Tandy and Adrienne - Wednesday Afternoon

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

After Hope's email to Maddie and Tandy, Tandy goes to talk to Adrienne about helping Hope.

Adrienne hadn't been swimming since the school season had started again, so she decided to cut her session short at only fifty laps instead of the hundred she'd been doing during the summer. Touching the wall for her last lap, she wasted no time in hopping out of the pool and grabbing her towel, huffing with exertion.

"Finally there you are!" Tandy said as she walked across the pool towards Adrienne. "I have been searching like everywhere for you and I was running out of places to look." The teen stopped when she was standing next to the older woman, not minding she was in a swimsuit - but the look on Tandy's face was all worried. "I need to talk to you. It is about Hope."

"What's wrong with Hope?" Adrienne asked, eyes widening. "Oh Christ, did she start wearing a chastity belt?"

Tandy opened her mouth to speak and then shut it and shook her head. "Oh gawd I hope not. Not a mental image I want to be seeing of my suite mate." Clearing her head and opening her eyes again. "No she emailed me and Maddie asking how to say no to her mother. Her mother is like swamping the poor girl. Making her do calligraphy, cause honestly who does that, and embroidery...again who does that? And now her mother wants her to do Interior Designing and and and Household Account Management. She is a teenager not some college student...and now Maddie is just telling her to straight up and say No to her mother but I don't know it is a good idea because dude how can someone say that to a mother that is like that? I mean I can barely say that to my mother and we have the opposite relationship with her. Am I going too fast?" Finally pausing.

Adrienne looked down at her swimsuit, dripping water on the floor."Uhh, wow." Her mother was the reason she wanted to do all these weird things? "Okay, yeah. Can I put some clothes on before we hash this out?" She was wearing her sport suit rather than a bikini, so she wasn't feeling uncomfortable persay, but she was cold and wet.

Tandy nodded, "Yea. You can change." The teen backed away to give Adrienne some room, but Tandy was antsy as she tucked a blonde lock of hair behind her ear and looked around the pool.

Adrienne led the way into the locker room and ducked into a stall with her gym bag to change. She would have loved a shower, but Tandy seemed pretty upset by what was going on with Hope and Adrienne didn't want to make her wait, so she threw on sweats and a t-shirt, wrapped her still-dripping hair up in a towel, and re-emerged a few minutes later. "Hope did tell me about the calligraphy and the embroidery," Adrienne nodded, frowning. "But she made it really clear that she was doing these things because she wanted to. She didn't say her mother was forcing her to, or anything like that. Do you know anything about her mother?" she asked Tandy, "why she wants Hope to learn all these things that are sort of... unusual for someone your age? Some crazy desire to live vicariously through Hope, maybe? Learn skills she wishes she had herself? Or does she possess a time machine or some mutant ability to send people back in time and she's grooming Hope to marry some Victorian-age lord or something?" She tried to keep a straight face while she said it, but ended up smirking a little.

Tandy was braiding the ends of her hair when Adrienne came back, "Calligraphy and embroidery arrived in the many packages at the start of the year. Her mother wanted her to try them so she thought it would be rude not too. The only thing I know about her mother is that she is like...pressuring Hope to do all this stuff. To be a proper young lady. I swear sometimes I am not sure what planet that woman is from." Tandy blinked a couple times. "That be horrible being sent back in time to marry a Victorian Lord."

"Pressuring how, exactly?" Adrienne inquired, immediately concerned. "Is she threatening Hope?"

"It is hard to explain. Like...telling her this is how a young lady acts and it seems that her mother doesn't like to take a 'No' for an answer." Tandy sighed, "I just don't know what to do anymore. I want to help Hope I really do."

Adrienne sighed, looking at Tandy sympathetically. She'd really been hoping Tandy had something concrete she could work with here, something to add to Adrienne's own observations of Hope's body language the other day when she'd spoken to her. "I know you do, Sweetie. I do, too. But telling your kid you want them to act a certain way isn't illegal. Unless, y'know, you want them to act in a way that is illegal," she added as an afterthought. "Or physically force them to do so, I guess. But I don't think there's anything any of us can really do right now to make Mrs. Abbott stop telling Hope how she thinks Hope should act. It's weird, but there's nothing wrong with learning skills you and I may think are a waste of time. If Hope doesn't want to act the way her mother wants, Hope has to say something." Yet Hope had told Adrienne she was happy. So Adrienne wasn't sure Tandy was going to get anywhere, for all that she wanted to help.

