5.13 My Much Older Cousin

"So now that you are home, what are you plans for the future?", Kim asked Jess. Jess considered the question, she also considered the fact that while Kim had made eye contact while asking the question, Kim was now looking at her father, who was looking back at Kim, and they were smiling. Jess was tempted to ask Kim and her father 'Now that I am home, what are your plans for the future.'

"I'm not quite sure yet.", Jess answered honestly. "It's funny, when I first left for uni, I really missed home. But now that I've completed a degree, and am back at home, now I miss the uni lifestyle and the friends I made there". Jess watched closely to gauge their reactions. "I can relate to that.", said Kim, "I did two degrees back to back in my younger days, and then went back again when one of those degrees became obsolete.", she explained. "And then I went back again to do a Forensics degree before applying to the police academy. Anyway, back to the original question, do you have plans?", Kim continued.

"I graduated with honors, so I could probably walk into any medical or science job in town if I wanted. I don't really want to be a doctor or a scientist, I'm still not sure what I want to do, in fact before the exams, I even asked myself why I chose Sci-Med.", Jess explained, more to Kim than her Dad, who hadn't said a thing for the entire conversation. And Dad was gazing at Kim like a love sick puppy, and although Kim was clearly paying attention to her, it was divided.

"Alright, clearly something happened here while we were away at uni, so spill the beans, what's going on?", Jess asked her father, although she already had a fair idea. "Kim and I have been, uh, dating since you left, and I, um, that is we, uh, Kim?", Edward mumbled through his childish grin looking to Kim to explain. 

Cindy was packing the most essential items to take home when she noticed a blonde woman in a trench coat and fedora slip through the gate and tip toe around behind the shed. 'P.I. or Paparazzi, dressed like that it's one or the other.', thought Cindy. Cindy quietly waited in ambush between the two sheds and waited in the shadows cast by Edwards fishing boat. Eventually the woman slipped around the corner and moved along the wall, looking for a good spot to spy on the house.

"Hoping for a nice juicy expose for The Midnight Hollow Enquirer, The Midnight Hollow Star, or are you freelance?", Cindy asked quietly making the reporter jump. "Katherine Underwood, Freelancer.", the reporter whispered back. "Although, if I can get the scoop on the chief of Police's new romance, I'll have a job at whichever paper I want.", Katherine added with a smug grin.

"With a pretty face like yours, you could go all the way to news anchor in no time I bet!", Cindy purred as seductively as she could. "Come back her into the light so I can get a better look at you while I give you all the juicy gossip and bawdy details on Chief Diffy's naughty new lover.", Cindy used her finger to beckon the snoop as she spoke.

The novice reporter did as she was bid, and Cindy moved in like a lioness hunting it's favorite prey. Cindy leaned in as if to whisper the gossip into the reporters ear. The reporter put her pencil to pad, ready to catch any useful snippets. "They met on a cold foggy morning by a lake. They almost bumped into each other they were so close, and the fog, the fog was thick", Cindy started to explain, using the most alluring voice she could muster, she licked her lips carefully and leaned in even closer.

"Their eyes met, then locked.", Cindy continued , taking the opportunity to lean directly in front of Katherine as she narrated. "And then, realizing that they were two souls as one, they kissed, a simple soft kiss, like this.", Cindy purred, pressing her lips against the reporters.

At first the reporter was shocked, she didn't even attempt to resist the gentle kiss, but after a few moments she tried to gently pull her head away from this lovely green enchantress, er, source. The longer she hesitated, the harder it become. And then she didn't want to resist. How could she even think of offending this wonderful woman who had just given her the most beautiful gift ever. She sighed deeply, knowing that what she had found was pure, and that she would do anything to please this green goddess.

Cindy kept her lips pressed to the reporters a little longer, she so desperately wanted to high five herself right now, but she needed to make sure her flower kiss was in full effect. Cindy reached into her school bag and pulled out her sketch pad. "You are so beautiful in this light, may I sketch you?", Cindy asked innocently.

"Anything, anything you desire, name it and it is yours.", Katherine responded dreamily. "My only wish at present is to sketch your beautiful face and glorious naked body so I may have a reminder of our meeting", Cindy lied smoothly. 

 Cindy, who was quite practiced at sketching nudes, quickly captured every detail, and held it up to show the reporter her likeness. "Your talent knows no bounds, you have captured me perfectly!", Katherine gasped. 'Yes, yes I have, and my plan was to catch, tag, and release, so let's get you going', thought Cindy struggling not to laugh. "Quickly, get dressed, I think someone is coming!", Cindy whispered urgently, she raced across to the corner and peered around it for a moment.

