Gen. 19 – Mira: Chapter 2

Brandon and I fell for each other–fast; except for when we had to go to work, we were pretty much inseparable. We spent most of our time either out around the town or at my place, since his parents’ house was so crowded. I could honestly see myself with him forever; I was that crazy for him.

We were officially dating now, but I still hadn’t told Mom much of anything about him. She knew I’d met him, but I hadn’t told her really how serious things were getting. I wasn’t really ready for anyone to know; I didn’t want to deal with people telling me that I’m too young or that I should slow things down. I was happier with Brandon than I’d ever been with anyone.

Then one night when Brandon was walking me home from his parent’s house, I paused on the porch and whispered in his ear asking if he’d like to come in and stay for a while. He looked into my eyes with a sheepish grin silently asking what we were both thinking.

We went inside and stood somewhat awkwardly in the kitchen for a while, neither of us really sure of what we wanted to do.

He pulled me close to him and kissed me passionately, then asked if I wanted to take this back to my bedroom, to which I nodded. I was sure of us and sure that I wanted to be with him, but I was still extremely nervous.

We lay cuddling on the bed for a while staring into each other eyes. My heart felt like it was going to hammer out of my chest.

He turned and smiled at me and said, “Mira, there’s no one in this world I’d rather be with than you. You’re the sweetest, prettiest, funniest, smartest, most wonderful girl I’ve ever met, and I want nothing less than to spend the rest of my life with you. You’re my everything.”

I’m sure my cheeks blushed completely scarlet, but I had a grin from ear to ear on my face. He always had this knack for making me smile and making me happy, no matter what.

But that’s not the only emotion he evoked in me. I glanced up at him with a mischievous grin, and I’ll leave it to your imagination to infer where things went from there…

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The next morning, I woke up to find the other side of the bed empty and the smell of pancakes in the air. Oh wow did that smell good. I hadn’t had real, cooked food since I’d lived with Mom. I tossed on some clothes, tied my hair up quickly, and wandered into the kitchen.

“Good morning sleepy-head. I almost thought you weren’t going to wake up by the time these were done,” he said to me with a smile on his face while he flipped the pancake over in the skillet.

“There’s no way I’d miss pancakes for breakfast,” I responded.

He dished me up a plate with some cinnamon apples and brought it over to me at the table, then went to dish up his own. I turned my thoughts over in my head for a minute while I took a bite of pancake (they were absolutely delicious) and then blurted out, “I really don’t want you to go.”

“I’m only going just down the street. It’s not like we aren’t going to see each other again later.”

“I know, but I want more than that. I want you to stay here with me…permanently.”

“Permanently?” He flipped his pancake onto his plate and then turned to stare at me with a confused, but hopeful, look on his face.

“Yes,” I paused, took a deep breath, and gathered all of my courage up. “Brandon, you’re the most amazing thing in my life, and I know I might be rushing things, but I don’t see a reason to wait when I don’t see myself ever wanting anyone but you. Will you move in with me?”

The huge smile that spread across his face as soon as I said that was all the answer I needed. He walked over to me, pulled me up out of my chair, and held me in a long, tender kiss, then said softly, “Of course sweetheart. There’s nothing else I’d rather do. I just wish I had more to give you.”

“Just you is enough.”

After breakfast, I picked up the phone to give my mom a call. With Brandon moving in now, she should probably meet him and get to know him. I dialed her number and waited for her to pick up the phone.

“Hello?” she said through what sounded like dry sobs.

“Mom? It’s me. What’s wrong?”

“Oh honey, I just found out, myself. I hadn’t had the chance to call you.”

“What is it?” At this point my worrying was kicking into full gear; I never liked to hear my mother upset.

“Aunt Rachael passed away last night.”

“Oh, Mom. I’m so sorry.” Truth be told, I’d never known my great aunt Rachael very well, but Mom had been pretty close to her.

“Cousin Suzie is handling the funeral arrangements,” another sob. “Oh, I’m sorry sweetheart; what did you call about?”

“Uh…” I couldn’t tell her now when she’s so distraught. I’d just have to find another time to pop the news. “Nothing special, I just wanted to see how you are.”

