Chapter 4-11: Bump in the Road

                “Oh my gosh. Moshe is so cute,” Brielyn gushed to her best friend, Hilary. “I think he’s the one.”

                “Wasn’t Alan ‘the one’ last week,” Hilary teased.

                “Oh shut up,” Brielyn countered, splashing Hil in retaliation. Truthfully, Alan had never paid one bit of attention to her so she had told herself he didn’t matter. At the dance, he hadn’t even noticed her when he practically ran her over, trying to get to the pretty, new girl who had tripped over a wire on her way to the punch bowl. She knew she couldn’t compete with Audrina but it still hurt.

                 Camille always made sure to do her homework. She wanted to get the gold stars for top student of the week, every week. She made sure to do it when Brielyn wasn’t home though. Though her sister was nice, nice didn’t make you smart. Brielyn didn’t even try in school though and was perfectly content with a C average. Camille had her expectations set on the top grade in the class.

                 Yalena was getting more and more fans when she would perform in the park.

                “You’re really good,” one tipper said, pulling her aside after the show. Yalena smiled and thanked her, inwardly rolling her eyes and wishing for a larger tip if she was that good.

                “My brother-in-law runs the Brew House. He’s usually pretty harsh when it comes to letting newbies perform there but I think I can talk him into it. If you would be interested that is.”  

                “Now that’s more like it!” Yalena thought with excitement. “That would be fantastic. Here is my contact information,” she said, handing over a business card Lyric had made up for her. The thought of Lyric reminded her that she needed to hurry home and get ready for the date they had that night!

                “Wow, that dress is fantastic,” he wolf-whistled when she arrived, taking her in. 

                They spent the evening out, drinking and dancing. As the night started to dwindle down, they heard the bartender announce last call.

                 “Would you like to come back to my place,” Lyric offered, pulling her in close. They hadn’t yet taken this step but she was more than ready and quickly pressed the elevator button.

                Once inside though, she found that she couldn’t wait any longer. She just hoped there weren’t any cameras on the inside.

                 “Wow, I can’t believe how big she is,” Yalena exclaimed when she picked up Artemis.

                “Yeah, she’s growing pretty fast.” Zane paused. “Why weren’t you at dad’s funeral? I thought you were on speaking terms again?”

                “Dad died? When?”

                “The funeral was two days ago Yalena. Didn’t Wren call you?”

                “Yeah, but she didn’t leave a message. I didn’t realize it was something like that.”

                Zane just gave her a disapproving look and began to say something when the kids ran through the room playing tag. Camille, sensing the tension, stopped at the door but Zane quickly dropped the subject and went back to glowing over his daughter.

                “Oh my Watcher! Oh my Watcher,” Yalena freaked out, knowing that she was about to perform in front of a live audience. This time may be her big break. This may be her last chance to be discovered, especially now that she was getting older.

                 She climbed on stage and began her show. As she sang, she glanced over at the owner of the shop to see his reaction. She was appalled to see that he wasn’t even paying attention. “The jerk is reading a book! How am I ever going to impress him?”

                 She pushed herself harder, giving her everything into her performance. “Whoops, that might be a bit too much,” she thought to herself as she threw herself back, guitar in air. Luckily, she didn’t miss a note or a chord and kept right on playing. The patrons who were watching her seemed to be thoroughly enjoyed with the show.

                 Afterwards, the owner came up to her to pay her for her show. “You know, when you came in here, I figured that it would be a mediocre performance, maybe even something I could laugh at afterwards. But, honestly, it was one of the best performances I have ever seen. I’m going to give you the number to my cousin’s wife’s father-in-law. He’s a producer for a record company. See if he’ll let you use his studio to record an album, and, if he does, I’ll sell it here at the Brew House exclusively.”

                As she walked home with her §500 in her pocket, Yalena couldn’t have been happier, floating on cloud nine. She gave Lyric a call, to share her good news.

                “I think we should go out and celebrate,” she suggested.

                “I’ve got an even better idea. How about we go to a little bed and breakfast over in the country for the weekend? Just you and me?”

                They agreed to meet there Friday afternoon, after he took Cody back to Katherine’s.

                “Watcher, it’s good to see you. He leaned in, giving her a kiss, making the concierge wait to check them in. Lyric had taken care of all the reservations before they arrived.

                 “You whore,” a woman shouted from the side of the room. Before Yalena even knew what was happening, she was being slapped in the face by an angry woman in a trench coat.