Taking the redressed reporter she lead her by the arm through the shadows back to the gate. "You don't want to get caught here, not by the police chief, imagine how much trouble you would be in. Breaking and entering, trespass, and who knows what else?", Cindy suggested in Katherine's ear. "No, no, that would be horrible, and think how much trouble that could get you into as well, I'd never want to do that to you, not you of all people!", Katherine whined quietly.

"You will need to think of another story, so that no-one finds out what you did because if some does, there might be an investigation!", added Cindy, who was having far too much fun. "And if there is an investigation, some one might take my beautiful sketches from me and give them to the 'Enquirer' and the 'Star'.

"Ohh, you would lose your sketches forever!", gasped Katherine, "That would be terrible, I'd be so sad!"
Cindy paused for a moment before throwing down her last card. "I have a wonderful idea!" she said cheerfully, watching Katherine's mood swing along with her voice. "Do a story on Edward Jettstar, the Chief's friend who lives here, and about what a wonderful hardworking father he is, and how his business benefits the community, although.", suggested Cindy, lowering her voice again. "You probably should come during the daytime and use the doorbell, and ask for an appointment at a time that suits him. Oh, and it might be best if you pretend you never met me!", she added

"Thank you, oh thank you so much, you are so kind! That is a wonderful idea", Katherine gushed as she slunk out the gate and walked back to her car a block away. "Oh, the Jedi mind trick ain't a thing compared to my high powered flower kiss!", Cindy congratulated herself for getting the snooping reporter off of the property. She reset the lock on the gate as she let herself out and started walking home. 'Damn, I should have gotten her to drive me home!', Cindy thought.

"Hey Jess, sup?"
"I'd love to hang but I'm at, uh work!"
"I was actually on my way to your place this morning and I went to make inquiries here about some part time work."
"They needed someone to start immediately. Yeah four days a week, Beach lifeguard, I missed the ocean while I was uni, and this will give me time to think what I want to do with my degree, yeah okay, eight hour shift, so tonight yeah? kay."

For the first seven hours of Coral's eight she was alone, except for a horse that had kept trying to nibble her work tshirt

"Look Rando, I have an hour left on what has turned out to be an extremely boring first shift, so if you don't plan on swimming, maybe you should just go home and mooch an apple.", she growled at the random horse who had just tried to nibble her shirt a fourth time. The random horse gave Coral a look that anyone who had any sort of equestrian experience would have probably interpreted as "Who the hell is Rando?". It did take her advice eventually though and went off in search of food. 

With less than an hour to go on her patrol shift, a small group of people arrived at the beach, and within minutes one of them was already in trouble, she dropped her shirt and whistle on a nearby table and rushed to the rescue.

She recognized Narelle Vaughn immediately from high school, and draped the girl's arms over the rescue noodle, towing her back to shore. 

Coral started CPR, Narelle came to and was just thanking Coral when another cry for help was heard.

And another, then another, then another. With so many people all needing to be rescued at once, Coral had to prioritize, she glanced at her watch. She didn't get paid overtime, there was nobody coming to take over her shift, and she didn't gave time to call Jess and let her know she was going to be late. Coral plunged into the cold ocean again and again until the beach was cleared.

"Hey, I found another chocolate coin behind your ear! And when are you moving in?", Jess asked after discovering that her father and Kim were finally admitting that they intended 'shacking up' together a few days ago. "I don't think I will be, I think your father wants to move in with me and give you the house which I think is a brilliant idea, but he won't commit to when, you know how he hates change.", Kim explained.

"I just think its awesome that you two are finally together, you are really good for him!", Jess gushed hugging her unofficial stepmother. 

"Not even a hello kitty, dogbreath?", Delilah jabbed at Eve as she arrived at Edwards house. "Sorry, I was distracted, I have a job interview at eight in the morning, and because Mum insists I stay on the reservation and help look after the new litter tonight, I'll have to be up at half past five.",  Evie explained, looking up.

"Sucks to be you, sweetheart.", laughed Delilah, leaning in and kissing her partner on the cheek. "My interview isn't until nine, which means I get to sleep in to quarter past eight!", Delilah grinned.

Evie returned the kiss, "I gotta go, Sally is waiting to give me a ride."   

"Is that a forty eight year old bottle of 'La Vida Dulce'? asked Jess, staring at the bottle in front of Kim. "It is, an old friend of mine bought several crates, only he convinced them to add a hint of plasma fruit juice to his batch. I've had this bottle for nearly forty seven.", Kim stated. "I wanted to wait until it was fifty years old before opening it, although I have been tempted on a few occasions to open it early. Your father and I have been officially dating since you girls left for uni, so today is our one year anniversary. Delilah got the job that she applied for this morning, and I'm thinking of maybe retiring as police chief and running for mayor, so I have plenty of reasons to celebrate!", Kim added.