"Does it help that she emailed us asking us how to say No to her mom? I mean that seems like a cry for help, right? I guess it hits close to home. I have no idea how what to say to a mother that is like that because my mother doesn't give a shit..." Tandy sat down on one of the nearby chairs.

Sitting next to her, Adrienne stared at her feet for a few moments. Ahh, so that was what this was about for Tandy. "Hey, that's not true. Your mother's pretty critical of you, from what I saw," Adrienne pointed out wryly. Of course, she felt like Tandy's mother was critical because she didn't like Tandy, whereas from what she'd heard, Hope's mother seemed more to just want her child to be successful at... whatever it was she wanted Hope to become. A housewife? "And you don't just accept everything your mother says, right? I mean, you know your mom can be wrong about... a lot of things. I guess Hope is just having trouble seeing that her mom might be wrong about what she wants for Hope. I just think... no one can really say no for her," she added quietly. "She has to stand up for herself, or people are just going to keep pushing her around her whole life." Of course, people might push her around even more if she did stand up for herself- Adrienne knew about that firsthand- but not standing up for yourself at all had to be even worse. "But yeah, I think we can help," she added, not wanting Tandy to think the situation was hopeless. "I think she has to learn how to say no, if that makes sense? She has to find a trigger, I guess, for herself, that will make her able to assert herself. Has she talked to a counsellor at all, do you know? Because I'm sure they would know what to make her think about and how to get her to feel a certain way so she can say no to her mother."

Sighing and then nodding her head as she lowered her eyes to her hands - but she didn't say anything about the don't accept everything your mom says bit. Tandy often believed it was true what her mom said about her - if they tell you things long enough you start to believe it. Pulling her eyes away from her hands and looked up at Adri, "I don't think so. Maddie mentioned about going to Mr. Haller, maybe he knows more on the subject but I don't know him. I think Hope was just asking her peers before going to an adult about it."

"I'm sure Haller can help Hope find the mental tools she needs to stand up for herself," Adrienne nodded, trying to sound reassuring, as she could tell Tandy wasn't really mollified. "I'll mention to Maddie that I think she has the right idea, and hopefully as her peers you ladies can encourage Hope to go see him." She might have been reading too much into it, but Adrienne wasn't offering to go speak to Hope about talking to Haller herself after hearing Tandy say Hope was just asking her peers. She didn't want to butt in on Teenage Girl Drama where she didn't absolutely have to. "Are you okay?"

"I guess it is hard to go to an adult about problems. I mean she came here a week after I did, can't blame her." Tandy said and nodded, about encouraging Hope to go see him. "Me? I am fine. Just glad to get this off my chest. Never had any one come to me for advice before...only child."

"It's definitely hard, yeah," Adrienne agreed with a slight smile. She hooked an elbow around Tandy's neck and pulled her close for a quick hug as she said "I hate going to adults about problems." Asking for help from anyone sucked. "You're doing really well with the advice thing," she nodded. "I'm sure Hope will be really grateful. You're a good friend to be so worried about her."

Tandy leaned to the side as she was hugged, "Do you think so? Cause I offered to redo the entire suite in interior decorating if that was going to help."

This made Adrienne laugh as she squeezed Tandy's shoulder before pulling away and standing up. "Oh yeah. You're a good friend," she chuckled. "Next thing it'll be offering to hide bodies. So, are we good? Can I go shower now?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"If it was hide the bodies, then we would be having a totally different conversation." Tandy finally smiled and nodded, "Yea you can shower. I am going to head back in. Maybe do homework."

"Do homework? You?!" Adrienne looked incredulous. "Are you sure you're okay? Do you have a fever or something?" She reached a hand out and put the back of her palm to Tandy's forehead. "Swap bodies with someone, maybe? Matt? Is that really you in there?"

"I know shocker right? Sue has been on my case about it recently. Maybe I'll play a game first, practice chess online or something." Tandy smirked a bit. "That would be the day..,when I swap bodies with someone...like Freaky Friday."

"Swapping bodies with your mom would probably suck a lot for you," Adrienne muttered. "And for the rest of us. But since Freaky Friday isn't gonna happen, you should probably go do your homework," she smirked, heading off to the shower.