What is this feeling?
She is the only one who lives in that house. No one else wants to be near grandpa’s collection of oddities from around the world.
She, the reject of the family, was only to happy to live near strangeness if it got her away from her ‘family’.
They treated her terribly and it was hard to be charitable towards them when there was nothing redemeable about them. They were almost the classic fairy tail evil step family, except that there were twins, brother and sister, rather than two sisters.
That, and her father had joined the abuse rather than dieing and leaving the new wife and brats to do it.
She knew she made an easy target being overweight, having a bad complexion and growing social anxiety. Thanks family.
Going to school with her ‘siblings’ made it harder but she couldn’t afford to switch to online schooling yet and had no adult figure who would stand for her to switch.
At fourteen, schooling was still manditory, even if they were prefectly fine with her living alone none of the ‘family’ would allow her to drop out. The half sibs would be only to happy to snitch if she started skipping.
Fortunately, if you could consider it that, her health was pretty bad.
She’d never been taken to a specialist but she suspected something was very wrong with her body. Despite the fact she ate as healthily as she could her body continued to expand and she suspected either diabities, a thyroid issue or possibly Pcos. (Her periods did give her hell. They were irregular, heavy as hell, laided her out with cramps so badly her hands shook… probably vitamine deficient in something but she didn’t have enough informaiton.)
She NEEDED to see a specialist… but none of her ‘family’ cared.
She’s SO tired of this and school is a torture, it’s to be endured only.
One day, she directs a well dressed girl her age away from a side street where she knows her younger half siblings and their thugs are lurking.
She hasn’t told anyone of course. Who’d believe her. Her siblings are ‘popular’ in that way that says ‘agree with me and do as I say or you’re next on the shit list’, attractive enough and have a built in alibi in their twin. She would be dubbed a jealous troublemaker if she tried.
She knows from experience. She tried a few times when she moved up, in the hopes this lot of teachers might actually do something about it. She was wrong.
She can’t even commiserate with their other victims because that would draw extra attention from her siblings to them…
This is the only way she can actually spite them and she’s only to happy too.
They beat her up often enough, even knowing that she has no money to give them as all her bills, food money included, are direct debted and she can’t access the money.
(What money she does have, and never on her, comes from writing a few light novels she sold through a self publishing site online.)
The girl was horrified that they do that and, that she is living like that.
For her act of kindness the girl, a young mistress if ever there was, invited her to attend the school she did instead.
As it was between terms right now, her ‘savior’ agreed.
Anything was better than what she had.
She could put up with being a charity case, pet project, whatever this young mistress wanted.
Even if the other students looked down on her, at least she’d be away from her ‘siblings’.
She… missed grandpa. She missed him so much. He was the only one in the family who gave a shit about her.
He was always a little fey, a little strange and though he’d loved his children, they never understood him. Never actually listened to the tales of his travels. Want nothing to do with that house full of mementos of his adventures.
She LOVED it. Not only does it keep the rest of them away but it’s full of such interesting things.
She were never sure how much of the stories were tall tales but you listened avidly anyway.
(A lot of her ‘light novel’ ideas came from his stories and she's sure he wouldn’t mind. Such amazing tales deserved to be shared with audiences who would appreciate them, unlike his ungrateful, privileged brats… of which her father is one.
Her father may have sired her… but, with the death of her mother, anything decent in him has gone. It wasn’t even her birth that harmed Mum so she doesn't know why she is so hated. Her mother passed away from cancer and there was nothing a six-year-old could have done...
She is glad, in a way, that her father didn’t listen to Grandpa's tales. They would have been wasted on him.)
Some of them are positively unworldly.
Like the ‘fascination cabinets and tables’ the well-to-do of England use to keep to amuse and entertain guests, his collection is full of fascinating objects and keepsakes, each with a story attached and she has written up each one.
Despite this, she hasn’t been in there since he died.
There are too many memories attached and she just missed him so desperately.
Maybe… it was time to.
She just needs to gather her courage… if this shift in schools actually happens, she will.
It will be a sign to herself from the universe that things can change.