Dot's extreme trampolining quickly takes a turn for the worst.
Pancho and Ume look away as their older sister belly flops painfully onto the trampoline.
Dot recovers quickly enough and, despite her now very sore stomach, continues to expertly tend to the children in her care.
(AN: I just noticed that Dot's plumbob is visible in the mirror! Glitch in the matrix :O )
Santos shakes his head. Every time he sees Tatum, she's either reading, playing chess, or huddled in front of the chemistry set. Why is she so obsessed with logic?
Strangely, Kaira seems unconcerned about this development. Santos wonders if he's reading too much into it...
"Thanks for looking after her so late," Pancho thanks Dot.
"No problem. I love having Coral here!"
"Do you feel better after that fall this morning? Looked pre-tty bad," Pancho's quirked eyebrow would put Spock to shame.
"...just go on home."
Pancho chuckles, then waves goodbye to his sister.
Kaira and Janel sigh. School is such a drag. At least having her best friend around makes it bearable.
The other kids, though, really get on Kaira's nerves.
Because of her job, Kaira only gets home when it's already dark most days. She's creeped out by the ice-cream truck still camped out in front of their yard. No one else even lives around here!
When she points this out to Melissa Belvins, one of Dot's clients, the woman starts ranting and raving about how the ice-cream trucks are paid agents, sent out to monitor the population.
Okaaaay, that's the last time I try to talk to people, Kaira decides dramatically.
Kaira gets right down to her mortal enemy: creative writing homework. She thought this elective would be fun, but it quickly consumes all of her free time. Her word-choice always feels clunky, the themes of her stories trite, the plots contrived... ugh, why is this writing thing so hard?!
Alternative caption: I still haven't figured out how to remove the tree that's clipping into the wall! It took me real-life months to figure out I could just use the town editor to move it.
Just in the nick of time, Kaira's slumber party guests start arriving. Like Janel said, more people were willing to come on a weekend night than on a random Tuesday. Kaira hates that everyone is so predictable.
Nadine Pincher-Peddler waves hello to her sulky classmate.
Nadine also thinks Kaira can be such a yeti sometimes. So grouchy!
She manages to coax Kaira into pjs and then into giving her hair a makeover and "fixing" her brows.
"Now everyone can see your eyes!" Kaira is satisfied with the results, "They're one of your best features. Show them off!"
Nadine scoffs. She has many great features!
Nadine is also a diva.
Janel shows up fashionably late. As she's ascending the stairs, Kaira is in deep conversation with Rachel over here. Rachel is new to school and yet has already made enemies with half her class. Kaira wants to know if it's because she's just a troublemaker or a fellow "too cool for this place" girl.
"I don't like your stupid questions! Why do people keep asking me things!? Stay out of my head!" Rachel snarls. She is a mean-spirited, insane, clumsy girl.
Kaira reels back. "Sorry..."
Janel sighs. If Kaira would bother interacting with their "lowly" classmates, she'd have known that Rachel is constantly on edge. Why, no one really knows. The poor girl's parents refuse to do anything about her, hoping that it's "just a phase". She wouldn't be surprised if Rachel actually didn't want to come but was forced into it by her parents to seem normal.
In attendance is one of the many Bayless children. "Hey, stop bickering and play this game with me. Fighting against the computer is no fun!" she calls out.
Lu stares on, fascinated. Kaira and Tatum have never had so many friends over before. He's only seen glimpses of Damaris's and Dot's parties, but he always stayed in doll form for those.
After a few minutes, though, he starts to feel like he's being creepy. Without a word, he slinks down the stairs. Time to find a quiet place to sit around as a doll.
Santos comes up with a plate of nachos. "If you girls are hungry, help yourselves...there's also more food in the fridge."
"Thanks grandpa..."
After Santos leaves, Kaira jumps straight into a ghost story.
Her audience is sufficiently scared.
Kaira's a much better story teller when she has to improvise and not have the time to agonize over every single word.
The girls decide that a story by the campfire would be more authentic. Dot has already beat them to it by lighting the bonfire.
"I like bonfires," she tells Janel simply. "If you need anything, I'll be inside at the computer..."
After a dozen or so creepy, "totally true" stories, the girls fall asleep close together at the edge of the property. None of them will admit it, but going inside the dark house is just not an option after all the talk of haunted houses, alien abductions, and murders.
Tatum comes outside to put the fire out once the girls have fallen asleep. With her window open, she heard most of their stories.
Psh, ridiculous. Nothing creepy ever happens around here, Tatum thinks, mentally scoffing. The one about the supposed serial killer who burned his own house down was particularly unbelievable.
She squints at some lights in the distance.
It's a lone bike, slowly pedalling towards them. Tatum freezes. That...that can't be right...
No one's on it.
Less than fifty meters away from the house, it stops for a long moment...then makes a U-turn and disappears into the night.
Tatum breathes a sigh of relief. Their stories just got to me...nothing nefarious going on here... she blatantly ignores how the bike pedalled itself.
Still, even after putting the fire out, she turns on their porch light and keeps an eye on the girls until she has to go to sleep herself.
