3.13 Growing Pains

Lilly-Rose waited until her siblings had all started doing their homework, except Sophia, who was still in the pool, and slipped away to the basement for a private talk with Lil. Something embarrassing had happened to her this morning at school, and although she thought she knew what it meant, she wanted to confirm it with her Grandmother. At first she thought it was some sort of chlorosis or blight,but had discounted that as the rest of her leaves were perfectly healthy.

"Hello Sprout, what can I help you with?", asked Lil, turning around sensing someone behind her. It was not so much as a mystical extra sensory perception talent had told her, it was the third stair from the bottom that made the tiniest squeak.

Lilly-Rose had planned the conversation in her head a dozen times, and now that she was here, those words fled like cowards before a bully. "I.. um..", Lilly-Rose started, then just blurted it out, Ceci-style. "One of my leaves fell off today, and there was no new one underneath, and there is always a new one underneath, but not this one, not today, and.. there's a thing there, a bit like what my sisters have, but Plantsims don't have those things, but I have one, am I not really a Plantsim!", Lilly-Rose rushed.

Lil thought for a moment, this was one of those moments when choosing the right words was very important.
"Physiologically, you are mostly Plantsim, your father is human, and your mother is a human mutation variant, but remember, the birth or you and your siblings was heavily affected by powerful magic by a Genie lamp", Lil started to explain. The expression on Lilly-Rose's face didn't change.

Lil decided that maybe she needed to be less scientific and more personal in her explanation. "That 'thing' between your legs has two main purposes", explained Lil, also avoiding naming it. "Urination and procreation, being a Plantsim, you don't do the first, and Plantsims don't 'deliver' babies, they have seeds.
Because of the magical intervention it is quite possible that you may have a human reproductive system, we would need to see a medical professional to find out though."

Apart from the slight furrowing of eyebrows, the expression on Lilly-Rose's face hadn't changed. 'Still too scientific' Lil thought.  She leaned in and hugged Lilly-Rose, "It signifies that you are no longer a child and becoming a woman!". Lil said. Lilly-Rose let out a sigh of relief.

Later Lil caught up with Eric in the kitchen, who was rifling through the fridge for some ingredients. "Where did all these bottles of green food dye come from?" Eric asked. Lil shrugged her shoulders, "When Nat gets home, I need to talk to you about the children regarding teen issues", Lil explained.

Eric replied "I've already spoken to the boys about girls, and about how practicing making babies is much more fun than actually having them which is also fun, but also hard work.". "I also added that Neither Natalie or I had a history of murdering any of our children, if we were to suddenly become grandparents, it just may happen!", Eric added with a grin.

 Lil smiled, she had gotten used to Eric's unusual sense of humor a long time ago. "What are you making?" Lil asked. Eric smiled proudly, "Its my new invention. A toasted Spaghetti and Parmesan and herb meatballs sandwich with bacon"

"You father would be proud of you.", Lil replied, unsure of any other response to Eric's gastronomic frankensteining.

After everyone had finished doing the days homework, Ceci made a suggestion to her sisters. "Let's go make snowmen in the park." As they couldn't ski, or snowboard, without equipment or ice skate due to the ice being thin, the sisters rushed across the road to discover the art of making snow people. Ceci covered hers in green food dye, not because she felt the need to be with other aliens, she had her brothers and sisters, but because maybe other aliens needed other aliens.

At first the girls worked in pairs, then as their speed and skill increased they began working individually. "Let's see how many we can build before it gets too dark!", suggested Jen. Jen grabbed her phone and texted Nick. "Snow man invasion in park. y u no here?", she sent a copy to her other brothers as well, as Nick got twenty or thirty texts a day from all the girls in school and didn't always read his texts.

John was the first to get the message as he already had his phone in his hand, he pressed against the cold bedroom window and was just able to see what was going on in the park. He rounded up his brothers and let Lil know that he was going to help his sisters assemble an army.

When Nat got home, Lil, Eric and even Angel went to join in the fun. 

The next day there would be a picture and the newspaper headline,

'SNOWMEN MEET IN PLUMPUDDLE PARK'

 The problem with snow was that the Elba school board would call a 'Snow Day' as often as possible, and quite often the only way you found out was when you got to school and there was a sign on the door. Parents were often scolding their children for not going to school, because the parents were the last ones to find out.

