once upon a time in a land far, far away (commonly known as swansea, wales [that's in the uk, folks] for those too daft to put things together or the lot of you who fancy jumping around in a book because you’re too bloody impatient to wait and see what might unfold next) there lived a girl... okay, so maybe there's a lot of birds running about in wales, but that is completely beside the point now innit? sit down, shut up and pay attention. quit splitting hairs. now, the girl i'm referring to is one jinelle merdone: a pretty young girl with a bright future. originally from kidwelly, she set off to begin studying at swansea university after secondary school. little to her knowledge, though, did she know this move would one day change her life forever. enter dyllon jones: a fit bloke with big blue eyes and an appetite for doing stupid things that most young guys would do. it started out as a meaningless one night stand, actually, but low and behold, the two fell in love. (audiance: you may "awww" now.) all right, so here, let's insert the dull parts: courting, blah blah blah, dating, blah blah blah, sex, blah blah blah marriage, yadda yadda and so on. it was basically storybook romance, see? but after that marriage bit, that's where our story really begins.
so, we're going to change paths a bit here, shall we? and venture into something a bit different and possibly bordering on being a bit scary: once upon a time in a womb, far, far away, an egg and a sperm joined together and well, the rest is sort of history, eh? fancy that, kids. that’s how it goes, innit? you see: when a boy loves a girl, they shag and babies are made. something like that, so to save my sanity and yours, we'll just say that all the gross shit goes here. it was inevitable, wasn't it? that one day, these two love birds would eventually procreate and unleash the antichrist upon the world. it was a warm summer night, 19th august 1988 if you're looking to be exact, when it all went down. it was a scene some would describe as absolutely horrifying and other's might describe as... absolutely horrifying when one teagan dera jones came kicking and screaming like a ruddy banshee into this world. it was the first day in a series of very long days to follow that would soon unfold in the epic story of a girl who in actuality is probably just barking mad.
in the beginning, things were pretty plain: she had a mum and a dad who loved each other very much, even then as a child, she could tell by the way they looked at each other and they way they'd smile when the other's name would come up. they never fell out of love. jinelle, who'd been working as a resident doctor at a nearby hospital took time off work to care for teagan while dyllon's garage provided monitarily for the family. it was a successful business and times were never hard for the family. see it wasn't anything particularly special but then, i don't reckon i was anything to complain about either. just a normal childhood. when teagan was a year old, jinelle returned to work, either leaving her daughter to day care or to be watched by her father when she wasn't readily available. the story up to this point is pretty typical. loving family, blah blah blah, hard workers, blah blah blah, preschool, blah blah blah and so on and so forth so i'm just not going to bore you with those bits and skip to the next big wathershed, all right?
ask teagan and she'll tell you her first childhood memory. she was only three and a half, maybe four, and had a nightmare, some rubbish thing that sent her into a mad crying spree. she came from her room to find her mum. it was late, sometime round three in the morning, and she was sitting on the back porch, looking out over the bay and drinking a cup of tea. when she saw teagan, jinelle smiled and picked her up, pressing a great big kiss onto the little girl's head and telling her that she was going to be all right, that she'd always protect her and chase the monsters away... chances are she was too young then to really understand what was going on, but she could smell the peppermint tea drifting up and warming her nostrals and instantly felt comfortable. the tiny girl cuddled into her and fell right to sleep. after that, teagan woke up every morning at three and wandered out onto the porch to sit with her.
all right, hold onto your knickers. this is where our story gets a bit rocky... it was after that jinelle got really sick. all those movies you see about cancer don't really do it justice. remembering hospitals and doctor's appointments, surgeries after surgeries is one thing. something that, for the most part, because she was so young, teagan's been able to block out, but still so much of it seems like it happened yesterday. it all started with a headache... the only problem? this headache didn't go away for her mum; in fact, it just got worse and worse until one day, in the middle of the square, she collapsed. the doctors said it was a brain tumour, that she ought to be all right. they started procedures immediately. these were her co-workers, people that she trusted and they said she'd be all right. and for a while, anyway, she was.
it's something that teagan hardly ever talks about, something that constantly haunts her even now: it was just a routine check up, going in for her treatments, all that and teagan had gone with her, it shouldn't have taken long, though she had been feeling ill for the last week or so before that. it happened almost immediately, they walked into the hospital and then out of nowhere: BAM! massive cerebral aneurism. jinelle just fell to the floor and died. right there in front of of her daughter. teagan began shreaking and leaned down, shaking her, crying for her to wake up but nothing. nothing at all and it was never the same after that. i mean, i bet this is where you're all expecting me to tell you her father turned into an abusive bastard and all that bollocks, but no such luck.
