6.08 Double Double Trouble

Delilah initially elected herself as primary carer for Jade the Emerald Boa, until the first time it fanged her hand when Delilah took her out to soon after feeding, after which it was decided that the responsibility was to be taken up by Cindy. Cindy who knew all about snake care from Coral, accepted the responsibility happily.

 It was also decided that if the twins were awake, Jade was locked in her terrarium to prevent incidents.

Jess used her spare time to learn a few new tricks and to create variations of her old ones.

Three hours was a long time to be on stage without a greater assortment of illusions to have at hand. Apart from her passion for doing magic tricks for the children at St. James, Jess has also discovered that that passion extended to performing live on stage.

She ordered some extra flower wands, so she could 'materialize' different colored flowers, depending on who she was doing the illusion for.. 

And she practiced her card tricks over and over.

Evie took up martial arts after one of her clients had shown her both the physical and mental benefits.
 

She did most of her workouts and training at home in secret, and only went to her clients Dojo when she thought she was ready for the next level. So far she had progressed quite well, and had managed to keep her new found hobby a secret.

Delilah looked from the window, watching her lover beat the snot out of the wooden training dummy, she returned to her book 'Famous Paintings: Facts And Forgeries', smiling at the thought that anyone might be able to keep a secret from her, especially Evie. Secrets were after all, Delilahs specialty, both finding other peoples and keeping her own.

Jess was on the fourth hour of practicing her prestidigitation routine when she spotted the T-Rex head, hanging on the upper wall of the play room, as the second garage had been affectionately nick named. It was placed above the lighting and barely noticeable in the shadows.

Delilah later smoothly explained that the dinosaur head was in fact a model replica that had been damaged and stored indefinitely, it had been cheaper for the museum to replace it than repair it, and Delilah had marked the exhibit as destroyed and absconded with the head, after clearing the action with the museum director, of course.

Delilah's boss had managed to misplace her keys again late at night, and again Delilah was summoned to the rescue. Evie who had been snuggling with her chin on Delilah's shoulder at the time, was certain that she saw the phrase 'box of gnomes' in the text, but didn't ask about it. Evie was starting to suspect that Delilah's career may not be entirely one hundred percent legitimate, but didn't want to start an argument without proof.

 

 Jess took a moment out of her hectic baby care, magician, super mum routine to squeeze in some exercise, she was blessed with an elastic waist that had sprung back to almost her pre-baby size, but Jess had noticed in the mirror this morning that there were still quite a few pixels to get rid off to get back to her previous size.

 When the twins woke up from their nap, Jess encouraged them to play with some toys to help them built skills for use in later life, Mel grabbed the peg box and quickly worked out which of the three pegs went where. For Melissa it soon became a game of not what pegs go where, but how fast she could put them in.

Nerissa on the other hand preferred the xylophone, or rather the stick with the rapidly dwindling wooden ball attached to the end.

Jess picked Nerissa up and Melissa used the opportunity to scuttle across and savage the little wooden mallet. Jess held Nerissa up and gave her a gentle tickle, when Nerissa giggled Jess spotted the cause for the mallet's mutilation. "My baby girl has got her canines coming through, yes she has!", Jess cooed. As she lowered Nerissa back to the floor she spotted Melissa, also chomping on the wooden stick. Jess changed her statement. "My baby girls have got their canines coming through, yes they have!"

Jess decided to add potty training to the 'to do' list, and purchased a matching pair of Princess Pottie chairs.

Both girls picked it up in no time, and if Jess had been more familiar with babies, she would have realized that both of her daughters were exceptionally fast learners.

A delivery for Jess arrived from Aunt Emily and Aunt Dolly, although when Jess opened the box, she soon realized that the contents where not intended for her.

"Eddeeee!", chortled Melissa upon receiving her rag-doll.

"Eeeddeeee!", agreed Nerissa upon receiving hers. 

"Twins with twins, double the trouble", Jess muttered to herself, despite reminiscing about Mia. With those happy thoughts in mind, Jess sat at the computer to type up emails to Mia and Shelby, Emily and Dolly, her Grandparents Edward and Tamara, and several of her old university friends.

Authors Note: 

I typed this chapter up immediately after the last one, so nothing new to rant about for me. No news is good news, so they say!

6.07 The Look

Jess picked her phone up from the kitchen bench, the irritation that she felt from being interrupted in her developing routine with the babies soon faded when she realized Coral had sent her a multi media message.

HI GUYS. JUST ARRIVED @ BLACK ROCKS.

HOPE U HAVE GOOD WEATHER NOW.

HAVE BROUGHT HOLLOWS RAIN WITH ME.

WILL SEND BETTER PIX L8RZ.

