T.E.R.F War

T.E.R.F War: Chapter 16 – “Father and Daughter”.

Bethany Edelgard25 February 2020

T.E.R.F War

Chapter 16: “Father and Daughter”.

2 Years ago. Blake Residence.

“Yes…I understand”, My dad spoke into his cellphone, “She’s sitting on the couch now waiting for me to talk to her about what she did.”

Dad was staring at me with a concerned look while I fiddled with my fingers, however, I tried avoiding eye contact with him.

I know he wasn’t the type of father to hand out punishments severely, if any at all because of how close we were, yet I couldn’t help but feel a growing bit of anxiety in my stomach.

“Yes, thank you again for looking out for her.”, Dad pressed the touch button on his phone to end the call and place his cell phone in his pocket.

He folded his arms and let out a sigh.

“Emi-“, he spoke.

“They started it!”, I yelled jumping from the couch. “Erica and her stupid friends! They had it coming sooner or later!”

“Emi, but-“, he tried to continue.

“She was telling everyone that I’m an ugly tranny and then sent her boyfriend to start a fight with me after school”, I was really upset and just letting all of my emotion out, “And those stupid teachers just ignored me whenever I complained to them! I say justice has been served!”. And I really meant that.

Not going to lie: I felt so damn proud of myself that I couldn’t help but smile.

“Emi, you broke her boyfriend’s arm and somehow got into that girl’s phone to expose she had a relationship with one of the school’s teachers, leaving her emotionally devastated, if not traumatised”.

“Okay”, I conceded, “Maybe I went a little overboard, but this was nothing more than an act of self-defence on my part.”

“Oh, and you got suspended from school for two weeks.”

“What?!!” I seriously couldn’t believe this was happening. Everyone in that school stood by and did nothing, and this is what I get for standing up for myself?!, “How is that fair?!”. I didn’t do anything to Erica and her lackeys that she didn’t deserve. How am I in the wrong? I couldn’t stop myself now. Tears bubbled up out of my eyes and streamed down my face.

“I should have just been born a girl”, I muttered frustratingly. Dad took this opportunity to wrap his arms around me in a hug.

“You were born a girl, silly”, he said warmly, “it just took you longer to realise it than some other girls. Including me.”

“And mom?”, I know this was a taboo subject since the day my mom left, but I couldn’t help but ask.

It’s been two years since she left, and it’s still on my mind every day.

“Emilia, we’ve been through this already”, Dad replied releasing me from his arms, looking a tad bit serious.

“I know. Mom leaving isn’t my fault. But there’s more to it than that, I know it and you know it!”

You would think Dad would know by now that I’m not some naive kid. After all, I am the daughter of a highly respected biotechnologist.

“There’s just no way Mom would decide to leave us without any explanation at all! She….she…”, I struggled to say, “I remember. She promised that no matter what, she’ll always be here for me.”

My tears overflowed one last time. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I noticed a smile on Dad’s face.

“Can I make you a promise?”, he asked me.

I wasn’t sure what he wanted to promise but I gave him my attention and nodded.

He held out his pinky finger towards me to initiate a pinky promise.

“I promise you that all three of us, your mom, me and you, that we are going to be together again right here in this house and we’re going to play that game you like so much”, he told me “Uhh…what’s was its name again?”, Dad asked in embarrassment. He wasn’t knowledgable about video games as I was.

“God Eater!”, I couldn’t help but shout it. You wouldn’t think I was crying a second ago.

Other kids may be playing stuff like Pokémon, but I always prefered the more niche games. When everyone’s playing the most popular thing, it really doesn’t feel special anymore in my eyes.

“Yes, that one!”, he laughed at my enthusiasm, “Sooo, promise?”

How could I say no? I locked my pinky finger with his and we shook on the promise.

Yep, definitely cured of my crying now.

“Now, young lady”, Dad started to get a little fake serious, “Want to explain to me how you beat up a group of boys three forms ahead of you and got into a someone’s  password-protected phone?”

I didn’t know how to explain it actually, but I tried. Dad and I sat on the couch and I tried to recount the events of what transpired.

Erica’s phone wasn’t much of a problem. She left her phone by accident in the bathroom and I took the chance to copy the files from it before returning it to a teacher. It was weird though because I somehow knew the code to her phone by just looking at her screen. My eyes did get itchy for a bit though, not sure why.

There were rumours about Erica before, but all those suspicions would come to light when I discovered the stuff in her phone. Let’s just say that she and Mr. Kingly were going far beyond the usual “student and teacher” relationship that was allowed.

But Mr. Kingly is pretty average in terms of looks. Whether I want to admit it or not, Erica was considered to be one of the hottest, and meanest, girls in our class.

It wouldn’t make sense for her to waste her time on someone like him, unless…

…unless, there was something to gain from it?

Mr. Kingly’s influence and reputation are high in our school. If something like this was put in the spotlight then he would get in a huge amount of trouble.

Is Erica low enough to stoop to blackmail to boost her grades? Did I just did her favour and made things worse? No, that doesn’t make sense. Erica would suffer from this as well. But then again, she isn’t really known for her smarts, which gives her a reason to do what she did.

Whatever the case now is, it’s too late for that. Mass forwarding those pictures of her to everyone’s emails in the school’s server was probably a bit cruel, it’s only fair that Erica got a taste of her own sinister poison.

As for her boyfriend, I knew he and his pals were waiting for me in the hall to pick a fight with me again. For the last few times, I had to lie to Dad about how I got bruises to not worry him. However, this time it was going to be much different. I wasn’t going to let them bully me any longer.

I wasn’t sure how to explain to Dad that I just had this feeling inside me, and before I know it, Erica’s boyfriend was on the ground gripping his arm in pain and his buddies looked like they were about to wet themselves after I took them down a notch. Everyone who was observing the fight looked at me like I killed someone.

I don’t know. Going from people laughing at me to them being outright terrified of me kinda felt…scary.

I looked at Dad and his expression changed into an expression of serious thought. He seemed distracted, but I’m not sure if he was thinking about what I told him or something completely different.

“Is something wrong?”, I asked him concerned. I hope he isn’t considering giving me some harsh punishment.

“Oh, sorry”, he replied. His face got more relaxed when he noticed that I was looking at him with worry, “I’m just thinking of work.”

I doubted his words, but as long as he wasn’t thinking of banning me from my games, then all is well in my world.

“Hey, Dad!”, I spoke.

“Huh, what’s the matter?”, Dad wondered with a reassuring expression.

“I love you!”, I smiled and squeezed him tightly. I will admit, I was trying to distract him from the grim story, as well as bribe him hugs, but that didn’t mean they were any less genuine as they always were.

“I love you too, Emi.”, he chuckled and returned the hug.

To Be Continued…

March 4th, 2020 – 4:29PM/EST

I made an edit to the last bit of this chapter to reflect Emilia’s Dad noticing something had happened to Emilia from what she told him.

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