Heather Tewce, character in Two Paradises fantasy/fiction realm

from *The Essential Paradise*, series sourcebook

#### **Heather Tewce** is a Paradisian gymnast and ballerina, featured in stories set in the Two Paradises fantasy/fiction realm, as devised by author Jonnie Comet.

She is a member of the British Paradise Islands Olympic Committee gymnastics team attending the XVI Commonwealth Games as well as the teammate and best friend of Gwendolyn Dahl.

## Personal information

* Full name: Heather Georgiana Tewce
* Nicknames: ‘Tuppy’
* Birthdate: 26 May 1984 (Gemini)

* Birthplace: Mercy Hospital, Hurricane Hole
* Parents: Robert & Georgina Tewce
* Nationality: Paradisian citizen, belonger
* Residence: 5 Church Street, St Alice, Dublin Township, Eden Island
* Height: 158 cm [5 ft 2 in]
* Weight: 47kg [104 lb]
* Figure: slight, small, slender, as for pubescence or for dancer/gymnast
* Hair: very light brown to blonde, wavy, long
* Eyes: blue
* Complexion: fair; English; well-tanned
* Ethnic background: English; Scots
* Religion: Anglican
* School: Hurricane Hole High School, Eden I.; O-levels: 2000
* Sport: artistic gymnastics; ballet

Story arcs: *The Love of Gwendolyn Dahl*; 1996-2004

## Early life

Heather was born into a comfortable middle-class family living at St Alice. Her father, Robert, is a plant manager for a manufacturing company at Hurricane Hole; her mother is a homemaker and part-time clerk at a crafts shop. She has one elder brother, Edmund. As a small child Heather is gentle and tractable, showing exceptional intelligence in academics, especially in reading, in which she excels all through elementary and lower-secondary school. Raised with traditional English middle-class values, she matures into a pleasant, proper young lady whose sensible choices and well-moderated behaviour endear her to most of older generations.

## Academic performance and pursuits

Always a strong reader at Dublin Township Elementary School, Heather is promoted in lower secondary to several upper-level classes, particularly in literature and in history. By the end of second form she is a consistent placer on the Hurricane Hole High School honour rolls.

She enjoys singing and participates in the HHHS performing choir and in the worship choir at St Andrew's Church, St Alice.

She is confirmed by Bishop Grey at St Andrew’s, upon Michaelmas, 1996, in a confirmation class that includes her friends and classmates Dinah Eaker, Jadienne Grainger, Marie Tanner and Gwendolyn Dahl.

Her lifelong interest in graphic arts draws her to architecture, which she intends to study at university abroad, most likely in Canada, where live her mother’s relatives. She is often occupied in constructing minutely-detailed scale models of both her own designs and of famous buildings. Her original design work is focused in modestly-sized residential architecture, as though intended for a Paradisian market, and is markedly pretty as well as practical. The Tewce family, to encourage her, have allowed numerous shelves and tables about her bedroom and elsewhere in the house to store and display her models and drawings, which fascinate all visitors.

## Athletic training

Heather begins instruction in tumbling at age 4, along with Gwendolyn Dahl, who becomes her lifelong best friend. Within only a few years both girls show promise as future gymnasts. Upon starting her 2nd form, Heather is promoted to first bench (primary competition roster) on the Hurricane Hole gymnastics squad. Her best events are in vault and floor exercises. By the start of her third-form year she, Simone Coe, and Gwendolyn, all slender, deceptively-strong 13-year-olds, are consistently challenging or outscoring their older teammates, earning them the group nickname of The Fantastic Faeries. Heather is known as the Flipping Faery due to her very strong, fast saltoes in vaulting.

### Olympic aspirations

On 27 June 1998, Heather is selected for the BPIOC’s first Olympic-class team to attend the XVI Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur, in 1998. Although assigned to second bench, she participates in the individual competition and scores 14th on floor exercises, a surprise to the field, made up of first-class Australian, English, and Malaysian gymnasts, not all of whom outscore her. Her vaults, typically excellent, place her 19th in a very strong field.

In April, 2000, with Gwendolyn and several of her BPIOC teammates, Heather attends qualification competition for the British Olympic gymnastics team in London. With British Gymnastics deciding against accepting any girls from the territory, the BPIOC hold a tryout for an Olympic go, at which Heather, despite being an exceptionally talented gymnast in a highly competitive field, is narrowly eliminated. She remains at HHHS, where she serves as co-captain in her 5th-form year and competes as a top scorer in territorial and regional (Pacific-Rim) competition.

## Ballet training

Heather, with Gwendolyn, enrols in dance at age 4, quickly progressing from children’s ballet to intermediate- and advanced-level classes.

Heather begins inividual instruction with Gladys Seurat, a dance teacher sharing a studio in Cook Landing with her sister Elizabeth Howe, upon beginning *pointe* at age 12. By that time she is probably better suited to the grace and poise of ballet than to the strength of gymnastics; and by age 13 she is accepting dancing roles in the territory.

Once passed over for the BPIOC Olympic team, Heather renews her training in ballet, in the event landing the Trepak role in the territorial teens' production of *The Nutcracker* in late 2000 and as the prima ballerina in *The Little Mermaid* in March 2001.

## Nickname of ‘Tuppy’

Georgina Tewce, an avid reader of English cosy mysteries, had reread Agatha Christie's *The Secret Adversary* when Heather was still a toddler and lightheartedly began calling her ‘Tuppence’, after the character. Heather herself is said to have abbreviated this to ‘Tuppy’ when she was still very small. The nickname caught on and by the time she has begun primary school she has been introducing herself as ‘Tuppy’. For a time her classmates, including Gwendolyn, in becoming her best friend, did not know her by any other name.

