2.21 Friends

On days like today, when it's the weekend and everyone else is "busy", Kaira relents and plays with Lucky. 

Predictably, this usually doesn't go well. 

"Rain? Seriously?" Kaira grumbles. 

Lucky is unphased by the rain. "C'mon, keep jumping!" 

"You don't even get wet!" Kaira snaps, "Or sweat! Or get dirty! Of course you'd like a dumb game like this..." 

Undeterred by her crankiness, Lucky picks up the rock himself and plays. He hums to himself as he jumps across the space themed board. 

Kaira feels like the Watcher is playing a prank on her today. Ha, ha hilarious. She thinks caustically to herself. Why can't she have a friend who likes tea parties inside? 

While it's not a friend for Kaira, Dot does get some happy news from Pancho. 

"A baby? Really? That's wonderful!" 

"A bigger house too? I'm really happy for you two. I hope I can come and visit soon!" the prospect of finally having a niece or nephew to spoil brings a smile to Dot's face. 

The smile turns into a concerned frown when Pancho sighs. 

"What is it?" 

Pancho hesitates, "It's just that...me and Marcie have been fighting lately. I don't want to get into the details, but I think she feels....tied down." 

"But why? Didn't she want to try for a baby?" 

"Oh, no, she's thrilled about that! I meant to...to me. I'm the only guy she's ever dated, and she's my first relationship too. I think she wishes she'd dated around before being with me." Pancho's words are hesitant and slow. Dot can tell he's being careful with his word choice. 

"Is she the only one that feels like that?" 

"...No," the admission is softly spoken, but heavy with emotion, "But I want to make this work." 

"It sounds like you really need to talk to her, Pancho. But just remember, the grass is always greener on the other side. I hope you guys think all of this through..." 

"Yeah, yeah of course. Thanks Dot. I didn't mean for this call to get so depressing, but talking to you helped." 

"Of course, any time." 

Pancho has to go for a shift at work and hangs up not much later. Dot shakes her head sadly as she puts her phone away. She hopes Pancho and Marcie don't hurt each other in the long run. 

She doesn't have a lot of time to think about it, though. Guests for Kaira's birthday party start streaming into the house. 

"Aren't you going to join them?" Lucky asks. 

Kaira glares at him. "When I'm done eating!" 

Her face lights up, though, when she sees a familiar face. 

Her lunch forgotten, Kaira squeals with excitement when she hugs her best friend. 

"Janell! Wow, you're so tall now!" 

"Soon you'll be a giant too!" Janell laughs. "This will be awesome! Just imagine all the sleepovers we're going to have, and prom!" she's almost literally bouncing up and down with anticipation. 

"We'll rule the school together, I promise!" Kaira vows. 

"As long as we have fun, I'm in!" 

Tatum, meanwhile, has slunk upstairs. After another explosive failure at the chemistry set, all she wants is to beat some virtual bad guys. Anything has to be simpler than that damn potion. 

Or so she thought. "Stupid cheating AI," Tatum mumbles, watching her character be vaporized for the tenth time. 

When two of her classmates wander upstairs, she gladly switches to a fun racing game instead. 

"Nice house you have here," Felipe, Elias's cousin, says to Tatum. 

"Thanks," Tatum answers, most of her attention still on the game. Jereme swerves his entire body with his controller, subconsciously trying to avoid a crash. 

"Yes, it's a big improvement over the shack it used to be. Even my family never lived in a dump this deep into the swamp." 

Tatum flushes, unsure of what to say. "Whatever." 

"Smooth," Felipe says sarcastically. 

"It really was!" Jereme says enthusiastically, "Props, Tatum." 

Tatum notices Felipe's smirk disappear, immediately replaced by a look of faint annoyance. 

"Sooo, is Elias here?" she decides to change the subject. 

"What would you want with my loser cousin?" 

"He's my friend." 

"So you're friends with a loser?" 

Tatum crashes her car into Felipe's, only damaging his but using her last life. Her player is removed from the game. 

"I'll be downstairs. Have fun," Tatum says in a shaky voice. She leaves the room as quickly as possible. 

"Did you really need to say all that?" Jereme hisses after Tatum has left. 

"What? Everything I said is objectively true." 

 Jereme rolls his eyes. This is what I get for hanging out with Felipe. Words like "polite" and "nice" just aren't in his vocabulary. "Whatever, man. You're bringing down the atmosphere. That's, like, a sin at a party."

Felipe scoffs, "You call this a party? We're in a dirty, musty, disgusting swamp hosted by a woman dressed like a kid's doll."

Jereme puts down his controller, all of his good mood evaporated. "Play by yourself then."

Felipe shrugs. He usually does.

Downstairs, Tatum blinks away angry tears. Our house isn't that bad. Mom made it so nice upstairs. Elias isn't a loser either. Why does Felipe hate us so much?  She kicks herself for not saying anything back to him. Now she just looks like a scared...loser. Wiping her eyes before her mom can see her, Tatum leaves to go to her room and calm down.

***

About thirty minutes later, Tatum is relieved to discover that no one is upstairs anymore. She hesitantly sits down at the bubble machine. Even though it's legal for teens, she still hasn't tried it yet. She looks at the colourful canisters warily but grabs the hose. She wishes she had some friends here to show her how to use this thing. After fiddling with the hose, she takes a deep breath and steels herself. She inhales the fruity gas slowly. 

She tries to release the air just as slowly, but coughs it all out by accident. 

Hey, that wasn't too bad. She forces a smile onto her face and tries again. 

The result is mostly the same. All of it coughed out in one go. Dejected, Tatum decides to do something else. 

After wandering outside for a few moments aimlessly, Tatum sees her grandfather similarly shuffling around. 

"Grandpa, where're you going?"

"To cheer on your sister! She's blowing out her candles, c'mon!" he takes Tatum's hand and tugs her towards the house. 

Not exactly a candle, Tatum thinks to herself. Her younger sister has naturally decided a mere birthday cake would not be a grand enough gesture to usher her into her teen years. No, an entire bonfire was necessary! 

Kaira is now a fully fledged high schooler. It doesn't feel as...dramatic as she thought it would. Her head still dizzy from the sudden growth spurt, she turns around to half-heartedly cheer on Lu as he ages with her. 

"Uh, honey? It's not my birthday yet," Dot says, slightly worried that maybe Kaira's adjustment to her new height hasn't gone smoothly. 

Feeling embarrassed, Kaira puts her party horn away. "Yeah, haha, of course. How could I have forgotten your birthday? Um...thanks for the party, mom." 

Dot smiles at her daughter as she adds more wood to the bonfire. "Anything for your birthday, kiddo." 

"I'm not a kid!" 

"That's the Kaira I know," Dot ruffles Kaira's hair, grinning when she bats her hand away. 

As the party guests trickle out to go home, Kaira leafs through the help wanted ads in the newspaper. What better excuse to not come home and be harassed by Lu than a job?

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AN: Man, I took these pictures so long ago. I had to go back into the game to get everyone's names and personalities again. 

Felipe Bayless is the son of Chase Bayless and Shark Racket. As a young adult, his traits are mean spirited, ambitious, kleptomaniac, family oriented, and perfectionist. Most of his SP notifications from what I remember were him getting into fights and breaking off romantic relationships early on. In other words, a real charmer.