it’s here, it’s finally here! sorry it took so long to rewrite! this time it’ll be alternating pov’s between tate and autumn, so that we can all get to know both of them a lot better :) chapter names are named after lyrics to ‘are you ok’ by daniel caesar. ps; the photos are either classwork given that’s important to the plot, flashbacks or dreams, or whatever else it may be…
Autumn is part French, just so you know. Get out y’all’s Google Translates if you need it. (It also helps me remember all the words I’ve been learning on and off for give or take five years.) It won’t be used a LOT, but there’ll be bits and pieces throughout, especially when she gets mad lmaoo
Making a new taglist for this fic. DM, comment or slide in my inbox to be added to it, they’re always open :)
head canon: constance definitely didn’t choose ‘tate’ as tate’s birth name, which is why it’s not tate in this. adelaide, beauregard, rose and TATE? nah. that doesn’t sound right.
chapter one: been starin' at your face, from across the room now.
warnings: none for this chapter :)
Autumn had just walked out the door when the blonde haired woman rushed over to her, eyes wide with worry and excitement all at the same time. “Your first day of real school at that Westfield place, Autumn! God, you’ve grown up so fast!” Her mom began sniffling, and Autumn wrapped her arms around her, and she hugged Autumn back just as tight.
Autumn pulled away first, pressing a kiss to her mom’s forehead before picking up her school bag and heading down the steps leading away from the front of the place she grew to call home, where she could absolutely 100% be herself with no judgement… Well, a little judgement but that’s life, and she was willing to accept that.
“Tell my other mom I said I love her and I’ll see her later!”
“Okay, sweetie pie. I also love you!” Her mom called out, first mom. She had two adoptive moms, and four friends who were like sisters to her, all of whom were just like her. And it was weird of her to think of them as sisters after hooking up with one beforehand for months, behind the “scenes.”
While registering for school she decided to also sign herself up for the cheer squad, and tryouts were that afternoon so she grabbed her cheer bag on the way out too. And it was as if she travelled through time, in an instant, in the blink of an eye she was standing outside Westfield High, her new school. Her first normal school and the first time she would be taught anything anywhere other than what her biological parents, biological grandparents, adoptive moms and now “adoptive grandma” taught her.
She took a deep breath and headed through the gates, her head downcast so as to not draw too much attention to herself, although she was the new girl so obviously there would be eyes on her all day, one pair in particular catching her attention. She never got much male attention as she was always playing matchmaker for her friends, and never for herself. Always the bridesmaid and never the bride. And besides, the only man in the house was the creepy butler who gave Autumn the shivers, and who was also totally, like, a century older than her.
It was a challenge to push past all of the students to get to her first ever class, English with Mr Henderson in Room 11, and getting lost in the completely wrong building, but she got there in the end.
Five minutes late. For her first class ever. Marvellous!
It sounded like people had been laughing to themselves in the classroom when Autumn put her hand over the doorknob and it opened, and she stepped inside.
Wasn’t supposed to do that outside of home but nobody saw, it’s fine. It’s totally fine.
“Sorry I’m late, Sir. I got lost, I-I’m new here,” she said, tangling her fingers up with each other, nerves bundling in the pit of her stomach as her professor spun around on his feet with a stern look on his face.
His formal stature towered over her as he took a look at her timetable, nodding to himself and then he handed it back to her. “You’re off the hook since you’re new. Take a seat, we can talk after class has ended.”
She shuffled over to one of the free seats in the room, up in the front row and sat down next to a brunette haired girl wearing the school’s cheer uniform. Must be another girl wanting to be on the team. The girl turned to Autumn, giving her a big, bright smile.
“New girl, huh? I’m Chloe!”
Chloe was cute, with her sparkling brown eyes that took up most of her face and her hair was tied up into a high ponytail, a few loose pieces hanging down to frame her face. She was on the petite side and so far was by far the most energetic person Autumn had ever been around.
