Woods Random Legacy: Chapter 18 - Young Romance

Now that he was old enough to see the board, James had found a new love in the game of chess.  After he came home from school - like his brother, he'd rejected the extracurricular options - he'd sit at the table for hours, challenging anyone who ventured into the same room to play with him.

He was fiercely competitive, and had a better grasp on the strategy of the game than anyone in the house except for his father.  Consequently, Greg was by far James's favorite chess partner, if only for the challenge.  He hated losing.  He didn't have as much time to play with his father as he would have liked, unfortunately.  Even though Greg was now old enough to qualify for retirement, he insisted on continuing to work, as he enjoyed his job.  It didn't get much easier than standing up on a stage and making things up for a couple of hours!

Fortunately for Faye, Lane's moving out meant that James would get his old room.  Unfortunately for James, Lane hadn't made cleaning said room a top priority.

The bed was unmade, and the tables were a mess, with dried alchemy reagents and gem dust everywhere!

James scowled and shoved everything in a box, stashing it under the bed to be returned to Lane at a later date.  Along with a lecture about cleaning up before he moved out, of course.

Faye was glad for the privacy, but even so she often escaped to the outdoors to think.  She was doing a lot of thinking lately, mostly about Tyrone.  Her heart fluttered when he was around, in a way that she'd thought only happened in those disgustingly sappy stories.  She knew that she was crushing on him, hard.  There was only one problem; he was dating Cheryl Andrews, another girl in Faye's class.

It wasn't right to be the "other girl" when he was cheating on Cheryl.  Faye had been raised to know better than that.  The more she thought about it, the more she realized that there was only one thing that she could do.  She'd have to talk to him, and lay it out straight, no matter how much it hurt.  Either he broke up with Cheryl, or him and Faye couldn't hang out anymore.

She just couldn't see another way.

Spooky Day arrived while Faye was still busy pondering her romantic crisis.  Eliza asked her to take James trick-or-treating, but James insisted that he'd be fine by himself.  Eventually, she relented, with the conditions that he remain on their street and be home by dark.  James thought that the latter condition pretty much defeated the point of trick-or-treating, but he wanted the candy, so he donned his costume and headed out the door to get some loot.

Man: "Why hello there!  An alien, I see."
James: "Boosh balooga neit tho gahn."
Man: "Uh, what?  I didn't quite catch that, could you speak up?"
James: "Balooga!  Tho gahn mooshka sen."
Man: "Er..."
James: "Ugh, you're making me break character!  I was speaking Zapurellan."
Man: "Oh!  Very creative!  I suppose you'll be wanting a treat, then?  Ah...your bucket's full of water!"
James: "That's not water."
Man: "..."
James: "You'll probably want to hose off your deck once I'm gone.  This bucket's a little leaky, and it'll eat right through the organic structure of your wood."
Man: "..."
James: "Bye!"

Back home, Faye was ecstatic.  She'd convinced Tyrone to break it off with Cheryl for her!  They shared their first kiss, guilt-free, that evening.

The question of who was going with whom to prom was on everyone's lips.  It had been assumed that Tyrone and Cheryl would go together, but now that Tyrone was single the gossip was much more interesting.  Word around town was that he'd be attending with Faye Woods, that bubbly girl who had a thing for plants and always ate outside at lunch.  Not everybody was pleased to hear that juicy bit of gossip, especially not Cheryl Andrews, so soon after the breakup

With the arrival of winter, Eliza was also feeling the effects of age.  The doctors said that she'd passed through menopause, which of course meant that, no matter how much she wanted to, she could never have more children.

Losing that ability made her sad, but she also valued the freedom from responsibility that came with not having infants or toddlers around the house.  Crystal was away at school, and Faye was old enough to take care of herself.

James was still young, but very self-sufficient, if occasionally odd.  He could be trusted alone for an afternoon, for the most part.

While it was too late to reclaim her youth - afternoons at art shows, long nights at local clubs - she regretted nothing of her decision to raise a family.  She loved all of her children, even Lane, despite his decisions in life.

Snow blanketed the town, causing school to be canceled due to those students living away from the town center being unable to get there.  Students were supplied with a study-at-home program, and once Faye finished her homework for the day she usually ran outside to explore the town.  It looked like a different world under all the snow, much quieter as the population mostly stayed indoors.  She particularly enjoyed skating on the frozen lake, an activity that was impossible in any other season.

She was skating when she got the call.  Allison was calling to tell her that Lindsey had told Allison that Kelli had told Lindsey that Shelly had told Kelli's sister that Katie had told Shelly that Cheryl Andrews had posted on Simbook - the popular social networking site - that Tyrone had been cheating on her with Faye.  She accused Faye of being a boyfriend-stealer, and announced that she would be snubbing her forever!

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So, I accidentally deleted the picture of Greg walking around hilariously with his cane.  Whoops.  So I took a new one in-game, it'll be in chapter 23.

I'm terrible at writing romance.  Just awful.  So I kind of copped out.  Sue me.