“That’s sweet of you,” sob, “but I think I should probably go lay down and clean myself up before Matthew sees me like this. I look like a tear-stained wreck.”

“That’s fine, Mom. I love you.”

“I love you, too. Bye, honey.”

“Bye, Mom.”

I told Brandon what had happened when I got off of the phone, and he was one-hundred percent supportive and did his best to make me feel better. We could find another time to tell Mom about him moving in.

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The rest of the week passed fairly uneventfully. Brandon got all of his stuff moved in and we both went to work each day (he worked as a scullion at Cherry’s Cafe). Friday I got to substitute teach for Mr. Dodge’s class because he’d gotten sick that morning. There was a field trip to the science facility planned for that day that he didn’t want the kids to miss, so I got to take them myself.

Everyone had a blast, and I even learned a few things, too. We got a glimpse into their research with the space-time continuum and spectral essences; the kids were more impressed with the robots department, though.

Starting the day after he moved in with me, Brandon started getting these mystery phone calls that he’d always step outside to take or ignore completely.

When I finally confronted him about it, he responded, “It’s this girl that I was sort-of, not really, seeing before I met you. We weren’t dating or anything. I met her while I was at the Water Hole a couple days after my family moved here and we flirted a little, but that was it. Now she’s calling me every day and keeps badgering me as to why I won’t go out with her, even when I tell her I’m with someone else. She just doesn’t quit.”

I giggled a little. I’m not really the jealous type so I found the situation more humorous than anything else. “Who is it?”

“Uh, Corinne-something.”

“Corinne McCrary!?”

“Yea, that’s it.”

“Wow! How could you have flirted with her? She’s freaky. She was in my graduating class, or she would have been if she’d passed her classes. She failed a few and had to get her diploma after summer school. She’s been weird since elementary school.”

“Heh,” he grunted. “Well, aren’t I glad that I’m with you and not her?”

“You’d better be!” He scooped me up into his arms, and we both laughed.

“Oh come on, baby. You know you’re the only one I want.” I blushed and smiled at him.

Since it was Saturday we decided to go to the gym for the day. Brandon had been wanting to work out more to get into shape, and I figured I could go swimming while he was doing his thing.

Except that when he stopped to kiss me before going upstairs to the weight room, Corinne stepped up behind us just in time to see.

She was infuriated, naturally, and tried to tell me off, but no crazy chick was going to shout at me for kissing my boyfriend. She should have listened when he told her that he was taken.

“He’s with me. What do you think you’re doing putting your hands on him. You keep your lips away from him or you’re going to get slapped into the next county–” she threatened.

“Listen, psycho, I don’t know what alternate reality you actually think Brandon would ever date you in, but he’s mine. Got that? Mine, and I’m never giving him up. So back off, stop calling him, and leave us both alone.”

“Hmmmph.”

I was pretty afraid that she was going to hit me, considering she had twice the muscles I do, but when I turned on my heel and stomped out the door, she didn’t follow. I thought I heard her mumble something about scheming gnomes as I left. Looked like I wasn’t going to be swimming that day, but I was beyond happy that Brandon was going home with me and not anyone else.

Gen. 19 – Mira: Chapter 1

“You just got out of school; don’t you want to wait a while?” was my mother’s comment upon me voicing my intention to move out and get my own place. I was a little worried since I’ve never lived by myself before (I had no intention of getting a roommate), but I was definitely ready to get out of Mom’s house. Not that I don’t love her–of course I do–but now that I’m an adult, her mothering was getting to be a bit too much. With Matthew still a teen, Mom kept trying to treat me like one, too, and I was having none of that.

So I went on on the hunt for my own place and found out that old Mrs. Wozny had a little one bedroom, one bathroom house for sale that would be just perfect for me! She sold it to me for an exceptionally good price and wished me the best of luck in my new home.

Now that I’m here, I can not only say that I definitely made the right decision, I can also say that moving out is probably the best thing I’ve ever done, and I’m absolutely loving the freedom of it.

It didn’t look like much when I first saw it–in fact it looked pretty small and cramped–but once I got moved in, I realized that it’s just the right size for just me. It came with a furnished kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom, but that’s it; the rest of the house I’d have to furnish myself, and the backyard was a project all unto itself.