after the funeral, dyllon just couldn't be there anymore. he wanted out of swansea so he packed up all the families belongings and bought a gaff in cardiff, opened a garage and started over while young teagan started school at ysgol gynradd gwaelod y garth primary school (yes, kids, she speaks welsh) and got on with her life as if nothing had ever gone wrong to begin with. i reckon that she did whatever she could to not think on what had happened or maybe it was that she was too young to even fully understand it at that point... either way, the majority of her time was spent with her dad, since her mother's death, the two had grown even closer, either that or she'd been caught wrestling with her mates or playing footy with the boys on her street or just generally getting into trouble and making a mockery of herself. sure, her mum wasn't around anymore, but her dad made the best life possible for her and did a brilliant job at it.
so, what could possibly go wrong? hah, well kiddos, there's a bit, really. what's every daddy's girl's worst nightmare? and insert evil woman come to take mum's place. her name was brynne connah and she was mean. from day one, maybe it was jealousy, but teagan hated the woman. there was something about her that wasn't right and to top it all off she talked to teagan like she actually merited some sort of authority. but, her dad was blinded by the pretty brunette thing and couldn't see that this woman was the devil in disguise so needless to say, teagan took it upon herself to drive the woman away. and succeeded the day her father walked in on brynne raising her hand to teagan.
over the next few years, teagan grew up to be a beautiful young girl with a lot of potential. she had boyfriends here and there, babysat for her neighbours and excelled in school, music and sport. her free time was still, though, spent working on cars and running around climbing trees. ask anyone and they'll tell you she wasn't exactly what you'd call social: keeping to herself most of the time or with a tightknit group of mates, she hardly ever ventured outside of her circle. she seemed happy enough, but it was always evident that there was something on her mind. after attending fitzalan high school for three years, she was accepted to cardiff academy at aged fourteen and breezed through her classes, constantly preached to about her potential and how she'd go so far in life. she graduated from school at the top of her class and was accepted immediately to the undergraduate programme at the the royal welsh college of music and drama along with several other schools.
okay, so now that all the boring stuff about growing up is out of the way and all, we can really get down to business. it was after high school that teagan, who'd always been told she would go so far in life, had to make a pivotal decision. would she stay in wales with the memories and her dad and his new girlfriend, alis (whom she actually approved of) or would she run off to some other part of the the uk and study there? it was a cold night in mid july when she'd finally made up her mind and called her cousin, ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
drystan in new jersey. she needed out, and he was the first person who'd come to mind. two weeks later, she was standing in cardiff international airport, bags in hand, kissing her dad good-bye. it was possibly the hardest thing she'd ever had to do and tears were rolling down her cheeks as she got onto the plane. eight or nine hours later? they were touching down in jersey.
for the first couple of weeks, things were hard for the girl in a strange new place where people looked at her as though she were from another planet whenever she opened her mouth, but she managed, smiled and laughed it off, never minding that she was sleeping on her cousins couch: at least there was a roof over her head. finally, after days of hunting, she found a job and a suitable flat and was well on her way to being a grown up. she was fired from said job less than a week later for correcting her boss, but luckily, was able to find not one, but two more jobs, one at the local film rental store and the other at a small, artsy indie cafe down near the boardwalk where she works as a barista.
okay, so let's wrap all this last bit up into a nice little concise package, shall we?: she never did go to college, though perhaps one day she will when she makes up her mind on what she wants to study. over all, teagan is a good girl with a big heart but her luck in the field of relationships is rubbish and leaves something to be desired. after her mother's death, she saw her father and the things he went through, never fully recovering from that heartache and swore she'd never put herself into that situation. it hurt enough just to watch it and thus, she's always been the love 'em and leave 'em sort. she's a loud girl with a big personality, not afraid to speak her mind, though she tends to let her emotions get the best of her at times. she's got a big heart and probably cares a bit too much about situations that most people would deem stupid. she's not much of a girly girl having grown up with a mechanic for a dad and boys all over the place, and hasn't abandoned that. she's the type of girl that's happier with a smudge of grease on her cheek, loud music and jumping fences than in a pretty dress and gossiping about boys. she prides herself on uniqueness and doesn't really care what people think of her or her obsession with eighties buttrock. truth is that teagan is a bit offkilter but loves every slightly reckless second of it: spontaneous road trips to god-knows where, singing to guns n roses on the top of her lungs, and watching reruns of dr who... nevermind she's secretly devising a plan to get david tennant to fall madly in love with her...
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