Shooting star

Round 27: Autumn 2026

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James Novak is 51, Madelyn is 46 and Connor is 13.
(Naomi is 51, Malcolm is 16 and Charlie is 14)

Narrated by Connor Novak

Every Sunday morning, I get in Dad's car to head off to help him out at the dealership.

It's not exactly how I like to spend my weekends but it's only for a few hours and then I have the whole afternoon to myself, so I put up with it.

Dad's offered to have me come out and watch him on the floor, so I can learn sales but I'm not really interested in doing that, so I stick to the books.

Helping with the books used to be Mum's job. She's admitted that mathematics isn't her strong point though, so I started doing it instead. That kind of thing comes very easily to me. I love maths.


Anyway, that's how I know that business is good but Dad still hasn't earned back what he invested into this place. He and Mum want to take a holiday but they might have to wait until this place starts turning more of a profit.

After I finish college, I don't want to work at the dealership though. I have my own plans. I want to work in intelligence, maybe for the SCIA. I was telling Charlie about it and he got all excited, thinking I was going to be like James Bond.

As if the real thing is that action-packed!

After I'm done with work on Sundays, Charlie and I usually go and play a few games of basketball at the sports park.

Basketball is just a way to pass the time for me. Just a bit of fun.

Charlie takes it pretty seriously though. He wants to play professionally when he's older.

This week, anyway. He's always changing his mind.


Sometimes he wants to be a magician, sometimes a movie star. Always something where he thinks he'll get famous. I don't know how likely that is, so I mainly just humour him.

Seeing I'm the only one left living at home now, I decided I'd take over Aaron's old bedroom (which then became Ethan's). It's a lot bigger and it's got a way nicer bed.

Dad has also turned the downstairs bedroom (the one my grandparents used to sleep in) into a pool room. Once he sold all the old furniture, there was plenty of money to buy the table.

I wasn't too interested in it at first but then I read online that there are actually scholarships available for expert pool players. So I thought it couldn't hurt to try it out.

We're having a lot of family get-togethers lately. Most of the time, it's my aunt Naomi, my uncle Owen, uncle Eliot and aunt Cordy, plus my cousins, Malcolm, Timothy, Matthew and Simon.

I don't usually get near the pool table when they're all over.

They're in there most of the afternoon, playing game after game. They all love it.


Except Mum and Aunt Naomi. I don't think they've ever set foot in the pool room.

They usually talk in the kitchen all afternoon.

Mum always says that talking to Aunt Naomi about Adrienne makes her glad Aaron and Ethan never went wild but it also makes her worry for me. I've got no plans to go wild but Mum says I'm too young for her to rest easy about that just yet.

Anyway, while they're talking, Timothy usually goes and plays on my old swing set in the backyard.

Matthew and Simon are too young to do much of anything.

Except occasionally get in the way of the pool game.

That leaves me stuck talking with my cousin Malcolm. He's okay sometimes but 90% of the time, he talks about the same thing - all the girls he claims he "gets".

He can never give me any names of these girls when I ask him. He says it wouldn't be gentlemanly of him.

As if he's such a gentleman. I think he's full of it, personally. I try to ignore him when he gets like that.

Extra:
I put this pic up this morning and forgot to add text explaining why it was there! Anyway, Malcolm is kind of a jerk but apparently, his little cousins love him. If they weren't following their dad around, they were looking for Malcolm!

Notes:

• Title is from Shooting Star by Eliott Smith.
• James rolled the ROS Weekly Night In and the activity I rolled for him was "pool". I wrote it down so long ago that I actually forgot whether I meant a swimming pool or a pool table. But seeing it's mid-autumn in Sullivan right now, I went with a pool table.
• Connor is such a typical Knowledge Sim - completely uninterested in girls so far! James was originally a Knowledge Sim (and still has Knowledge secondary) and he was the same way when he was in high school. I cannot picture Connor ever going wild.
• Did everyone see the Jonas and Edward cameo at the basketball court? I thought it was so cute that they were having a little father-son outing. I had Dominic take Edward last time I played that family, so he must have developed a taste for it. ;)
• Malcolm has not got any further than making out with any girl, but I think he's the type to lie about it. And Connor's the type to not be impressed anyway.
• I haven't had a place to say it until now but I aged up Matthew and Simon to see what they'll look like as adults. Simon (the blonde) looks pretty much as I expected but I really love how Matthew turns out. It's usually the way that the odder looking toddlers turn out really well as adults.
• Finally, I've put up a poll in the side bar so you guys can have your say on Jack vs. Charlie in the whole Audrey love triangle. I have included an "other" option. Just remember that this is only for fun. Whichever option wins isn't going to influence who Audrey actually does end up with, except maybe by coincidence. ;)