“So,
you ready to get taken down,” Brielyn joked with Moshe as they met up for a
friendly rock climbing wager.
“Ha
Avendale. Like you could beat me.”
They
hurried inside and changed into their work out clothes. Brielyn still had not
worked up the courage to tell Moshe that she liked him. She didn’t want to ruin
their friendship because he was really a great friend to have. She thought that
perhaps she could live with him as a friend instead of losing him because she admitted
to liking him.
Across
town, Camille was meeting with Kori and Becks with whom Chad had tagged along.
It didn’t take long for playful Kori to convince everyone to play a two on two
game of foosball. Both girls missed the twitch in Chad’s jaw and Becks rolling
her eyes at her brother.
“Oh
man, I’ve gotta pee,” Becks proclaimed.
“Yeah,
so do I,” Chad excused himself from the game as well. Surreptitiously, he
grabbed Becks’ arm and pulled her to the side. “What the hell Becks? You didn’t
tell me she was bringing that girl.”
“I
didn’t know, okay! Kori’s a little, well, eccentric though “sweet” in Cam’s
words so she invited her when Kori heard us talking about hanging tonight. I
couldn’t exactly say no.”
“How in
the hell am I supposed to talk to her alone now? You better figure this shit
out,” he gave her arm a twist and then stormed off to the bathroom.
“Yo,
Kori! Check this out,” Becks nodded toward the photo booth. “Let’s go take some
goofy pictures!” As they headed towards the booth, Becks glanced over her
shoulder to make sure that Chad was paying attention and ready for his cue.
“Just
in time. I need a drink. You look like you need one too,” he said, steering
Camille towards the bar. Age appropriate drinks in hand, they headed to a
nearby table where Chad had to endure mindless drivel about school and boys and
things that he could care less about. He did his best to nod and smile and look
empathetic. Luckily, she didn’t seem to notice that he was bored near to tears.
“What’s
the matter,” she said, catching him looking sadly at his sister as the waitress
cleared their glasses.
“Oh, it’s
nothing. Don’t worry about it,” he waved her off.
“No,
Chad, I’m your friend. You can talk to me,” she insisted, just like he thought
she would. He smirked inside thinking that, regardless of all her bullshit talk
about being independent and not needing anyone, she really would do anything
for her friends. “Too bad for her that
she picks the wrong ones.”
“It’s just;
I told Becks I was in town visiting. But, really, I had to come home.”
“Is
everything okay with your family,” she asked, clearly worried.
“Yeah,
it’s not them. It’s me. See, I was working on this project for my company and
my developments were ground breaking. I mean seriously awesome stuff. But, if
they credited me, they’d have to pay me the big bucks so they fired me and kept
my work, saying it was company material, not personal and I had no claim to it.
When I went to pick up my things, they had restricted my access to the computer
systems so I couldn’t even recover it. So I’m here to start over.”
“How
could they do that to you,” Camille angrily asked, hurt for her friend.
Chad
signaled for another drink and, just as he began to answer, Becks came bounding
over, pulling Camille off to go play darts. As she joined her friends again,
Chad let a small smile reach his lips before he left.
“Damn it,” Brielyn scowled as she
landed on her butt on the blue foam padding. It really didn’t hurt anything but
her pride but she hated losing. Especially to a boy she was trying to impress.
“Bri,
are you okay,” Moshe jumped down, landing gracefully on his feet and coming
over to her to make sure she was fine.
“Yeah,
I’m okay.” She stood, brushing herself off, trying to calm her anger.
Moshe
laughed.
“What
the hell are you laughing about?” She stomped her foot, placing her hand on her
hip, irritated that he was making fun of her.
“You’re
cute when you get mad,” he smiled at her.
“You,
you think I am cute,” she baffled, all anger forgotten.
“Yeah,
I always have. You just never seem to pay much attention.”
Quickly,
before the mood was broken, she leaned in, sharing her first kiss with him. As
it was obvious the attraction was mutual, they wasted no time deciding to go
steady.
“My
Watcher, you’re beautiful,” Lyric smiled at Yalena as she plodded around the
bedroom, trying to get things straightened up. Neither of them were actually
the cleanest people around but, with the baby coming soon, she was going into
overdrive trying to get ready.
“You
really think so? I look like a whale,” she pouted, hating her figure.
“Even
so, you are my whale. And that makes you beautiful to me. Especially since that’s
my baby you’re carrying,” he smiled as she scrunched her face up, unsure whether
she should be flattered and touched or annoyed that he agreed that she was a
whale.