Autumn blinked at her in surprise, she hadn’t expected to be noticed, let alone for someone to make a point to say hello to her. “Autumn ,” she replied, pushing strands of her own black hair behind her ear, and she couldn’t help but feel a set of eyes on her, two sets, actually.
But then the feeling of someone watching her vanished when Chloe turned around and asked the two boys to stop being creepy, and that’s when Autumn turned around and locked eyes with him. He was sitting down the back of the room, trying to hide his blushing face by having his curly blonde hair hanging down to hide as much as he could.
You know the feeling when you step out from a dark place and into the sun, and the light is so white that your eyes sting and you feel blinded? Where you shut down into panic mode for just a moment, afraid you’ll never see the sun again? Well, that’s what it was like seeing him for the first time, to her.
He had pale skin with that blush flushing across his cheeks and short, curly blonde hair that flopped every which way around his face. His dark brown eyes sparkled while talking to his friend beside him about God knows what, and using his hand to more than likely get a point across. The boy faced forward and looked into Autumn’s eyes as he caught her staring,—
—She blinked rapidly and looked back at him again, this time back in the classroom. She had no idea what had just happened, but chose to just brush it off.
The boy whispered something to his friend, and his friend; tan skin, long black hair and black eyes, just shook his head and turned back into his seat, as Autumn turned back into hers.
“Okay class, now that everyone has finally decided to show up,” Mr Henderson gave Autumn a look. “Let’s talk about your upcoming project!”
Project? The only projects Autumn had ever done before this was helping her mates find some boys to flirt with at a college party. She’d been planning for months, talking to every guy at the party though only one was interested, and he ended up sadly passing away that night. The poor guy. And she couldn’t even begin to imagine how his family must have felt.
And her other project was some botanical study with her mom down in the greenhouse at the end of their garden where she made “special juice to keep the bad people away.” People being some woman named Marie, and some ‘Papa’ guy, whoever they were.
Autumn hoped it would be work she could do on her own, she never was one to put herself out there, especially since basically everyone she knew lived with her other than that college boy, who was now dead so it wasn’t like she could talk to him again since nobody could find his body in the morgue (she thought that, anyways). And other than Chloe, she hadn’t spoken to anyone else in the room. “Merde, J'aurais dû parler à plus de gens!” She muttered to herself, until she did a double take. Wait a minute… When have I ever spoken French to other people other than Dad? This is so weird…
“We are starting a new unit on romance literature. Before I show you anything, I would like to see what you can do on your own.”
Littérature romantique— Girl… Dee said speak and think in ENGLISH. Maybe Gra-mere was a bit too much of an influence on me.
Romance literature? Autumn was intrigued to say the least. She needed a bit of romance in her life, since she only knew platonic love and nothing more.
“How are we supposed to do anything if we haven’t been taught anything?” One of the boys in the back of the class blurted out, the blonde boy, the one Autumn was making ogle eyes at earlier. Mr Henderson shook his head at the boy, and clearly was taking absolutely no bull crap today.
“That’s the whole point, Mr Langdon. I would like to see what works of romance you can find, and how you interpret them without my help.” Mr Henderson explained. “You’ll work in pairs of two. You’ll have to look for a work of literature that relates to love, it can be a poem, a song or a short story, interpret it and make a short video that relates to your piece. You will have two weeks to finish this. At the end of the two weeks I expect a copy of the piece, and yes, you both have to be in it.”
Pairs of two? Oh no. Autumn’s worst nightmare. And even more so after the next question when the blonde haired boy’s friend raised his hand.
“No, Mr Finstein. You do not get to choose your partners, as I have already assigned them.” Mr Henderson answered before the boy could ask. He lowered his hand.
Langdon and Finstein, okay I have to remember those names. And Chloe’s, of course.
“Your partners have been posted in our online class group along with guidelines and rules on the project,” Mr Henderson continued. “I’ll give you a minute to look at who your partner is and then clear your desk for your pop quiz.”
