upper hand, she wanted the siblings' feud to remain between the two of them. But rather than an introduction, she heard footsteps coming downstairs, the lounge door opening, and then footsteps retreating the way they had come. She didn't have a clue what that could mean. But the scent of bacon frying was already wafting up the stairs, so she had no doubt that everybody would be down soon.
"Smells delicious!" her dad's voice came from the doorway, and she realised that as she put the finishing touches to their breakfast she had stopped paying attention to sounds from outside the room. She hadn't even heard him come down. "For me?"
"I did enough for everybody," she said. "We're a family now, right? We should all get along."
"Yeah," he said. "Thank you. I should have expected you to exceed my expectations. Logan and Ness are going to come down soon, I think. They just need a little extra time to get ready, there's been a little issue but it's dealt with now. I hope you two can get on well, someone his own age to talk to would really help with... well, some of the problems they've had. I don't know if that's something I should tell you, or if we should wait until Ness is ready to tell you himself."
"It's okay," she said with a shrug. "He won't want to tell me his embarrassing secrets, will he? I don't need to know, not really. And it won't happen again, I'm sure. Not like he's a little kid or something."
"I know, he's not," her dad said slowly, and there was something deliberate in his voice now. But then he changed the subject, stepping up beside her to help her plate up four breakfasts. "You were humming when I came down. Or whistling for the higher notes. I think I recognise the tune. You seemed kind of enthusiastic, I hope that's a good sign."
"Yeah," she said with a laugh. "I'd better stop doing that or I'll embarrass myself in front of my new family. I don't even know why that canon's on my mind now, but it always makes me happy."
"Bit of a coincidence," he said. "I mean, I don't know all the technical stuff you do, but I can imagine a tune in my head when I see sheet music, with all the blobs going up and down. And you know what? I think Ness has got the same tune on his music stand. He's got a keyboard that he hasn't played in years, and I'd swear that's the same piece. Bach, right?"
"Y...yeah..." Tegan stammered, and she knew he was right. That was why it was in her head; she'd seen it the night before. And that was a big mistake, because it made her dad suspect that she'd been in Ness's room. She shouldn't know anything about what was in there. "Is he into classical, then? I kind of assumed... well, emo punk maybe? I guess I don't know him at all yet, but..." She couldn't say any more. She hated that she was having to lie to her dad, but she'd painted herself into a corner and she had to do her best to fix it now. Next time, she would need to be a lot more careful. There was no telling what her substitute brother would do if their fathers started trusting him over her. She couldn't afford a single slip-up.
"Maybe you've got more in common than we thought," her dad said slowly, like he was thinking hard. "So, did you sleep okay, first night in a new place?"
"Yeah?" She sat down at the table now, ready to tuck into her breakfast.
"That's good. I think I heard you moving around last night, but that's only natural in a new place. You know, one time I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and saw Niles out of his room with a bowl of water in his hands. Some kind of childish prank, maybe."
"I... uhh..." Tegan stammered. He knew? She couldn't even imagine how, she was sure that the dads' bedroom door had been closed. There was no way he could have seen her.
"Well, I think he was going to play some kind of prank on you. But I told him, in no uncertain terms, that I won't tolerate that kind of behaviour. A little teasing, maybe, but not something like that. If he'd gone through with that, he knew I would have kicked him out. Even my own son, I wouldn't tolerate that kind of trick. I know I might not have done everything I should have done to ensure you're comfortable, but I want you to know that something like that is completely unacceptable. That's not just teasing, I can't see that as anything but malice. So I promise, there will be no pranks like that in my house."
"Yeah, uhh..." Tegan did her best to find an answer. He must know, or why would he have brought it up? Had Ness suspected something? Or just accused her to cover her own shame? Or, now she thought about it, had she sabotaged herself without realising? Yes, she thought. She's said that it wouldn't happen again, and that Ness wasn't a baby. When her dad knew for sure that nobody had told her what happened. That, together with the music, almost certainly convinced him that she'd been in Ness's room. And now it was too late to do anything about it, except remember to be a lot more careful in future. She could maybe pass it off as a coincidence this time, and then hope that she might be able to give herself an alibi next time.
"Just so you feel safe," he said. "I know neither of you kids would ever think of something so cruel. But I want to reassure you both, so you know that nothing like that happens in my house. And I trust you, sweetie. You always seemed to care about others as you were growing up. You really don't take after your mother, do you?"
"Dad," Tegan said, stalling until she could think of some excuse, something she could say to him. But she didn't want to lie. She wanted him to know that she was just defending herself from the bullying she had lived with for so long; but she couldn't find any way to say it that didn't sound like she was the one in the wrong.
"Sounds like they're ready for breakfast," her dad said, defusing the atmosphere as a vague wave pointed to the sound of footsteps on the stairs again. "Maybe it's time for you to meet Ness now. I don't think you've even seen each other yet, but I'm sure you'll be such good friends if you can give it a chance."
And just like that, it was as if her earlier mistakes didn't mean anything. That had been a warning, she was sure, but Dad wasn't going to push her to confess. As long as she didn't try to take control again, their fathers would step back and let Ness do whatever he wanted to her. But that wasn't a valid option, so she knew that she had to find some way of convincing them that Ness wasn't the mature one here. And she was already working on the problem in the back of her mind, when she got her first chance to speak to her new step brother.