I was pretty sure that Mrs. Wozny had never done anything with the backyard at all, seeing how barren it was. It looked like, once the house was furnished, I was going to have to put some serious simoleons into sprucing it up.

I didn’t have much as far as funds go; what extra Mom had, she’d spent on my graduation present and birthday presents for Matthew and me. I wasn’t about to ask her to help me out. Luckily, she had let me take my car with me when I moved, so I was covered in that department. After buying the house, I had 3,000 simoleons left over from what I got for graduation and from my inheritance from Grandma, so I bought a bed and nightstand, dresser, kitchen table and chairs, a bookcase, and a desk for my laptop, along with a couple of lamps and a laundry hamper. I had to get everything second-hand and discounted, but my little home was looking a bit more furnished.

Since I was going to have bills to pay now, my part-time work at the tutoring house wasn’t going to cut it. I headed over to Truelong to hand in my resignation to the tutoring house and walk next-door to the school and apply for a real job.

As it turned out, they wanted someone with more experience than I have for their teaching positions, but they did offer me a job as an room aide to let me get some classroom hours under my belt, and I’m really looking forward to working with the kids.

On the way back home, I noticed a new family moving into a house down the street from mine! I made a mental note to check back later after they’d gotten settled and go introduce myself.

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Going to work my first day, I was incredibly nervous. Sure, I’d worked at the tutoring house for a while, but these were real school situations; what if I didn’t do a good job? My whole future as a teacher hinged on this.

My work day started off early at 8:00 AM, and I monitored the kids while they were out at morning recess before school started for the day. When the bell rang and everyone headed to their classrooms, I went to room K-A, Mr. Carlton Dodge’s kindergarten class. As it turned out, working in the classroom came completely naturally to me. I did some flashcard games with the kids, read Angie K. Hanby and that Smelly Old School Bus to them, and helped Mr. Dodge run the workshops for the day; I was in charge of the art workshop, and helped each of the kids paint a caterpillar at the easel. The time flew by, and before I knew it, it was already time to go home for the day.

Unfortunately, things at home did not going as smoothly as my day at work went.

I came home to find my first set of bills in the mailbox and barely had enough money to pay them with just five simoleons to spare. I then went inside, changed out of my work clothes, and attempted to make dinner but, instead, made enemies with the stove.

Cooking is not really my forte, and I guess I just proved that further. Maybe I should have paid more attention all those times when Mom tried to teach me how to cook? Oh well, into the trash can it went, and I had microwaved lasagna instead.

To round out my evening, the toilet revolted against me twice in one night.

I went to sleep exhausted, hoping that I wasn’t going to have as big of problems with the rest of house as I’d had with the stove and the toilet.

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The next week passed as somewhat of a blur. Everything continued going well at work, but unfortunately, I wasn’t having any better luck with the stove or toilet. I’d pretty much given up trying to actually cook anything myself and had resigned myself to eating only salads and microwaved meals.

When Saturday rolled around, I took a walk down the street to the house where the new family had moved in.

I walked up the porch and rang the bell. Much to my surprise, a cute guy about my age answered the door.

His name was Brandon Panos, and I instantly got butterflies in my stomach just by shaking his hand; any residual memories of Oscar were quickly disappearing. Brandon had the sweetest smile, and I just couldn’t get enough looking at him. We both stood there for a moment staring at each other until he seemed to realize that he should probably say something and invited me inside.

His family was huge! I’d never met someone from such a large family. He introduced me to his mom and dad, Jacqueline and Keith; his brothers–Dyllon, Andrew, Matthew, and Justin; and his sisters, Kathryn and Amy. Brandon was the oldest child in the family. They’d all apparently just moved here from Twinbrook so that Brandon’s father could find work. I spent the rest of the day at his house and went back again on Sunday. I really loved spending time with him and thought I might be falling for him pretty hard, but we’d just have to wait and see what happens.

Gen. 18 – Brittney: Chapter 6

Sooner than Brittney thought possible, Mira’s high school graduation was at hand. Truelong was hosting the event in the field behind the school. As Riverview is quite a small town, Mira’s graduating class was also small, and the graduation ceremony was equivalently sized, but nice nonetheless.

A couple hours before the ceremony, the graduating seniors met at the school to don their graduation gowns while their parents, family members, and friends took their places out in the field. The graduation gowns were all black, and the standard sashes were a light blue. Those students that had a 3.5 cumulative GPA, or higher, received gold sashes to wear with their robes. Brittney was thrilled that the whole family had shown up for graduation, and her, Matthew, Sasha, Abigail, Lucky, and Aunt Rachael made sure to get great seats.

Brittney had made sure to bring extra tissues with her, since she knew she’d probably spend the whole ceremony teary-eyed. She couldn’t believe that her baby girl was already graduating. The days had flown by so fast, and now Mira was nearly grown. Brittney silently wondered if she’d spent enough time with her daughter over the years–paid her enough attention, been there for her when she needed someone. Brittney’d had her own difficulties in life, and with Mira never knowing her birth father and losing her step-father at so young an age, Brittney wondered if just having her mom there had been enough.

Soon, the seniors made their way out onto the field and took their seats, and Principal Crosby began his introductory speech.

“Congratulations, graduates! You’ve all made it through, and what a great four years it’s been…”

Brittney spent a good deal of the ceremony in the middle isle, behind the graduates, taking plenty of pictures to capture the moment.

After Principal Crosby spoke, the guest speaker of the graduation–Mayor Hope Carpenter–was up next, followed by the valedictorian–Beatrice Richardson.

After speeches were made, they called the names of the graduates in alphabetical order to make their way up to the stage and receive their diplomas. Mr. Crosby read off the names and shook the hand of each graduate.

“Oscar Alphender … Mira Cooper-Delven …”

Brittney was completely in tears by the time Mira went up onto the stage to get her diploma.

“… Caren Kowling … Terrill Newbie … Beatrice Richardson … Derrell Wozny … Congratulations graduating class! I leave you with this parting thought: graduation is not the end–rather, it is the beginning. Wherever you go in life, go with all your heart.”

When the commencement ceremony ended and the crowd dispersed, Mira ran to her mother and gave her a big hug.

“I’m so proud of you, honey,” Brittney whispered to Mira as she hugged her.

“Thanks, Mom,” Mira whispered back. “Aww, don’t cry. You’re going to make me start, too.”

Brittney chuckled and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes.

After she’d spent a moment with the family, Mira went to find Caren and Oscar, who were talking together on the far side of the field, closer to the school.

“Mira! Can you believe this is it? We’re really graduating!” Caren exclaimed as Mira joined them.

“I know!” Mira replied, “It’s so weird to think that we’re done with all this, but I’m ready to be out of school.”

“Do you have any plans for what you want to do with your life now?”

“I don’t know for sure. I might live at home a while longer, but I’d like to get out, get my own place. I’m thinking of going into teaching, with as much as I’ve loved working at the tutoring center. What about you?”

“I really have no idea. I might get a part-time job at my dad’s store–maybe take some night classes or something. I really haven’t thought about it much.”

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Caren and Oscar headed back with Mira and her family to the Delven house, afterward, for their graduation party. Grandma Sasha, too, expressed how proud she was of Mira, and Mira received hugs all around. She spent lots of time with both friends and family and opened her graduation gifts. She received some money from most of her relatives to give her a little head start when she gets out on her own, but her grandmother gave her a few new books to read, and from her mom, she got the brand new camera that she’d been eyeing for months. Brittney’d gotten a bonus at work and had a little extra to spend.

Around 9:00 PM, when the festivities were starting to wind down, Oscar took Mira by the hand and led her out into the backyard. Mira leaned in to embrace him, but he stepped back and turned away from her.

“Mira, we need to talk,” Oscar said.

“Never start a conversation with that sentence, ever,” Mira responded, hurt resounding in her voice. “What’s wrong?”

“We can’t do this anymore. I’m sorry.”

“What? Why? Where did this come from?”

“I got my acceptance letter from Académie Le Tour. I’m going to be leaving for college in a couple months; I can’t let myself get into a relationship before I leave.”

