Rose 31: Aquaphobia

(Generation two starts unofficially about halfway down.)

Rose

     I've been keeping a lot of paintings lately, and I think this will be another one. We make so much off of Pedro's novels that we can happily keep many of my masterpieces.
    My writing skill is nothing like Pedro's, but I still want to work on it. I'm afraid to publish anything, so I just write random stuff in my head that nobody else would want to read.

    One morning, the kids are eating breakfast while I write more non-novels, and I hear Milo talking to his sister.
     "You don't even want to take a bath?"
     "No, I don't want any part of my body submerged in water." she answers.
     "Why?"
     I can hear her irritation now as she answers, "Because the submerged skin can't breathe!"
     "Skin doesn't breathe. Air comes in through your mouth and nose and goes to the lungs."
     Donovan cuts into the conversation as he walks by, "Maybe she's part frog."
     Milo counters his idea. "But they get the oxygen from the water they're in when they're underwater. Don't they?"
      Giselle talks with food in her mouth. "Humans get 2% of their oxygen through the skin. I read about it."
       "Where?" Milo asks, sounding doubtful.
       "On the internet. Some science site I was looking at in.. science." she replies in a snarky voice. "So, having my body submerged in water, I'm drowning in some respect."
       Donovan has come back into the dining area with his bowl of cereal. "Not if you get oxygen from the water through your skin like.... a frog." He starts laughing when Giselle starts hitting him.
        "I am not a frog! I'm a witch, and you'd do well to remember that! Maybe someday I'll turn you into a frog. How'd you like that, huh?"
        I decide to intervene and ask them all to calm down.
       "I can't wait 'til you go to university." Giselle snaps to Donovan.
       "Me too." he says, and I can hear the smile in his voice.

    Before Donovan becomes an adult, he's invited to an awards ceremony! They give him an art club participation trophy.

    All too soon, the time arrives for another of my babies to become an adult. Everyone stands and cheers, but I try my best to hide my tearful expression.

(yikes!)

(I caught that 'smile' of his.)

(Better.)

The unofficial start to generation two:

Donovan

     Unlike Fiona and Link, I'm  staying at home. However, it doesn't really matter whether or not I stay home because I'll be off to Sim City University in a few days. Until then, I'm still in my bottom bunk, sharing a room with Skye and Milo.
      I feel a little odd. Fiona and Link immediately got married after becoming adults, but I just don't feel the drive to do so. I don't even have a girlfriend. Oh sure, there's Yvette Ferrari, but we're only friends.
      Maybe I'll meet someone while I'm away getting my art degree. However, my grades will take precedence over anything else. I don't want to lose a good GPA because of chasing one girl or another. ...not that I would even know the first thing about that.

    I worry about Giselle's fear of water, even if I tease her about it. It's not natural.

   Since I don't have school in the morning, I sleep in. I can't help but hear the conversation downstairs since Skye left the door open.
     "Hey Giselle," Skye says, "it's snowing outside, and do you know what snow is? Frozen water."
     "Shut up, Skye."
     "I'm wondering," he ignores her warning, "if you're wearing that big, bulky clothing, then how is your skin getting oxygen? It would stand to reason that it would get a little stuffy in your snowsuit."
      "Alright! I get plenty of air with regular breathing, but that doesn't stop me from feeling like my skin is drowning when I'm submerged in water!"
       Dad tells the two of them to calm down and for Skye to stop teasing his sister.

       My sister, the frog witch. I think and chuckle to myself before I roll over and go back to sleep.

    Bored, I spend a lot of time working out. I hate being outside, but the convenience of Dad's chin-up bar is better than walking over to the gym.... even though it's across the street. Yeah, I should've walked across the street. Oh well, the cold air actually helps.

     The day before I'm supposed to leave, Yvette comes over.
     "Wow, Yvette! I love the new haircut!" I exclaim when I see her. Don't get me wrong, it's not that she looked terrible before, but this hairstyle suits her much better.

     She smiles at me, happy with the compliment I guess.
     "I'm surprised to see you in the same haircut you've always had. I'd thought you'd change it." she says.
      "No, I like this style."
      "You sure? I could introduce you to my hairdresser..."
      "No, no. That's okay..." I say and hold my hands in front of me a little. She laughs. I ask, "So, what finally brings you over here to my house?"

