FortySixtyFour
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RE: Trailer Trash 55 pt 6
🕑 Added 2023-12-15 16:40:08 +0000 UTCThe bus ride home was much more rowdy than the trip to school had been, but Tabitha had apparently already earned her in—after picking a vinyl bus seat for herself, Jacob and then Gary came and chose seats across from her.
“‘Sup, Tabby,” Gary said, tossing her his basketball.
To her credit she managed to catch it—barely—grabbing at it with one hand and managing to trap it against the front of her camouflage hunting jacket. It seemed like Gary was about to laugh at her near fumble, but she smirked at him and cradled the ball in her lap for a moment, rapping her knuckle against her opposite sleeve to reveal a knocking sound.
“...Sup.”
“Ah, shit—I forgot your arm’s broke,” Gary looked genuinely apologetic. “My bad, my bad. Here.”
“Smooth,” Jacob scowled at him, spreading his hands for her to throw the ball his way. “Hey girl, here!”
“Tabby,” Tabitha corrected him.
“Tabby, right,” Jacob said, flicking his fingers with impatience. “C’mon.”
With a scooping motion, Tabitha got one palm beneath the ball and then managed to lob it in an underhand throw that should have gone right to him. Instead, Gary intercepted in a smooth motion, swiping the basketball out of the air and stealing it back just as it was passing over the aisle. Tabitha couldn’t help but be impressed, but when the pair of teen boys saw her big smile, they both looked away and had that caught in the act body language going on, as if a teacher was about to reprimand them.
Oh, wow. RIGHT. Teen boys, and a halfway cute girl smiling at them—that’s gonna be SUPER EFFECTIVE and do CRITICAL DAMAGE. Gotta watch where I point this thing.
With conscious effort, she schooled her expression down a grade to a look of mild bemusement, and aside from a subtle second glance Jacob sent her way, they were past that awkward hiccup. Small talk while other kids were still boarding the bus progressed as far as new classes suck and you have homework? Yeah me too, it sucks. By the time the bus engine rumbled to life and they were underway, Gary twisted in his seat to deliver an elaborate retelling of the basketball match he’d played during lunch today to Jacob. Although since Jacob had apparently also been there playing in that same game and was offering corrections and commentary, Tabitha suspected the story was more intended for her to overhear.
She kept her small smile up, but was too distracted in her own thoughts to really follow the court slang of what they were talking about.
Because—she’d done it. Tabitha had experienced her first day as a semi-popular girl, rather than an obese nobody or even an isolated thin social pariah. Unlike her attempt at the very start of the school year, this time it felt like things were working. She was getting to know people, maybe making friends, and perhaps most importantly, she was taking the initiative to talk to people herself.
It’s still a little terrifying sometimes, sure, Tabitha thought as she watched Jacob and Gary heckle each other with a wry smile. But—it’s not THAT bad. This was a success, a big success! Feels like a huge step forward for my whole life. It was stressful and SUPER taxing at first, but it’s like I invested a fair bit of thought and a whole lot of courage, and then the returns are all just… confidence?
Feeling this confident among her peers was honestly intoxicating.
All of the sudden SO MUCH of all of this nonsense makes so much more sense, Tabitha thought. If THIS is what popular girls are feeling, no wonder it gets them creating madhouse hierarchies and battlefields of drama and all of the absurd vain focus on image I used to pretend I could scoff at. It’s all in pursuit of this CONFIDENCE HIGH, these teenage SUCCESS ENDORPHINS. The ones that surge through like adrenaline saying YES YES YES, the ones that make you feel validated. Powerful.
If she could be popular, but without it going to her head and making her petty or cruel or a bully, Tabitha decided that it would be just about the best thing ever. Elena and Alicia were great friends and could maybe help keep her ego in check if it ever started to grow out beyond her kindness and compassion. She would be popular but not mean to anyone, she would be cute, but not play with boys’ hearts!
Except maybe like, I could PROBABLY tease Bobby some, and that’d be okay, Tabitha told herself. Because… he maybe wouldn’t take it all THAT seriously anyways!