In no
time at all, Brielyn was ready to become an adult. Yalena decided that a big
party was in order with Brielyn’s closest friends and, of course, her father. Ever
since Yalena had realized that Lyric was the one for her, she had kept contact
with Glen at a minimum. He hadn’t tried asking her out or seducing her again
and both of them just were Brielyn’s co-parents, nothing more, nothing less.
Just as
she blew out the candles on her cake, after deciding on the perfect wish, an
unexpected thing happened: Yalena’s water broke. It was time to rush to the
hospital. As Brielyn clapped her hands, excited about this next chapter in her
life, everyone turned to her mother, concerned about getting her to the
hospital for the birth of the baby. Though surrounded by a group of people,
Brielyn aged into an adult all by herself.
After
agonizing hours in labor, Yalena and Lyric finally returned home with a daughter
they had named Dahlia. Dahlia Sabo; Lyric thought it had a nice ring to it.
Cody had kept his mother’s last name, at Katherine’s insistence, so Dahlia
would be the only child to carry on the Sabo name. Of course, only moments
after leaving the hospital, the tabloid sites were buzzing with the scandal.
Apparently it was still taboo to live together and have a child together without
being married and the fact that both Lyric and Yalena were considered minor
celebrities now escalated the media attention.
As they
walked into the house for the first time as a complete family, Lyric decided he
couldn’t wait any longer.
“Yalena,
I’ve loved you since high school, and we’ve been through hell to be together.
With Dahlia now, I want to make it official and I feel like a fool for not
doing it earlier.”
“Oh my
Watcher, Becks, Lyric is proposing to my mom, right now, in the middle of the
living room. Gag me with a spoon,” Camille moaned into the phone as she watched
from the patio.
With a
few stragglers left over from the party earlier, Lyric and Yalena opted for a
ceremony, right there, at that moment. They could go down to city hall in the
morning to file the paperwork.
The
following week, Yalena made sure to take time to visit Brielyn, who had moved
out the night of her party. She had chosen a small apartment in the same
complex that they had lived in when she was growing up.
“Honey
you just left in the middle of the night, I’m worried about you.”
“Mom,
you’ve clearly got stuff going on right now. I’m happy to be on my own, really.
It was time for me to start a life on my own.”
After
spending the afternoon just catching up, Yalena went home to her new family,
confident that Brielyn would succeed and be happy in whatever she chose. Her
daughter had a strong sense of self and would do just fine on her own.
“I don’t
know where she is,” Chad threw his hands up in exasperation. They were all
supposed to be meeting for a night out but Becks had flaked at the last minute.
“Probably has some secret date she doesn’t want to tell us about. Bet you it’s
a nerd that she always makes fun of.”
“Well,
just because she’s not coming doesn’t mean we can’t still have fun. Why don’t
we get something to eat,” Cam suggested.
“How’s
your job search going,” Camilled broached the topic gingerly. She knew that
Chad was still sensitive about getting fired.
“Pretty
crappy. Without my work, I can’t really showcase my abilities. And the company
just refuses to let me have it. I feel like I’m letting Becks down. She looks
up to me, you know?”
“Have
you explained the situation to her?”
“No. I
don’t want her worried. I wouldn’t have even told you but, I don’t know. You’re
different. Easy to talk to.” Camille blushed as he said this.
“Well,
um, I’ve been thinking about that. It’s your project, right? Not theirs? You
were the one that did all the hard work. Shouldn’t you have possession of it?”
“I
should but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“What
if I could help? What if I could hack into their system and get it for you.
Unless they’ve got hard copies lying around, it would be yours again. And you
already said they manage everything digitally.”
Chad
had to fight keep from laughing out loud. This was much easier than he ever
thought it would be. He had thought it would take months to recruit her and
that he’d have to lead her to drink, so to speak, but here she was coming up
with the idea all on her own. Becks was right; Camille was certainly different
than the last girl they had tried to get to help them.
“Camille,
that would be fantastic. You would be saving me from going bankrupt and
disappointing my family and just, thank you! We’ll work out the details later
but I’ve got to run for now.”
Cami
smiled to herself, pleased to know that she was going to be able to help a
friend in need.
The
night that Dahlia turned into a toddler, Camille shared her plans with Hunter,
who was still her best friend out of all the close friends she had.