"I have my apprentice doing all the orders tomorrow, I think am ready to make the move.", Edward told Kim. "Wonderful, another reason to celebrate!", smiled Kim.

"I can't believe you are running away again!", Evette raged at her older sister. "Running away, I have never ran from anything in my life, ever, where the hell did you get such a crazy idea Blinky?", Sally said, trying to keep the building anger from her voice. "Are you serious? You run from the reservation and family every chance you get, do you really hate us that much?", Evie stormed.

"Is that what you think pup? Is that really what you think?", Sally responded in a calmer voice.
"What else am I supposed to think, feel free to set me straight if I have it all arse about!", fumed Evie.

"The very first time I left the reservation, I was looking for something better for our people, and every other time since then, it's been for the same reason! The elders want us to live in the stone age behind the fences and ignore the rest of Simnation. They won't except any new ideas or change their ways, and their ways are causing our people to stagnate!", Sally explained trying not to let her anger at the elders wash over to her sister.

"But, but, you work on the res as a teacher, surely that's doing some good?", Eve asked, understanding Sally's view. "The elders gave me an ultimatum, resign my teaching position or be fired and exiled. It would break Mum's heart, so I resigned and took the job with 'Teachers Without Borders' in the Simazonian jungle. They at least want to move into the current century!", Sally explained.

"Promise me you''ll write regularly, yeah?", asked Evette. "Every week Blinky, without fail!", Sally promised as they hugged goodbye.

"Hey guys, what's new?, I've been wanting  to catch up with both of you.", Jessica greeted her friends. "Delilah's not allowed on the res because she's not a wolf, so we are going house hunting to see if we can get a small flat or something.", Evie said. "Yeah, that and the fact that Kim and your Dad have been bonking like bunny rabbits since he moved in, I need somewhere a little quieter!", Delilah laughed.

"I am going back to uni.", Jess admitted. "I asked both Coral and Cindy if either of them would move in and look after the house and garden while I'm away studying, and they both said yes, but there's still plenty of empty rooms if you two want to move in as well?".

Evie and Delilah looked at each other with a grin. "Rent free, and split the bills, I know you both got jobs.", Jess asked sweetening the deal.  

Jess pulled the car over outside Midnight Hollow, "Fingers crossed!", she said handing Mia the formula, Mia downed it without hesitation. "Hrm, I don't feel any different.", stated Mia. "Absolutely no DifFeRenCe AAAt aLL! OH WOW!!!!", she giggled as the formula took effect.

The next afternoon they arrived at uni and Jessica led Mia straight to administration building. "Jessica Jettstar and my cousin Mia Salter.", Jess stated confidently to the receptionist. The receptionist tapped the name into the computer and spent a brief moment browsing. "A returning honor student, and I see this year you are going for a double degree, very brave!", the receptionist said admiringly. "Sign this, here, here, and here, and you are good to go.

Jessica signed the form as the lady typed Mia's name into the computer. The receptionist frowned, "No record found, well that's unexpected.", she told Jess. "Mia Salter, M.I.A...", Jess began. "Yes, yes she is M.I.A. no record found.", repeated the receptionist, "No application, no pending notes, absolutely nothing.", the receptionist confirmed.

"But that can't be, I helped Mia with the application and mailed it off together with mine!", Jess lied smoothly. "Mia's parents just died in a horrible fire, poor girl doesn't even have a home to go back to if she doesn't get in!", Jess continued the facade, "I know it's absolutely last minute, but surely there's something we can do for her."

The receptionist looked left, then right, to make sure none of the other staff members were paying any attention. "The government funds a dozen places for last minute full fee mature age students, and the university keeps the money weather they fill those spots or not. If I accidentally miss-typed  her date of birth, she would have access to one of those spots.", the receptionist explained conspiratorily.

"I'm sure my much older cousin would like to do that.", Jessica nodded her head and pulled out her education account bank card as if she was fully unaware of the mature age positions and hadn't already done the research on them.   



Jess and Mia followed the map to their dormitory. Jess looked up with a smile when they arrived. "This is the same building we all lived in last year!", Jess explained to Mia enthusiastically.

Authors Note:

Although Jess should technically have been handed the legacy reins during the last chapter, because of the rolls, I decided to hold off until now. I had some mad lag / freeze / slow motion issues that caused this chapter of Edwards generation to take 3 play sessions to complete the screencaps, I had another half dozen shots in mind, but I am far to impatient to spend days playing for one or two caps :P

I used NRAAS MC to reset the whole town which was over 20,000 objects. It may or may not have responsible for the loss of all the family cars except Kims reward police car. I wasn't in the mood to spend a few hours try to get the right shade of pink for Jess's car, so next time you see her driving, It'll be a shiny new car! I only have about 90 CC cars to choose from. The reset for the most part has cleared some of the issues.