2.4 Please release me

The family decided to throw a pool party to celebrate Christopher’s growing up.  However, Rhiannon and Amanda wanted to wait until they’d finished their homework before joining in.  Alli couldn’t believe how different their relationship was to hers and Lola’s when they were growing up.

The girls’ cousin, Chastity Ursine, was becoming a firm friend and a regular visitor.  She also has something of Jared’s look about her.  Nobody knew who her father was though, Alison was resolutely single – or at least that’s the impression that she gave.

Miranda, still a family friend, turned up – and had gotten OLD.  No wonder there didn’t seem to be anything happening with her and Alli any longer.

Christopher was very excited about his birthday – mainly because now he’d be closer in age to his cousins and would be able to pay them back for all the times they put him in dresses and drew felt-tip hair on his bald head.

He grew up looking somewhat solemn – but inherited Lianndra’s hair, with the blue and yellow tips.  He may not be an official heir, but he was now a carrier of her legacy at least in his genetics.

Of course, a Kyoti party can never pass without incident…

Everyone at the party was shocked when Stacey went into labour!  Not least Stacey herself, who hadn’t expected this.  She thought they’d been careful, but then she’d always been convinced Kali was super-fertile.

Baby Carmel arrived and was immediately dumped in the cot in the back room out of the way.  Stacey didn’t even want to acknowledge this birth had happened.

Elias snuck out of the party to play with his new niece.  He knew that even if Stacey rejected the girl, he, Lola and Kali would make sure she was loved.  Elias longed for a second child, and was just pleased to have another baby in the household.

After everyone had retired to bed, Lianndra popped in to see her new granddaughter.  She took the opportunity to work out.  Even after death, she was concerned about keeping in top shape.

The next day, newly grown-up Christopher went to school with his cousins for the first time.  Rather sweetly, they offered to look out for him and protect him from any nasty bigger kids.  They also agreed they’d do their homework together so that they could all get good grades.

Stacey had some maternity leave to take, so she left Kali to deal with the baby and took herself off to the beach.  Whilst she was there, she bumped into Jamar again.

Stacey and Jamar chatted all night, ate hot dogs together and danced.  Being with him made her feel young again.  It reminded her of a time when she was carefree and childless.  If she’d had her time again, she’d have lived a little before marrying and having children.  If only for tonight, maybe she could pretend that she wasn’t Stacey Kyoti, married mum of three, but Stacey Steel again, young, free, single and going places.

As promised, the girls helped Christopher with his homework.  Amanda was a genius, though, and quickly got fed up of waiting for the other two to catch up with her.  She could be playing chess instead of waiting for them, after all.

After they’d finished their homework, their cousin Chastity came over.  Rhiannon started talking to her about weddings.  It was Rhiannon’s dream to have a wedding and a lovely marriage, just like her mum and dad and aunt and uncle.  Chastity felt sad.  Her mummy wasn’t married, she didn’t know her daddy, and her grandad, apparently, had been a selfish git – at least according to her late granny.

With Christopher now at school, Lola was able to focus on developing her writing skills.  Not only was she growing in success as a journalist, she was now putting the finishing touches to her first novel.  Elias continued to develop his career and his musicianship.  They both wanted a second child but were aware of the tensions between Kali and Stacey and didn’t want to aggravate things.

Kali focussed his energies on Carmel, the little baby he’d been wanting for ages.  She was the apple of his eye, and he devoted all of his time to her development.

At the beach, the drinks were flowing and Stacey was getting emotional.  She leapt into Jamar’s arms and begged him to take her away from the hell that was her life.

Jamar responded that he should probably get going, as it was pretty late.  Fuming and humiliated, Stacey stormed off home and arrived back long after everyone else had gone to bed.

Kali was worried about his wife.  She’d been so distant with him and had refused to bond with Carmel at all.  He sought solace, as ever, in his music.  In order to help provide for his girls, he would play for tips in the park and by the shops, and was becoming a popular local busker.  Sometimes he took Elias along and they’d play as a double act.

Rhiannon wasn’t really aware of the problems in her parents’ marriage.  She’d grown up remarkably secure in herself, and always loved to be the centre of attention.  At her and Amanda’s birthday party, she made sure she was the first to age up.

She grew up into an impeccably gorgeous teen.

