(A.N. This is directly after the school day ends, so we can see Tessa get ready. On another note, I have a theory that Jem is Josh Ramsay from Mariana's Trench. He's had both black and white hair and he's into music like Jem and I feel their personalities are extremely alike, especially if Jem had been raised in modern times. And he's exactly what I always have imagined Jem looking like. If you don't know who Josh Ramsay is please google him or something because his band is amazing.)
Tessa
Tessa's school day was over quickly, and she had way too much homework for one person. Advanced classes are killers. She couldn't even focus a lot, though, her mind was occupied all day. With her internet best friend, Will. A.K.A. Nerd_Ruler, A.K.A. The person Tessa was to meet for the first time in real life, tonight.
As soon as her last period bell rang, she said a quick good bye to Cecily's brother, William, who was in a huge rush to leave for whatever reason. She didn't have much time to dwell on her roommate's odd brother, however, because Cecily ran into the room the second Tessa got her stuff together. She had an odd gleam in her eyes.
"Hey, Cecily. Why are you here?" Tessa asked kindly. Cecily gave her a bit of a confused look and replied, "I'm helping you get ready to meet Will tonight, obviously. Are you ready to go to the dorm?" Tessa grabbed her things and let herself be lead out of the room by Cecily. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be."
Cecily and Tessa ran into Jem on the way to their room. "You know what to do?" Jem asked Cecily, nodding his head to Tessa dramatically and making some type of code hand signals to Cecily that Tessa had no chance of understanding any time soon.
"I know exactly what we need. It'll be fine." Cecily assured Jem, and he nodded curtly in response. Then Jem left promptly and Cecily dragged Tessa the rest of the way to their dorm. "Okay, Tessa. I've already looked through your wardrobe and I don't feel like any of it screams 'Hey, friend I met online that I have developed feelings for' Instead, we look about the samew sign so try on this dress." Cecily stated, throwing Tessa a dress. That shade of blue was exactly the same color as Cecily's eyes.
It took Tessa a while to put the dress on, but it looked great. It accented her curves and the color went surprisingly well with her eyes, skin tone, and hair. (A.N. It's the dress in the media picture at the beginning of the chapter.) Cecily smirked as Tessa walked out of the bathroom. "He is going to love this. So are you by any chance wearing a matching underwear set?" Cecily mumbled.
Tessa blushed bright red and gasped, her eyes widening, "If I am it's because of coincidence not because of anything you might be thinking. Aunt Harriet would kill me, and just no!" she exclaimed. Cecily laughed and shook her head, "Just kidding, just kidding. Time for make up."
That's when Cecily began her magic. "Sit in the seat. Do you want to watch Sherlock or Merlin? I'll never forgive you for getting me started on that if it breaks my heart, by the way." Cecily said, grabbing the remote. "It's a BBC thing, so no promises. And no spoilers. But yeah, let's watch Merlin." Tessa replied. Cecily quickly switched to Merlin on Netflix and started where she left off.
Next, Cecily started on Tessa's skin. Tessa didn't really need much makeup, so Cecily just put some foundation and concealer on, and putting extra concealer under Tessa's eyes. That girl stayed up way too late way too many times reading. Next, Cecily went for the eyes. She did Tessa's eyeshadow first, putting a mix of gray, blue, and white that made Tessa's eyes pop. After that she put on really heavy mascara and used liquid liner to wing Tessa's eyeliner.
Overall, it was a bit more dramatic than Cecily did for Tessa for school, but that was okay. Considering Tessa was meeting a friend for the first time. A friend she might have developed a slight crush on over the years. Sometimes when she thought about it, it was crazy. Certifiably insane. Who would date someone they had never even seen? It was just that, you never fall in love with how someone looks, that's infatuation, you fall in love with their soul. Whatever it may be, their soul is what you fall in love with. Wait. Love?
Tessa shook off her thoughts and looked in the mirror. A sharp tusking sound came from Cecily as she spun Tessa around to look at her instead of the mirror. "Not done yet, we need... Ah!" Cecily explained shortly, grabbing blush. Tessa felt the soft powder line her cheekbones, and let her mind wonder to her homework. Specifically, her poem for Creative Writing. She had decided to go with Will's idea for just doing the story.
(A.N. This is a poem I wrote based from a story I wrote when I was little)
It was a cold, sharp Winter's day,
When these three children came to play,
There names were Lucas, John, and May,
But they came to a tree where a body lay,
John, as May's old brother, decided to go first,
He went to the body, poked it's head, and then it sang a verse,
"Oh dears, oh dears, please gather 'round. The monsters come tonight,
Be careful for if you get too tired, they shall come and bite."
