Evie knew that by the time she tracked Delilah down, Delilah would be on her way home from work anyway. Coral was at the beach working another life saving shift, and Cindy who had turned the house garden into a thriving business was away at market. Evie grabbed the mail from the mail box and entered the silent house to see what the post person had brought today. Evie was overjoyed to find a new letter from Jess and Mia, and didn't bother to wait for everyone to come home before she opened it to catch up on the news.
Leisure day rolled around and everybody took a break from their studies for day, Mia played gnubb with Nicole, soccer with Kerry, and horseshoes with Carlee. Carlee had grown up on a horse ranch and was an experienced player.
Jess studied and drank coffee with Joanie.
And picked up her guitar for the first time since arriving at the start of the year.
But eventually went back to studying by the afternoon.
Mia had developed an obsession with a computer game called 'Sims2020'. "Seriously Mia, I don't know how you could waste a whole night playing with little pixel people!", Jess gasped when she discovered Mia still playing at three in the morning. "But look, I have made a family with you and me and Coral and Delilah and Eve and Cindy in it, look there's a sim you there!", Mia said proudly.
"Good thing there is a few computers in there, I think Mia is addicted to that game. She has been on it all week." Nicole pointed out to Carlee.
Carlee missed her parents ranch and amused herself by playing in the fallen leaves the same as she had done at home when she was younger. She stopped when she realized Khalilah was watching her play. "I suppose you think that's pretty childish, huh?", asked Carlee, who was a little embarrassed.
Khalilah shrugged, "Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional.", Khal smiled, "I'm just hoping all these leaves are still here when my hubby brings the kids this Saturday."
Rachelle reached down and picked up the book from the floor where Jess had dropped it. Jess' eyelids flickered as the movement woke her up. "I'm sorry Jess, I just came in to see if you had time to give me those guitar lessons, but if you need to sleep..", Rachel apologized.
"If you get half as good with a guitar as you are with kitchen utensils, you'll be legend in no time.", Jess encouraged enthusiastically.
Mia added archery to her list of hobbies when she had discovered her boyfriend was into it, although she was going to need a lot of practice to be as good at it as Shelby.
Sunday is 'Mumma's Day', and everybody creeps around the house until nine in the morning. Khalila goes home to husband and two young children every second weekend, on the alternate weekend, her husband puts the two sleeping sons in the car before sunrise and travels the distance to bring 'Mumma' Khaly her boys. Every second sunday is officially 'Mumma's Day', and nobody makes a sound.
Jess calls her dad during the day, then makes another call to her friends, which is put on loud speaker. The conversation is mostly small talk, Mid year exams are over without much fanfare, and Jess and Mia are waiting on results, but both are expecting to pass flying colors.
"I think I need to party a little, not a lot, just a little to celebrate top grades, you know?" ,Jess suggests to Mia. Mia, who had known Jess all of her life, had expected Jess to be more of a party animal at uni. Instead Jess was more subdued and studious on campus. "I know just the place!", Mia grinned, "A quiet friendly place for some relaxing entertainment, just what you need right now!"
Mia took Jess to a quiet pub, it had two main rooms, each with its own bar. Generally most of the regulars sat in the main room, watching sports on the many TV's and talking among themselves. The two girls went to the other room and played on the small pool table.
After Jess had lost two out of three games, Mia whispered into Jess's ear, "I'd love a Spline Reticulator, but even though I'm over the age limit, I don't have any ID. Help a sister out?". Jess went and ordered two drinks, and after loosing another game of pool, she got two more. And two more. And two more. And two more after that.
"Aaaah, my head is killing me!", groaned Jess the next morning, "How could you possibly eat spicy hot wings for breakfast with a hang over like this. "The take home bottle of Tequila you insisted the barman sell us at closing time has completely incinerated my taste buds so I don't fear the wings. Besides who are you to dis the wings when you have onion rings and chili sauce?", Mia laughed.
"Oh god, I think you are about to witness a soggy rainbow of onion rings and Tequila", Jess burbled as they worked their way to the first class of the day. "Hey I did try to get you to slow down, little miss just one more!", Mia responded.
The following day Mia looked for Shelby in the crowd but was unable to find him. One of Shelby's geek friends informed her that their had been a family tragedy and that Shelby wouldn't be back until the next week.
Authors Note:
I had a few shot's I took in Midnight Hollow that I wanted to use in advance for 6.01, 6.02, and 6.03. I managed to delete half of them, so whoops. I had intended to go for a 70/30 balance of what was happening at uni, and what was happening back home in Midnight Hollow at the same time. Hopefully the story that I have concocted makes sense. I had to completely rewrite the text for the last photo as I realized a glaring continuity error in that Mia had changed her clothes in the five second lapse between shots, so I have to move what was going to be the closing shot for this chapter forward to the next.
