Sunday 7 July 2013

Attitude

Round 34: May 2040 (Autumn)

Rose and Joanna Draper are 45, Sylvia is 14 and Will and Levi are 8.
(Annabel is 16, Matthew and Simon are 15, Aurora and Alice are 14 and Zac is 6)

Narrated by Sylvia Draper

The pottery store is closed at the moment, in preparation to move, so Mum is taking the opportunity to replenish the stock. She wants to make sure there are plenty of pieces to put back on the shelves when she reopens. 


She’s in her studio on her wheel just about every morning before work. 

Mum says I’m old enough to learn the craft now, so she’s been teaching me on the weekends. 

Nothing fancy yet. Just plates and a fair few misshapen ones at that. 

Mum says I’ll smile to look back on them one day, when I can make much more complex things, so she has one of my first plates hanging on the wall. 

I didn’t think I would like pottery at all when Mum first started teaching me but it turns out that I do. I like being creative in general. 

But really, drama is more my thing. I would really like to be an actor one day but I’d also like to write or direct. Or maybe even both.

I spend a lot of time writing short plays and monologues. Nothing I’d be willing to perform in public yet - I’m not that good!

Alice has read some of my stuff though and she says it’s good. We share everything with each other though and I think it’ll still be a while before I let anyone else read it.

Alice and I tend to make our own fun, seeing I think we might be the only girls in our whole school who don’t have boyfriends. Probably a slight exaggeration, maybe, but it does feel like that some times. 

Alice has a bit of a thing for Matthew Lane but he’s dating Aurora Moretti now.

I used to like his brother Simon but he’s going out with Annabel, so I kind of gave up on him.

It’s probably for the best anyway. Mama really cannot stand Simon. She thinks he would be a bad influence on my grades but she thinks that about just about everything. 

Mama is a real stickler about school work. She is literally a genius and she expects us kids to work to very high standards as a result. College will be a non-negotiable.

She really doesn’t have to tell me. I get really good grades already, usually top the class and already know I want to go to college.

School comes easy to me and I enjoy it as well, so having to do my homework right after school is not such a drag, in my eyes.

Will and Levi are another story though. They’re really not into school at all.

Will would rather play with one of the several remote control cars, planes and helicopters he has scattered around the yard.

Levi is very into athletics and not much else. 

They both try to hide their homework and pretend they don’t have any, when our parents ask them about it.

I used to watch them for a couple of hours after school and getting on their backs about homework got so old. 

I get along really well with them, normally, but they don’t listen to me. 

Along with wanting to earn a little money, it was one of the reasons I started campaigning to get a part time job and do that after school, instead of watching the twins. 

Mama was a bit concerned that a job would take too much time away from my studies. No surprise there.

I was very grateful to Mum for suggesting babysitting! Something without set hours, where I could just turn the work down if I really needed to focus my attention elsewhere.

Mama actually liked that idea. Mama might have won her over a little by saying how important it was for me to be “well-rounded”, not just studious. 

So now, I sit for Zac Whitney. Nothing permanent - his mother just calls when she needs me and if I’m available, I go.

Zac is younger than my brothers, plus he hasn’t known me his entire life, so I have a bit more authority over him than with Will and Levi.

And I think Zac is just a little better-behaved, though it probably helps that he doesn’t have a brother egging him on!

Hanging out with a six-year-old all afternoon is not my very favourite thing to do but it’s a pretty easy way to earn some money. 

Notes:
  • Title is from Attitude by the Replacements.
  • I really have to organise some lots to get my businesses going again! I miss playing them and I'm sick of writing around their absences, lol!
  • I'm already excited to play Sylvia next round. :) She rolled some wants and popped up some thought bubbles that might be really interesting to explore.
  • Zac probably doesn't make the most sense as a babysitting charge for Sylvia, seeing he lives in Exeter while Sylvia is in Sullivan but I have so few kids moved in at this point, he just had to do. ;)
  • Next up is Anna and Emil, who I will have to decorate yet another house for! I'm looking forward to getting everyone moved in, so I can have a break from decorating. Phew!