## Friendship with Gwendolyn Dahl

Heather and Gwendolyn have been nearly inseparable since they first met. Both have made the three blocks’ walk between their houses in St Alice in all weather, at all hours, and in all states of dress. Both girls are fond of private attire, preferring plain cotton knickers to nearly anything else to wear, and frequent the beach and shops along the St Alice strand without tops at least till Gwendolyn begins to gain recognition as Lord Jonathan’s girlfriend. The two share clothes, showers, beds, and secrets, as well as most of the same sorts of values.

Heather is the only one in whom Gwendolyn confides about having been abused by her brothers and cousin. At first Heather is aghast, her typically delicate sensibilities offended; but in time she comes to accept that Gwendolyn, at 10 or 11 years of age, is essentially helpless to effect any change and chooses to support her by providing a sympathetic ear and by bearing the secret faithfully. After Gwendolyn has met Lord Jonathan, Heather is the first one she informs of his identity and the first one to whom she admits she believes herself truly in love.

Mrs Tewce regularly welcomes Gwendolyn to their home, and Gwendolyn delights in calling her ‘Mama T' or even 'Mom’ (which she does not call her own mother) and in stopping by and entering without invitation nor further ceremony.

As teammates Heather and Gwendolyn are mutually supportive, each challenging and encouraging the other in the events in which she does well, typically Heather in vault and Gwendolyn in balance beam. Both are favourites of the coaches, who can devote more time to eliciting increasingly-difficult routines out of them both than to reinforcing basics. The two are often confused by judges who cannot tell the girls, in team leotards, apart; Simone, otherwise similarly shaped, at least has darker hair.

Both Heather and Gwendolyn are avid readers, fond of great literature, and are known for using rather formal English with each other and with others, including archaic terms, eloquent sentence structure, and few contractions. They tend to be interrogated by strangers and tourists and to defend each other’s reputation, virtue and feelings with potentially-ferocious ardour.

Playfully, Heather begins calling Gwendolyn 'Gwendie' sometime after they begin their elementary 1st form together. By degrees this becomes 'Gwendi-goo', a nickname only Heather calls her till they start secondary school and gymnastics teammates learn of it. In return Gwendolyn, who has always called Heather 'Tuppy', begins calling her 'Tuppikins'.

Heather and Gwendolyn remain close friends all their lives. Heather serves as maid-of-honour at Gwendolyn’s wedding to Lord Jonathan in 2002. At the close of the story arc Gwendolyn promises to name Heather godmother of their first child.

## Other relationships

Unlike Gwendolyn, Heather retains the option to preserve her chastity and is committed to remaining a virgin till marriage. She dates only infrequently, spending most of her time and energy on gymnastics and in dance.

She counts Dinah, Simeone, Jadienne, and Marie as close friends throughout the story arc. In turn they rely upon her as a supportive shoulder for commiseration, comfort, and moral advice, both in competition and in emotional and social matters.

## Personality and outward appearance

Heather has a pixieish look, being slight, very slender in the middle, with smallish shoulders and hips, that belies her physical strength. As a vaulter, she is characteristically limber and quick-moving; as a dancer who excels at floor exercise she is also graceful, fluid, and pleasant-looking even in just walking. She has naturally-wavy light-brown hair, typically blonde from the sun, typically worn down and brushed-out. Her complexion is smooth and clear and she has large round eyes and high cheekbones, lending her only more of a childlike look. She is universally considered exceptionally pretty and receives plenty of attention from males, from her own classmates to middleaged men.

The Tewces have a swimming pool in their fenced back garden where Heather enjoys sunning, often naked, and swimming regularly for exercise. She is typically eager for any physical activity, even just walking, hiking or frolicking in the sea. She is fond of sporting out of doors without a top; and, in diminutive swimsuit pants or knickers, her suntan appears comprehensive.

Heather is given to a naturally docile demeanour, eager to think well of others, and is readily amused, smiling and laughing often. She considers herself a lady and conducts herself only with the most discerning decorum and gentility. Though quick-witted she is essentially innocent, both inexperienced and free of guilt in social and romantic contexts, and can fall prey to others’ innuendo and joking. But being well-read she is also aware of a greater world than most of her schoolmates know, and can speak articulately on any number of subjects, from history, science, the arts and literature; and most older people admit to being positively impressed by her.

Her favourite colour is probably yellow, as it appears often in her wardrobe.

Once beginning *pointe* lessons she ventures to wear heeled shoes, settling on a height of 50-60 mm at which she feels comfortable. She is fond of thigh-high hose and short skirts, being a proponent of what becomes known as the Fashie look.

## Appearances in the stories

Heather appears frequently in the *Love of Gwendolyn Dahl* story arc from the ‘Secret Spilt’ episode onwards. She accompanies Gwendolyn to the duel between Lord Jonathan and Geoffrey Dahl and is first of Gwendolyn’s friends to visit the secret Hideaway Cottage on the Eden Island coast at Dorset. The two girls watch much of the XXVI Olympic Games on television in the Tewce family room.

In the event, Heather becomes acquainted with, and later a close friend of, Lady Kimberley Cavaliere through Lady Kimberley’s association with Gwendolyn. Even by the Earl’s Cup finals of January 1997, all the second-form girls of both the North Eden and the Hurricane Hole squads, though athletic rivals, have attained friendly terms.

## \* \* \*

Doc. 6.62.01. b. 2015.1018. ©Jonnie Comet Productions Ltd. All rights reserved.