✅ The Last New Start [NaNoWriMo2021]

22. No More Problems

By the end of her second week in her new home, Tess was really starting to feel comfortable there. All of her initial worries seemed to have drifted away. She could tell that Gabby felt like she should still be some kind of babysitter, making all of the child's problems go away, but it really wasn't necessary. And she was starting to see that Tess was capable of taking care of herself.

Every day now, she woke up to smile at the plant on the corner of her desk. She didn't have green fingers, so she thought that Spike had really made the perfect choice. It was a plastic sunflower, with a big smiling face in the middle of the flower, and it danced from side to side when the solar panel on the back of the pot was lit brightly enough. It made even her personal pink hell feel like a real home.

Today was Friday again, and hopefully the first time she would be able to show her parents how much she had changed. They had managed to get proper Internet access now, and had promised a video call after she finished school. It would be a little stressful, but Gabby and Ffrances had promised to help her tidy her room first; so she could be absolutely sure that there was nothing a concerned mother would yell at her for. Ffrances, it turned out, was a very responsible person and only too happy to help with Tess's studies if there were any subjects she knew about. She was a psychiatrist, but had also done a lot of different research in a decade at different universities, and it seemed she was extremely good at finding an answer to just about anything. She'd stayed over three times in the last week, and Tess was glad that she was here today, because it meant Gabby would be putting in a lot of extra effort with breakfast. She might be a good cook, but when she was trying to impress her girlfriend every detail had to be perfect.

A good breakfast would put her in the perfect mood for breezing through Mr Minchin's history test. She didn't think it was easy, or that she would do spectacularly well, but with a good meal inside her it would be so much easier not to worry, which might give her a little advantage.

Tess shook her head, pulled herself out of bed, and only then realised that something was wrong. A problem that she'd put behind her long ago, making an unexpected new appearance. Her pyjamas were wet again, and there was a small puddle in the middle of the sheets. She hadn't woken up wet since the weekend before, and had been starting to think the problem had resolved itself. She couldn't believe that this had happened, and she almost yelled something in frustration, before remembering that there were two people in the house today and that she desperately needed to keep her secret. Gabby guessing what had happened was one thing, but she couldn't bear the thought of her cousin's girlfriend thinking she was anything other than a responsible adult.

She took a deep breath, and tried to put all the worries out of her mind. She had laundry to deal with, followed by an exam, a mostly boring day at school, and finally let her parents see how she was living. At least the first task had become a little easier since the weekend before, thanks to her housewarming gift from Ffrances, who apparently had a very practical mind hiding behind a figure anyone would be jealous of.

She reached into the corner of the room and produced a large canvas bag. The bag held exactly the same volume of clothes that the washing machine could effectively clean, which meant that Tess could check before she brought stuff downstairs whether it would be one load or two. It was already filled with just about everything she had been wearing this week, about two-thirds full. She tipped it out onto the bed, scrunched the sheets up as best she could with the wet patch on the inside, and then returned all of her laundry, including the pyjamas she was wearing now, to the bag. It took some force to get everything in, but she thought it was good.

She quickly changed into her school uniform, and then walked downstairs. She wasn't surprised to hear movement coming from the attic room, or that the kitchen was still empty. She was up a little early today, and there was no need to rush. She loaded the laundry into the machine, tipped detergent into the tray, and turned it on. She was getting used to this chore now, and thought that after another week she would no longer need to think about which program to set the machine to. She paused, sniffed the air. Was there a faint smell of pee in here? It certainly wasn't her; but there might have been an odor left behind as she carried the sheets downstairs. After a moment deep in thought, she turned on the coffee machine. That should solve that problem; nothing could overpower the smell of the oddly-sweet Hawaiian beans that Ffrances preferred.

When she was sure she wasn't unintentionally leaving any clues behind here, Tess returned to her own room. There might be a little smell in the air, but she could cover that up by opening the windows half an inch and lighting a sandalwood incense stick in the holder on her desk. Those had been another impulse buy from last week's shopping, just in case of a contingency she'd been sure would never happen. But she was glad that she'd thought of it. She was an adult now, able to resolve every problem by herself.

She was in the bathroom five minutes later when Ffrances came downstairs with Gabby close behind, both smiling. They gave the impression that they would have been holding hands, if the attic staircase hadn't been just a little too narrow. Gabby waved a hand in front of her face, pantomiming the dispersal of something particularly noxious. More than likely she'd caught a gust of Emeraldine, a new perfume that was supposed to be the first choice of all the celebrities right now. It wasn't a fragrance Tess would have bought, and she certainly wouldn't have got the matching body spray, but it had been a gift from Aunt Mary and it would have been a waste not to give it a try.

"Laundry day again?" Gabby said with a raised eyebrow when they reached the kitchen.

"Just like last week. Better to get into a routine, right? And it seems like weekly is about right, I had a full bag of stuff."

"So grown up," Ffrances admitted. "I would never have been so mature at your age. Hell, I'm still not organised enough to get up and put it in the machine before work."

It's impressive," Gabby agreed. "But sometimes I wonder if you're trying too hard to pass yourself off as an adult. It's okay to take a step back sometimes, you know. Have someone else help you, so you can relax a little."

"I'm good. I'll tell you if I need anything."

"Sure. Now, what do you need this morning? Think waffles will hit the mark?"

"Yes please!" Tess and Ffrances spoke at once, and Gabby turned back to the cupboard with a smile. The kind of expression that said they were close to being the family she had dreamed of.