"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.
