Chapter Text
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
Thunk!
Tessa Elliot swung her arm out, hitting her alarm and sending it across the floor. The alarm stopped, most likely broken. She groaned and turned over trying to drift back to sleep, she could fix it later. What did she even have to do today? She had her studies, her...
...birthday...
Tessa quickly opened her eyes as she sat up in her bed and rubbed them. The room was still dark, accompanied by the sounds of muffled rain and thunder. That's right, it was her birthday, the seventeenth of September. Now with the energy of excitement, Tessa threw off the covers and slipped out of her queen-sized canopy bed, navigating her feet into her fuzzy, baby blue slippers and flicking a toggle switch hanging from the canopy by alligator clip wires. LED strips strung all throughout her room begin to light up. The yellow lighting they offered was much moodier than the traditional ceiling light, which Tessa clearly preferred.
To describe the room as messy would be like calling Twilight, “a book”. Tessa's room was decently sized. Much like the shape of a capital “E”, it had too doors on either side, a closet door and a hallway door, and a nook in the middle for her bed. The room was full of shelving, desks, and dressers that were in no real order. Everything you think would be in someone’s room was conveniently placed on the floors: schoolwork, clothes, old childhood toys, books, you name it. Her huge desk was no exception, covered in the many trinkets and inventions she enjoys working on. The room was also very well decorated with normal things: cool human bones, candles (although fake, battery-powered ones), jars full of (robot) parts, several books on learning Latin, and outdated drone blueprints.
Tessa grabbed a gray t-shirt off the floor, silently thinking, “This one is still clean” as well as a clean pair of black sweatpants. Quickly switching into them, she took a second to pause and gaze out the window into the dark, rainy outdoors. Tessa loved rainy weather, but after having nothing but the damn “synthetic” rain and darkness for a few years, it gets hard to enjoy it the same way.
Sigh
Hopefully she’ll be able to see the happy sun before she’s too busy to care from being a grown adult....but today wasn’t the day to be all sad about the weather, it was her birthday, after all. Tessa quickly ran down the hall and into the bathroom, relieving herself and fixing her bed hair, getting a quick glance at herself in the mirror. She was quite a pretty picture. Thick, brown hair that was easy to brush and be made into the swept floofs and thin tails that she preferred. Her pale face was smooth and round, complete with a small nose, energetic hazel eyes, and an almost perfect smile. Tessa frowned at herself in the mirror as she used her fingernail to scrape the sleep crust from her eyes.
Out of the bathroom, Tessa continued to run down the hallways towards the main dining room, where she was figuring her Dad would be. Turning a corner, she saw a drone she knew all too well, J, who was grabbing cleaning supplies from a closet. Tessa perked up and waved.
"Good morning, J!" Tessa cheerfully said.
"Morning, Boss, and happy birthday." J replied with a tired smile.
"Thank you." Tessa then said with a small bow of the head before continuing on, glancing back at J as she started down the opposite direction with a janitor’s cart. She hadn't recuperated many drones yet, J being her latest, and therefore best, attempt so far. The problem is that the said drones don't really have a strong motive of becoming friends with her, they just prefer doing their jobs like the next drone down the line. It made Tessa sad; she always had a problem making friends, and she hoped she could befriend her drones, but it hasn't been yielding the results she's been wanting. She still thoroughly enjoys inventing and repairing things, she just really wants a good friend as well.
Tessa continued down the wallpapered halls on her way to the main dining room. By the time she could see the door, she could already hear her dad’s voice from the other side. Tessa opened the door, where she could see her dad giving breakfast orders to two worker drones. If there was anyone she would call a friend, it was her father.
"Dad?" Tessa said, trying to get his attention without interrupting him.
James turned to face Tessa, a large, cheery smile replacing his usual, sophisticated one.
"Darling, you're awake already! Good morning." James held out his arms, asking for a hug.
Tessa ran over and returned the hug. “Good morning.”
After a hot second, Tessa spoke up again "Annnnnd??? Are you forgetting something?"