MUCH LOVE. CORAL.

Cindy had practically evicted Jess from the house one evening, "You need some you time, and Melissa and Nerissa need some 'Hanging with Aunties' time, so shoo!", Cindy repeated. Evie and Delilah stood between Cindy and Jess, arms crossed, feet planted firmly, like bouncers at a night club. "You haven't been more than twenty feet from them since they were born, go treat yourself for a few hours.", Evie added. Evie had more siblings than fingers and toes to count them on, she knew how children could wear you down if you never stopped for rest.

Jess' housemates had repeatedly suggested that she go to the day spa, although Jess had decided that there was somewhere else that she would rather be than an overpriced day spa. She changed into her 'The Amazing Jess' outfit, and gently placed her hat on the passenger seat. 'Monsignor Flufflybutt Flufflestiltskin', her recently acquired, allegedly magician trained, and pre-named big white fluffy rabbit took the opportunity to exit the top hat and vanish under the passengers seat. Jess considered changing it to 'Attila the Bun', or maybe just a nice pair of gloves.While Jess was becoming a master of prestidigitation, 'Fluffy' was mastering the art of escapology.

Jess drove around town until she found a park that actually had people in it and wasted five minutes trying to coax 'Fluffy' from his hiding spot. Eventually she gave up and headed into the park with her bag of tricks and her charity tip jar, and without Fluffy.

Jess had gone through most of her routine without any sign of interest from the park visitors. The small family group had left without any of them approaching, and now only three other people remained. A very old man that she knew to be Lucius Hyde, former school teacher, who was very slowly chasing after a playful kitten that he called Magic. Jess knew the name of the woman in the leather jacket and baseball cap, who had been watching her perform from a distance, although the watcher's name escaped her at present.

The third person was a complete mystery to Jess, until that mystery introduced herself, "Hello, I am Shannan Riddick, local entertainment events coordinator for the Midnight Hollows town council."Hi, I'm Jessica Jettstar, or 'The Amazing Jess' when the hat is on."

"Yes I recognized you from a newspaper article about your fathers business in last weeks paper, I know you are a bit of a celebrity doing charity work for children, but I didn't know you were also a practicing prestidigitator.", Shannan explained. "I have need for someone like yourself, I had Emerson the Elusive Escapologist booked for seven until ten tomorrow night, but he seems to have been arrested with a large quantity of buzzweed, and hasn't been able to escape police custody. You can have his slot in the show if you want the gig." Shannan  stated.

Jess negotiated a deal that revolved around any fee payable to her would instead be donated to St. James children's ward and headed home elated that her housemates making her take some 'me time' had lead to a gig that would generate more income for the children's ward at the hospital.

When Jess arrived home, her identical twin daughters greeted her with this look.

If Melissa and Nerissa had a fully established vocabulary, rather then being limited to 'muh-mah' and variations, there is a chance that the following conversations might have gone something like this.

Jess: "Hello sweethearts, oh my you look all worn out and ready for bed!"

Nerissa: "Of course we are worn out, you see how long you can last against the attack of hundreds of 'Here comes the claw!"

Melissa: "Not to mention the not stop tickling, I mean it was great at first, but after the third time I wet myself, jeez, enough already."

Nerissa: "Not that we aren't grateful for these cool Doctor Suess T-shirts that Aunt Delilah got for us."

Melissa: "Or the fact that she made Cindy and Evie read some Doctor Suess books to us."

Nerissa: "By the way, The Cat in the Hat is my favorite, and The Lorax is Mel's, you should read them both to us every night."

Melissa: "And please don't leave us alone again with these crazy ladies, who all talk in incomprehensible baby speak, at least not until we have had a full night's sleep."

Nerissa: "Agreed, it was so much hard work looking after them, I definitely need a nap." 

However, as I have already pointed out, the twins have an extremely limited vocabulary, and the conversation actually went like this.

Jess: "Hello sweethearts, oh my you look all worn out and ready for bed!"   

Melissa: "Muh-mah!"

Nerissa: "Mamma!"

Jess: "Wow, those t-shirts are so cute, okay babies, time for bed."

Jess scooped up Nerissa and Melissa, one under each arm and kissing each on the forehead, held them out so that each of the 'Aunties' could kiss the girls goodnight.

Jess handed Nerissa over to Cindy temporarily and put Melissa gently into her crib and tucked her in for the night. Cindy handed Nerissa over and by the time Jess had tucked the second daughter in, the first was already closing her eyes. The housemates gathered in the kitchen over coffee while Jess told them about her first official gig.