14 comments:

  1. Again, you have chosen just the perfect pictures to go with what is happening and how people behave with each other, like when the kids try to hide their homework :-)

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    1. Glad you liked it! It was already the weekend and I didn't want to keep playing until Monday for them to get another homework book! Then that little scene happened and it seemed perfect. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  2. I'm glad she got a break from watching her brothers and studying, hope she gets even more of them. She seems like a good kid

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    1. Sylvia is pretty sensible. Babysitting probably appeals to Joanna, because she knows Sylvia can study after she puts the kids to bed! Lucky Sylvia is the type to go in for that sort of thing anyway.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  3. Funny that she escapes her brothers to babysit another kid. At lease little Zac (oh my gosh sooo cute!) listens to her better. Love the photo of her reading while they are outside together. I can totally picture Joanna has a stickler for that homework. Looking forward to seeing how the boys are as teens, and how she handles them.

    There is plenty of time for her and Alice to find a boy to date, they are still young, and those other relationships certainly can fall apart. ;) Love the mall pictures!

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    1. Will and Levi are playful and Zac is quite serious. I don't imagine he gives Susannah, Sam or Sylvia much trouble. He's adorable.

      Joanna has high standards. She was a teacher, so she knows not every kid is going to reach them, but she knows what her own kids can do. Will and Levi are in for it if they're still this lazy when they get to high school!

      I would be fine if Alice and Sylvia didn't date until uni. There really aren't a lot of boys around, so it's best if they can find other things to occupy themselves!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  4. Ha, I know exactly what Sylvia means about little brothers not listening to her. ;) I can imagine that baby-sitting Zac is MUCH easier!

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    1. I never babysat my younger sister, so I don't know from experience! But I can't really imagine her respecting my authority too much if I had! You need a bit of distance, like Sylvia has with Zac, I think.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  5. Ooh, I love Sylvia! And I really like reading from her point of view! She's very interesting, and I really can't wait to read more about her :)

    It's not wrong to expect your kids to do well in school, especially when you're a genius like Joanna. I do hope all 3 of the kids can please her and achieve the things they want at the same time.

    It's good that Sylvia was able to get a job, that doesn't harm her schoolwork, and that she likes! I can imagine it being a little bit nicer when the kids you're watching is actually listening to you, unlike your younger brothers :)

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    1. You'll probably hear a lot more from Sylvia now that she's older. Like I said above, I have a couple of ideas for her next round and I'm looking forward to seeing how they pan out.

      Joanna definitely has high educational standards for her kids. I think Sylvia will have no trouble meeting them but Levi and Will might be quite different. We'll see what they're like once they hit high school.

      I was happy that the Education career came up for Sylvia (I have Pru's edited version, where one of the levels for the teen career is Babysitter). It doesn't so much fit Sylvia as it fits Joanna's criteria for what she'd allow her daughter to do for a part-time job!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  6. It's nice to hear something from Sylvia's POV! She seems like a really unique kid.
    I would hate babysitting, but at least she has an easy kid to watch, and you're right that Joanna wouldn't let her do much else! And at least he listens to her, unlike little brothers. Younger siblings do tend to think that they don't have to listen to older siblings.

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    1. Sylvia is a little unusual. She's on the serious side, which always makes for an interesting teenager, to me.

      Zac's a good little kid. I think Will and Levi would be for someone else but they're not going to bother behaving for their older sister. ;)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  7. Aww, Rose and Joanna!! It's so cool to read about the family from Sylvia's eyes!
    Good for her that she's been allowed to take a little job as baby-sitting! Now, if Rose and Joanna need her to take care of the twins, they'll have to pay her! ;D

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    1. I like to write updates from a teen perspective - not sure if that says anything about my maturity level - so it was fun for me to write for Sylvia. :)

      Angling for money to babysit her brothers strikes me as exactly the kind of thing Sylvia would try to pull, lol!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete