steph immediately went to work firing up the electric kettle and filling it up with enough to fill two mugs. it was a nice, brief, distraction to the scenario she currently found herself in. she knew she could speed dial bruce within a second, having installed a bat signal app on her phone for emergencies. but she was certain she didn’t need her own surrogate father here to help her. she could do this on her own. or at least that’s what she kept repeating to herself as a mantra in her head.
“stephanie, steph, miss brown, whatever you feel comfortable with.” she said her sigh and smile becoming mixed together, “to be honest, i’ll probably answer to just about anything.” it was true, the amount of names and nicknames she had over the years were a testament to that. “so, have you settled in okay? i was going to send one of the kids over, but i didn’t want to overwhelm you.” the kids she referred to of course weren’t her own, but they sure felt like they were, thanks to how close her and cassie were. “i’m so happy that you’re here, i know that this is probably more difficult than i can possibly imagine. but i wanted to say thank you, for at least coming. at least allowing me to see you.” she cursed the faltering in her voice, the slight waver. she was supposed to be strong, a strong mother figure and instead she sounded like a tween fresh from a one direction concert. when the tea was ready she poured it into fresh mugs, pulling a little cart around so frankie could put in her own fixings.
anxiously, frankie started to tap her fingers against the fabric of her jeans. this was so much weirder than she thought it would be. part of her wanted to be angry at stephanie. for giving her up; for not even attempting her to know her before this. she could have at least given the girl’s adoptive parents a keepsake. something that would have let her know her birth mother in some regard. but the other part of her felt almost joyful. this was her MOTHER. the woman who had brought her into this world. her heart tightened in her chest, clearly torn between the mixture of emotions. it was so surreal looking at another person and seeing herself reflected in them.
❝ stephanie. ❞ she said the name once more. it seemed to have a much different meaning now. ❝ funny. my middle name is stephanie. my mom always said it was her way of thanking my birth mom── i guess that’s you, huh?. it’s kind of weird actually meeting you and calling you stephanie and, wow, i’m rambling, aren’t i? ❞ her cheeks started to BURN profusely. in an attempt regain her composure, she turned her attention to the tea. how strange the universe was. not even a year ago she had lost her adoptive mother. the woman who raised her into the woman she was. and now, here she was as an adult, meeting her other mother. ❝ i’m doing alright. when you said you taught at a school i wasn’t expecting somewhere so cool. i didn’t know it was, like, some sort of super school. ❞ she gestured to herself. ❝ sadly i’m awfully plain. ❞