Mira just stared at him, dumbfounded for a moment before she responded. “You could have thought about that before we got involved.”

“I should have; I know. I’m really sorry, Mira. I do like you, but this just can’t work.”

“Please, Oscar,” Mira pleaded. “It can work; you just have to give it a chance. I can come visit you at the campus, and you can come home on holidays. Just thi–“

Oscar interrupted her mid-sentence, “No, Mira. I don’t want to do the long-distance thing. I want to experience college, not be tied to someone back home.”

“Fine,” Mira conceded. “I can see there isn’t going to be any changing your mind.” She wanted to be mad. She wanted to yell at him. She wanted to cry. Instead, she just leaned away and turned her head. “I’m guessing that this is the last time I’m going to see you?”

“We might see each other again sometime in the future, but at least for now, yes.”

And with those words, he turned around and walked back inside, got his things, and left, leaving Mira standing alone in the backyard.

“Some graduation,” she mumbled as she sat down on the lawn chair and finally succumbed to tears.

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Not two days after graduation, sad news fell upon the Delven household once again. As she was getting ready for bed, age finally caught up with Grandma Sasha, and she passed away while taking her nightly bath.

Although it was heartbreaking for all of them, it was not entirely unexpected. Grandma’s health had been failing for years–ever since Grandpa had passed. Matthew took it the hardest, as he’d only just begun to get to know Grandma, and she was the first family member he was old enough to remember losing.

They laid Grandma to rest on a Tuesday evening and held a small service for her there at the house. Brittney invited the rest of the family, as well as Grandma’s long-time friends. Jennifer Peterson, Grandma’s closest friend, was a huge help to Brittney through planning the funeral and taking care of everything the way Sasha would have wanted it.

After the funeral service, Brittney and the kids went back to the cemetery to say their goodbyes to their mother and grandmother.

They buried her next to Grandpa Trinity in the Old Town Cemetery, and hoped that, wherever they were now, they were both together.

With the morose mood that came with Grandma’s death and the funeral, Brittney and the kids decided not to have a big party for Mira and Matthew’s birthdays that, this time around, fell on the same day; they just invited Abigail and Lucky over to open gifts. Matthew got some new notebooks and sketch pads–he’d turned into quite the little reporter–and Mira received some candles, an incense burner, and from her mother, a necklace with two hearts wrapped together within a circle.

Matthew aged up into his teenage years; time for the girls to start beating down the door.

And Mira reached young-adulthood, ready and willing to take on the mantle of legacy heir for the next generation!

Gen. 18 – Brittney: Chapter 5

After a few weeks of volunteering at the tutoring center, Mira received a visit from an unexpected guest while she was at work.

“Hey, Mira,” Oscar greeted as he approached her.

“Hey, Oscar. What are you doing here?”

“I just stopped by to see you. Caren told me that you’ve been volunteering here.”

With a smile creeping across her face, Mira responded, “Aw, well that was nice of you. I was actually just wrapping up here for today; I’ve been helping Nina McCrary with her reading.”

“That’s neat. She’s in, what, the fifth grade now? My sister knew her when they were younger.”

“Yep, she’s just finishing up fifth.”

There was an awkward silence left hanging between them after Mira’s response while Oscar seemed to gather his thoughts.

“Well, Oscar, it was really nice seeing you, but I’ve got to be getting home. I’m still grounded and all; Mom is pretty particular about me going home right after I finish here.”

“Oh, all right. I guess I’ll see you around.” Then as Mira turned to walk away, “Wait! Mira, I actually came here to ask you something.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“I wanted to know if you’d go out to the Water Hole with me tonight.”

“Oh, Oscar…” Mira didn’t know what to tell him. She really did want to go, but she was still grounded. She didn’t want him to think that she was just blowing him off.

“I really would love to, honestly, but I’m still grounded. I’ll have to ask my mom.”

“Sure! No problem.” Mira almost laughed at the big, goofy grin that Oscar had on his face when he responded, but she held herself in check. “Call me after you ask her, ok?”

“Will-do. I’ll talk to you later.”