Everyone pulled out their phones to login to the online classroom, the code being put up on the board. Autumn was absolutely bricking it, not knowing anyone there, except saying ‘hi’ to Chloe once. And a pop quiz? — Autumn had no idea what that was but she hated it already. She heard the two boys in the back audibly gasp, and one groaned quite loudly, their names mustn’t be next to each other. And why the hell is Autumn’s surname wrong in the classroom? Well, it’s wrong according to her. Completely wrong, they couldn’t have even put her birth name? No?
She scrolled through the list, nodding at each name as they came down the line, and then she saw who’s name was next to hers;
Wait a minute. Langdon. Langdon. The name. The one Mr Henderson said. The blonde boy? No freaking way! She couldn’t believe her eyes, and also couldn’t believe that Chloe had been partnered with the boy sitting next to this Langdon boy. His best friend, Marcus. Her stomach tumbled over and down an imaginary hill and she wanted to run out of the classroom and never look back. Why all of a sudden were those brown eyes the only thing on her mind?
“Oh, good luck with that one,” Chloe chuckled from beside her, nudging Autumn’s elbow with hers to get her attention.
Autumn raised her eyebrows, and Chloe continued, “He’s like… I think there’s something wrong with Tate…”
Tate? Thought his name was Edward, no?
“Everybody has something wrong with them, some people are just better at hiding it,” Autumn muttered to herself. Ding ding, got it in one, Autumn, and she was one who was great at hiding who she really was. Oh golly, the bell rang, and she looked down at her empty test; it was just six multiple choice questions. She could have easily done it, but was too busy bricking this project and it hadn’t even begun yet.
“Turn in your test to me before you leave. I’ll see you all tomorrow,” Mr Henderson said, and with that, Autumn handed in her test and walked to her next class, her last class today; Maths. Though she had cheerleading tryouts so she wouldn’t even be doing any work.
Tryouts had been tough to say the least, but Autumn ultimately got a spot on the squad, earning the proper cheer outfit and a blue bow from the HBIC, Bailey Diaz. On her way to her locker she bumped into the boy from English class and her heart stopped completely for a good two seconds.
“Hey, Ed— I mean, Tate! Sorry… I’m still learning names,” she said louder than anticipated, and he turned around to fully face her. Handsome Tate was talking to her. Her. Autumn. He was talking to Autumn. God, what does she say now?
“Oh, uh… hey! Autumn, right?”
“Yeah.” She began twisting her foot on the floor from side to side, fiddling with a coin in the pocket of her navy hoodie as she spoke. “Thought Henderson was going to kick me out of class for being late earlier.”
“Nah, he likes the girls in the class. A little too much if you ask me,” he muttered. “Uh- what am I even saying? Why the hell are you talking to me? You’re going to get bullied if anyone sees you with me.”
“People who bully others are just insecure in their own skin, Tate. So I don’t let it bother me. Besides, I have a reason to be over here.” I do? She does? Okay, think of something quick!
She watched as he silently nodded, waiting for her to say something else, so she blurted out the first thing that came to mind; “So anyways. Since we’re working together on the project… figured I’d give you my number.” She looked into those gorgeous brown eyes of his and felt a weird feeling rushing to her knees, making her almost fall. Holy guaca-goddamn-moly. “If you want it, that is...” Did she just kind of, sort of, maybe ask for his number? Bold move.
“Uh…sure. I uh—are you sure you want to give me your number? I mean, of course it’s for the project but, uh…” He stuttered, stumbling over his words, trying to form a coherent sentence and failing magnificently. Autumn wondered why, he seemed so confident in himself before and now he looked like he was bricking this conversation as much as she was. Which in fact had some truth to it.
“Why would I ask if I didn’t want to?” Am I being rude? No, of course not, this isn’t rudeness. It’s just making conversation!
“Fair,” he muttered under his breath. He pulled out his phone from his pocket and held it out for Autumn to take after unlocking it, and suddenly, she forgot how to use a phone. Well done, now you’ve messed it all up.