It was nearly midnight and everybody was heading for bed when Delilah's phone buzzed. "For reals? 11.58 on a Friday night, your boss does understand you get weekends off right?", Evie complained. Delilah glanced at the message. "Yeah, she just got home and realized she had locked her house and office keys in the office. I'll rescue her and maybe take another step up the promotion ladder. Won't be too long.", Delilah told her lover as she grabbed her own keys and dashed out if the house.  

Cindy woke up early to maximize her time in the garden for the day. Evie and Delilah had a dinner date, and Cindy would have the twins all to her self while Jess was performing her first gig, until then Cindy had hundreds of her own sprouts to deal with. "Oh my, look at you, haven't you grown up to be big and handsome.", she complimented the first plant in the row. "And how are we today? Oh dear, you seem to be attracting bad company, let me just set that weed on it's way shall I?", Cindy continued. And continued continuing until she had spoken to every plant and tree in the garden in a cheerful positive tone, including the lemon trees, who always had a sour attitude.

Jess, Cindy, Melissa and Nerissa played peek-a-boo until it was time for Jess to leave.

Jess arrived thirty minutes early, she had never performed on stage before. The stage props were very simple, her prop that she used for the trick known as 'The Swords Of Destiny', or if you had a really good microphone and sound system, 'THE SWOOORDS OF DESTIIIINYYYyyy..', and the two wobbly pre-programable spotlights bolted to the front of the stage. Jess had no idea how to program them, so she just pressed the button marked 'Default Show'. Her audience of two lingered by the stage, while Shannon sat at the back of the park, using the street lighting to read some trashy romance novel.

"Greetings and Salutations, I am The Amazing Jess!"

The sound of one fan clapping enthusiastically was nearly loud enough to drowned out the sound of dozens of male crickets attempting to attract hot amorous female crickets for special cricket cuddle time.

But only nearly.

"I would like to start the show by using the old magician's standard, pulling a rabbit out of my hat.", Jess paused for effect, "But seeing as I couldn't even pull him out of the lettuce patch this afternoon, let me start with this!", she paused again.

The sound of horny frustrated crickets seemed to be even louder as one of the two spectators walked away. The other spectator took a moment for the joke to sink in before applauding if not furiously, at least in a manner suggesting that even if she didn't understand the joke, that the effort was appreciated. For the remaining two hours and fifty six minutes Jess performed to a captive and enthusiastic audience of one.  

Jess even asked for her audience member to be a volunteer in her 'The swords of destinyyy' trick, an opportunity that her one present fan jumped at. If Shannan had of looked up from her book, she may have seen Jess perform the trick flawlessly. Rowena and Julio were naked under silk sheets after a secret rendezvous at her fathers mansion by the sea, there was no way Shannan was peeling her eyes from the current page.

After the show Jess got changed and went to meet her audience, without the flashy light show constantly blinding her, Jess finally recognized her fan as Lacey McRoberts, a former high school companion who had wanted to grow up to be a fashion model, but instead became a truck driver and later a transport company CEO. 

"I remember seeing you do the chocolate coin thing in high school, and now here you are, live on stage, that's so cool, living the dream!", gushed Lacey. Jess knew that she had one chocolate coin left that hadn't melted under the mad wobbling of the stage lights and did the trick, handing the coin over to Lacey. Lacey clapped and cheered like it was the greatest thing ever.

Jess as keen to get home to her babies, but she still had a pocket full of butterflies, she hadn't released them during her act for two reasons, firstly they would be hard to see in this light at any distance other than on stage, and secondly that she was worried that they would fly straight into one of the the spotlights and get sizzled.

Jess astounded and amazed Lacey with the butterflies trick, and even some of the crickets halted their incessant cry for love temporarily, albeit the reasons for their silence was called Magic, it was cat related rather than Jess's butterflies.

The twins were learning to walk, and talk, and put odd shaped pegs in odd shaped places, as well as the peg box slots, and even how to make cool noises with a xylophone stick that the ball had long since been chewed off of. What they still hadn't learned was how to get more than twenty percent of their food in their mouths. 

Jess cleaned up each of the twins as she set them free before she wiped down the high chairs, this was a lesson she learned quickly, meaning there was no longer also a need to clean baby mush off of the dining chairs, television remote, stereo or other random objects. Nerissa led the jailbreak in search of playtime. 

Authors note:

As I (think I) mentioned in my last AN, Coral escaped her purge due to the game crashing before I saved those changes, so this time while I deleted most of her items and her car, and made her quit her lifeguard job, I have moved her to my secret dungeon location where I keep characters that I intend to use in upcoming chapters. Even though she won't be returning to the house, I have the urge to show off the Black Rock Islands (even if it doesn't in game yet), and have her at least send some more photos and messages back to Jess and Co..