Lucas was a skeptic soul, and couldn't help but laugh,
"Careful, May, this Jester, here, will show you Monster's wrath."
But soon the corpse stood up and used a tree stick as a staff.
"Smite this jester to the ground, or sacrifice his calfs."
They lived in a small farming town and it could be visibly heard,
-
Tessa was stopped from thinking about her poem when Cecily polled her shoulder. "So, what do you think?" Cecily asked. Tessa looked at the mirror and giggled, (well, snorted.) and answered, "It looks great! You're an expert Cecily."
"Thanks, now go ahead to Taki's. They have free wifi so you can do some homework or something. It never hurts to be early," Cecily paused and quickly sprayed Tessa's hair with hairspray. "It's perfect just like this. (The picture for her hair from their first day of school is her hair now) So now, you may go." Cecily gently pushed Tessa out of the chair and Tessa went to her backpack and computer case, slinging her backpack around her shoulder and gripping her computer case. "Later!"
The Uber ride wasn't very long, and Tessa had plenty of time before she had to get ready. When she got in, she had plenty of time left, so she ordered her coffee and sat down, creating a small workplace for herself on one of the tables. She began to type her poem from earlier, quickly, so that she wouldn't forget any of it. She was about half way through when she noticed Cecily's brother, Will.
He looked as if he had been standing there for a while, and he was looking at her. "Will?" she asked. He backed away a bit before regaining his posture and he sat at the seat across from her. "Oh, hey, Tessa." Will mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck, "What's up?"
"I'm meeting someone. Actually, his name is Will too. He still probably won't be here for a while. Speaking if which... I kind of forgot to tell him I was here. I'll text him, quickly, sorry." Tessa said, pulling out her phone.
Ships-For-Days: Hey, I'm at Taki's. I'm working on homework, so I'm a bit early. When you get here look for the brunette with a tone of homework to do.
About a second after she had sent the text, there was a ping from Will's phone. "I have to answer this, one second." Will mumbled. He was certainly mumbling an uncharacteristic amount. "That's cool. If you don't mind me asking, who is it?" Tessa asked curiously. Suddenly there was a ping from Tessa's phone.
Nerd_Ruler: So Tess, you're my best friend. I'm sorry.
Ships_For_Days: Why?
"Um, yeah, so... I- I'm Will." Will stuttered. Tessa half laughed nervously, "Yeah, I know your name. Your my roommate's brother, if you don't remember." Will shook his head. "I'm quite the ruler of nerds, you know. You're my best friend. I'm sorry."
Tessa's eyes widened, "Are you?" Will pulled out his phone and texted her.
Nerd_Ruler: I'm William Herondale, brother of Cecily Herondale, and I'm sitting right by you.
Tessa shook her head, "No. No, Will. I told him about you. About the one who hated me at the mall and then we were kind of friends. You're not my Will." Tessa just kept shaking her head, and she began to out her things up, when Will stopped her.
He gripped her wrist, not too firmly that it hurt her, but it stopped her from putting the last of her things away. "Tessa, I am your Will. I knew you were talking about me. I'm always first like, remember? I remember when Nate died and the shady people before that and I know about how you like to imagine you're a fictional character in situations where you don't know what to do."
Tessa pulled her wrist back. "If you knew who I was, why didn't you say anything?"
Will sighed, "I got into some bad things and I didn't want you to think less of me or be involved with the bad things." Tessa continued to pack up her stuff, until she was ready to go. "Listen, I need a bit of time to process." she said, exiting. Before she could go, Will pinned her wrists to the wall. "Please don't go. I need to explain more. I need to..."
Will didn't continue his sentence as he stared down at Tessa's lips. Tessa felt his gaze and attempted to shift, so she could look down, but before she managed to, Will kissed her. He kissed her roughly and fiercely, and she had to admit that it was the best feeling she could imagine, but... He lied to her. And he forced a kiss on her, he had no way of knowing that whatever feelings he may or may not have were returned.
Tessa broke off the kiss, turning her head to the side. Will realized what he had done and released her wrists. "Tessa, I-" He was broke off by a sharp connection with his cheek. Tessa had slapped him. "What the hell, Will ?" Tessa exclaimed, and then she stormed off. Tessa looked behind her as she walked and saw Will touching his lips and cheek, looking dazed.
Now Tessa could only comprehend one thought, This is getting confusing.
(A.N. MUAHAHAHAHA. I feel nice adding Will getting slapped. So this story will end up speeding up by a lot compared to what it has been. Consider that it's the end of second day of school and this is Chapter 17. Anyways, thanks for reading!)