“Um,
don’t you think that sounds kind of dangerous,” he asked skeptically.
“Maybe
a little. But it’s his work Hunter. He deserves it.”
“Why
can’t he get lawyers involved?”
“He has
no money. Lawyers are too expensive.”
“I just
find it fishy that he would ask you to do something illegal like that.”
“He
didn’t ask, I offered. Now stop being such a stick in the mud,” she glared at
him, clearly disappointed by his lack of support.
She
headed inside to find her other cousin. She hadn’t seen Cody in a while, not
since Brielyn’s birthday anyway and he had since become a teenager himself. Katherine,
though not invited, had come along for the party, since she was “Cody’s mother”
after all. Yalena looked on, contemptuously. Though she had two daughters by
other men, she didn’t like sharing Lyric with anyone, especially with
Katherine, knowing their history. She kept her mouth shut though and tried to
play the civil hostess.
The
large family gathered around the table to watch as Lyric blew out the candles
with his daughter. Katherine was clearly upset though one could not be too sure
if it was because Lyric and Yalena (never her favorite person) were together or
if it had something to do with the three vampires in the room.
Dahlia
aged into a beautiful little girl with her father’s coloring. She looked to be
a perfect mix between her parents; something that both Lyric and Yalena looked
upon as perfection.
After prom. Mom doesn’t expect me home till
late ne way. Meet u @library.
Camille texted Chad, letting
him know when and where they would get together so she could finally return the
property that was rightfully his. She had butterflies in her stomach, wondering
if she would be able to get into the computers from remote access and wondering
what firewalls they might have in place. She smiled at the thought of the
challenge.
“Oh
baby, you look beautiful,” Yalena gushed as Cam got ready to leave for prom.
“Thanks
mom. I love the dress.”
“I thought
you might. Make sure to take lots of pictures for me! Remember, curfew is
midnight tonight. Be safe and don’t get in the car…”
“With
anyone who has been drinking. Yes mom, I know,” Camille rolled her eyes before
leaving to join Kori and Becks in the limo downstairs.
Once at
prom, she began taking pictures rapidly. She wanted to make sure to get enough
of the decorations and them dancing and goofy pictures taken in their dresses
before she snuck out to meet Chad. She was going to fake an upset stomach and
pretend to go home so Becks wouldn’t be suspicious either.
Finally,
10pm rolled around and she found Chad waiting for her on the second floor of
the library. He glanced around warily ash Camille sat down and turned the
system on. Luckily, this late at night, only college students seemed to
frequent the place and most were half asleep in the reference section or making
out in the dark corners so they had little people to worry about.
She
quickly accessed website Chad had given her. He had written down the specifics
of the information she was looking for but it would take a little while to get
through these firewalls. She had known he worked for a private contracting
company but she had no idea that their security was so tight. It was more
effort than she had been expecting but she knew she could manage to get in.
“Chad,
it’s Becks. Get out, we’ve got company.” Becks spoke into a small walky talky
she and Chad had rigged up so she could keep a watch while Cam hacked into the
database.
Damn, they’re closer on my tail than I
thought they were! He turned and began to run towards the exit. Camille
pushed back from the computer cubicle.
‘Chad,
where are you going? Is everything okay? Chad,” she called, just to have him
glance over his shoulder and run even faster.
Before
she knew what was happening, she was being cornered by an officer, handcuffs
placed on her and being put into a police car. When she tried to explain that
there was just a misunderstanding, the officer informed her of her rights and
told her not to say another word until her parents had been contacted. The
drive to the station went swiftly and she could scarcely believe that she had
just been arrested.
It looked like she wouldn’t be making that midnight curfew
after all.
As all of you probably know by now, Camille is the heir winner. I am blown away that I got 25 votes. I was expecting maybe 13 or 14 and, instead, it more than doubled from my last heir vote. You guys make my heart all mushy with love. Camille's generation will officially start with the next chapter and with it I will be updating the side menu to include what her generational goals will be. Remember, this will be a hybrid generation as I switch from standard legacy to random legacy.
Also, thank you to Reya for naming Dahlia. I figured it was only fitting since Reya is Lyric's original Watcher and all. And he is right; Dahlia Sabo certainly has a nice ring to it. I'll be updating the downloads page in the next week to add all 3 of Yalena's girls (that's right, I'm not making you wait for Dahlia to age to YA to get her.) Spoiler of grown up Dahlia here: Dahlia Sabo
