Attitude

Round 34: May 2040 (Autumn)

last update/next update

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!