Day Thirty-One < | Challenge Home Page | > OS: Day Two

Talking

After feeding the twins (and everyone else) in the morning, Marnie sent everyone off to school, made sure Bennie could watch the twins for a while, and headed outside to pull out all the dying or dead ferns and rose bushes.

Ferns were water plants, for goodness sake.. who had thought Oasis Springs would be a good place for them? In their stead, she had ordered some box hedges for the front, a couple palm trees for shade, and some low-lying plants to replace the dead ferns.

She was sure it would take ages to get out all those nasty brambles and rose bushes, but, surprisingly, it was just fine, and she still had time to do another major project she had her eye on.

To eliminate the possibility of fire, Marnie upgraded the dryer. (Also, side note for anyone who's curious: when living on a retail lot, laundry doesn't work. It might as well not exist. I had these on that lot, but they never generated laundry.)

By the time everyone got home from school, the twins were hungry again, so Marnie made some more food, then went to take a nap.

At some point in the evening, Bennie found himself sitting silently, awkwardly, next to his oldest son. After a moment of thought, he decided he'd try talking to him.

"So, Son, what are your plans now that you've graduated. I know your grades weren't the best, but you could probably find a job around town..?" Bennie started.

"A JOB?? You've GOT to be kidding me. I'm moving out, old man. Soon as I legally can, I'm out of here. Friday's my birthday, and my girl Shaylee and I already have plans to move to an apartment in the city with a couple of room-mates." (Benji wisely left out where he was going to get the money, and the fact that it was more than a couple room-mates, and quickly stood up and went to find something else to do.

Poor Bennie was left sitting there, wondering how he was going to tell Marnie that Benji was leaving town on Friday. Also, he wondered idly, what exactly were Benji's plans if a "JOB" wasn't on the list??

At bedtime, Marnie stopped by Jaz's room to tell her that, once again, she was going to be missing part of school tomorrow. This had been the earliest appointment available at the Mental Health Center in Newcrest, the only one that would take Jaz for free. Well, for a few appointments, at least.

Jaz seemed shocked about having to miss school to go, but Marnie assured her the next appointment would be after school.

"Next appointment??" Jaz squeaked, even more surprised.

"Well, yeah. Of course there's a next one. This is just for you and I to get to know your therapist. After that, you'll be going in alone. The school is requiring this, so you can avoid suspension. Hopefully they can get the answers they seem to want and we can put this whole thing behind us soon." Marnie said, scoffing at Jaz's ignorance.

"Oh.. Okay. So I'll finally get to see Newcrest, huh? How far away is it? Will we take a bus?" Jaz had so many questions, but Marnie merely shook her head, chuckled, and left the room.

Sighing and slightly confused as to why she had to see the therapist anyway, Jaz climbed into her new bed and attempted to get to sleep.

In the middle of the night, Myles and Phoenix were awakened by noises under Myles' bed. Squealing, Myles got up and ran to get Benji, who was the closest.

Annoyed, Benji sprayed the monster away, and made a note for Marnie to go shopping for an anti-monster light or two first thing tomorrow.

Myles, who was still un-nerved, decided to work on his Mental skill some more, and barely ticked over to level 7, allowing him to make his three emotion potions and go back to bed.

Day Thirty-One < | Challenge Home Page | > OS: Day Two