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Mira spent the whole drive home trying to think of what to say to her mom that would allow her to go tonight. When she walked in from the garage, she found Brittney in the kitchen and went in to talk to her.

“Hi, honey. How’d tutoring go today?”

“Good. Nina’s really improving.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Yea… Listen Mom, I’ve been thinking, I’ve been grounded for a while, right?”

Brittney stopped what she was doing and walked over to her daughter. “Yes, you have.”

“And I’ve been on really good behavior, right?”

“Yes… Where are you going with this, Mira?”

“Well, there’s this thing at the Water Hole tonight, and I wanted to know if I could maybe go.”

“What kind of thing are we talking about?”

“Just a get-together. Oscar Alphender invited me.”

“How many other people are going?”

“I don’t know, Mom. It’s a restaurant hang-out; there are bound to be a lot of other people there.”

“You’ll be home by 11:00?”

“Yea, Mom, of course.”

“I don’t see why not, then. I think you’ve been grounded for long enough.”

“Sweet! Thanks Mom!”

“Remember, home by 11.”

“Yep, I will be.”

Mira practically floated back to her room to get ready and call Oscar to let him know that she could go.

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Mira picked Oscar up from his house at around 6:30 and drove to the Water Hole Bar and Grill, the only cool hangout in town.

They had live music that night; Kimberlee Moussa, granddaughter of the famous Jon Lessen, was there with her guitar. Oscar and Mira spent a while dancing and having fun with everyone else that was there.

Then, after they’d been there for a few hours, Oscar took her hand and led her outside and around the back of the building, out of anyone else’s view.

“Mira, I really like you–like really like you,” he said as he pulled Mira close to him and held her. “I’m so happy you came tonight.”

Mira looked at him shyly; she’d never felt this way about a boy before–first romance and all. She didn’t know what to do or what to expect.

“I really like you, too, Oscar.”

And then, caught up in the moment, she did something spontaneous that she wouldn’t normally have done.

She leaned in and kissed him, and although she had nothing to compare it to, she thought her first kiss was amazing.

They lingered there, close, for several moments before they finally broke apart. Oscar had this silly grin on his face that showed how ecstatic he was. He pulled her against him and kissed her again.

They stayed out there for another half hour, enjoying each other’s company, until Mira finally mentioned that she needed to leave soon or she was going to be late getting home. They gathered their things, but neither of them wanted the night to end just yet, so they decided to have Oscar come back to Mira’s house with her.

Mira parked the car in the garage and went inside to let her Mom know she was home and supposedly get ready for bed. Oscar got out and walked to the side of the house to sit and wait for Mira’s mom to go to bed.

As soon as Brittney was asleep, Mira crept back out the front door and spent the rest of the night in Oscar’s arms on their porch until the sun came up.

Gen. 18 – Brittney: Chapter 4

Mira didn’t mind being grounded all that much–she’d do her time for sneaking out without complaining–but she was getting a bit of cabin fever from only being able to be at school or at home all the time. In order to be able to get out of the house now and then, while still obeying her mother’s grounding rules, Mira started volunteering at the Truelong Tutoring House for three days each week after school. There, she was able to tutor the younger kids, as well as some of her own peers, and take care of the little ones at the on-site nursery.

Being one of the brightest students in her class, Mira had no problem getting into the volunteer program, and the school appreciated her help. Mira found that she had an aptitude for teaching and very much enjoyed it.

Matthew was still struggling at school,  both with his grades and with his classmates. His homework was getting harder and it took him longer each night for him to complete it.

Dimitri Ivanov still hadn’t let up, and he made an effort to give Matthew a hard time every day. Brittney considered calling Mrs. Ivanov and informing her of her son’s behavior, but she worried that doing so might make things even worse for Matthew.

To escape from thinking about his problems at school and his lack of friends, Matthew took up writing as a hobby, and often sits at the computer by his mother’s drawing table typing away, coming up with fantastical stories of far away places. But writing is only the beginning. Matthew does almost everything by himself these days. He plays in the backyard, swims, jumps on their trampoline, plays video games–all the things every other boy his age does, but Matthew does them alone. Brittney often watches him in the evenings while he’s out back wondering what she could do for him, but she knows that it’s just a phase of his life that he’ll have to work through on his own; she can’t force the other kids at school to like him, she just has to give him as much love at home as she can to make up for it.