* * *
Like a true latchkey kid, Tabitha produced her own key upon arriving at the Macintire home and let herself in. Though the neighborhood here was just as nice as the Williams, Sandra wasn’t so comfortable that she would allow the doors unlocked here, and it was a sentiment Tabitha agreed with in full. Better safe than sorry!
The borrowed hunting jacket with its orange highlights was removed and, and when the left sleeve turned inside-out attempting to follow her cast, Tabitha held the collar in her teeth and managed to find the errant cuff and turn it rightside-in again with her good hand before hanging the coat on the hooks in the entryway. It was warm enough that her hoodie soon followed, and she struggled her way out of it in an exhausted—but contented daze as she walked the rest of the way inside and cast a vacant look across the empty living room.
The elementary school day here was a half hour shorter than the Springton High’s school day, but the elementary also started an hour later, so there was still plenty of time before Tabitha would walk back out to the bus stop to pick up Hannah. Mrs. Macintire would be at work for another few hours, and since she couldn’t hear the TV playing over in the master bedroom it meant that Officer Macintire was likely taking a nap.
It had been a great day, but presenting herself as an extrovert for that long was also just plain tiring, and it was an enormous relief for Tabitha to drop her bookbag and then simply fall face-first across the length of the couch. Here with the Macintires it was actually a home, it was a bastion of comfort that could wick away her stress and help her decompress in a way that her actual family’s battered old mobile home never could.
After all, Tabitha hummed to herself, groping across the couch for a spare cushion to hug against herself. They have the HEAT on here. They just—KEEP it on, practically at full blast. All winter! I’m getting so spoiled, here.
Reminding herself that she didn’t have a bracelet-PC or a smartphone, Tabitha made herself as comfortable as she could, and instead kept an eye on the digital clock readout on the VCR. She’d met so many new people today that it was difficult to sort out all of their names! But, mentally sorting through them all now would be for the best, because for once in her life it was the good kind of overwhelming.
Vanessa. Gary. Marisa. Uhhh… Jacob. Stacy. Eric. Coach Baylor, and Mr. Peterson—I want to get to know them both better, Tabitha decided. For Cheerleading and art club. I… don’t remember the names of those other two girls from personal fitness who were talking with us. The one had glasses, the other was a bit more stocky. And then… there was that older girl Alicia tried to introduce me to? I’m totally blanking on her name. It was… Jenny? Jessie? Maybe… um. Nope, I lost it. Jay-something, I think? Or maybe—
“Tabitha?” A male voice almost startled her off of the couch and onto the carpet.
“Oh! Sorry,” Tabitha blushed as she flailed. “I—uhh—I kept my shoes off the sofa! They were hanging off. I’m, um, I’m just getting off my feet for a bit, before I head back out for Hannah.”
“Hey, it’s cool, it’s cool,” Officer Macintire chuckled, holding up his hands. “Just wanted to check on ya.”
He was wearing just pajama pants and an undershirt, and although he was either a lot older than her or a lot younger or both, the man had a pretty nice physique… and Tabitha had to admit to herself that he looked pretty good. Or, at least he did when he had a shirt on—whenever he was bare chested, Tabitha found herself focusing in on the bandages and remembering the bullet wound and unable to think of much else.
It was strange being around a guy, living in the same house as one. In the past week he was up and about more and more frequently, and Tabitha had no idea how to treat him. Darren Macintire was like some sitcom fantasy father figure, and she had a lot of trouble reconciling that with her own ideas of what a dad was to her personally. For one, he was attractive, but despite Sandra’s smug looks and personal assumptions, Tabitha had never fantasized about him or anything like that.
I’m more just—jumpy around him, or intimidated? Tabitha thought to herself with a sheepish smile as she sat up straight and tried to straighten out what felt like her slovenly appearance. I DO NOT know how to act around a ‘proper’ father figure. At all.