With shaky hands she opened the contact list and typed in her phone number, smiling at the picture she saw moments ago of his home screen. He looked so happy holding a vinyl record with an older woman next to him, presumably his mom. Autumn blushed deeply as she handed the phone back a moment later.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Tate!” She smiled, waving at him with her shaking hand before spinning around on her heel and bolting out of the school. Literally.
After her conversation with Tate she ran home, forgetting to speak to Mr Henderson about being late but she could do that tomorrow. She was greeted by her mom standing at the doorway with a young man clinging onto her, his blonde curls hanging over his brown eyes so she couldn’t see who he was, until she did, and she almost passed out. A boy? At an all-girls academy? The butler was enough male-ness to have to put up with as it was, and now another man has joined?
“What the… Mom…? Who is this?” Autumn asked, gesturing to the man.
“This is Kyle! He’ll be staying with us for a while, I’m sure you won’t mind.”
“Hmm, a boy at an all girl’s academy...” Autumn wasn’t convinced in the slightest. She walked up the steps past the two and opened the door, only to be pulled back outside. ‘Kyle’ held onto her arm with his tight grip and looked into her eyes.
—She blinked frantically and was blinded by the sunlight back outside on the front porch to her home, the man shaking her shoulders to bring her back from zoning out. He carefully wiped the tears from underneath Autumn’s eyes as they rushed down her hot cheeks and gave her the sweetest smile she ever saw. Who the hell could hurt a man like this? A random stranger doing this was bad enough, but quickly she learned that that was Kyle’s own mother.
“I-I’m so sorry, T-Kyle,” she choked, and he threw his arms around her, now crying too because she was crying. She mentally kicked herself off the balcony upstairs for almost calling him Tate. Yeah, he looked strikingly similar and almost identical to him, but she still felt bad because obviously this wouldn’t be Tate standing in front of her. He’d never do that. Ever. He probably doesn't like her at all.
Autumn looked at her mom, who was also trying to hold back tears. “New power?” Misty asked, and Autumn nodded, resting her lips against Kyle’s shoulder to try to hold back the shaking in her voice. “I think so. I was in his mind when he looked into my eyes and I saw bad things… Really bad. I don’t like this power at all, take it back I don’t want it.”
Misty nodded, giving her a small smile. “I know, doll, I know. Some of these powers we have are scary. We should probably tell Dee, so you can add it to your list.”
“That’s three new powers this week! It’s all too much. I just wanna be normal. But that can’t happen, can it? You can tell her. I’m going upstairs.”
When Autumn ran up to her room after removing herself from Kyle’s embrace, he followed her. Kyle was only beginning to learn what basic emotions were, but he felt happy when Autumn hugged him. And he thought she was also really pretty.
He struggled to keep up with her, and when he opened her bedroom door, he found her looking at something and smiling. She noticed him standing in her doorway and instead of telling him to go away like her mind was telling her to do, she invited him in. Especially after what she witnessed a few minutes ago. He sat in the middle of the floor and wouldn’t move when Autumn asked him to sit on her bed, so she sat on the floor next to him. He brought his arms back around her and she reciprocated, and they stayed like this even after Kyle had fallen asleep in her arms.
She lifted one of her hands up and a pillow floated over to her, for her to rest Kyle’s head against when she rested it against her body. And she sat with her thoughts for a while, wondering what the hell happened to him, and what all those scars on his body were from.
Moments later Zoe knocked on the door and entered, a slight frown forming on her face when she noticed the boy she had a crush on was ‘cuddling’ with her best friend, though her expression softened a little more when she realised Autumn had probably been the one to find him. “You found Kyle?”
“Misty did. I’m just making sure he’s okay right now. Though he did fall asleep on me,” Autumn giggled quietly, and Zoe joined them both on the floor, also joining the embrace.
