Woods Random Legacy: Chapter 44 - Growing Into Autumn

On the first chilly day in autumn, Alpha decided it was time to celebrate Epsilon becoming old enough to attend school.  She woke up early and biked down to the store to purchase a cake, making careful use of her hard-earned simoleons.

Epsilon was excited to begin school, even after Alpha's warnings about the other children.  She wanted to learn new things, and play with educational toys that James wouldn't buy.  It was nice of Alpha to get a cake for her - delicious, too! - but it wasn't really necessary.

The school required a physical for all new students, so James was finally forced to take Epsilon to the doctor's office.  They were concerned about her narcolepsy, but the doctor posited that she may be growing out of it, as the episodes had grown much less frequent lately.  They did find that the girl required glasses, though, and the eye doctor let her pick out a pair of cute purple frames.  They'd be perfect for her first days of school!

She took after her father in her choice of leisure activities.  Now that she was old enough to sit at the chessboard, she loved spending time playing with the pieces.  The few books kept around the house also intrigued her, though most of them were written at an adult level and therefore were beyond her comprehension.  She did choose to keep one relic from her early childhood, though.

The sheep toy, which had been a favorite of hers since Alpha had purchased the toy box containing it, had more than earned its spot on her bedside table.  She might not play with it as a little kid would anymore, but she could look down to it in the mornings and enjoy her memories associated with the plastic animal.

Her first day of school was every bit as hard as Alpha had cautioned it might be.  Not only was she teased about her parentage, but the girls especially teased Epsilon brutally about her hair.  It just wasn't natural, they said, and asked how much her mother hated her to let her go in public like that - oh wait, she doesn't have a mother!

By the time she got home from school, she just wanted to curl in in bed and cry.  Alpha was busy helping Omicron with his talking, so she didn't want to bother her older sister.  Instead, she completed her homework in silence, retiring early to bed.  Why couldn't she just be normal?

(Soundtrack for the next scene.)

When she awoke, she wasn't in the top bunk of her house anymore.  The room was dim, illuminated only by a faint light somewhere behind her.  Her limbs were heavy from sleep, but she pushed herself up and looked around.  She was in a library.  It was obviously a dream.  Even if she had sleptwalked, the library in Sunset Valley didn't look anything like this.  It couldn't.  This place was so...perfect.

She got to her feet and stepped towards a shelf.  The books were old, older than anything she'd seen before, yet they felt real under her fingers.  This didn't feel like a dream at all, but it had to be.  This library was unlike anywhere that existed in the real world.  As she ran her fingers over the spines of the books before her, she felt a breeze across the back of her neck.  She turned quickly, but saw nothing, hearing only the sound of the phantom breeze among the books.

Was she alone here?  It was impossible to tell, but it wouldn't matter anyway, in a dream.  If it meant her harm, it would show itself.  Until then, she would explore.  Stepping to one of the windows, she looked out.  A lonely expanse of blackness was all she saw, and she quickly stepped back from the window.

She felt the dream slipping away from herself and struggled to hold on to it.  A library!  There was so much she could discover here!  But the pull of wakefulness was too strong, and she soon opened her eyes in her bed.  Sitting up, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, then looked down over the rails of her bunk to her older sister, who was staring at her.
Alpha: "Epsi, what did you do to your hair?"

Epsilon: "Huh?  I didn't do anything."
Alpha: "Uh, look again."
Epsilon reached behind her and grabbed her ponytail, pulling it to the front.  Huh, that's strange.  Her hair was snow white!
Epsilon: "...I didn't do that!"
Alpha: "How can it just turn all white like that?"
Epsilon: "I don't know!"
Alpha: "Okay, it's probably alright.  Come down here, let me have a look."
Epsilon climbed down the ladder and stood in front of her sister, nervously fiddling with the sleeve of her pajamas.  Alpha reached out and touched the hair, letting it fall from her fingers.
Alpha: "It's soft, and strong, better than your hair has been since you were young.  But it's white.  I don't understand it."
Epsilon: "If it's better than it was when I was younger, that's a good thing, right?"
Alpha hesitated for a moment, then smiled warmly.
Alpha: "Right, that's a good thing.  Come here, sorry if I scared you."