“Heard you come in,” Officer Macintire remarked, opening up the fridge and taking a long, idle look at the contents without seeming to decide on anything before letting the door swing closed again. “Was worried that—I dunno. Kids that age are mean, guess I was jumpin’ at shadows and thinking you mighta had a bad first day back or something. But, you seem okay?”
“Oh! Yes,” Tabitha nodded. “Thank you, but—yes, today was fine. It was better, much better.”
“Good! Good,” The man nodded, giving her a thoughtful look. “Well, hey. Don’t want to impose, or nothin’, but if it’s cool, I’ll walk down to the stop with you? Been cooped up for too long without any exercise and I’m startin’ to go a bit stir-crazy, here.”
“Of course!” Tabitha agreed. “And—yeah, I understand what you mean. Soon as I can get this cast off, I’m getting right into jogging again, and I want to try out for cheer, and—and be active again.”
“Ooph, yeah, I’m used to keeping up with PT,” the Officer shook his head in dismay. “Didn’t ever want to be the cop people’re makin’ donut jokes about all the time, you know?”
“I-I think Sandra would make those jokes just regardless,” Tabitha said with a wincing smile.
“Hah, yeah—well, even worse, comin’ from her,” Officer Macintre laughed. “My uh, home stay here is no reason to let myself start gettin’ love handles. And then, having you in here cooking full meals every day sure hasn’t helped!”
“I cook healthy meals!” Tabitha protested with a smile. “More or less. Those cookies… well, they just sort of happened!”
“Yeah, yeah,” He chuckled in response. “Holiday season, and all that.”
Damnit, Hannah! Tabitha felt her face heat up. Your dad has your eyes! He’s supposed to be a DAD, he’s not supposed to be A CUTE GUY! I absolutely, positively REFUSE to let Mrs. Macintire be right about me crushing on him, ever. I refuse! Because, I’m not. That’s just too—weird! So, that’s not happening, period. I’m FOURTEEN, and he’s… I don’t know, THIRTY-SOMETHING.
I should… I should get Bobby’s phone number, or something—it’s SAFE for me to crush on Bobby, because we’re both young enough that obviously none of that will go anywhere, Tabitha decided, oblivious to the torment and suffering that mindset might inflict upon boys in the near future. And, there’s that WILLOW tape! We can maybe watch it together this weekend. Definitely. It’s a plan.
( Previous, 55 pt 5.5 | RE: Trailer Trash | Next, To be Continued... )
/// RIP Bobby.
Just kidding, Bobby's not all THAT ready for real dating yet, either. Freshman year? Pssh, get outta here with that stuff. I do think this'll be the chapter 55 conclusion, as we're already quite a bit over my intended wordcount. Will organize and rework into a full chapter 55 soon.
Hopefully the weird attraction to Officer Macintire makes sense, I'm aiming to make readers uncomfortable there rather than genuinely disturbed or grossed out. Tabitha has weird complexes about her own father, and having a 'traditional' father figure suddenly appear in her life would be somewhat like this. To clarify, TABITHA DOES NOT HAVE A REAL CRUSH ON OFFICER MACINTRE, she just feels very weird about it and feels weird about him in general. That weirdness was easier for her to ignore weeks ago, when he was still recuperating / under bed rest, but will be harder to do so now. DO NOT START SHIPPING THESE TWO CHARACTERS, and if you do so, I don't want to hear about it.
I know not all readers are happy I'm wasting time with the pointless high school stuff, but I am trying hard to show a crucial stage of Tabitha's personal development. When that also gave me the opportunity to run a parallel story of her mother's personal growth for contrast, I had to take it. We WILL start seeding in some time skips soon, but before we do that I want to have it feel like Tabitha has established a solid new life routine here with school so that we have that as a baseline.
Comments
hhttghlk
I can't even understand how this could be considered "pointless school stuff." Even if Tabitha hadn't previously been bullied in to dropping out, it's a huge deal for someone who was so isolated before.
Cat Cat
I love the school stuff!! Thank you
Ty
Yea I don't think Bobby is ready either, I'd rather them have these cute little moments and maybe they date in a few years. Or maybe it ends up being someone else, either way I don't think Tabby should rush into anything.