They both let out a soft ‘awh’ when Kyle smiled in his sleep, reaching out to take Autumn’s hand in his, and Autumn took Zoe’s hand and placed it in Kyle’s too.
“I heard a shout from outside a little while ago,” Zoe started. “Was that you?”
Autumn shook her head and smiled at Zoe, who didn’t question any further. I have the ability to control others? Nice. Now I won’t ever get any homework or bad grades. Her phone lit up, interrupting her thoughts, and she gasped when she saw who it was from.
Autumn felt her heart dropping through the ceiling, and the downstairs floor, all the way through the centre of the earth and back out the other side, and a weird feeling bouncing all over the inside of her stomach and her rib cage. Why was she so nervous? He’s just a boy in her class, not Jamie Dornan!
“Who are you talking to?”
“A boy from my class. His name’s Tate. We’re doing an English project together,” Autumn said, typing out a reply without thinking, until she began overthinking everything even down to the way she typed it out.
Hey, Tate! Thanks for giving me your number :)
Was that smiley face too much? Probably, but it had been sent already so she couldn’t delete it and think of some other way to say what she wanted to say. And so she sat there, waiting for an answer as if he’d answer her, and then he did. And Autumn almost threw her phone across the room.
no problem :) should i have something done for the project tomorrow?
It was just a question, a simple question that only needed a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. But as Autumn always did, she made it much more complicated than that; writing and rewriting her message a million and one times before squeezing her eyes shut and hitting the send button.
I asked Mr Henderson after cheer tryouts today and he said we would be working on the project in class. So nah, we can work on it tomorrow :)
And what a goddamn lie that was. She was about to read his next message when the door flung open, disrupting the peace. It was the new maid, Delphine, looking for Queenie, who wasn’t in her room. And when Delphine made her exit, Autumn’s other best friend, Stephanie, joined them in the room, a school bag on her back.
“You’re going to school too?” Autumn raised an eyebrow, giving the blonde a pointed look, who nodded, setting her bag down on Autumn’s bed.
“Yeah, Westfield, just like you. Wanted you to have a friendly face to talk to in the halls, though I did notice you ogling Wednesday Addams earlier. So I guess that’s two friendly faces. He looks, like, identical to Kyle, right?”
“Wait… Tate looks like Kyle?” Zoe asked, leaving the embrace and laying down on her bed, Stephanie joining her. “Is that why you’re hogging Kyle now?”
“I’m not hogging Kyle, Zo. And no, I don’t like Tate so why would I?”
“Hm, sure,” Zoe and Stephanie both said at the same time under their breaths.
Autumn lay her head against Kyle’s shoulder, closing her eyes, Stephanie and Zoe’s teasing fading into the distance in her mind…
The remainder of her day after that short nap had been spent listening to some music Misty wanted her to listen to as she unwound herself from that day’s stress. And helping Kyle learn his ABC’s again, after Zoe had told her all about how she and Madison brought him back to life a month ago but today was his first full day in the academy. Somebody had to take care of him.
Then a little notification popped up on her screen; it was Tate again.
She chose to not reply after that, which Tate probably wouldn’t blame her for. How the hell does somebody reply to ‘sounds good’ anyways? Not for her to be rude or anything,, she just didn’t know how.
When nightfall came, Autumn found herself lying on her bed with Kyle in her arms and a jealous Zoe Benson in the bed next to them. She didn’t want to sleep in the same bed as Kyle, but he looked too adorable to be kicked out of her bed. So she lay back down, with his chest pressed against her back, listening to his soft breathing as he drifted into a peaceful sleep.
It’s just a project. It’ll be done in three weeks max. Worst case scenario I keep calling Tate Kyle and Kyle Tate and they both get too annoyed to ever talk to me again. But that won’t happen. Of course it won’t, right? I hope not. Who’ll be my partner for the project then? Stephanie? If she gets moved into my English class, maybe…
taglist: @xxlangdon, @sympathyforher, @unlivingdreams my loves
dm to be added or taken off <3