Tessa's Training: Chapter Six
The sun was doing that thing it did every September: sinking behind the tree line, punching gold through the dying leaves, turning the park into a movie set right before the credits. Tessa and Jake wandered the path with the practiced ease of kids who’d grown up with this place as both playground and escape hatch. Their parents were two blocks away, binge-watching “Great British Bake Off” and nursing half-empty wineglasses, blissfully convinced that their spawn were out for a jog or a last shot at Pokémon Go glory. Instead, they were here, burning time in the no-man’s land between childhood and whatever the fuck came next.