It makes her sad because he’s such a great kid, and he’s going to grow up to be such a great person; but for the moment, there’s nothing she can do but wait and hope that he grows out of this awkward phase.

Matthew’s school had other plans, though. The following Thursday, Brittney received a phone call from the school counselor regarding Matthew’s seemingly antisocial behavior.

“Hello?”

“Hello, may I speak to Mrs. Delven, please?”

“This is she speaking.”

“Mrs. Delven, my name is  Lorraine Cantina, and I’m a counselor at Truelong Elementary School where your son Matthew attends. I’ll be frank with you; Ms. Natcher expressed concern to us that Matthew is too antisocial for his age. She believes it may be unhealthy for him, and to be honest, I agree with her. Boys his age need to socialize and partake in activities with other boys their age. Matthew spends far too much time alone.”

Brittney had to take a deep breath before she let herself respond. She understood where Ms. Natcher’s concern was coming from, but she truly wished she’d keep her nose in her own business, or possibly take a look at the other kids that purposely ignore Matthew or bully him every day. “I understand the situation, but I don’t know if Ms. Natcher has really looked at the big-picture of what’s happening. Matthew has been bullied regularly by some of the other boys in his class since he started at Truelong.”

“I see. Who are the other boys in question?”

This was the part Brittney had wanted to avoid, the part where she’d have to involve the school, and therefore the other boys’ parents, and potentially make things overall worse for Matthew in the long run instead of improving anything. It was unlikely that the bullying would stop just because the boys got in trouble for it. If anything, it was likely to increase their aggression towards Matthew. “Please understand, I was hoping to avoid getting the school involved in this situation. It’s just a schoolyard spat; the boys need to work it out for themselves.”

“The problem, Mrs. Delven, is that by Ms. Natcher filing this complaint, I am required to follow-through with it, and I can’t just look the other way when I know Matthew is having problems here at school.”

Letting out a long sigh, Brittney acquiesced. She was glad that the school was so concerned about her son’s welfare, but she’d rather they leave matters alone. “The ringleader of the whole thing seems to be Dimitri Ivanov. Dimitri’s friends bully Matthew as well, but they seem to only do it because of Dimitri.”

“All right, we’ll look into the matter, but know that we’ll still be keeping an eye on Matthew. Good day, Mrs. Delven.”

“Goodbye.” And good riddance.

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On top of everything else that had been going on, Abigail decided to move in with her long-time boyfriend–her rather aged boyfriend, Lucky Perkins.

The rest of the family really didn’t understand her interest in him, but they were happy that she’d finally found someone. However, that left her and Brittney’s mother, Sasha, living alone in that huge, drafty house they’d grown up in. Worried about her mother’s age and failing health, Brittney offered to let Sasha move in with her and the kids, and Sasha accepted her invitation.

Since they didn’t have a bedroom to spare, her mother had to share a room with one of the kids, and Mira agreed, however begrudgingly, to let Grandma share hers. There was plenty of room in Mira’s bedroom already; they just had to push Mira’s bed closer to the wall and set up the second bed for Sasha.

Most of the time, it’s been a great help for Brittney having her mother around. Grandma has lots of time on her hands to help the kids with their homework and tidy up the house while Brittney works on her sketches.

The only problem comes when Sasha has one of her episodes. Sasha has had all the early signs of Alzheimer’s for years, but it’s recently reared its ugly head. Moving out of the home she’d lived in for almost fifty years seems to have affected her more than could have been predicted, and often while she’s at home, now that she’s living with Brittney and the kids, she’ll have moments where she doesn’t know where she is or why she’s there. She’s even had moments where she talks as if Trinity, Brittney’s father, is still alive.

It’s hard on everyone, but it’s worst on Mira and Matthew. Brittney just tries to keep her mother home and busy doing the things she loves to do, like painting and spending time with her grandchildren, to get her through the days. According to the doctors, though, Sasha may not be with them much longer, and they’re unable to tell at this point how much more her Alzheimer’s will develop.