She hugged her younger sister tightly.  The confidence was an act, though.  What could cause someone's hair to turn white overnight?  The doctors had said that nothing was wrong with it at Epsilon's check-up, but it still scared Alpha.  And what would the other children at school say?

She distracted herself by making sure that Omicron knew how to talk.  He grasped it more quickly than Epsilon had, the young boy having quite a lot to say.
Alpha: "If you get hurt, you know you can always come to me, right?  I'll help you put a band-aid on your boo-boo."
Omicron: "Ban-na on boo-boo!"

Other lessons needed to be imparted as well.
Alpha: "Okay, so you know what to do with the dirty dishes when dad leaves them in the kitchen, right?"
Omicron: "Wash!"
Alpha: "That's right!"

Of course, Alpha wasn't with Omicron all the time, frequently leaving the boy to his own devices.  He didn't much like being alone, but even that was better than being with his father.  Sometimes, Omicron could feel a sort of wrongness emanating from the man, strong enough to make him scream and prompting James to shout for Alpha to come put the kid to bed.  James wasn't quite sure what was wrong with that kid, but he sure spent a lot of time crying.

Alpha was a junior in high school now, so with her added workload for classes she was glad that Omicron was getting older and didn't need so much of her attention.  She often would ask her cousin Valerie over to work on their homework together.
Alpha: "Yeah, so, this is my house."

Alpha: "Please try to ignore the lunatic in the next room."

Valerie: "But it's soooo hard to concentrate!"

Alpha: "Tell me about it."

Of course, she also set aside time to train.  Martial arts was her one distraction from her daily responsibilities, and she made the most of the few moments she had to herself to practice.

She decided one evening that her goal in life was to reach physical perfection.  Not only must she train her body, but also her mind and spirit.  The art of meditation would be her next area of study, which she hoped to begin once Omicron started school.

Soon enough, that time was here.  Alpha procured a second cake and held another quiet celebration in the kitchen, before letting the younger children loose to go enjoy their evening.

Epsilon chose to study the art of chess from the perspective of the white side.  After all, moving first may bring with it significant advantages.  Omicron, while invited by his sister to join her, chose to rehearse his greetings for school first.  While he wouldn't attend until after Spooky Day, he wanted to be sure to make a good impression for the loads of friends he'd have!  Epsilon didn't have the heart to enlighten him otherwise.

~ * ~

This chapter took forever to make happen, I apologize.  It was that stupid dream sequence!  I made the set, then put off importing a child version of Epsilon.  Then, after I got Epsilon imported, I found out that the set hadn't properly saved!  So I had to go back and re-do all the design and CASTing.  I hope it added to the story though, along with the music I found.  I'm a pretty big Doctor Who fan(mostly the new series, but I've been watching the classic stories when I've gotten the chance, and they're good too - very cheesy sci fi, of course, but good), and as I was writing this chapter I was browsing some of the soundtracks on youtube, and I stumbled across Amy's theme, suddenly realizing that it fit the dream scene perfectly.  I'd even go so far as to call it Epsilon's theme, through her child and teen years, even though she's a very different character from Amelia Pond.

Epsilon is the most adorable kid ever.  That bit with her hair turning white was a weird bug in my game, where her outfit and hair was reset to something bizarre.  I decided to roll with it, and made the hair actually change color in the story.  What could it mean?

I'm glad that Alpha had some time to be a teenager, even if it was just a few sim-days.  I think she's about 3-4 days from aging up to YA when this chapter happens.

You might be wondering what happened to the imaginary friend arc I started and then stopped mentioning.  Well, the imaginary friend has gone AWOL in my game, so I've just dropped it from the story.  It's easier than trying to fix it somehow.

THIS CHAPTER TOOK SO MANY FOREVERS TO HAPPEN I'M SORRY! D=