6.15 The Not Quite New But Definately Improved 'The Amazing Jess' Outfit

(Sim Nation vibrates and blurs as several Time Anomalies resolve, and reality settles across Midnight Hollow like a comforting blankie at nap time. The Simgods will never apologize for this. They would rather you were at least polite enough to pretend that you never noticed.)

"The original outfit is exactly the same as the one worn by 'The Astonishing Amy', so when it started to wear it out, I got the same thing made in pink and black, but apparently that is exactly the same as the outfit worn by 'The Awesome Tina.", explained Jess before she ducked into her bedroom. She had a vague feeling that she had already explained this once before.

"So.. I designed a completely new outfit!"

I really couldn't decide between Orange to match my eyes, or Hot Pink, which you all know is pretty much my favorite color. I was tempted to use both colors in my new outfit, but everybody knows how badly Orange and Hot Pink clash... 

"Well, I like it!", Melissa whispered into thin air.

"Jess, you may need to talk to your girls about their Imaginary Friends making the twins look like they have anti gravity powers, especially with how often the paparazzi hang around here.."

The schoolbus still refused to stop at the Jettstar household. "I don't understand it, everyone in out house is at the least some sort of minor celebrity.", Melissa sighed. "Our family being as famous as it is, you think the bus company would charge extra for any wanting to get the bus that stopped at our house.", Nerissa stated.

"Excuse me girls, isn't a bit early to be arriving at school?", inquired Mr. Mumble-mumble-something, one of the newer teachers whose primary function was to ensure the kettle was on, the sugar bowl was full and that there was milk in the fridge each morning before the other staff arrived.

"Indeed it is!", enthused Nerissa, "I was just discussing this with my sister, how both the issues of the public transport system, and the signing in at the doorway for the students is just another example of a breakdown of our education system. The delays caused by these two council imposed systems alone are not only self perpetuating, but cause ongoing ripples throughout our entire education system.", Nerissa paused momentarily, taking a deep breath.

"And then to make matters worse, it is we the students, the end users, we who are forced into this system and ultimately punished for its failure. I mean, have you ever seen a teacher get detention or grounded because they got held up trying to get through the gates?", Melissa asked.

Mr. Whatsisname breathed a sigh of relief as the key finally clicked in the lock and the door swing open. It was days like this that Mr. Whoeverheis regretted leaving his last job at the the morgue.   

After Evie returned from France, she concentrated on more frequent workouts. Managing more clients meant less time for her self and Delilah, but the money was good. 

Jess was excited that her girls had organized to bring a normal human child home from school to play with, instead of spending all their time with Edie and Eddy. Meet Precious Salas.

Jess performed her magic tricks to an audience of one, up until Charlotte called it quits for the night. "Hey let me know if you are going to spontaneously combust, or have a torrid affair with another celebrity or something newsworthy, mkay? But for now, laterz Jess!", called out Charlotte. "Laterz Charlie!", called out Jess, who had spent so many hours being followed by the paparazzi that they had become friends.

Delilah continued with her obsession of covering both garage back walls with street art. It was on private property and only visible from the neighbor's place, and seeing how that place was owned by Jess's step mom, who also happened to be the towns long reigning chief of police, there had been no problems.

I whisk you away from these drab dreary poorly lit images of Midnight Hollow to draw your attention to the drab and drearily named location of Black Rock Islands. Which is in fact a riotously cheerfully barrage of  colorful flora and fauna, quite at odds with the location name. Here we find Coral, former house mate of our current generation heir, who is at this moment celebrating the raising and resurrection of her father's war barge. Coral is celebrating with Silky, Shreiker, and Serren, the three Merfolk sisters that helped find, float, and rebuild the old boat. Now that Coral has a war barge, she can join the SeaFae war council, and do her part in the ongoing war against the Old Ones.

And that's about as much good news and bright colors as I can deal with right now.

Follow the camera back to gloomy old Midnight Hollow, where the twins are playing chess. They are playing chess without the assistance of their imaginary friends, who insist on suggesting moves. "Edie, Because we are such closely linked twins, I can actually hear you offering advise to my sister, which we both agreed before the game would not be allowed!", Melissa grumbled to her sisters imaginary friend.

"Okay, how about you and Eddy go up into the tree house and set up the tea and biscuits until we finish the game?", suggested Nerissa, who had been watching Eddy suggest moves to Melissa, despite Melissa's glaring at him.

This was the twins first weekend since the walls had come down and they fully intended to play with every new thing in the backyard before darkness crept over the town. "Really, do you thing making funny faces at me is going to put me off?", asked Nerissa.

"Actually, I highly doubt that my feeble attempts to distract you are likely to have any effect on your accuracy, however, I've been watching the other children who play ball sports at school, and this seems to be a standard procedure.", replied Melissa

Despite Nerissa's best efforts, Melissa turned out to be a more than adequate goal keeper.

As did Melissa.

The girls agreed to skip the trampoline temporarily, it had a higher risk of injury than the remaining toys, and they agreed to place 'trampolining' as the last item on their to do list, before homework of course.

"Eddy and I would like to know if you will be accompanying us for tea in 'The Princess Tree house', or should we begin without you?", Edie inquired after the girls had failed to show up at the pre-appointed time of  'After The Chess Game is over ' for the soiree.  

After sending Edie back to the soiree with the news that that sisters intended to be 'Fashionably Late', they moved onto the shiny new slide. "Such an inelegant design, no artistic merit, and yet, I some how feel the need to rate the experience as 'mildly exhilarating', what do you think?", Nerissa asked after her first time down the slide.  

Melissa agreed that 'mildly exhilarating' was an appropriate rating, and they moved on to the throwing horse shoes at the stake game. Nerissa watched impatiently as Midnight Hollow's lazy sun prepared for an early night.

The twins gathered up the buckets and spades, bulldozers and dump trucks, "You do realize that we are well beyond mere sand castles, I thing even a sand fortress may be a little beneath us.", Melissa stated. "True. But I doubt we have enough daylight for a sand citadel, and we would also need extra materials for reinforcing.", advised Nerissa

By the time the twins had made it to the Dragon spring riders, the new lighting in the backyard was on, and the sun had vanished over the horizon to its little resting spot in the heavens. They had managed to play with everything except the basket ball hoop, the archery range, which required adult supervision, and the trampoline, which required further discussion to allocate a most suitable and effective time to obtain an injury.

Nerissa was adamant that Sunday evening was the most logical time to use the trampoline to full effect.

Authors Note:

My garden was full, I had almost every plantable from every expansion packed in there (except the cheese plants->omni plants quest chain, that I chose to avoid). I while back I decided it would be much easier and faster to clear my gardener's excessive inventory if I was growing only a few different types of thing. My plan is to continually harvest until the garden is completely bear except for the trees, selling off everything after each harvest except perfect plasma fruit, flame fruit, life fruit, and pumpkins. As you can see, I'm almost ready to replant. I have also found Cindy to be more responsive when she is not carrying §5000-§50000 worth of herbs, fruit and vegetables in her pockets :)