     She looks shy all of a sudden as she answers, "I, well, uh, I... wanted to see you before you left."
     "That's nice of you." I say. I'd never really noticed before -- she's pretty.
     Her almost-black eyes cut up to me as she asks, "Do you have to go?"
     I'm confused. "I told you. This is what I want to do. You could always come with me, you know. You could go and get a degree. I know your father would've been proud." Her dad had died recently.
     "I don't think I'm cut out for that kind of stuff. I'll ... miss you. There's something I have to talk to you about before you leave, and I don't know how to say it."
      My feet start freezing, and I want to go back inside.
     "Can we talk about this inside?" I ask simply.
     "I don't want to go inside."
     "Why not?"

     "Because your family is always hovering around, and it drives me crazy! Why can't we just stay out here so I can talk to you about what I have to say without having your family listen in?"
      Whoa! Where did this anger come from?
      "It's just... I'm cold."
      "When are you going to move out of that house, Don?" she asks, and I feel like the question comes out of nowhere.
       "I'm not planning on it. I have no real reason to. All I need is a place to stay in between terms."
       "We're adults! And besides... I thought that... maybe... oh nevermind."

     I stand here and try to figure out what's bothering her.
     "Would you please tell me what's wrong." I ask in a steady and firm voice.
     Giselle walks out the front door, talking animatedly on her phone. Yvette all but rolls her eyes. She's not used to big families. Her only sibling is still a toddler.
      "Don't worry about it, Don. It's nothing."

     Giselle's voice carries over to us, "Clifton! Who told you that?! No!"
     I can't believe one of my only friends hates my family. No wonder she never wanted to come over when we were kids. I knew my siblings annoyed her when we'd hung out at other places, but I didn't think it was that bad.
     Yvette tells me she'll see me when I get back, gives me a quick hug, and leaves.

    "Don't believe my jerk of a brother! ... Why are you laughing?! .... I am not a frog, and you know I'm not a frog and I don't have frog skin! ... Well, I'm standing in snow right now, so no, I'm not afraid of it. I can't believe you'd ... oh. Thank you. Why didn't you just say that to start with? ... haha. Funny. I'm dying of laughter. ... Yes, that's sarcasm. ...... ....... Um, yeah, I can do that. What time?"

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Gossip column:
Donovan got the computer whiz trait.
BTW, the 'Clifton' that Giselle talks with on the phone is Clifton Mancini, one of the ones that SP annoyed me about. I don't know if he's Camillo's or Carlo's son.
Allen Monty gets married! To Felicia Romano. We never saw her, but she's Chasity's sister.
Marta and Beppe Bianchi are preggers... again.
Ron Frey died. He couldn't hold off Grim any more.
Rose completed her LTW of lvl 10 painting and lvl 10 writing just a little after Donovan aged up.

I waited days, days for Donovan to graduate because I wanted him to have his graduation ceremony before going off to college. It never happened. So, by day four (the day before Skye is supposed to age up), I finally say 'f--- it', and send him off anyway.

I've been piecing this together as I went along (the reason the earlier pics are bigger):

That's it for generation one! Since I made this a random legacy after it got started, I couldn't do the first roll correctly. So, I'll make it 11 generations. Still kinda wrong but there ya go.
6/5 kids
expansionist.... they bought a whole new dang house that ended up three times the size of the starter house. So, I think I accomplished this lol.
hands off ... I hated this in the beginning, but then I just adjusted and got used to it.

The new thing I have a feeling I'm going to loathe is living green.

Ah! Help! Bicycles everywhere! (I haven't gotten rid of the car yet. They prefer to use the bikes over that hunk of junk anyway. I do plan on getting rid of it so there's no accidental waste of finite resources.)
Also, Donovan's hates the outdoors trait is not going to help. Maybe I'll build a greenhouse so he can work 'inside' on the park they'll buy.

Other than hating living green, it's a really neat roll. Get ready for loads of drama! (and lots of hot pics of Donovan) *rubs hands together*

Click newer post to go to the 1st generation summary, the fastest summary I've ever written.
Click here to go to the 2nd generation! 2.1