Amanda was also pretty gorgeous, although her dress sense wasn’t so crash hot.

She certainly turned Jamar’s head.  Stacey felt sick at the thought of her daughters attracting the men she wanted for herself.  Kali stared daggers at Jamar.  He might be part of the ‘family’ but that didn’t mean they would ever become friends.

Speaking of the family, this was quite a gathering.

Kali, Jamar, Roberta, Alli, Alison and Chastity were all in attendance, along with a few family friends.  Even Stacey was prepared to play ‘happy families’ for a bit.

Carmel also aged up, but Kali let this happen quietly, out of view of everyone else.  He was glad, as he didn’t think Stacey would fall in love with their youngest daughter’s bald head and scary eyebrows.  To him, though, she was perfect.

Christopher worried that he would be neglected, what with the girls growing into teens and Carmel needing lots of attention in her toddler years.  Lola reassured him that he would always be loved, and she encouraged him to develop his own skills and personality.  He couldn’t play the guitar yet (although he was a virtuoso and couldn’t wait until he was old enough), but he tried his hand at painting and insect collecting, and Amanda took him to the park to play chess and do his homework on a regular basis.

Stacey returned to work after her maternity leave was over, and she was given the opportunity to take a client out for a meal.  She went to visit his house.

It wasn’t the most attractive place she’d ever seen, but she sensed in him a desperation for love that might mean he could be her escape…

2.3 What’s goin’ on?

Amanda woke up excited.  Her Auntie Alli may have gone yesterday, but she didn’t miss her too much – she’d be back later, because today was Amanda and Rhiannon’s birthday!  Now they’d get to make the most of the walking and talking they’d learned and they’d get to go to school.  As a genius, Amanda was very excited indeed about the prospect of school – lots of lovely learning!

Learning was something Christopher was getting plenty of, too.  It had taken the adults in the house no time at all to collectively train the twins, so with just one of him to work on, they were confident he’d soon be walking, talking and pooing like someone several days older than him.

Elias rehearsed some songs to play at the party.  Kali had been helping him work on his technique [apparently there is a real subtext beween Elias and Kali I hadn’t noticed until writing this blog!] and his skills were really developing.  He was still determined to do well in the law enforcement career, as per his lifetime wish, but music was a great way of relaxing.

Amanda aged up… but got a little confused about which of the lookalike gents in the kitchen was her actual daddy.

She looked at the imposter (actually Elias’ brother, Jamar) with suspicion.

Kali eyed up the young pretender.  He wasn’t ecstatic about having a rival.

Jamar reeled as Kali punched him in the gob.  No-one else noticed though, as they were busy watching Rhiannon grow up.  Even the elderly Miraj Alvi, a man Alli had unsuccessfully tried to come onto at a party when she was just a teen, turned up for the occasion.

Rhiannon aged up, looking very similar to her sister, hair colour aside, and immediately started thinking about cooking, just like her dad and grandad.

The girls immediately took pride in their status as the elder children and started bossing Christopher about in the guise of ‘playing’ with him.

Kali and Stacey retired for the night.  The girls’ birthday had been an emotional time for both of them and had stirred up a lot of emotions.  Seeing Jamar French had reminded both of them of their youth.  Kali felt insecure that he wasn’t that young.  Stacey was reminded of the young Kali she’d fallen in love with.  For the first time in months, they shared an intimate evening.

Amanda rolled a lifetime wish to be a creature-robot cross-breeder and got onto working on that wish straight away.  She regularly invited her aunt Roberta over to play chess.  This had several benefits.  Firstly, because Roberta’s chess skills were excellent, Amanda learned very quickly.  Secondly, Roberta’s life of crime made her excellent interview material for Lola, who then got promoted, and thirdly, if Roberta was busy playing chess, she wasn’t out beating people up, which was good for Sunset Valley as a whole.

Stacey, meanwhile, withdrew even more from the family and spent all her time chatting to men online [seriously.  She did this of her own accord with no prompting from me].

Stacey wasn’t impressed with Elias’s attempts at cooking.  Those waffles he made for breakfast had disagreed with her violently.  She decided to go and eat out instead.

On the way home, she popped into the library, where she bumped into an attractive young man.  They got talking, but she was offended when he asked her when she was ‘due’.  She’d always been exceptionally slim, how dare he insinuate she’d put on weight?