#i ain't never had too much fun: william / para

[nxttheendxfthestxryarch2]

Flashback Solo Para: & That’s Who I Am (Teresa)

Will drums his pencil on the table as they work, wrinkling his nose. “Hey, uh, Teresa, uh, if it’s not too, um, too personal, can I ask for your whole... story?”

Teresa frowns, looking at him, cocking her head and raising an eyebrow. “My story?”

“I, uh, I just mean... you, um, you’ve said that, that, that uh, that your relationship with, with...” He pauses, snapping.

“Madame Bonfamille?” She cocks her head.

He points to her, “With her, was, was uh... complicated.”

“Oh.” Teresa pauses and nods a bit with a shrug, lowering her pen. “Well, it was. It’s a bit of an unusual story.”

“I’d, uh, honestly I’d still like to, um, to hear it,” Will shrugs. “We, uh, we partner up for a lot of um, a lot of advanced classes, and, and, and, and, and I know so little about you.”

Teresa blinks, shrugging again and nodding. “Yeah, that’s fair enough... so, I guess we can start back when I was about two.”

The toddler had been left on Madame Adelaide Bonfamille’s doorstep. Nobody really knew where she came from, but even at such a young age, the girl bonded quite well with the cats in the household. Perhaps that was why the madame had decided to keep her around. The truth was, nobody knew for sure why.

Just that she kept the young girl around, and wrote a clause into the will that allowed her to become the caretaker and executor of the estate, ensuring the money allotted to the cats would in fact be used for them. She would, of course, have additional support when the time came, as she was only a child, and likely wouldn’t be old enough to be entirely on her own when the time came.

(”I wasn’t,” Teresa adds with a small, half-hearted smile. “The madame passed when I was ten.” She clears her throat.)

Growing up in the house, while Teresa got a good education, a LOT of her time revolved around learning to handle the job she would one day handle, and caring for the madame and the home a bit as well. She didn’t know it at the time, but because of the work she was doing happily, the madame had established a bank account for her where she was earning regular pay. So when the madame passed, she had her own money separate from the cats.

(”Some of the people who were hired to help me while I was too young also helped with the account, investing the money properly and the like. Whatever’s left of the madame’s money when the cats are gone will be donated to a shelter.” Teresa scratches Marie’s ears as the cat pops out of her purse, stretching after her nap. “I have enough.”

“You’re, uh, that is to say, um, uh, y’know, you... you are, uh, an honorable person,” Will remarks with a nod.)

She hadn’t initially gone through the madame’s things when the woman had passed. She’d had too much to deal with. Then it had been about putting her lessons to work. Then it was--

(”You, you were uh, you were stalling, right?” Will asks.

Teresa shrugs. “Hard not to.”)

But, finally, she knew she’d put it off long enough, and had begun slowly working through them. She’d kept some of the jewelry out of sentiment. (Her hand comes up to a pendant around her neck at the remark, but she doesn’t take the opportunity to show it off, and he doesn’t ask.) Most of it had been sold so they had a better idea of how much the cats had. But in a drawer at the madame’s vanity she’d found something unusual.

It had taken time to find the keys to unlock the skinny little drawer across the middle, and then working through the other little belongings before she’d found the note, that some of the staff had reluctantly informed her had been pinned to her shirt when she was left at the doorstep.

(”What, uh, um, if you don’t mind me asking, what did it, uh, that is, er...”

“I... don’t remember, exactly,” and Teresa’s not sure why she lies but something in her gut tells her it was better this way. “And I left it at home when I came here.”)

The note, however, alluded to the existence of her father, spurring her on her search for her family, whoever they really were. After all, the madame had no family-- it’s why the money had been left to her cats. Even Teresa could hardly call herself the woman’s family, considering the unusual circumstances of her entering the home.

But the search had turned up nothing, and... she’d elected to come to Auradon Prep, to give herself a break from her search and get some proper education.

(Again, she has no idea why she’s lying about her search. Maybe it was the unconfirmed story from that strange man that had stopped her as she was leaving that dance that one time.)

“...and, here I am,” Teresa finishes with a laugh and a shrug. “Somewhat maid, somewhat adopted family to the madame. Manager of her estate and proud caretaker of Marie here and her family.” She scratches behind Marie’s ears.

“Wow,” Will says softly, shaking his head. “I couldn’t, er, I, that is, I can’t begin to, uh, to imagine. That’s a lot for, uh, for anyone.” Pausing, he adds, “So you’ve, um, you stopped, er... looking for, looking for, looking for your family?”

Teresa nods. “For now. I think I’m better suited focusing on my future, not my past.”

Will nods slowly, clearing his throat. “That’s, uh, like I said, it’s, it’s a lot.”

“It is, but I’ve long since adjusted.” Shrugging, Teresa picks up her pen. “Where were we?”

[nxttheendxfthestxryarch2]

Tag Dump - William