They're woken up early the next morning by a car driving by loudly.
"Ugh, I smell like dirt," Kaira complains.
"Sounds like an improvement," Rachel sneers at her.
"Let's go inside and make breakfast!" Janel interjects, smiling widely. "This was so much fun!"
At least someone enjoyed themselves... Kaira thinks groggily. Still, she can't help smile at her friend's enthusiasm. Maybe it wasn't so bad.
Not long after the girls make breakfast and then go home, Dot drags the entire family to the summer festival.
"We never go out as a family!" she complained on the way to the park, "It'll be fun!"
Dot can only sigh in frustration when as soon as they arrive, Kaira wanders off, texting on her phone, Tatum pulls out her logic book, and Santos yawns, then calls someone to set up an interview. How can they not understand the importance of family time?
Annoyed but still determined to enjoy herself, Dot gets a cherry snow-cone and drowns her sorrows in its syrupy goodness.
After she's done, Jade Greenwood-Castor sits down next to her. They're casual friends from Dot's earliest daycare days.
Jade's family is a bit complicated. The father of her first child, Staci, is also the grandfather of her other children with her second husband, his son. Father and son no longer speak. Robert Castor was a coward who slept with her, then ran out on his entire family when she became pregnant rather than admit he had an affair with someone young enough to be his daughter. After years of feeling like a fool, Jade connected with Robert's son, Thomas, and well...
Suffice to say, she knows how it feels when the big, happy family isn't so keen on talking to each other.
She doesn't tell Dot all of the gory details, but enough to get her point across. "You take them all out like this, knowing what it's like when family doesn't spend enough time together and they just don't get it," she sighs.
"Yeah... they don't know how fragile it all is..." Both Tatum and Kaira's fathers have long since passed away. Neither of them ever really acknowledged their daughters, much less actively spent time with them. Dot would give anything to see either of her parents again...
Jade pats Dot on the shoulder. "Your kids will probably realize it when they're older."
Dot smiles at her friend. "Did yours?"
"It took a long time, but eventually they started inviting me and Thomas out for dinner without being "casually reminded"," Jade chuckles.
Something across the park catches Jade's attention. "Hey, isn't that your father over there?"
Dot turns her head to look, then grins. "It is. Go, Santos!"
Santos looks up from the eating competition and gives Dot a thumbs up. Old man Parker is already dying having trouble keeping up with Santos and Darwin over there.
Santos envies Darwin's youthful speed and dexterity as he shoves multiple hot-dogs into his gullet.
There's a surprising turn of events- Darwin wanders off to vomit.
Parker smirks. "Slow and steady wins the race, huh?"
Santos grins mischievously, "We've learned patience. Kids, am I right?"
They both chuckle.
Kaira eventually gets bored of texting and stays close to Tatum's side. She'd rather avoid old man Parker, afraid that he'll suddenly remember his hatred for her for the fight she got into with his daughter a while back.
"That was ages ago, he probably doesn't care anymore," Tatum sighs at her sister.
"He tried to have me fired!" For once in her life, Kaira would rather not take any chances. Besides, she's just gotten on her mom's good side.
Dot herself has run into Ume and the two try rollerskating together.
"This skirt was not made for this," she says nervously to her younger sister. She's constantly checking if it's getting tangled up in the wheels.
"Just tie your skirt up or something," Ume replies.
Parker eventually leaves the park (pun not intended!) and Kaira abandons her sister.
Tatum glances up at Darwin. He's Elias's dad. She frowns; Elias has not called her in some time.
She briefly contemplates going over to him and asking how his son is doing, but sees that he's preoccupied.
Kaira comes back with a sun on her face.
"It matched my outfit," she explains as she passes by Tatum. Why else would she get this tacky thing?
"Can we leave? This is boring," Kaira asks.
Tatum nods in agreement. "There's not much to do here. I'll let mom know we're going."
Kaira manages to convince Tatum to let her drive back. Santos and Dot will take a taxi.
"Quit looking so nervous. I have a learner's permit. This is totally legal!" Kaira rolls her eyes at Tatum's tightly gripped hands.
"You're going too fast!" Tatum complains. The houses are passing by them in a blur.
"Mehhhhh," Kaira shifts into third gear.
The light ahead of them suddenly turns red. "KAIRA!"
They screech to a stop and the car stalls. "Alright, alright, I'll slow down," Kaira grumbles. She re-starts the car and shifts back to first gear. Despite practically crawling home the rest of the way, Tatum's expression stays worried.
Kaira sighs.
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AN: Driving is no joke, Kaira. Jeez.
Had to axe the chapter here or else it would've been far too long.
That bike creeped me out a lot. You have to zoom in on the photo to see it properly, but it really had no cyclist. I couldn't see who was on it or where it was going. I've never had that glitch before. Poor Tatum, must've been spooky.
This chapter could've also been called "the one where things just happen". Tatum is progressing steadily towards level 8 logic and Kaira's social life in game is pretty uneventful. Her only friends in game are Janel, her mother, and Lu. I tried to have her chat with Rachel at the sleepover, but she just got insulted and mocked for her troubles.
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