Mind games

Round 32: July 2035 (Winter)

last update/next update

Evan Moretti is 46, Ione is 39, Justin and Xavier are both 14, Aurora and Bianca are both 9 and Francesca is 1.
(Caleb is 53, Araminta is 72, Lia is 38, Eddie and Louisa are both 15 and Lauren is 14)

Narrated by Xavier Moretti

Last year, we got a new little sister, Francesca. Her arrival meant making a few changes around here.

One of those changes was that I now have to share my room with Justin. We don't really argue much, so it's not working out too badly.

Still, we're both used to having our own space and our new space is really small for two people. It's taken some getting used to.

Aurora and Bianca have always shared a room but I don't know. Their room just seems so much bigger than ours.

Or maybe it's just that they're much smaller than we are.

Whatever the case, they actually like sharing their room anyway. They're always in there giggling together.

Aurora and Bianca love that they're not the babies of the family any more.

They're not supposed to pick Francesca up, because Mum's afraid they'll drop her and hurt her, but they can't help themselves.

She's like their living, breathing baby doll.

Things are different for our family with the addition of Francesca but most of the changes haven't been so bad.

Justin and I have both had to babysit Francesca occasionally.

She's pretty amusing for someone who can hardly talk, so it's okay. She's not much trouble and it's only ever for a couple of hours anyway.

We don't have to watch her very often though. Grandma is retired and more than happy to come over as much as Mum asks her to.

Dad is still in the police force and Mum used to be, until she lost her job before Francesca was born. Mum had to start a job search while she was pregnant.

Her best friend Lia hired her at the library and Mum worked there all through her pregnancy.

She's still there now, though it's not her ideal career. Leaving isn't really an option.

Mum is still making toys, in the hopes she can open a store one day. Our family really doesn't have the money for that though, so she has to work.

We all do now, even Justin and me. Dad got sick of us asking for money all the time and suggested we find ways to make our own.

Justin works at a chemistry lab at the uni after school. He cleans up equipment and occasionally helps out with experiments.

It pays pretty well, considering Justin said it's not a very difficult job.

Dad managed to get Uncle Caleb to hire me at his catering business as a barista.

It took me a while to get the hang of the coffee machine but I've been working there all year and it's like second nature now.

Uncle Caleb says I'm doing well. I even got a small raise. I don't get paid quite as much as Justin does but it's more than Mum and Dad could give me, so I'm happy.

I seem to need more money since I started dating Lauren.

We never do anything too crazy but even movie tickets and fast food adds up, especially when you're not really earning that much.

But we usually have a good time together, so it's worth it.

Lauren has been acting a little strangely lately. She's just giving me funny looks all the time and looking uncomfortable a lot.

It's almost like she's only pretending to have a good time and her mind is elsewhere.

So it wasn't a total surprise when Lauren broke up with me a few weeks ago.

She wasn't nasty about it. She was probably as nice as she possibly could be but getting dumped still sucks.

I could tell she felt bad about it but not as bad as I did.

I really liked Lauren. I still do. The break-up didn't exactly come out of nowhere but all her weirdness beforehand definitely did.

I haven't really gone out much since then, except for school or work. I mostly just haven't felt like it but it's had the unintended result of really improving my grades. They're not fantastic but I've gone from getting Ds to Bs.

School is really challenging for me, so I'm pretty proud of myself right now.

I never thought it would be possible before but I'd really like to go to university and then law school. I know my parents probably won't be able to afford to send me but they're encouraging me anyway.

Dad says if I keep my grades up though, I might be able to get the new governor's scholarship which would take care of my undergrad. Then he and Mum would be able to think about helping me out with law school. I don't know if I could get the straight As but Dad says I shouldn't sell myself short.

Even with all that to think about, it's still not too fun staying at home while Justin goes out with Louisa. They've been dating since Tim Lane's Halloween party last year. I'm grateful they do all their coupley stuff when they're out and not here at the house.

They do hang out here together sometimes, like the other day when Louisa let it slip that Lauren was now going out with her brother, Eddie.

They'd liked each other for a while but Lauren didn't want to tell me that's why she dumped me.

I guess she didn't want to hurt my feelings or something.

Justin knew about it as well and had been debating whether or not to tell me, when Louisa took it out of his hands.

I wish he had. But I guess I know now and I found out before I discovered it for myself.

Our school is holding a winter formal this year and the idea of seeing Eddie and Louisa together there is seriously unappealing. I even thought about skipping it.

Declan managed to convince me to come though. He says only half the kids going will have dates anyway, so it's not like I'll be the odd one out.

I'm still reluctant but I'm going to go anyway. I guess it'll just end up being a guys' night, rather than the date with Lauren I'd envisioned.

Extras:
Just some random, mostly Francesca-related, spam that didn't fit into the update.


Notes:

• Title is from Mind Games by John Lennon.
• Definitely not much closer to letting Ione open up her toy shop but I hope I can do it for her eventually.
• The winter formal is something I'm going to do this round, in lieu of a regular high school update. I'm not going to do them every round. The next one probably won't be until Brendan and Caitlin (the youngest high schoolers) are off at college. That way, everyone gets at least one formal, assuming I want to do it again. ;)
• Some time near the end of last round, Lauren rolled up the want to fall in love with Eddie, which didn't look good for poor Xavier. I didn't lock it but I kept checking her to see if it fell away. It didn't, so I figured she had made her choice. :(
• As soon as Lauren dumped Xavier, his grades started going up. I guess she was a bit of a distraction for him. ;) It's rare that my kids are still getting Ds at this point in their schooling, so Xavier really wasn't doing too well. I'm hoping he can keep it up until college, or else I'll have to turn to my Plan B for him. ;)