 

Jen was particularly stressed, she was still still sitting on a 'C' average, while her brothers and sisters all had 'B''s, except Ceci, who had somehow wangled an 'A' already. Jen already had plan for university, but that was never going to happen unless she got better grades, and better grades weren't going to happen if most of the weekdays were snowdays.

Eric was on call six days a week, and on the seventh he actually had to be at the base. He had a shiny new space suit to prance around in. Unfortunately the space ship wasn't complete, and wouldn't be for a long time. Eric still hung out with his top gun buddies at work, it wasn't like there where any other astronauts to hang with.

Sophia left the house early and walked the two blocks to the ocean, she needed to soak in salt water or her scales became dry and itchy. One time she had left it too long and her pretty shimmering leg scales had started to dry and harden, and a few around the back of her knees had even fallen off. Sophia had experimented with bags of salt in the bath, but it wasn't the same.

If Elba had a 'Polar Bears Club', Sophia would be a key member, she hated swimming in arctic temperatures, but she hated the thought of dull, hard scales more. Lil had warned her long ago, that Sophia might even lose the ability to change into a Mermaid all together if she lost enough scales. Sophia disliked the cold water with a passion, she detested the idea of not being a Mermaid even more. Besides, her family was throwing a pool party today after school, and she wanted to look her best.

As Sophia rushed up the beach to her towel and clothes her find started chirping the tone for a message, Nathan had sent a group text. 'Wnt skl rly. sno dy again'. Despite the cold, Sophia was tempted to slip back into the water, but people would be up soon going about their daily lives, and as much as she adored being adored by her schoolmates as a mermaid, she was under pressure from her parents to avoid the few paparazzi that either lived here or had been assigned to this dull backwater town.  

 Sophia was a little disheartened that the turnout wasn't anywhere near as big as she hoped, and after texting some of her friends that didn't show, discovered that some of them had been grounded or were otherwise in trouble for not going to school...on a snow day.

Natalie hung out around the pool, supervising the food and the drinks, it was a midweek party, she didn't expect any of the kids to sneak in nectar or anything, other than the music the party was pretty quiet.Natalie found it amusing that all the girls that he wasn't related to,  gravitated towards Nick, and that Nick would then, extricate himself and go talk to his brothers.

Because of the adult present, there was a lot less physical contact than almost all of the teens at the party where hoping for. The interactions were restrained to talking, eating, and swimming. Despite Sophia's thought that the party was a total failure, despite her crush, Leonard, being there, everybody else seemed to have a really good time.

Maggie came to visit later that night, to ask a favor. "Dylan and Jazz are having their third baby, and Dom and I are still trying", Maggie explained, despite the miscarriage, they were still trying to have their own before considering adoption. "Dom has booked us a week away in Paris, he and I managed to get time off, but we need someone to look after our dog, well dogs actually, we have the firehouse mascot until the firehouse renovations are done."

Natalie knew what Maggie was asking, even though she hadn't specifically asked it. With Skitty gone, having dogs around shouldn't be a problem. 

'Boss', the fire house mascot, and 'Lady', Dom and Maggie's dog, came to stay for a week. "Which one is which?" , Natalie had asked Dominic when he gad arrived with a truck full of dogs and doghouses.
"Oh that's easy", Dom had explained to his sister. "Boss isn't the boss, and Lady isn't very lady like."

Authors Note:

This entire chapter was improvised due to the fact that the dog ate my homework. Well, sort of. The three not quite kittens, not quite cats that I have been looking after for the last week, love coffee, strolls across the keyboard, and attention. This combined with my memories and notes mostly being on paper can lead to disaster.

Also, Maggie was pregnant, then due to losing an in game week, which I mentioned in 'Authors Notes' previously, now she is not. I can find the house of Dylan and Jazz, and their three offspring in town, but not Maggie and Dom, so when the dogs have visited, I may have to give the dogs to Dylan and Jazz. I have no qualms about killing off sims when I  no longer need them for the story, like some evil puppet master, but pets I find homes for :P