6.06 Farewell Coral Seabreeze

"Have you, uh, have you redecorated the nursery again?", asked Cindy as she scooped Melissa from her cot. "No, I'm pretty sure it has always looked like this since Coral moved upstairs into my old room.", Jess replied as she lifted Nerissa out. "I was sure there was more red and less pink.", Cindy mumbled to her self as the girls went through the very early morning diaper change and feed routine.

Several art galleries and private homes received an unannounced hooded visitor, who was quite skilled at bypassing burglar alarms, security cameras, and sleepy security guards.

Delilahs most recent promotion meant that she was required to do some extra undertime as well as overtime, and those extra hours rarely lined up with business hours. 

Delilah crept through the fence after a long nights work, now, thanks to the hi tech scanner her boss had given her, she knew the authenticity of every painting in the town's art galleries, and had the information to reproduce them if required.

Coral's last day with the Midnight Hollow Lifeguard Association saw her standing guard over an empty public indoor swimming pool for her entire shift. Although Coral never complained, she would have rather been out in the wind and the rain on the beach with someone to watch over, rather twiddle her thumbs all day.

At the end of her lonely shift, Coral raced to meet her friends at the spring fair. Coral had resisted and form of going away party, and Jess had compromised by convincing the group to hand out at the fair instead.

Jess original intention was to practice her magic tricks in front of spectators, while Cindy looked after the twins. Jess cycled through her list of tricks, despite the fact that most people had already gone home.

"Hey, you are Jessica, from the Kids reading group at the hospital, yeah?", asked a voice from behind her. Jessica turned around expecting to find a reporter with a camera. They had been stalking her lately as if she was some kind of celebrity. Instead, she recognized Ben, father to one of the sick kids she had volunteered to read to. "Hi Ben, it's The Amazing Jess, you can tell the difference between the Amazing Jess, and the normal Jess, by the hat.", she flirted gently, pointing to her top hat.

"Well, The Amazing Jess, I'd just like to thank you for what you are doing with Joel, my.. boyfriend and I have noticed Joel's mood has improved a lot since you started reading to him, and he loves that chocolate coin trick.", Ben gushed, "So, um, Thank you!"

Jess groaned inwardly. 'Why are all the hot guys I hit on either villainous criminals, or already involved, or gay, or a combo pack?', she asked herself. "Actually Ben, you can thank me by being my volunteer for this one trick", Jess asked. "I want to make sure I know what I'm doing before I try it in front of the kids." 

Ben stepped into the box. Jess brandished three flashy swords, drawing two spectators. She carefully slid the first sword into place, nearly having a heart attack when Ben yelled, "Hahaha, that tickles!". Being a musician, Ben was also used to performing for the crowd, and had decided to improvise his performance. Jess slid the next two swords in with similar comments from Ben, who was unaware that they actually now had an audience.

"And for being such a talented assistant..", Jess called out, as she made a chocolate coin appear.

"I'm out Jess, time for me to go see Joel, before I go, have you thought about using a tip jar when you practice in public, I have a label on mine that says all donations go to St James, Children's Ward."
Jessica decided to make a similar one as soon as she got home.

 Delilah's Boss had obtained a council contract to decorate the town with some 'authorized' street art, and the task had been handed down to Delilah. Delilah and Evie were already at the fair for Coral's going away not party, and used the opportunity to gain favor with the boss.

Delilah checked her completed mural, by no means a masterpiece considering it was her first time with spray cans since university, but it was certainly hood enough to please the council.

The group headed home when the fair closed, the proud 'Aunties' charged to the nursery to deliver a days worth of hugs and snuggles to the twins.

Jess waited patiently to extract her twins from the Werewolf and the Changeling. "Okay ladies, I'm starting to leak, hand them over.", Jess eventually stated.

Coral had packed all of her belongings into her car, except Jade, who wouldn't be making the journey. Jess had offered to keep the Emerald Boa snake so that Coral could avoid any border crossing issues. Coral said her final goodbye to Jade, and left concentrating on all of the good memories that she was taking with her. 

 

Edward and Kim had dropped by earlier with best wishes for Corals journey, and now Jessica, Cindy, Delilah, Evie, Melissa and Nerissa gathered around Coral's old Volkswagon, which was packed to the gills.
There was several rounds of hugging and a promise of letters and photos from Coral before she managed to depart on the next major stage of her life.

Authors Note:

Due to a failed Save, the twins had to be reborn and the nursery redecorated, I was in no mood to attempt to recreate it from the photo as alt tabbing from the sims is a guaranteed crash for me. So yes Cindy, you spotted the time anomaly, I did warn everybody last AN that my game was likely to try and pull a swiftie....

Hopefully Coral is saved properly in the SimBin for possible visits in the future, should I be so inclined.