Stuart T
I only see this ship beyond the horizon. Maybe late teens
Kelan
You dont have to worry about me shipping those two! Because nothing can sink the tabby x alicia battleship as long as Alicia is in the story lmao
Jacob Bissey
Honestly, too many people confuse attraction for crushing or having feelings or whatever, it's perfectly normal to be attracted to someone when it would be inappropriate, whether that's because of an age gap, one or both people are in relationships, one of the people is a minor, there's a power dynamic issue, or whatever. Hormones don't care what society says is "appropriate", but recognizing the difference between a physiological reaction and a full emotional connection is important, because while you can't rationalize your way out of attraction, you CAN rationalize your way out of it developing into more, acknowledge the attraction, recognize that there is no room for anything more than eye candy, and then don't dwell on it by focusing on other things. Not that hard if you practice it, but sadly a lot of people never figure it out.
Jacob Bissey
I'm not sure how someone can be this far into the story and still be bothered by the "high school stuff", like, that's been almost the entire story so far, it's obvious we're not gonna have a multi-year time skip where she's suddenly an adult, and like, what else even is there? She's 14 right now, sure there's family drama but at 14 you spend so much of your day every day dealing with high school that it would be simply disingenuous to *not* focus on it, especially when *most* of the insecurities and traumas she needs to work through are based around high school. Complaining about Tabby dealing with high school is like when people watch or read a slice of life story and complain that there's too much focus on the character interactions and quiet moments, if you want action, you're in the wrong genre, if you want something other than high school stuff, you're reading the wrong book.
Porkopio
Thank you!
Longoo
Nice chapter so far, looking forward to the 55 final version. I kinda like the slice of life thing happening now, and definitely looking forward to the evanescence concert!
benjamin shropshire
Hormonally and neurologically (and legally) she is a teen. The fact there is a huge difference between knowing what the right thing to do is and actually doing it strongly suggests that knowledge plays a lot less of a role in comparison to physiology than most people would like to think.
Dennis Herzberger
I second this
Auvski
Always felt the Tabby <-> Mr. Macintire relationship was under explored so this was a very fun chapter. And the mild confused crush honestly feels really normal/unsurprising in context
Jeanie6754
Thanks Boss for the update.
Luckbox
She's a highschool student though. I don't think it's possible to be pointless highschool stuff when that's her actual life.
Jake
All the readers ‘upset about high school stuff’ can go jump off a cliff. At the end of the day it’s your story dude, and thus far I’m loving it. So keep doing what you’re doing and writing what you want to write.
Brett Grayson
The High School minutiae is an important part of the "Coming of Age" aspect of the "Do-Over" story. I am all in!
Sean
Yeah her being weird around him is kind of uncomfortable, but as long as it's her own weird mental hangups and not the dad being weird it should be fine. I think Dads in general are like the least written aspect of stories in fantasy or sci-fi. There's almost always tension or past hurts there and then when a good father figure comes around everyone is waiting for the plot twist that makes them evil.
Undead Writer
Thanks for the chapter! Sounds good! Love the direction you chose!
Eammon_Wright
right? i like mile wide if its ten miles deep
Mark Adkins
Still one of my very favorite stories on this or related sites!
Stephen Weinberg
How is this possibly “pointless high school stuff”? Isn’t this stuff the point?
J H
I don't know why you think Tabitha having a crush on officer Macintre would be weird or gross. Personally I find the sort of crush on Bobby to be the weird and gross one. She's not actually 14. Despite being emotionally immature and inexperienced in life and such, she is an adult in a kid's body, while Bobby is an actual kid. It makes much more sense for her to be attracted to an adult.
James Skinner
Came here to say that exact same thing!
CC Vingoma
Please continue with "pointless high school stuff". It's what makes this story.
Alex C
Don't read it for the drama, read it for the narrative, and if the narrative includes more that's great, but not what I'm here for. Enjoying seeing things settle in a bit. The growth and such
WarStrider72
Thanks for the update boss