James pursed his lips and squinted. "Let's see, I don't think so. Nobody has any birthdays today, if I remember."
Tessa playfully rolled her eyes. "Dad, one person has a birthday."
"Oh, really? Hm, who though? Oh! I remember, it's my birthday today." James said smugly.
“No, it’s mine! Yours is in April.” Tessa shook her head
“Oh, yeah. I remember now. Happy birthday, sweetie. Can't believe you're already sixteen. Time flies when you're old." James said, no longer teasing.
"You're not that old, just a little old." Tessa said with a raised eyebrow. "...and busy..."
James raised an eyebrow as well, mimicking her daughter. "Busy, huh? Well, I'll have you know that I am completely off today, but there is somewhere related to work I think you and I both would want to stop by. You could call it a present."
Tessa cocked her head to the side. “A present? At your work? What is it?”
James smiled. “You’ll see, after lunch, which I’m taking you out today. For now, you just have to wait."
"Ugh, okayyy." Tessa said with a mock disrespect before giving her dad one last hug.
Until then, Tessa tried to stick to a schedule to help the time pass. She did some light exercise, cleaned up her room (somewhat), played on her Flip, and then studied her outdated drone prints. J, as well as her other drones, were really old models, the newer ones were much smarter, more emotional, and equipped with state-of-the-art hardware. If only she could modify and repair one of her own, but nobody ever threw out something as expensive as them. They didn't even HAVE them at the Elliot manor, which Tessa kinda found ironic, being her Dad was basically the CEO of the drone department, hence the large manor. She also worked on her clock she whacked across the room, which about the time she fixed it, she heard a knock on the door.
"Come in." Tessa said as she set her clock to the right time: 11:37
J cracked the door open and took a single side-step into the bedroom. "Your dad said to get ready soon, you're leaving little after twelve. I'd recommend something nice, so I put the one black dress you like in the washer. I don't think it'll be done by the time you leave, though."
Tessa nodded. "That's fine, I'll probably wear my crop top-skirt combo anyways. Thanks, J."
"Welcome, Boss." With that, J closed the door again, her metallic feet echoing out as she walked further and further down the hall.
Tessa got up from her desk and opened her closet, grabbing and changing into a gray long-sleeved crop top and a short, black skirt. She also decided to fix a large plush bow in her hair. She didn’t always enjoy dressing all nice and pretty, but when she wanted to, she loved it.
Putting on socks and shoes, and gloves because why the heck not, Tessa was on her way to the large garage, lost in thought about why most skirts don’t have pockets. Opening the door and stepping down the steps onto the concrete floor, she could see her dad loading a couple umbrellas into a sedan.
“Hey, dad.” Tessa said as she opened the passenger side door.
“Oh, hey, sweetie.” James replied as he closed the back and got into the driver’s seat. “Ready?”
Strapping herself in with a click, Tessa nodded. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Awesome,” James grinned as he started the engine and clicked a button that opened the garage door. Pulling out into the drive, rain pelted the car, fighting against the windshield wipers. Tessa leaned against the car window, closing her eyes and listening to the noise of the rain combined with the quiet radio. Even though it’s been raining for over two years now, it’s still nice to listen to. Despite the initial excitement, Tessa was already half asleep by the time James parked and turned off the car.
“Alright, we’re here.” James said with a giddy smile as he stepped out of the car. “I decided you would have wanted your present first and then gone out to eat after.”
“Hm?” Tessa groaned out. “Oh,”
Tessa blinked and opened the door, grabbing an umbrella from her dad as he led her to large, square warehouse. Walking through the rainy darkness and avoiding puddles, Tessa noticed how it looked almost like dead night even at noon, a reasonable candidate for feeling so down and depressed more often Fiddling with a chain of keys and testing a couple on a basic industrial door, the third key clicking.
"Aha!" James exclaimed as he opened the door. He stepped in, followed by Tessa.
Tessa took a second to adjust to the bright light so she brought up her hand to cover her eyes. What she saw next made her gasp.