                “Katherine,” Yalena yelped in shock. The redhead glared at her, said a few choice words to Lyric, and stomped out, leaving Yalena stunned.

                “Lyric, what was that about?”

                “Yalena, I’m so sorry,” he closed his eyes in shame.

                “Lyric…?”

                “Kaherine and I, we’re not exactly over.”

                “You lied to me?”

                “When we first discussed our separation, she wanted huge child support checks. She knows who my family is. I tried telling her that they left me nothing but she’s got quite the investigative nose. She knows that I’m worth six figures.”

                “And? I’m not seeing a connection here.”

                “I may have led her to believe there was a chance of reconciliation to avoid payments,” he admitted, avoiding her eyes. “She must have followed me here.”

                 Yalena closed her eyes, trying to fight back the tears that were threatening to spill. She couldn’t believe he would do this to her; not now. Not after everything they had been through. Then, partially surprised at herself, she took his hands in hers.

                “Lyric, we’ve been through a lot. This is just another bump in the road. We’ll get through it too.” His expression revealed that her forgiveness was the last thing he had expected.

                 ‘Daddy, play hopscotch with me,” Camille pleaded with Ace when he arrived at the park for her birthday. He had been spending less and less time with her because of his impending marriage to Kristi and, when that fell through, his lack of motivation to get up and do anything. He quickly positioned himself at the beginning of the hopscotch court, hoping that his participation would earn some brownie points.

                 “Oh, look, they’re here,” Camille squealed, running off, leaving him mid jump as she noticed her friends’ arrivals at the park. She bounded over to them, excited about her birthday party at the park that her mom was throwing for her.

                 Soon, all of the guests crowded into the park pavilion. Yalena brought out a cake and lit the candles with fanfare, signaling for everyone to start singing. As Camille contemplated what she should wish for, her friends and family tooted their birthday horns and clapped on in encouragement.

                “Hey sweetheart, I wanted to give you this,” Ace presented her with a bow topped package after she blew out her candles.

                “Oh daddy, thank you!” When she opened it, she found a tablet inside. She couldn’t believe that her father would get this for her for her birthday! It was one of the new models, just recently released to the public.

                She promptly sat down and began going over the features while Kori looked over her shoulder. Party forgotten, she flipped through the tabcasts and different options for purchasing read material. With the slightest touch, her email would be available to her wherever she went.

                “Ace, really? Was that the best present you could come up with,” Yalena asked, exasperated, especially when she saw her daughter gazing at him in adoration, a look that hadn’t really existed before she opened her gift.

                “I happen to think it is. Did you see how much she loves it?”

                “I thought we were going to just do small things? You know I can’t afford anything like that.” She knew it wasn’t supposed to be a competition, but it sure felt like one. Before things got heated and out of hand, Lyric pulled her outside.

                “Hey there,” she said, smiling up at him. Even during moments like this, he always knew how to make her feel better.

                “Hey yourself.” He took her in his arms and threaded his hand into her hair. “I just wanted to tell you, Katherine and I are officially done. For real this time.”

                “Oh my Watcher you guys! Seriously, get a room,” Camille was disgusted with her mother’s behavior. Not only was Lyric her uncle, in a way, he was also a cheater. Cami didn’t care that Katherine and Lyric had broken up. In her eyes, he would forever be the cheater that had Cody with her aunt and then left them for her mom. She turned, flipping her hair, and headed home. No way was she going to enjoy herself watching those two.

                 Lyric and Yalena settled down to watch the stars as the party dissipated. Everyone headed home and they just enjoyed their little world together.

                Looking back, Yalena realized that, if she could, she wouldn’t change anything about her life. She had her lovely daughters and she had Lyric. Everything had fallen into place exactly as it should.

Chapter 4.10                                                                                                                                           Chapter 4.12
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As some of you may be aware, I have been getting bored of the regular legacy rules. Not that I actually follow them anyway. So I am on my way to switching over to the Random Legacy. It will be a continuation of this blog, without actually changing to a new site or anything. Since I decided this about, er, 3 days ago, Generation 5 will be a combination generation. Either heir will have their number of children, generation goal, and miscellaneous fun rolled for. Then, Generation 6 will start a full blown RL. I'm looking forward to it!

Speaking of heirs, the heir vote is up! You have until Friday, July 6th to vote and I do plan on getting one more chapter in before that. So you can wait until then to vote and get to know the girls a little better or you can make your choice now. Their fate is in your hands!!! Muahaha...yeah, okay, I really should get some sleep. :P